IS IT REALLY A CHANGE OF THRONE?
— Géza Lányi | 11/11/1922 —

After pointing out in yesterday's issue the circumstances that tip the scales in Sweden's favour in the great test of strength at the football ceremony, we cannot fail to say a few words about the big ones, who are on a downward sloping course. 

Not everyone agrees with Sparta's relatively rapid cryptic positioning, and I can hear arguments against it with conviction: a team led by a Schaffer will always be the most dangerous in Europe. And they are wrong. Indeed, Schaffer's name can safely be ruled out of the mix for Sparta's future. Schaffer's class is, of course, unquestionable, and if his contribution to the Czech championship team is not as successful as they had hoped, if Prague is not as enthusiastic about the great Schaffer as every metropolis that has called him its own, there is a special explanation. 

Schaffer is a master of the Scottish style, of slow but steady attacks, paced with refinement, technical and tactical preparation. he plays the style that MTK, under the excellent master Robertson, have established on the continent and which represents the most perfect amateur style. And of this style the Czechs have adopted only the indispensable part. 

Without any fuss, the Czechs play only for the goal, their game is characterised by vigour, speed, power and shooting, short, without foreplay, and great impact. 

And into this ensemble Schaffer.

Janda and Pilát are soon to join the ranks of the penzionists.

As for Meduna, it is not yet clear how he will adapt to the champion's team. 

Dvořáček is just now boiling and already having unheard of bad days;; Novák do not represent the real great class. The halfback line is no longer standard extra class due to the absence of Kolenaty — the Sparta building is rickety and even if you can fill in the gaps, it seems that there are still holes in many places. 

And MTK? MTK, as we have already said, swarmed all over Europe, lost one player of real class for a team, and perhaps more, in a short period of time and miraculously, but also managed to make up for this great loss of blood, almost unheard of, luckily escaped its dangerous period.

Schaffer, Schlosser, Szabó, Winkler, the brothers Konrád and Kertész, Feldmann, Nyul and other post-war losses. And yet MTK kept the championship. The traditions of its great past, its retained old players and some excellent young players like Orth, Braun, Molnár, are the foundation stones of the club, on whom the club could always rely in building a healthy team that was needed again and again. 

And yet it must be said that MTK will not be able to maintain their hegemony. Although they currently have a striker with exceptional qualities, we must not forget that Orth, the phenom who can single-handedly decide the fate of matches, is oriented towards Switzerland, which is weakening the level of the attacking line with goals. The half-back line is far from its old level. Kertész II.'s fierce temperament is creating more and more crises, Vágó is aging and Nadler is not the man to form the backbone of a great MTK team. The form of direct defence is constant. We must not forget that even Mandl is not showing consistent form and Gyula Kiss has opted for the more reliable but classless Fogl III. in the last games there.

MTK's demolition has taken serious shape, it seems the twilight of the gods has arrived.

In any case, we are confident that MTK will only hibernate for a short winter and will soon reappear at the top of their rivals after a healthy rest, but it is a matter of years and until then they will hand over, because they must hand over to the Swedes, those blond guys with the rock-solid physique, who have everything a sportsman needs: Germanic thoroughness and intelligence, Scandinavian nave toughness and drive, born fairness and boundless endurance.

Scandinavian hegemony will be greeted sympathetically by Central Europe, as a nation which, after a long and thoroughly prepared history, can proudly carry the immaculate banner of amateur football at the head of Europe takes the helm of football.