true!

Can we talk about Hungary's performance yesterday against England?

I don't think I will ever see a result like that in my lifetime again.

That being said, England looked like they did not know what to do with a football.

Got to say I was shocked to see the result. They did better than the Aranycsapat back in the day. Made me happy... hungarian football deserves to at least have some moments of joy, considering all they've done for the game.

yes sir, completely agree.


although the amount our government spends on football, these results should not be one-off results, but we should see a continuous improvement.

I hope we can produce more young talents like Szoboszlai in the near future. One to look out for is Vancsa Zalán.

kis is really impressive, hope he goes through something similar as Dominik.

dunno. i certainly understand why as a football hipster you'd think of their golden generation and what a powerhouse they used to be in the early days of the sport, but the current generation has almost devolved into a propaganda tool for an authoritarian regime - even those playing in western leagues toeing the government mandated line regarding the anti-racism protests, and clearly most of their fans agree. leaves a bad taste in my mouth tbh.

I mean, with Hungary's population, fanbase and infrastructure, it's not impossible for the country to dream with emulating what other nations like Croatia have done. It's very hard, of course, but you never know.



I couldn't care less about what the political views of athletes are. When it comes to sport, I care about sport related issues, period. I'll keep my disdain for Orbán in mind when it's election night, but not on footy night. There's nothing wrong with admiring the talent in Leni Riefenstahl's work, or enjoying Jackie Chan's films for the mix of comedy and martial arts... it seems so bizarre to me that someone would disregard these things just because they have undesirable political ideals.

not uncritically rooting for something / someone, and putting things into perspective, is not the same as simply disregarding them entirely. one can acknowledge achievements or qualities while also remaining aware of the context. that's called nuance. i personally always found it a simple-minded and cowardly approach to act like sports or art existed in a vacuum. if i understand your position correctly, that means you have no issue with the world cup going to qatar, with all their human rights violations, or with fans booing gestures against racial discrimination?

well, to each their own i guess. that said, your movie analogies don't make too much sense though, because you're talking about specific qualities there, while your position regarding the hungarian national team is merely one of wishing them to do well, stating they "deserve" it, simply because a different generation from that country had an amazing team.

I'm not ok with Qatar hosting the WC because they bought their way to it, as well as the restrictions and censorship that will be placed on everyon involved with the event. The fact that the country is a backwards corrupt autocracy shouldn't be an issue per se, if the event itself is unaffected (which it is, the moment fans are facing restrictions). I have no issue with the Qatar national team achieving success (except this world cup, where they will have a home advantage they don't deserve based on how their bid was selected... if they win the Asian Cup then good for them).

I'm not fond of copycatting specific gestures that only make sense in specific context like that of America, because it only serves to import their social and historical problems, but again, I don't automatically dislike the teams that do it (I in fact rooted Liverpool in the CL all the way into the final).

Don't take my wishes for Hungary literally. Obivously nobody strictly deserves anything based on whatever somebody else did decades ago... I meant to convey a feeling of dismay about the fact that Hungary helped the game evolve and inspired football fans continent wide, yet got no trophies in return. The Soviet invasion probably thwarted what could have been a dominant side for several years, both at club and natinal team level. It feels unfair. And it saddens me that Hungary has never had a generation of football players with the potential of contestint silverware since then. To me, it's a country that gave a lot to the world of football, but the world of football has given it little in return.

you live a very protected life if you genuinely think racial discrimination is exclusively an american issue, just because it's particularly egregious there. especially as a football fan, it's outright shocking to me that you act oblivious to the countless racism scandals surrounding this sport, including virtually every single nation in europe, some more (italy, england, balkans...) some less (denmark, sweden, ireland...). so to claim it "only makes sense" in america, and joining that movement means "importing their problems", is absurd to anyone who isn't completely ignorant concerning social issues in their society.

That's not what I meant. Of course there is racism everywhere, just like there are other forms of discrimination in every society. What I meant is that, while every country has some degree of a problem with racism, America has it's own problem based on its own social, economic, historical and cultural circumstances. The US' racism problem is not relatable to Europe, even if we too have our own issues with racial discrimination.

The US has a very different history of racism than Europe. Being a former colony, they've coexisted with slavery. They are a country that since its inception has been structured around being a multiethnic society controlled by, and desined to favour, WASPs. Not even 60 years ago, they still had essentially an apartheid regime were blacks couldn't vote or use the same buses and bathrooms than whites (in some states). They've advanced a lot in terms of equality, but the system still punishes blacks in many different ways, derived from this history and the inherently racist structure of the administration current americans have inherited from previous generations.

Furthermore, the whole American approach to combat racism is very different to the European way. Since the days of the Ancient Romans, we've gone for assimilation. There could be a melting pot of ethnicities between italics, gauls, nubians, assyrians, jews, germans, amazighs, greeks, etc... but citizenship was never a racial matter... they were culturally assimilated and became Roman, period. Meanwhile, in the US they promote ethnic pride and culture... anti-racism movements actively promote "african american identity" and the existence of holdays and months dedicated to celebrate their own history and culture.

Your own example of using football as an example of racism in Europe highlights my point regarding the strong differences in racism betwen both sides of the Atlantic. In the US, it would be unconcievable for there to be racist chants in their stadia (which in Italy, btw aren't just targeted at blacks, but also at italians from other regions... like for example, in the North they often chant against Napoli fans calling them dirty cholera bearing gypsies and wish on the Vesuvius to "clean them" with lava). However, the discrimination black people experience in the US by their administration, police, education system, etc.... is something alien to us. I'm not saying we are better or worse than them, but the situation is very different.

So yes, imo we shoudl completely stay away from BLM, kneeling and all that jazz. We should tackle our issues in our own way, and not pretend we have the same issues that Americans do, becuase that will not only not solve our problems, but make them worse.

That, to me is a disaster which we should not import. Let Americans deal with THEIR racism in THEIR own way, while we do it OUR way. Copying their gestures and their approach will lead us to copying their social unrest and problems, which is something we really don't need.