European evaluation: Let’s finally see clearly in the mirror

In any case, the Hungarian sports community is not world-beater in processing success and failure, even in a case where it is not easy to determine whether our team’s performance was a success or a failure. People will still debate the evaluation of the European Championship of the Hungarian national team on a wide spectrum of quality, and we would like to add some positive insights to this.

Let’s start with the most important thing: even in a tournament that was very unlucky in many ways, we were in the race to advance until the last moment. We were placed in a group with one of the favorites and the dark horse of the tournament, we had better and worse moments, but with a frenetic victory we took our destiny into our own hands at the end. There was something to hope for, even the paper form promised our progress. Bad luck.

Let’s see our own reflection clearly!

We cannot deny that this year’s was the worst of the last three European Championships, even though we were the strongest in terms of the club teams of our players. But even though we started the tournament with two Premier League and four Bundesliga players, based on the total value of our squad, we could compete against almost anyone underdognak we matter. Not against the Scots, we beat them.

We are convinced that the Hungarian national team cannot be held accountable for not being able to beat Switzerland. We hear and understand that in the first sixty minutes we were not in the game due to tactical problems, but after fixing them, it improved and our team gave itself a chance. However, Switzerland not only won the bench game, but also beat us on the pitch. The reason is simple: a good team played an excellent game, and a weaker team played a mediocre one. We suffered a real defeat.

Against the Germans, any kind of numerical result is even less desirable, since – as the captain said – this is no longer the German team that we defeated in the Nations League and were eliminated from the 2021 European Championship in a matter of minutes. Our team stood up against the German players in the narrowest elite of the top leagues, and we don’t want to get involved in judging, because we have to be a more elegant loser against Germany.

He ran to a late goal and chances against the host (Photo: MLSZ)

It is a force that often destroys the difference between the playing power of the opponents and the Hungarian national team Mark Rossi, who built our national team with excellent sense both as a team and as a community. He has a strong base game, character, and even game-building skills, but obviously he cannot be as strong in any of them as the opponents who use classics in every position. The basic situation is that we lose. If we don’t get it, we call it a feat. We’ve seen it quite a few times, we’ve experienced it, we know it. He misses it, of course, but it’s not something that can be held accountable. If you can be held accountable, then it is no longer a feat, but a paper form.

Which we can freely enjoy

When we say instant classic, we mean events that we know the moment they happen will be remembered forever. Certainly not only To Dominik Szoboszlai poor thing burned in his eyes Varga Barney case (the player has started rehabilitation, he will fully recover), and of course it is there with the opposite sign Csoboth Kevin his epic 101st minute goal. Assist: Roland Sallai.

Our forwards were fine at the European Championship, and Sallai was classy (Photo: MLSZ)

Choosing the best is always subjective, especially since several people apply for the position: Péter Gulácsi he was a reliable pillar of our defense, and Barnabás Varga could be dangerous even in the elite field, and he also worked exemplary in the field. However, it is clear that Sallai was our best.

The speed, intensity and quality of the Freiburg striker’s game reached the highest level, he was the player who was among the best in all three of our matches. This is not the main reason why we chose him as the best Hungarian player of the tournament, but because he also sensed that Dominik Szoboszlai was not in the best shape, that the opponents were holding him hard and that he was not completely healthy, and he took over the role of leader from the Liverpool star.

We can also be happy that we have two excellent goalkeepers. Gulácsi defended excellently at the European Championships, but because of his performance in the qualifiers Denes Dibusz also a reassuring solution at the gate. We can be happy about Barnabás Varga’s great (and often self-sacrificing) game, but the substitute Adam Martinor Kevin Csoboth is also in his place in our team.

Gulácsi did his job well in the goal, he didn’t miss it (Photo: MLSZ)

We were not lucky in the tournament, our performance was not the best compared to those under Rossi, but we have the team, we have the tactics, we have the game. This is how it turned out, but not because we don’t have more in us, simply because – more! – we are not good enough to always perform above our strength in every match.

We were there, we fought, it wasn’t enough

We made it to the European Championship as group leader, which means that we would have been there in the old format as well. For the 2016 and 2020 tournaments, it was still possible to say that we were the beneficiaries of the staff increase, but now, measured by all kinds of standards, we were there – it is true, the staff increase worked somewhat against us.

There is no question that the field at the European Championship has been diluted, and this is due to the fact that the star teams easily win their groups – often with a particularly poor performance – and go to the final round as a sure advance or group leader. Two such teams could have sent ours through, but neither England nor Portugal paid the slightest attention to the last round, in which we now became the losers.

Not many circumstances worked for us at the European Championship, that’s for sure! (Photo: MLSZ)

If we only look at the fact that among the smaller nations, those who achieved a feat in the group progressed (rightfully so!), our elimination is actually justified. But we also have to add that our draw was unlucky, as the star team (which had already advanced) came to Slovenia and Georgia in the last round. But it is also true that the Slovaks only beat the Belgians, and Austria caught the Netherlands, and we were not allowed to score points from Switzerland, noch dazu from Germany.

Above all, keep Marco Rossi!

The Irish, Norwegians, Swedes, Greeks and North Macedonians were not even there at the tournament, even though all of them have a whole series of top league players in their national teams. We were there, even though our starters also include those who are not in the first division of the given country, or wear out the bench of a good team. You have to see what a big deal it is that we are there at all!

The future is beautiful and encouraging, we only have one fear. Marco Rossi admitted he did not enjoy a single minute of the EC, and it could be seen on the captain that he was worn out by the tournament. Moreover, for the first time, he made a tactical mistake that seriously backfired (the Swiss played in a different formation than we were prepared for), and the Italian specialist will surely find it very difficult to forgive himself. He almost quit once when his players let him down in Wales, now he shouldn’t even let the thought cross his mind.

Rossi is our greatest asset! (Photo: MLSZ)

If Rossi leaves, we are afraid that it will become clear very quickly that the cause of the rapid development of the Hungarian national team was not the sports support system, the academies and/or sports luck, but the captain.