[FM11] The Magnificent Magyars

[jimbowmanuk]

Hungary were considered the greatest international team of the 1950's, going on a 4 year unbeaten run until they lost the 1954 World Cup final 3-2 to West Germany, a team they demolished 8-3 in the group stages only a few weeks before. An attack spearheaded by Ferenc Puskas made them a difficult team to defend against. However things of late have not been rosy for Hungary with them failing to qualify for a major tournament since 1986.

I have been hired as the unanimous choice to bring back the glory days of old, where a team was feared the world over.

FA Expectations

I have been asked to be competitive in the Qualifiers and look to build to the future, looking at my group there is an outside chance of 2nd place

Qualifying Group E

I have come to the conclusion that Holland will win the group easily so i'll be looking to get results against Sweden to take me into the playoffs


Current World Ranking: 51st

[jimbowmanuk]

The 1st game for the Hungarians was a friendly against England
England 2-2 Hungary
A good result for the 1st game but i can't decide if Scott Parker scoring 2 shocked me more than him being included in the starting line-up

The 1st qualifying game pitted us against Sweden

Sweden 5-3 Hungary
A big dent in our hopes of qualifying, the positive note being that despite being down 4-0 at half-time we managed to pull it back to 4-3 before they scored again

A must win against the mighty Moldova

Hungary 3-1 Moldova
I expected a win and the boys didn't disappoint me, although we'll be looking to Sweden dropping points against inferior opposition to give us a real chance

Latest Qualifying group


Current World Ranking: 50th(+1)

[jimbowmanuk]

Playing Against San Marino I was fully expecting to win by a big margin

Hungary 1-0 San Marino
Unfortunately I couldn't get the goals and was expecting them to equalise as the match went on but we held out in the end

A must win

Finland 1-0 Hungary
A big blow for Hungary, it now looks like qualification will be impossible all the more so after Sweden beat the Dutch 3-0

Group E Latest

Friendly

Hungary 3-0 Lithuania
On a plus note we managed to win our final match of the year and the players put in a good performance which is encouraging for the future

2010 Team of the Year

Current World Ranking: 48th(+2)

[jimbowmanuk]

A friendly against the Faroe Islands to boost the confidence of the players before a Dutch double-header

Faroe Islands 0-2 Hungary
No real concerns here except that the finishing could've been slighty better for a bigger win

Double Dutch

Hungary 0-6 Holland
A player sent off in the 7th minute giving away a penalty, I knew this wasn't going to be our day, and the defence were a bit rash giving away a further 2 spot kicks

Holland 4-1 Hungary
I was hopeful of maybe taking something from this game but our failure to defend set-pieces meant we conceded all our goals from headers

Group E latest

Up next is San Marino followed by Sweden I'll be looking for at least 4pts from these 2 matches otherwise i may find myself out of a Job


The double defeat from the Dutch has descended the team down the ranking

Current World Ranking: 58th(-10)

[jimbowmanuk]

Hungary find that winning touch

San Marino 1-3 Hungary
An easy victory to help us stay in the hunt for 3rd place

Friendly

Wales 2-3 Hungary
We rode are luck a bit in this match but the team held there nerve.

Important Victory

Hungary 4-3 Sweden
Our biggest win to date, a mistake from the Swedish defence left Rudolf with an easy 1 on 1

3rd place is now a possibility

Moldova 0-3 Hungary
Another convincing win and Finland are now in our sights

A win and we finish 3rd

Hungary 3-0 Finland
A tough match to predict but the players seemed to be up for this 1 and after winning confirmed 3rd place in the group

Group E Final Standings

Friendlies

Latvia 1-3 Hungary
The Wins keep coming and the finishing is improving

Hungary 3-1 Wales
Wales didn't prove to be as tough an opponent this time round as the team made it 7 wins in a row


2011 Team of the Year

Current World Ranking: 26th(+32)

[jimbowmanuk]

The draw for the Qualifying Groups for the 2014 World Cup have been made and i've been handed quite a tough draw

World Cup Qualifying Group 9

[MattSpurs94]

Not to be pedantic or anything, but I think they were called the Magical Magyars

Very impressive few years there, especially with dragging Hungary into 26th in the world.

I shall follow

[jimbowmanuk]

They were known as both also as the Marvellous Magyars and the Mighty Magyars, i just remember them being quoted as magnificent in an old football book i had

[MattSpurs94]

ah, thats fine then

Hungary for the WC!

[Nobby_McDonald]

Fairly good first qualifying campaign.

[jimbowmanuk]

Fairly good first qualifying campaign.

Cheers bit disappointed with the early loss to Finland though, If i can beat Belgium then the World Cup playoffs looks a possibility

[jimbowmanuk]

The Road to Rio

The 2014 World Cup Qualifiers

Hungarian FA Expectations
Be competitive in the Qualifiers

I'll start with how we have done in the friendlies over the campaign before moving onto the important stuff

Hungary 4-0 Serbia
A big win here when i was hopeful for a draw

Hungary 1-0 Scotland
An emotional match for me, managing against the team i represented on 42 occasions, despite an open match it was a penalty that provided the goal

Hungary 0-1 Norway
After 9 wins in a row the Norweigans early goal proved to be the end of it

Hungary 1-3 Australia
My 1st game against non-European opposition ended in defeat with the woodwork keeping the Magyars at bay

Ghana 2-2 Hungary
A tough match against 13th in the world so happy with a draw

Hungary 1-4 Switzerland
I still can't believe the scoreline we did almost nothing wrong but still conceded 4

Macedonia 1-1 Hungary
Despite the early sending off i still felt that we should have had a morale boosting win against a team ranked over 100 places lower than us

Now onto the Important stuff, The Qualifiers

Hungary 1-1 Belgium
A hard fought draw against the team we were looking to finish above in the qualifiers

Cyprus 0-3 Hungary
A really unconvincing performance and the scoreline really flattered us

England 3-0 Hungary
A brace from the spud-faced nipper in a game where we were completely outplayed

Hungary 3-1 Lithuania
The woodwork prevented us from scoring more but a pleasing performance all-round

World Cup Qualifying Group 9 Halfway Table
3pts ahead of Belgium and I'm looking good for the play-offs lets hope the team doesn't let me down

Hungary 0-1 Cyprus
Despite doing everything i possibly could to stop my team shooting from distance they never listened and we were giving our 1st embarrassing defeat, big results needed now if we're to qualify

Belgium 0-2 Hungary
The team bounced back in great style to give us a win that will almost guarantee 2nd in the group, finishing the important factor in this match

Hungary 0-0 England
Really took the game to England here and was disappointed to miss a penalty that would have given us the win

Lithuania 1-2 Hungary
Already guaranteed to finish 2nd needed to win to make sure i had a good record for 2nd place table, needed an injury time own goal for the win

2nd placed teams Table
As you can see we made the playoffs, and we were drawn against the Greeks

The Playoffs

Greece 3-1 Hungary
Not the desired result but happy with the away goalas it may hold an advantage in the return leg

Hungary 2-0 Greece
What a result i decided to opt for attack as we had nothing to lose, and the boys played their hearts out for the cause

Hungary Qualify for the World Cup on away goal rule

2014 World Cup Draw
Great I get the hosts Brazil, i have an outside chance of the round of 16 but can't see me advancing further than that

Current World Ranking: 31st(-5) Hungary Ranking History

On the domestic front no team in Hungary has Youth Facilities above adequate so if this doesn't improve soon i can the National team falling back in a couple years, one plus is that 1 Hungarian team made the Group stages of the Europa League so hopefully they invest the extra money in youth developement

Stay Tuned for the World Cup results

[Nobby_McDonald]

I bet you'd rather have Sierra Leone than Nigeria.

Well done on qualifying.

[jimbowmanuk]

2014 World Cup - Brazil

Hungarian FA Expectations
To learn from the experience

I decided to try and emulate the tactic used by the Magyars in the 1950's, and it looked similar to a 2-3-3-2 or W-M

I only had 2 friendlies to test it out before the Finals

Hungary 4-2 Albania
Encouraging start to tactic, a couple of tweaks and the defence should be stronger

Hungary 2-3 Sierra Leone
Definately under estimated my opponents

World Cup Group A

Hungary World Cup Squad

Hungary 2-3 Nigeria
An early goal and i thought this could be a victory but Nigeria ended up too strong for my team

Brazil 3-1 Hungary
Scored early again and looked like the team had picked itself up from the early defeat but again Brazil were too strong

Japan 6-1 Hungary
A game we were predicted to win easily completely outclassed I will be going back to more modern tactics in the future

Argentina Win the World Cup


Next up will be the European Championships in Spain

[jimbowmanuk]

Well the FA decided to give me the boot shortly after the World Cup so the attempt to bring back the glory is over, I may attempt this challenge again in the future.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Terrible game against Japan, you deserved to get knocked out just for that.

[jimbowmanuk]

Terrible game against Japan, you deserved to get knocked out just for that.

Yeah when their 3rd goal went in i thought i'm for the sack here

[DSYoungEsq]

Mmmmmmm experimenting with tactics in the World Cup Finals, perhaps not the best of ideas. Congrats on all you managed up to that point!