I don't normally blog about anything even mildly sport-related, mainly because I am not very sporting - I mean I could only make the "C" team for soccer back in primary school...
Let's just say that my sporting talents are not quite world-class... :)
Regardless, I do enjoy watching sport, and there are some
sporting events in particular that grab my attention, and the
FIFA Soccer World Cup is one of them.
Although the next instalment of this event only takes place in 2014 in Brazil, the qualifying games recently kicked off around the world.
One such game takes place in Budapest tomorrow (11 September 2012), between
Hungary and
The Netherlands.
Now if you have any knowledge of European names, then you will know why this interests me.
My name in my bio somewhere down the right of this blog, gives away the fact that I am, at least in part,
Hungarian :)
Now on the face of it, this should be a walkover for The Netherlands - let's not forget that these guys were runners-up in the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup tournament.
Also, the Hungarian national soccer team has failed to qualify for a major tournament's finals since 1986, so that just can't be good...
On the flip side, if we look back in history, Hungary boasts a respectable record on the soccer field, with 3 x
Olympic gold medals (1952, 1964, 1968), and 2 x
FIFA World Cup runner-up titles (1938, 1954) to their name.
Way back before my time, somewhere in the 1950's, there existed a Hungarian national soccer team that were nicknamed "The Golden Team" or "
The Magical Magyars".
They are credited as having "re-invented football" in the
post World War II era - as an example of this,
click here to read about what became known as "The Match of the Century" - England vs. Hungary, in 1953 at
Wembley Stadium, where Hungary gave the English a serious lesson in football.
If you have some serious time on your hands, why not just
watch the whole match here :)
Since then of course, unfortunately there hasn't been much to speak of in terms of their achievements.
In recent years though, after decades of dormancy, the Hungarian national soccer team has had some surprise and promising successes against the likes of the Greek and Italian soccer teams.
This, coupled to some decent up and coming talent in its national squad, brings some hope that the Hungarians will actually qualify for the FIFA Soccer World Cup 2014, and perhaps even offer the Dutch some decent competition in their game tomorrow...
I shall be watching, and hoping... :)
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