György Orth's doom
Wilhelm Schmieger | 15/09/1925

Hungary’s football world is deeply saddened. The pride, the joy of Hungary, Gyuri Orth, fell victim to a treacherous accident at his last game in Vienna and was withdrawn from football for a long time. And that just before the game against Austria, in which he was supposed to lead the Hungarian national team to the long-awaited victory!

We are convinced that Austrian football fans without exception deeply regret Orth's sad fate. The horror that weighed on the many thousands of people when, in the fateful moment Orth, who had just delighted everyone with his incomparable art, lay helpless on the ground and his desperate teammates burst into tears, was eloquent enough. Hardly any player from a foreign team is as popular in Vienna as Orth, whose elegant and always embarrassingly fair and considerate game comes so close to Viennese taste. We mean the fine Viennese taste, so, because unfortunately some of our viewers still enjoy the opposite of Orth's game, the wild and ruthless use of physical strength and the use of force.

Watching Orth play is always a delight for anyone who has only a little sense for the beauty that lies in the agility of the human body. Orth is not a player like many others, he is a true artist in his field. He has shown that the game of football can also be an art that arouses aesthetic pleasure. In Vienna we only had one player who possessed that light elegance of effortless movement: Karl Braunsteiner, the one who left too early.

Poor Orth is now withdrawn from sport for a long time and nobody can say when he will return. Knee injuries are the worst thing that can happen to a footballer. The pulled and tortured ligaments rarely regain their old elasticity. The poor person will soon be able to walk again, but there is a big difference between walking and playing football.

Tandler certainly had no intention of injuring his opponent, it was an unfortunate coincidence, a fate that brought down György Orth, but Tandler is one of those players who are too common in Vienna who want to gain respect from their opponents under all circumstances and who do not have any consideration when attacking the opposing player, no consideration for people and no consideration for the co-worker for whom playing football is just as much a livelihood today.

Tandler is a type, but, as I said, he's not the only one in Vienna. And as regrettable as it is, the type is valued because it is useful and actually guarantees success. Rainer should show as an example that one can be a brilliant defender and yet always show the greatest consideration for one's opponent, in order to keep quiet about others who are fortunately there.

And once again it should be pointed out that our referees favor ruthless play by not punishing it. The powerful jostling of the shoulder is a death-worthy crime for them, the terrible, merciless blow to the ball at the foot of the opponent is a matter of course for them. Woe to the referee who would intervene in a case in which a grave danger passed the body of the person threatened only by a happy stroke of fate! Who wanted to exclude a man who hit the enemy ruthlessly but did not hit him, not on his own merit! He would be reproached on all sides for saying that "nothing happened anyway" to the enemy! And so it is just waiting until the accident has happened and then spreading your hands imploringly, which one hopes to wash oneself in vain in innocence.

It is being played much too sharply again. In this way, no propaganda is being carried out for the sport of football, which has long since ceased to be the focus of more delicate natures. It is not the worst material that is missing and lost to the sport!

May György Orth's fate be a serious warning to the others concerned that it can be the same for them. Even those who start with the recklessness and bring it to the fact that the irritated opponent pays them back with the same coin. The entire sports community of Vienna may warmly wish that Orth's injury will not last and that his misfortune will lead to milder customs on our football fields than are unfortunately the order of the day.