Will Spurs Be Hungary For More?

Spurs flew to Hungary today to in preparation for tomorrow evenings match against one of the country's most famous clubs Farencvaros. This is part two in the eight game series that constitutes the group stage of this years Europa League competition. After last weeks extraordinary game against Qarabag, Ange will be hoping for a much less dramatic 90 minutes, but hey, this is Tottenham so who knows what will happen.

At club level as well as in Interntional football, the Hungarian game has been in the doldrums even longer than Spurs have. The golden years were the 1950's when the side nicknamed 'The Magnificent Magyars' redefined how football was played. In fact it could be argued that the coach Gusztav Sebes is the father of the modern game. During the period 1950-56 they played sixty-nine matches, won fifty-eight of them, drew ten and lost only once, scoring four hundred and thirty-six goals. Unfortunately the one defeat for them was the 1954 World Cup Final against of course, West Germany. This run included the 'Match Of The Century' at Wembley against England where they inflicted the first ever home defeat on the English 6-3 having been 4-1 up after twenty seven minutes. This sent a shockwave through the arrogant English FA (we invented the game, don't you know?) and they ordered what we would call these days a 'root and branch' inquiry into English coaching and tactics. Obviously this didn't have the desired effect as the Hungarians won the return game the following year 7-1

The 1953 Hungarian Team. Arguably the Best in History.

To bring this around to tomorrows match, the most famous member of that side was Ferenc Puskas (84 goals in 85 Internationals) also happened to have been the manager of South Melbourne when a certain Ange Postecoglu was an aspiring left back. Ange has often cited Puskas as the biggest influence on his football philosophy so when you panic because Porro and Odogie are the furthest players forward at the same time you know who's to blame.

Fortunately for Spurs, the current Ferencvaros team aren't quite at the level of their 1950's National side. Hungarian club football is on the up though with clubs now "ordered" by the President (far right nutjob Victor Orban) to invest in their squads because he is apparently keen to seen a return to those great days. Its meant that instead of every half decent Hungarian player moving to more glamorous European Leagues, they've been able to not only hang on to them but also supplement them with decent players from some of the other old 'Eastern Block' countries and around the globe. 

Ferencvaros are the current title holders in Hungary. It was their thirty-fifth domestic title. This sits alongside their twenty-four Hungarian Cup wins. Their sole European trophy was the Inter City Fairs Cup (which went onto become The UEFA Cup) in 1965.

As if the show the point made above, the current squad has players from nineteen different nations. Not one of them would be a household name in this country but that's not to say they should be underestimated because in this competition we've done that before and paid the price.

At this afternoons press conference Ange confirmed that Sonny has stayed in London to continue his rehab. Odogie has also stayed at home to rest, and wasn't going to play in this one anyway. Richarlison is still unavailable and Dragusin is suspended following last weeks red card. Fans were thrown into a bit of tizz when the club published a video of the players getting onto the plane and Sergio Reguilon was there even though he's not registered to play in this competition. Ange explained this was so he can take part in the training game. That's got to be a kick in the balls for the Spaniard.

7 'mates' from Ange today in the press conference. 2.4 above his XM

As usual, personally I'd like no more than six changes from the weekends win but in this case I'd understand if there were more. It looks like Archie Gray may have to fill in at the back and surely this has to be the one to start Mikey Moore? The home side will obviously be really fired up and it'll be a great learning experience for the younger players. I'd love us to win, but a decent showing and coming away with a point with no more injuries will be more than satisfactory.