i was watching the game and i remembered how good hungarian football used to be in the 50s. they had some of the best players in the world with puskas, kocsis, kubala, nyers, hungary was the best national team, the mighty magyars, even had a number of top coaches such as gustav sebes and erno erbstein. what happened?
Yes, good old times. Though I could never see players like them in my life, as I was born in the 90's. My generation is used to the bad results here, because football -both the hungarian league and the national team- is awful, to be honest. Hungary couldn't qualify to any European or World Cup since 29 years ago..
From my point of view the problem starts already from the bottom: we do not have well-prepared, qualified coaches around the youth system. Coaches know nothing comparing to what coaches and specialists from western countries know about football, and how to make talented players to professionals.
To say the least, in the 2009 U-20 World Cup Hungary reached the bronze medal. I know these tournaments does not always tell us the truth after a tiring season, but still a third place in a WC shows we were not far away from other countries accoring to our ablities. After winning a weak group, we beated Czech Republic in the round of 16, beated Italy in the last 8, lost from Ghana in the semi finals -but they eve won against Brazil in the final-, and beated Costa Rica for the bronze medal.
6 years later, now in 2015, from that 21 men squad who represented us there, 2 plays in Germany's Bundesliga 2 (Zsolt Korcsmár -> Greuter Fürth, and Péter Gulácsi -> RB Leipzig), and one has just left the greek champion Olympiacos (Balázs Megyeri, still uncertain where he will go, probably to a worse club than Olympiacos, as he could not become their first choice GK), and one is a sub striker in Mersin İdmanyurdu (Márkó Futács), trukish first league. And now surprise: I highlited these four players because they are the best among those who were in that squad, they are those who could make a carreer abroad... In Bundesliga 2. The others play in the hungarian first or second division, one in the States (Krisztián Németh -> Kansas), one in the italian third league, and that's all.
I don't want to compare our situation with a squad like Brazil, because it would be definitely unfair. So just let's take a look about what Czech Republic can show up (who as I mentioned got kicked out against us back then):
Now they have 3 players in the Swiss first division: Basel, Young Boys, Sion
one in Ukraine first division (also EL finalist this year): Dnipro
two in Bundesliga 1: Augsburg and Ingolstadt
one in Bundesliga 2: Nürnberg
and in italian 1: Hellas Verona
I guess the difference is clear. And let me remind you that this was a generation of our country who was
successful. Now you can imagine those who are not.
And it's not about the management, because many of these guys could have the chance to prove themselves at serious clubs:
From that 21 men squad we had 3 players from the academy/second team of Liverpool: Gulácsi, Simon (now plays in Hungary), Németh (got the chance at AEK Athen, Olympiacos, Blackpool, Roda as well.. And now he is in the USA.)
Koman Vladimir played in Sampdoria, later in Monaco and Krasnodar. He spent almost a whole year with searching a club, now again in the Hungary.
Roland Varga played 4 years in Brescia, now in Hungary. Ádám Dudás was on trial at Arsenal and Rangers, was also a member of European U17 team(!), in one team with players who became stars since then, just to mention some of them:
Wojciech Szczęsny, Armand Traoré, Vurnon Anita, Bojan Krkić... Now he doesn't even plays in our first league...
Ádám Simon spent 3 years in Palermo, now plays in Hungary.
Márkó Futács was trained in the academy of Nancy, later Werder Bremen, but also was signed by Portsmouth, Blackpool, Leicester City, now he is in the turkish first league.
So actually many of them had the chance to prove themselves. Not just on the U20-WC in 2009 by a third place, but at different clubs in England, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and so on. Still, what we can show up is 2 players in the second division of Germany.
Sorry for the long reply, I did not plan to make it this long, I just caught myself writing and writing. :teeth:
then he missed an open goal in the extra time of the first half. i have some respect for his tenacity and hard work. constantly running from the first to the 90th minute.
