FELDMANN TALKS ABOUT TEAM BUILDING TECHNIQUES AND SOME INTERESTING EXPERIENCES
Unknown | 24/01/1940

We don't need to introduce him to the Hungarian public. The older generation knows him from his MTK days, and the younger generation has heard enough of his name recently. Gyula Feldmann, the coach of Hungária, in the autumn, when Hungária was in the most difficult time looking for a coach, he went out on the Hungária road and said: 


— I know you are having difficulties. I'll take the Hungária coach's job without any compensation. When you are in better circumstances, we will talk about the finances. 


Gyula Feldmann took over Hungária and the amateur coach had to deal with the worst of the waves. Hungária's start to the season is not one that their supporters like to remember. A series of defeats, draws... Feldmann was almost desperate when the team won 4:2 in one game against Újpest.

Feldmann: Now I could see that there was nothing more wrong. We mustn't hurt the team, we just have to wean the back line and defence from the terribly open game. Our defence was very careless. I had a hair standing on end. I started explaining nicely to Bíró and Kis that we shouldn't allow such big gaps for the opposition. With two men still short there at the back, against three forwards, a Hungária defence began to form, with at least 3 men at the back in addition to the goalkeeper. In the last seven rounds of the autumn, this defence has only conceded seven goals in total. Three of them in Szeged, where our defence lost its head for a moment.

— Is this the secret of the — let's admit it — unexpected success of Hungária in the autumn?

ENCOURAGED VIDOR AND DID NOT ACT

This was said by the coach, recently, in the days before the Greek portrait, as an addition to the explanation for Hungária's good performance in the autumn. 

Feldmann: Müller was injured in Szolnok. I didn't hesitate, I put Vidor in and didn't let him go out. Because they wanted to put him out after the defeat in Szeged. No matter for whose sake. Vidor stayed in the team and was the best forward in the last five games.

THE SECRET OF SUCCESS

Every coach is proud of something when his team does well. One has improved the spirit of the team, another has found the right composition of the half-back line, a third has found the opening to the goalscoring ability of the forward line. Little each attributes the team's good performance to the success of his idea. Gyula Feldmann also admits that he has found the key to success.

Feldmann: I've dealt with a few teams in my life. I've worked with a few teams in my time, and the success of the team I was entrusted with always depended on whether I could give the team the right framework. And if I was given a team that was ready, I had to make one or two changes to get it from the wrong track to the right track.

— So what is the secret of good team-building art? 

Feldmann: You have to choose the right person for each position. The ten commandments of team building and the single phrase.

Gyula Feldmann gives an example of good team building:

Feldmann: When we formed Maccabi in Brno, the team was made up entirely of Hungarian boys. I was the coach and the contractor in one person. First and foremost, I selected the defence. I was a defender for a reason, it was my first job. I thought the defensive trio of Zsigmondi — Hungler, Feldmann would be very useful for any of our proud big teams today. I had my defence, I looked at the left side, a classy one, one to the right. Because I didn't have unlimited options. On the left, I had Hirzer and Gábor Obitz, and on the right, to keep the team from tipping over, I had Rázsó and Schwarz. These were the pillars of the team. On these I built the walls. But I'll tell you about the team. This was the half-back line and the forward line: Reiner, Hajós, Obitz — Rázsó, Schwarz, Nikolsburger, Weisz, Hirzer.

» This team was a coaching partner of the Italian national team in 1924 before Paris and finished 1:1 with the Italian national team — the Italians equalised with a penalty. 

Feldmann reflects with a particularly vivid sense of pride on one of his well-assembled teams. But let him speak:

Feldmann: In 1920, I organized and selected the first Hungarian professional team that played in Berlin for a short time. Here is the team: Plattkó — Feldmann, Szendrő — Viola, Nyúl, Ging — Wilheim, Jeszmás, Nemes, Pataky, Kollár. I will tell you about this team separately. So far, it's just enough that Potya was also selected for the forward line, but he was left behind in Kelenföld. I think that with Potya on the right wing, Berlin would have had a forward line that has not been put together since then.

Feldmalm returns to the technical part of team building.

Feldmann: In this Berlin team the axis was the backbone of the team: the longitudinal axis Plattkó, Nyúl (or Viola), Pataky. I built the team around them. That is, I would have just built it if I had had the time. But I didn't, because the German authorities withdrew the permit in the meantime. If this Berlin thing had gone smoothly, a team would have been assembled that would have surpassed even the golden team of MTK and would have shone unsurpassed even in the days of the Wunderteam. 

Feldmann's Berlin adventure was followed by Brno, which he has already described. Bremen, Braunschweig and then Bucharest followed in the order. In between, he also spent a year in Budapest with Hungária in the 1926-27 championship season. 

"KONRÁD WAS HIRED INSTEAD OF TAKÁCS"

Feldmann recalls an interesting memory. The big fight for Takács II., who played for Vasas, between Feldmann and Potya Tóth, the coach of Hungária and Ferencváros at the time. 

Feldmann: I had it in my hands. Suddenly, however, I had opposition from my club, MTK. The opposition focused its fire on acquiring Konrád II. I argued desperately: gentlemen, there is a 10-year age difference in favour of Takács II. The Konrád supporters won, we got the 32-year-old Konrád instead of the 22-year-old Takács II. I maintain that if this did not happen, Hungária would have won the championship in the series that Ferencváros won with Takács II.! 

Gyula Feldmann is happy to guide us through the events of the past. After all, he is presenting the work of a lifetime as he runs through Europe. In Bucharest he was coach of Juventus in 1928. From there he sniffed away to Florence for two years, then worked in Palermo for three years, before spending two years teaching at Ambrosiana, the centre of Meazza and Ferrari's heyday. The Hungarian coach is proud of his successes abroad, but at the same time he is most proud of his home teams. In Italy, Feldmann persuaded the Ambrosiana management to book Hungaria for a match in Milan. It happened...

Feldmann: I wanted to show off my old team, MTK, and Hungária to the Italians. I wanted to show my old team, my old football club. What happened?! Hungária lost 8:1. True, the boys passed the ball well. It was a time when Hungarian teams were still unaware of modern football. They lacked a certain purposefulness in their play: they couldn't even think of intercepting the three forwards who were advancing! This was the first big lesson for Hungária. 

Gyula Feldmann is now back teaching at home. He has travelled half of Europe. He sowed the seeds of the science of football in his young mind. We asked the interesting Hungarian teacher, amidst his wanderings around the world, who he saw as the best footballer in his life?

Feldmann: Uruguay's Scarone was the best footballer I have ever seen in my life. He was a member of the two-time world champion Uruguay team. He worked and played under me in Palermo for three years afterwards, and I have never seen a better inside forward in my life. Now he's back home, he's getting older, but he'll receive a pension from the state for the rest of his life. The South Americans are rewarding his art of football and the two World Championships he won with them.

Finally, we wanted to hear his views on his current team. The Hungária of today. Feldmann, however, refused to grade the players of today. 

Feldmann: I will answer that question at the end of the year. I hope that the champion team will still be of interest to the Hungarian football public...