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the cold war is largely synonymous with military confrontation with grand politics and the fate of the world on this channel we've talked about the movements of troops the suppression and repression of dissenting voices and the jockeying for influence that was so prevalent through the conflict we've also hinted and alluded to the cold war extending its influence into all facets of life not just political and military well today we're going to look at one of those facets sports specifically we're going to talk about the impact that the cold war had on one sport in one country i'm your host david and today we are going to talk about hungarian football and how the cold war ended the dreams of glory for one of the best teams to ever play the beautiful game this is the cold war football is undoubtedly the most popular sport in the world a game that started formally in england in the 19th century by the 1930s its reach was not only global but ever-expanding international tournaments were being created including the world cup first played in uruguay in 1930 the home team won by the way nations like france brazil italy and germany fielded strong teams that were routinely expected to win much like the football landscape today but as you might expect there were other national teams that were well regarded and highly successful this included a prize lotta swedish team czechoslovakia and in the post-war era even yugoslavia but the teams that hungary was able to put out in the late 1930s to the late 50s were truly exceptional the current hungarian national team is a shadow of its former self but in the late 30s was a powerhouse of the game the team featuring players like saroshi george and dak ferenz even reached the finals of the 1938 world cup in france losing out to the defending champions italy by a score of 4 to 2. it was expected that hungary would be favorites in the 1942 and possibly even 1946 world cups except for those tournaments being cancelled on account of a global war or something now by the late 1940s hungary had gone through a process of sovietization which naturally extended itself into all aspects of life in hungary including sports in line with many other countries behind the so-called iron curtain hungary declined to participate in the 1950 world cup interestingly the only eastern european nation to participate in that world cup was yugoslavia itself free from influence from moscow after the tito stalin split but back to hungarian football although the opportunity at lifting the jewels room at cup in 1950 was missed that year saw the start of a true golden age for hungarian football under the coaching supervision of chevesh gustav legendary players of the game like pushkash parents gucci shandor and hidekuti nandor took to the pitch chevesh himself had not only been a world-class football player having been a member of the 1938 world cup squad but importantly in sovietized hungary was considered politically reliable due to his background as a trade union organizer in the 1920s during times spent playing football in both france and budapest shebesh also happened to be the deputy minister of sports so all this to say he was trusted by the hungarian government eager to use the success of hungarian football as a propaganda weapon so how did shibesh set out to do this well he borrowed from the successful ideas he had witnessed as a player in the 1930s especially from the italian national team and austria's wunder team why reinvent the wheel when the plan is there to be emulated after all the idea was that the core of players selected for the national squad would all be from one or two club teams the idea being that since they were already familiar with playing together that it would make for a stronger more united team for those of you who play fifa ultimate team think of the chemistry formulas that get used to indicate in-game success how this got implemented in hungary was that a few select clubs were picked to receive increased government support allowing them to gather the best players in the country into those clubs those clubs were shebish's original hungarian club team emteca hungaria and kismesht as part of this government's support the management of the clubs was taken over by different government agencies in the case of integra a historically jewish club it was taken over by the avh the secret police force and went through several name changes including textiles essie then bastia se and then vorosh lobogo se and then finally back to mtk players on the squad included balotash bitter hidekuti nandor lantosh bihali and zakarayash josef but the core of semisha's national team was at kishpest taken over by the armed forces and renamed kishbech honved most often referred to as simply honved as part of the armed forces it was able to draft players from other clubs without any repercussions it was for the army after all hyundai already had both pushkash parents and bossing yosef but now added kirchi shandor chibo zoltan budalaslo loratjula and grosic jula to the squad interestingly players like kerchief shibor and mudai all came from a third club venus varushi which was deliberately overlooked by the government as it had a history and reputation as a club representing right-wing nationalism so the table was set for success but as anybody who follows the game knows simply because you have great players does not guarantee wins tactical and strategic thinking is necessary to give great teams that edge to allow them ultimate victory fortunately for hungary chevish was a man who had those gifts adapting ideas from other teams including the 442 formation played at indeca shibish is considered one of the forefathers of total football which would come into its own in the 1970s epitomized by iax and the netherlands with the late great johann croif the concept shivesh promoted was that instead of players remaining in their assigned positions they would all attack and defend together replacing empty tactical positions if a player moved to another area of the pitch now having skipped the 1950 world cup the first major opportunity hungary had to show itself off on the world stage was at the 1952 helsinki olympics the mighty mojars dominated the tournament comfortably winning the gold medal over the five games they played they scored a total of 20 goals while only conceding twice the impressive results were enough that the governing body of english football the football association invited the team to play a set of matches against england in 1953. the golden team tore them apart at wembley the home of football three to six only the second time in history that england had lost a match at home the second leg played at the nape stadion in budapest saw the english team routed with a final score of 7-1 proving to the world that the first match was no isolated event and that the hungarians were the real deal the next major tournament was the 1954 world cup held in switzerland during the group stage the mighty modulars were ascendant crushing south korea nine nothing and west germany a tournament favorite by the way eight to three moving into the knockout rounds the hungarians knocked out brazil and then uruguay by a score of 4-2 in both matches reaching the final of a world cup for the second time in their history they faced their opponent from the group stage west germany heavy favorites to win shebish's team took a commanding two goal lead in a huge upset however the final score of the game was three to two in favor of the west germans some controversy surrounded the match including some questionable refereeing and even unsubstantiated claims that the west german team was doping nevertheless the opportunity for the hungarians to lift the cup was lost as a result of politics and global affairs the opportunity would not present itself a gain making the hungarian team of the 1950s one of the strongest teams to never win a world cup on par with the dutch team in the 1970s and the brazilian side in the 1980s so what happened as we covered in a previous episode or two october of 1956 saw the hungarian people rise against the socialist regime and their soviet handlers despite early successes the uprising was violently crushed by both the soviet army as well as the hungarian secret police and what did all of this mean for hungarian football well the 1956-57 football season saw honved representing hungary in the european champions cup as they had won the domestic league the previous year they were drawn against athletic bilbao with the first leg to be played in bilbao on november 22nd this was literally only weeks after the brutal suppression of the uprising the match was played with athletic bilbao winning 3-2 now as a result of the turmoil at home the haunted players refused to return home despite many of them having wives and kids waiting for them uefa trying to accommodate the players and keep the tournament moving arranged to have the second leg played in brussels in december although it had been arranged to have the players families reunited with the team it's highly likely that the ongoing upheavals were enough to disrupt the players and the 3-3 draw was enough for atletico bilbao to eliminate hanvad from the tournament it also didn't help that hanvid's keeper was injured during the match and in the days before player substitutions an already injured chibor had to cover the net despite their early exit from the tournament the players still refused to return to hungary over the objections of both fifa and the hungarian government hunvid arranged for a european tour in order to raise money and provide some financial security for the players and their families now 100 was already a popular team on the international stage as is any team with a long list of top players think of barcelona in 2014-15 nope seriously go look at that squad it's incredible hyunvin's popularity was such that finding itself homeless they even received an offer of political asylum from mexico which included them re-establishing the club there to play in the mexican league while this offer was declined the team did accept an offer to play a series of matches in brazil against clubs like flamengo and botafogo with the conclusion of that tour however honvid and its players found themselves in a more difficult position fifa by this time had ruled that the team as it was could no longer use the hon dead name this ruling was made under pressure from the hungarian football federation no doubt backed by the soviet union at this point many of the players made the decision to return to hungary but this didn't include all the players some of the most iconic players refused to go back and instead sought new clubs to play for men like sibor and kochic joined barcelona while pushkash after a brief period in austria signed on at real madrid pushkash went so far as to take spanish citizenship in 1961 and played several games for spain including at the 1962 world cup in chile for some of the players the opportunity to get paid as a professional footballer in the west was a huge draw and something that wasn't possible back home in socialist hungary so what did all this mean for the mighty moders and the state of hungarian football well to put simply it shook it to the core and weakened it fundamentally honved who had a good chance of winning the european cup missed its chance the 1958 world cup saw hungary qualify but as a spent force with only three players groshich bozik and hidegouti returning from the 1954 world cup squad they failed to advance out of the group stage while hungarian football continued to meet some olympic success over the coming years as well as qualifying for several world cups notching their last win at a world cup in a 2-0 win against canada in 1986 the golden generation was gone now football can be a funny old game and there's never a guaranteed win regardless of who may be playing but the mighty modulars of the 1950s should have won national glory and it was the intersection of world politics and the cold war that prevented that chance from coming to fruition the golden team is still celebrated in hungary and is recognized around the world even though many people may not quite realize it one of the greatest players to play the game has a fifa award named for him the push gush award established in 2009 celebrates the player who has scored the best goal of the year and having just watched footage of pushkash and the mighty majors playing the beautiful game the award is well named for anybody interested in further reading on the mighty modulars and their impact on the game i can recommend inverting the pyramid history of soccer tactics and the names heard long ago how the golden age of hungarian soccer shaped the modern game both by jonathan wilson and available through local booksellers everywhere and amazon if you have to we hope you've enjoyed today's topic and to make sure you don't miss future episodes please make sure you subscribe to our channel and have sent the bell button for review so that we can all clearly see it's on side but knew the var refs who decided the edge of the bell was offside despite not being involved at all in the play we can also be reached via email at thecoldwar channel gmail.com and we're active on facebook and instagram at the cold war tv if you enjoy our work please consider supporting us via www.patreon.com thecoldwar or through youtube membership this is the cold war channel and don't forget trouble with the cold war is that it doesn't take too long before it becomes heated