ENGLISH SYSTEM, ITALIAN SYSTEM, OPEN SYSTEM
Imre Schöffer | 27/04/1935

Which Hungarian players are suitable for Captain Dietz's "modern" experiment?

And the national team captain said:


— We will try the English and Italian and our open defense system in the national team training.


Congratulations, Captain Dietz! It's a great thing we've gotten this far.

For two years now, the Sporthirlap has been fighting week after week for the preservation of the principles of modern football, and now feels some satisfaction. After all, it has a part in the fact that we're already that big. (Speed is not witchcraft!)

What the modern defense systems are like has been described a few hundred times, but since it seems that only Budai "11", Soroksár, Szeged have so far taken to heart, we patiently repeat these principles until they win decisively on the stubborn, or until the ever-evolving football classifies them as outdated principles, for example, with the open game.

*   *   *

We repeat: we do not have a problem when the opponent attacks with great superiority and we defend ourselves. At such times, when the backs, half-backs, and even the insiders were condensed in front of the gate, when they protected every foot of space in the time of the old offside rule, there was no problem as to who would catch whom. Nor is it a problem today.

The hard part comes when we have the upper hand, we squeeze the opponent into the area, but the opponent's three advancing players, the two wingers and the centre-forward are located near our goal. Abroad, they already know everywhere what to do at this time (literally catch these three players), but they do not know this even today in our country.

We have to catch these three players with three players too. These three people are our two defenders and one of our half-backs.

BRITISH SYSTEM

the Scottish model of the centre-half is playing third back. No matter how much the team attacks, this centre-half will not leave the opponent's centre-forward uncovered for a moment.

We don't have a centre-half like that. Relatively, Szűcs and Megyeri best approach this type. If he could play like that in his club, Szűcs might be able to do so in a national sense. In this case, there can be no left back but Dudás. He also played on the wing on Soroksár's team. However, we do not have a suitable right-back. We need to find it in national team training. If Vágó is better suited than the other possible defenders, then our "English" defense is:

Dudás         Szűcs         Vágó

THE ITALIANS

Juventus' Scottish coach, Aitken, taught them the elements of modern football, he also wished the centre-half would hold the centre-forward and the defenders the two wingers. (In the event that we attack and the opponent is left out with three forwards.)

But after Aitken left, Juventus happened to get Bertolini for their team as a left half-back, he was already a national team player at the time and was better suited to his game — he caught the winger. As Carcano, the coach of Juventus, had no objections to this, he gave the left-back Caligaris the order to mark the centre-forward and entrust Rosetta to the right winger. Pozzo, the federal captain with Bertolini, Caligaris and Rosetta, naturally transferred this gaming system to the national team as well. Coincidentally, Ambrosiana's left half-back also understood his winger better, and so did Ambrosiana. This explains why, for five years, the Italian national team has not been played by anyone other than Juventus or Ambrosiana.

We also have half-backs that catches the winger, but so to speak, all left half-backs. Dudás catches the left right winger. Our right half-back which defends could be Magda, and a center back is an obvious thing to be Vadász, as he plays with Dudás in his club team. So in this case, our line of defense:

Dudás         Vadász         Magda

The national team training will then show how other conceivable, perhaps higher-class defenders and half-backs can submit to such a tied route. We are not wasting a word on the third defense.

OPEN DEFENSIVE SYSTEM

As the national team captain aptly called it, unfortunately, we know it enough, we have been punished enough for it. In all our league and national team matches, we can see enough that whenever the Hungarian team attacks, the two wingers and the centre-forward of the opponent can get the ball clean and run smoothly towards our goal. And the old song keeps coming back: "we played in superiority and got out incomprehensibly."