HUNGARY CLEARLY DEFEATED POLAND
— Albert Baker d'Isy | 27/05/1924 —

Around eight thousand people — mostly Hungarians and Poles — attended the meeting yesterday which pitted the representative teams of Hungary and Poland against each other at the Stade Bergeyre.

At 17h. 05, Poland kicks off, whistled by Mr. Mutters, who referees; the teams are composed as follows:

Hungary: Biri; Fogl II., Mandl; Orth, Guttmann, Obitz; Braun, Eisenhoffer, Opata, Hirzer, Jeny.

Poland: Wiśniewski; Cyl, Fryc; Styczeń, Cikowski, Spoida; Kuchar, Batsch, Kałuża, Reyman I., Sperling.

From the start the game is very fast and the Poles attack from the right wing with ardor; the centre-forward even forces Biri to parry; but Hungary, in turn, took action, went down and put the Polish gate in danger. The Hungarian deacents are multiplying, dangerous and many shots go narrowly wide from then on, Hungary takes the direction of operations and Poland only proceeds with rare escapes on one of them Opata shoots narrowly wide then repeat but the Hungarians are more pressing and obtain a corner, then, in possession of the ball, Eisenhoffer dribbles and scores a very nice goal; the Hungarian spectators express their joy and raise a ban in honor of their compatriots; the game started a quarter of an hour ago.

The Poles, tired from their early efforts, committed one clumsy mistake after another and all their attacks failed to find the opposition's full-back line. The Hungarians took up positions in front of the Polish goal and continued to dominate, but the Poles defended energetically and managed to deflect their opponents' passes; a splendid run by Braun ended with a perfect cross which Opata headed over, but the ball hit the bar. Shortly afterwards, Eisenhoffer tried his luck with a header, but the Polish goalkeeper narrowly saved for a corner. The half-time whistle went 1-0 in Hungary's favour.

From the start, Hungary increased its pressure and gave the impression of having reserved itself until then; in the 6th minute, Opata, 20 meters from the goal, shoots and scores a second splendid goal for Hungary.

Braun's shot forced the Polish goalkeeper to take a corner shortly afterwards, then on the 14th minute Hirzer, unmarked, received a pass from the right and shot at goal; Wisniewski did not receive it properly and sent the ball back into his own net.

Hungary continued to dominate and, attacking mainly from the left, bombarded the Polish goal; a few lucky hits from their goalkeeper and the posts saved them on several occasions.

In the 26th minute, Opata came down, a Polish full-back got in his way and "swung" the ball into the corner of the goal that Wisniewski had just left. And that's four!

Hungary dominates more and more clearly and the Poles, panicked, no longer intercept any passes; a shot from Hirzer hits the bar then the Polish goalkeeper blocks two more from Braun. Finally, in the 36th minute, on a pass from Hirzer, a well-placed Opata scored the fifth and final goal for Hungary.

As we can see, the Hungarians dominated from start to finish, but it was only in the second half that they really showed the measure of their value; they then provided a splendid exhibition, playing with knowledge and ardor. The defence had little to do and it needs to be reviewed, the full-backs nevertheless appeared to be of good class and did not let anything slip through. The right half-back, Orth, provided a superb game and intelligently and very fortunately ensured the link between the defence and the attack; the two other half-backs also provided a good game. The forwards have great qualities; the wingers are fast and center with precision, while the central triplet, very vigorous and precise in their passes, is as dangerous with the head as with the foot; however, we can blame them for not having shot enough during the first half.

The Poles defended themselves courageously but there were too many holes in their team; the outside right, however, is a high-class winger, while the centre-half, although irregular and too personal, stands out from the crowd. The other forwards completely lacked speed and shot and the defence did not exceed a decent average.