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Hungary: where did your glory and magic go?

2021-07-29T19:15:05.940Z


He is the historical leader in the soccer medal table, with three gold, one silver and one bronze. But it has been without prominence for decades. For Japan 2020 it was not even close.


Waldemar Iglesias

07/26/2021 10:50

  • Clarín.com

  • sports

Updated 07/29/2021 3:46 PM

Hungary at the Olympics is

the most successful team in the most universal sport

, football.

Between the end of the fifties and the beginning of the seventies he obtained three gold medals, one silver and one bronze, the last one already in Munich 1972, after losing the final against Poland.

It was not a coincidence or an astonishment of Eastern Europe,

it was the certainty that this so-called Golden Team was golden

.

The data of his decline are eloquent: he does not participate in a World Cup, in which he was twice a finalist (in 1938 and in 1954, that champion without crown or return). His last participation happened under the sky of Mexico. He was left out in the round of 16 against the local after entering that instance as one of the best third parties, with two draws and one defeat. That fall, in some way or more, ended up being a luxury for that squad in which Lajos Detari stood out, author of the last World Cup goal for the Hungarians:

they were able to see in situ the best footballer of all time in his supersonic version . Nothing less.

Yes, of course, Diego Maradona.

In the Eurocup he also lost prominence for quite some time. In his presentations he had valuable tours. In 1964, in Spain,

he won bronze at the premiere

. The local, who would later become champions against the Soviet Union, eliminated Hungary in overtime in the semifinals. Meanwhile, for the bronze medal, the Magyars beat the Soviets 3-1 after 120 minutes of play. Eight years later, in Belgium 1972, Hungary also reached the top 4. West Germany was their executioner in the semifinals, in Brussels, and the locals took bronze in Liège. The gold went to West Germany, which two years later would win the World Cup.

However Hungary, with the expansion of the Eurocup, showed signs of resurgence.

Like a spasm: he

accessed the last two final phases

.

In France 2016, he was left out with a 4-0 win over the now charming Belgian national team.

He finished in thirteenth place. For this year's edition, played in different venues on the Old Continent, he finished twentieth after two elite draws (1-1 with world champion France) and 2-2 against (Germany).

The only loss (3-0) was in the debut against Portugal, right in Budapest, at Puskas.

But most noticeable is the void it left in Olympic Games football.

Since the silver medal of West Germany 1972, not even the balls of his feet have appeared.

Fallen angels.

Magyars defeated

. Hungary, which is located seventh in the general historical medal table of the summer games, can be reached in football in this edition and without differences the swings of age and professionals or amateurs and even politicians (which form other chapters of this same story) . There are three selected that add two golds: Argentina, Russia (their medals were won in times of the Soviet Union and now under the banner of ORC, its Olympic committee, after the scandal and the sanction for doping of some of its athletes on occasions above), Uruguay and the United Kingdom. The last three are ruled out since they did not access Tokyo 2020.

Will the Argentine team of Fernando Batista dare to get on that mythical space that Hungary has occupied alone since 1968?

He cheered up, he couldn't.

He was left out in a group made up of Spain, Egypt (the two that passed the round) and Australia.

Ell Ferenc Puskas burns with passion.

They are the Magyars who want to regain their glory days.

(EFE / EPA / ZOLTAN BALOGH)

Sandor Kocsis had a perfect partner: Puskas

.

They were the best expression of a team without forgetting: the Magyars who taught in Switzerland, on the occasion of the 1954 World Cup.

That perfect runner-up represents one of the most astonishing chapters in the history of football: in the first round of the World Cup, he beat his subsequent winner in the final, West Germany, 8-3. But beyond that denouement (flawlessly portrayed in the German film "The Miracle of Bern", which had many variants and editions), Hungary was the most respected power of that time. That team was a ballet. He entered the World Cup with an impressive record: the gold medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and an unbeaten streak of 31 games, including a colossal 6-3 against England,

in the homeowners' first

loss

at Wembley. throughout its history.

Bern was a cursed city for Kocsis. There he had lost to Hungary that final with Germany. There, seven years later, he lost the Champions Cup, the predecessor of the Champions League, to Barcelona against Benfica. The Magyar hero scored the first goal of the afternoon at the Wankfordstadion with a header. But the Catalans,

between the end of the first half and the beginning of the second, went on to lose 3-1.

It was then that Kocsis began to understand that the Swiss capital was not his place in the world. A head butt of his, those that never missed, hit a stick. The same bad luck suffered his compatriots Kubala and Czibor. Barcelona, ​​in short, lost 3-2. And the chronicles of the time tell that Kocsis exploded in the locker room of that elusive stadium.

He went into crisis. He cried and cried

. He couldn't understand what he just experienced in the form of deja vu. He became convinced that those arches in the Swiss capital were haunted.

There was no other. The four shots stopped by the sticks that day were added to the two of the 54 World Cup final. Stick and out. It was the last European final with arches with square sticks. The curse was a matter of geometry

.

All that was a wound that left every imaginable mark.

One day, about that impossible defeat, the goalkeeper Grosics told the novelist Peter Esterházy:

"There is not a single day, understand me well, a single day, when I don't think about that match."

Something similar always happened to Puskas.

The mark also remains in those who did not live at that time: the Hungary of football seems anchored in that unexpected stumbling block.

The Hungarian Florian Albert in 1964, pure dribbling, in the stadium today called Ferenc Puskas.

That year, Albert won the gold medal alongside an all-star team.

Three years later he won the Ballon d'Or. He passed away a decade ago The legendary Hungarian forward Flórián Albert, distinguished with the Ballon d'Or in 1967, died a decade ago.

(EFE / Gyula Kovacs)

When Puskas (indelible glory of the Hungarians, of Real Madrid and of football, the one who each FIFA season lends his last name to the best goal of all) already had his memory damaged, in his last days in bed and in the clinic, in Budapest, he felt an enthusiasm that inhabited him every day. Although he had a remote control that he could operate without difficulty, he never changed channels. On television he invariably chose to watch Real Madrid TV and before his eyes his old companions of great glories such as his other partner, Florian Albert; memories that evoked him; some footballers that he later admired. At that moment, a phrase that he had said to the world through the series "

The party of the century

" (scripted by Santiago Segurola and Jorge Valdano)

became definitely true

:

"I like football more than life

.

"

And so he left, in 2006, back in Budapest after his wonderful tour of Europe - for various reasons, some confusing, themes from other stories). He said goodbye looking at what had made him happy.


Source: clarin

All news articles on 2021-07-29

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