VERY QUICKLY, WE UNDERSTOOD THAT THE HUNGARIANS WERE GOING TO MAKE SHORT WORK OF THE TOO SMALL AND SLOW INDO-DUTCH PEOPLE
— Robert Boutin | 05/06/1938 —

Hungary: Háda; Korányi, Bíró; Lázár, Turay, Balogh; Sas, Zsengellér, Dr. Sárosi, Toldi, Kohut.

Dutch East Indies: Mo Heng; Samuels, Hukpm; Anwar, Meeng, Nawir; Taihuttu, Pattiwael, Zomers, Soedarmadji,Hong Djien.

Mr. Marchandeau, Minister of Finance and Mayor of Reims, who presided over this football festival, told us after the match:


— I had the impression that there were twenty-two Hungarian athletes on the field against eleven little Indo-Dutch gnomes.


This concise judgment is an exact reflection of what actually happened on the lawn, which looked brand new, at the municipal stadium.

From the first exchanges, in fact, we understood that the Hungarians were going to make short work of these little yellow men with slanted eyes and well-shaped torsos in sole tango jerseys.

A PISTOLADE...

They only gave the first bite in the 12th minute, when they had shaken off the torpor caused by an atmosphere still heavy with the humidity of the rain which had fallen for a good part of the morning.

Kohut, slightly lowered in the center, lodged the ball just below the crossbar, too high for the tiny goalkeeper Mo Hang. Shortly after, it was Toldi's turn to score with a rocket fired from 20 meters into the left corner, at knee height.

A quarter of an hour after the first goal, the Dutch Indies' deficit was 4 to 0, because Sárosi, on a volley and Zsengellér with a header, had scored.

THEN DILETTANTISM.

From that moment on, the Hungarians considered that it was enough to play a match and they began to play a demonstration game. Unfortunately, the approximately 12.000 spectators (revenue: 140.000 francs) did not find this way of doing things to their liking. They interpreted this dilettantism as deficiency and even more strongly encouraged the little Asians who were able, from the start, to attract the sympathies of the public.

Clearly disadvantaged from a physical point of view, the Indo-Dutch courageously made the most of their own qualities: flexibility, mobility. It was common, in particular, to see the Hungarian players — the immense Toldi himself — beaten head on by one of these little men.

But agility is nothing in a tough match when what is lacking, apart from size, is not the purely technical qualities that these young people possess to a sufficient degree, but the art of adopting tactics to circumstances.

The Indo-Dutch tried, in the rare moments when they could shake off the grip of the Hungarian attack, to outflank the defense. Now, to overtake a Lázár, a Balogh, Bíró or Korányi, you have to be devilishly fast and the heavy Hungarians ran faster than the light Asians.

Only once, in the second half, Háda was almost beaten on a shot from Pattiwael which he could not block and which he slipped for a corner.

The Hungarians immediately took revenge for the fear they had had by scoring two other goals, signed by Zsengellér and Sárosi.

A special mention for the centre-half Meeng, certainly the most complete footballer in the eleven and for the right insider Pattiwael, good distributor of play, who made the mistake of not trying for goal more often.

As for the Hungarians, it is difficult to judge them on a game which for them only consisted of a clarification which they seem, moreover, to have needed.

In the forward line, Toldi and Zsengellér seem to be the best elements. Kohut started very well, but injured in the thigh in the first minutes of play, he did not want to force himself and faded slightly during the rest of the game.