Postcard from Hungary as the Hoops eye early Euro exit

Groundhopping around Ferencvaros, Kispest Honvéd and MTK Budeapest's stadiums

Groundhopping around Ferencvaros, Kispest Honvéd and MTK Budeapest's stadiums Credit: Macdara Ferris (ETPhotos)

Macdara Ferris reports from Budapest

This could of course been a postcard from Perth or Brisbane but I couldn’t be in two places at the same time.

When the Irish team qualified for the Women’s World Cup, I knew it would clash with Shamrock Rovers in Europe. Weighing up the time and expense to travel Down Under and follow the girls in green jumping around Australia, I went with Rovers’ run in Europe instead.

As it turns out, it looks like the Hoops European campaign will last only just slightly longer than Ireland’s World Cup adventure.

I don’t regret the decision to take in trips to Iceland and Hungary to cover the Hoops in action. However, I was regretting the early flight to Budapest via Amsterdam on MD-1 (match day minus one) when the first of my two alarms went off just after 3am.

But if I wanted to make the pre-match media events that was what was required and, with half the Irish football media in Australia, I was once again busy supplying copy for the Irish newspapers and websites including extratime.com.

One-on-one

I was staying a five minute walk from Rovers’ hotel in Budapest city centre so it enabled me to drop across ahead of the team training on MD-1 to chat with Rovers defender Dan Cleary and Hoops Head Coach Stephen Bradley.

Rather than the usual top table press conference or maybe a huddle in a quiet corner in the stadium, on the hotel floor Rovers had reserved for their team meetings and dining, I was able to sit for 20 minutes and more with Bradley.

It was a conversation that went beyond the usual injury updates and we talked about the use of stats, the age profile of the Rovers squad and the criticism that the team has faced in recent weeks over a run of pretty poor results – they will go all the way through July without a win.



Green Eagles

On match night ahead of the game, I took wander around the outside of the stadium.

At the main entrance to the ground, there is a massive metallic 16m wingspan eagle made of 3,000 stainless steel pieces – the largest bird representation in Europe.

Around the stadium is a suite of Ferencvaros images – one of which is of the Fradi team celebrating after their 1-0 loss in Tallaght last year when they qualified for the Europa League group stages - the fourth year in a row the club made UEFA group stage football.

The Hoops had of course played the Hungarian champions 12 months ago in the Europa League play-off. The first leg in Budapest ended 4-0 and there sure was a sense of Deju Vu at the final whistle following this Europa Conference League qualifier.



Ahead of kick-off as is tradition for the club know as the Green Eagles, an eagle was released from the stands with the bird of prey flying down onto the centre of the pitch. As for the Green Eagles team, well they preyed on Rovers errors in the game once it kicked off.

As has been the way in Europe, the Hoops started well, only to be undone by unforced errors away from home.

While Stephen Bradley has presided over three of Rovers’ nine away wins in Europe, the Hoops remain without a victory against higher ranked sides in Europe since the away win over Partizan Belgrade in the 2011 Europa League play-off.

It was soon apparent that this wasn’t the night the club were going to get their tenth ever away win - ultimately going down to a second 4-0 loss to Ferencavaros in Hungary in 12 months.

After the game a disappointed Stephen Bradley spoke about the result and the manner of the goals his team gave away. When he left the press room, the new manager of Fradi, Csaba Máté, was given a round of applause from the reporters when he entered.

Headlines

The headlines in the Irish newspapers the next day didn’t make pretty reading for Rovers fans – or UEFA co-efficient supporters from across the League of Ireland:

Irish Daily Sun: TWO BY FOUR – Repeat Hungary rout leaves Hoops looking like dead wood in Europe

Irish Examiner: Rovers battered in Budapest

Irish Daily Mirror: HARD LESSON FER’ ROVERS

Irish Independent: More woe for Rovers after another rout in Budapest

Irish Times: Rovers’ rotten run on the continent continues with pasting in Budapest

Honvéd Hoops history

The day after the night before I filed a few early morning follow up pieces with managerial quotes and then it was time for some football touristing.

First was a trip out to Kispest Honvéd’s new Bozsik Arena. While the Ferencvaros Stadium has the eagle statue outside it, in Honvéd there is a massive lion – both designed by Gábor Szoke.

The striking red and black clad 8,000 capacity stadium is built on the site of the club’s original József Bozsik stadium.

Shamrock Rovers played Honvéd in the European Cup back in 1985 and the Hoops players who lined out that day in the 2-0 away defeat always talk about the quality of Honvéd’s Lajos Détári – who 12 months later was a standout player for Hungary at the Mexico 86 World Cup.

Getting some lunch in the fan bar adjacent to the ground, the barman saw the Shamrock Rovers crest on my friend’s polo top and we got a “F*ck Ferencvaros” directed towards us and we were handed a couple of bags Honved ultras stickers – all in red and black!

Friday night lights

With the Hungarian top flight kicking off this weekend (without Ferencvaros due to their European commitments), we took a trip to Hidegkuti Nandor Stadium.

Home to MTK Budapest their new stadium has just a 5,500 capacity. On the outside it looks like an office block and, as it is hemmed in on two sides by roads, inside behind either goal are concrete walls.

MTK were taking on Paksi and for the season opener the stadium was only about half full.

Both clubs’ ultras made decent noise throughout the match, which echoed back off the concrete stadium walls but the quality of the football wasn’t great to be honest.

You’d fancy Rovers even with their recent form (one goal in six games) to get a goal or two against either side.

Looking around I couldn’t quite picture this as the same location where Pele scored that bicycle kick for the Allies POW team against the Nazi’s during World War II.

‘Escape to Victory’ was filmed in the old MTK Stadium (demolished eight years ago) which was standing in for Paris’ Colombes Stadium.

We made a quick exit at the end of the game – insert joke about Shamrock Rovers’ European campaign here – as the area around the ground was busy with Depeche Mode playing in the adjacent Puskas Arena.

There was time for one final football stop at the 6-3 bar close to the Danube in the city centre.

The bar was previously owned by Nándor Hidegkuti who scored a hat-trick for Hungary in their 6-3 win over England in Wembley in 1953 – the other goals were scored by Ferenc Púskas and József Bozsik.

We enjoyed the memorabilia on the wall from the game and get chatting to the new owner’s son who ironically is an Englishman.

About Macdara Ferris

Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile