Hungary national football team

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:National football team The Hungary national football team is the national football team of Hungary and is controlled by the Hungarian Football Federation.

With a rich and proud pedigree in the game, Hungary has a rightful place in football annals as one of the first original footballing nations in continental Europe and an innovator in the sport in the 1950s. In recent times however, the team's strength has diminished greatly, failing to qualify for any major tournament since 1986.

1 The Golden Team (aka The Magical Magyars)
2 Records
3 Modern times
4 World Cup record
5 European Championship record
6 Famous players
7 External links

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The Golden Team (aka The Magical Magyars)

Hungary is best known for offering the world one of the most formidable and influential sides in football history, the delivery of which revolutionized how the game would forever be played. Centered around the dynamic and potent quartet of strikers Ferenc Puskás, Sándor Kocsis, József Bozsik and withdrawn striker Nándor Hidegkuti, the "Aranycsapat" (Hung. lit Golden Team) of the "Magnificent Magyars", captivated the football world with an exciting brand of play drawn from new tactical nuances and amassed, barring the 1954 World Cup Final, a remarkable record of 43 victories, 7 ties, and no defeats from the 4th of June 1950 to the end of its historic unbeaten run on February 18th 1956. Hungary has the unique distinction of posting the highest ever Elo football rating of 2173 points in June (1954) along with the second highest with 2153 (1956); surpassing that of Brazil, England, Argentina and Germany in all-time competition.

Hungary were twice finalists in the seminal game of the World Cup, losing to Italy 4-2 in 1938 and 3-2 to West Germany in 1954, despite beating them 8-3 earlier in the competition. The team built around the legendary Ferenc Puskás led early 2-0 in that match, but ended up 3-2 losers in a game the Germans subsequently christened "The Miracle of Bern". Two highly controversial calls surround this final game when apparently Puskas equalized the match in the 89th minute with a goal only to have it disallowed for offsides, the second being a blatant foul on Kocsis in the penalty area which would have given Hungary a free kick in the final minute.

Hungary has won gold at the Olympic three times, in 1952, 1964, and 1968. The under-23 team, which was the age limit for Olympic teams, won the UEFA U-23 Championship in 1974. Since the 1976 reshuffle by UEFA, the under-23s are now classified with the under-21s.

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Records

The match between Austria and Hungary in Vienna in 1902 was the first international match played between two non-British European countries.

Hungary was the first team outside the British Isles to beat England at home, famously winning 6-3 at Wembley on November 25, 1953. This victory had worldwide significance as it effectively ended England's 90 year old mythical reign since the creation of association soccer in 1863 against all foreign sides outside the British Isles. They beat England 7-1, this time in Budapest a year later, in 1954. This is still ranks as England's record defeat.

Hungary holds the longest consecutive run of matches unbeaten with 33 international games between 14 May 1950 and 4 July 1954, when they lost the World Cup final to Germany. This record still is unbroken as of this writing. Argentina holds the second longest string when they put together a string of 31 unbeaten matches from 1991 to 1993.

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Modern times

Today, Hungary are a lesser force and haven't qualified for a World Cup since 1986, or for the European Championships since 1972.

In the Euro 88 qualifiers, they finished third in their group, after the Netherlands and Greece. In the World Cup 1990 qualifiers, they were again third, following Spain and the Republic of Ireland.

In the Euro 92 qualifiers, they were fourth in their group, after the Soviet Union, Italy and Norway. In the World Cup 1994 qualifiers they were again fourth, this time after Greece, Russia and Iceland. They were also fourth in their qualifying group for Euro 96, after Switzerland, Turkey and Sweden.

In the World Cup 1998 qualifiers, they were second in their group after Norway, and played off against FR Yugoslavia, but lost both of those games (1-7, 5-0).

In their Euro 2000 qualifying group they finished fourth after Romania, Portugal and Slovakia. The same happened in the World Cup 2002 qualifiers, when they trailed after Italy, Romania and Georgia, and in the Euro 2004 qualifiers, where they were surpassed by Sweden, Latvia and Poland. In the World Cup 2006 qualifiers they finished fourth after Croatia, Sweden and Bulgaria.