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Classic Coaches (6): Gusztav Sebes
(FIFAworldcup.com)
Updated: 2006-06-02 14:45 Name : Gusztav Sebes
Date of Birth: 21 June 1906 Date of Death: 30 January 1986 Birthplace: Hungary
The Hungarian who helped create modern football Sometimes referred to as the “Match of the Century,” Hungary’s 6-3 demolition of England at Wembley Stadium in 1953 can be seen as the birth of football’s modern age. And Gusztav Sebes, the controversial manager of the ‘Magical Magyars,’ was the man most responsible for the match’s shaping place in football history. Though fairly remembered for the beauty of their play and the smattering of world-class players in their ranks, the Hungarian Aranycsapat (“Golden Team”) also marked a turning point in tactics, group dynamics and on-field fluidity. Sebes’ side has come to be regarded as a precursor for the most skilled and intelligent sides throughout history. As Hungary’s inspirational captain Ferenc Puskas once said: "When we attacked, everyone attacked, and in defence it was the same. We were the prototype for Total Football." Playing “socialist” football Given the central concept of the term ‘Total Football,’ it is no surprise that Sebes, the son of a cobbler, was attracted to the notion. Every player pulling an equal weight and able to play in all positions slotted nicely into the manager’s famous socialist ideals, and he even described it as “socialist football.” The manager’s history as a labour organiser in Paris and Budapest no doubt honed his equally celebrated ability to inspire. "If we beat the English at Wembley, our names will be legendary," said ‘Uncle Guszhi,’ as his players warmly called him. His masterful motivating job in the build up to the late November match often drifted into political terms -- the upstart Eastern European Hungarians playing in the home of the empire against the aloof inventors of the game themselves. The goalkeeper at the time, Gyula Grosics, later related: “Sebes was very committed to socialist ideology, and you could sense that in everything he said. He made a political issue of every important match or competition, and he often talked about how the struggle between capitalism and socialism takes place on the football field just as it does anywhere else.” The communist government in Hungary allowed Sebes, whose title was Deputy Minister of Sport, to completely control the planning of his team, and inspired by the Italy side that won two pre-war FIFA World Cups he centred the majority of his charges with two clubs, Honved and Red Banner (formerly MTK). He also carefully constructed a tactical system built around the strength of his best players -- with the Puskas and fellow inside forward Sandor Kocsis the majestic attacking partnership supported by the elusive elder statesman Nandor Hidegkuti. The Revolution of 1953 If Sebes’ political language was taken to its logical conclusion, one could fairly say that the 1953 victory under Wembley’s Twin Towers was akin to a chilly afternoon revolution. England were thrashed so badly that the 6-3 score barely did Hungary’s dominance justice, and both the visitor’s tactics and skill left the hosts helpless and the witnessing supporters stunned to the core. One of England’s greatest-ever players, Sir Tom Finney, who was on the field that day, summed up the match by saying that it was like “race-horses against cart-horses … They were the greatest national side I played against, a wonderful team to watch with tactics we'd never seen before.” Another British legend, Sir Stanley Matthews echoed the sentiment, saying, “They are the best team I ever faced. They were the best ever." As if to silence any detractors, Hungary repeated their humiliation of England the following May at Budapest’s Nepstadion with a 7-1 victory. The result also firmly established Sebes, Puskas and co. as the undisputed European favourites ahead of the 1954 FIFA World Cup in Switzerland. The best team in the world The successes were many even beyond the England victories for Hungary in the 1950s. They won the 1952 Olympic Gold Medal in Finland after blitzing four other European sides to the tune of 18 goals for and one against. They defeated a high quality Yugoslavian team 2-0 in the final. The ‘Magical Magyars’ also registered what was the longest unbeaten streak in international football history until the 1990s when they went four years and 31 matches (27 victories) without losing. They also breezed through the 1954 FIFA World Cup, pounding South Korea (9-0) and Germany (8-3) in the group stage before dismissing the previous two finalists, Brazil and Uruguay, 4-2 in the quarter-final and semi-final respectively. But, all streaks must cease, and sometimes even magical stories have an unhappy ending. Sebes and Hungary were blindsided in the final by a significantly revamped German side from the one that they drubbed in the opening stage. After the favourites went ahead 2-0 in the first eight minutes, Germany’s dream took over the tale as the inspired Mannschaft evened the match in just 10 minutes and claimed a winner six minutes from the end. Fall-out The coach, the team and the entire country were crushed. It was “bad luck” the boss explained, and it was hard not to argue given the rain that drenched the stadium throughout the game, the injuries afflicting the team after a pair of particularly bruising knockout round matches and the equaliser that Puskas had called back minutes from time. It didn’t stop him from getting death threats. It foreshadowed a more ominous But, before the match, the 48-year-old Sebes gave more insight into the challenge facing his team before the FIFA World Cup final. “Our greatest enemy is not so much physical fatigue as nervous tension,” he related. “I never suspected that the World Cup could be such a test of nerves.” The 3-2 defeat at Wankdorf Stadium in Berne was the beginning of the end for the Hungarians, though after the final they went another 18 matches without defeat until falling to Turkey in early 1956. That loss was followed by a draw and two more setbacks, and Sebes was the odd man out. Later that year, Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest, Puskas and others defected, and the Cold War slowly swallowed up the lives of many of the Aranycsapat. Sebes stayed active in football for a bit, coaching domestically and working in administration, but he was continually upset with the path that Hungarian football was on, and the almost persistent decline of the side since his time would seem to support his fears. The Olympic team were not allowed to defend their Gold Medal at the 1956 Games and the Sweden 58 team were nervous, weak and politically outcast. They were a poor reflection of the magical team from just a few years before. Hungary though, thanks in large part to Sebes, will always have 1953. Did You Know? Ironically, it was a pair of Englishmen who helped to start the revolution in Eastern Europe that led to the Magical Magyars dismantling of the Brits on 25 November 1953. An English proponent of ‘carpet football’ and what became known as the ‘Danubian style,’ Jimmy Hogan was credited after the contest by Sebes as having “taught us everything we know about football.” Likewise, the idea of the withdrawn centre-forward to permit greater flexibility that so flummoxed England became vogue in Budapest after Tottenham manager Arthur Rowe lectured there in 1940. Sebes was a successful player in the 1920s for Vasas and MTK Budapest. Geoffrey Green famously wrote in England’s Times after the 1953 match with Hungary that England had “found themselves strangers in a strange world, a world of flitting red spirits, for such did the Hungarians seem as they moved at devastating pace with superb skill and powerful finish in their cherry bright shirts.” The English FA Yearbook included the following description of the match: “The Hungarians largely owed their victory to their mastering of the 'English Style'- interchanging forwards, a mingling of short and long passes, the same defensive tactics, but all performed with almost geometrical accuracy and ball control amounting to elegance. Apart from all this they overcame the traditional Continental weakness at finishing and shot four of their six goals from outside the penalty area.” Sebes supposedly had his cheek cut open in the infamous tunnel bust up after the “Battle of Berne” between Brazil and Hungary in the quarter-final of Switzerland ’54. The manager reportedly got a call the night before the 1952 Olympic final from the Prime Minister/General Secretary of the Communist Party, who warned him that “failure would not be tolerated.” The Hungarians beat Yugoslavia for the 2-0 to win the Gold Medal. Gyula Mandi was an invaluable coach and trainer for Sebes, dealing with player discipline and developing some forward-thinking training methods. Tactics Football tactics were apparently a topic of great debate in 1940s and 50s Hungary, as some significant thinking was done on the best way to position players on a pitch given post-war developments in rules and skills. Club coach Marton Bukovi is credited often with turning the traditional 3-2-5 attack (known as the “W-M”) upside down, withdrawing the centre-forward and pushing the inside-forwards all the way into attack. Feeling that this left the team vulnerable to attack, he instructed a midfielder to focus more on defence and something akin to the 4-2-4 was born. Sebes adopted the tactic and brought it to the international game using Nandor Hidegkuti as the withdrawn forward and Sandor Kocsis and Ferenc Puskas as centre forwards. Sebes also encouraged his defenders to attack and his goalkeeper, Gyula Grosics, to act almost as a sweeper. He was even referred to sometimes as the ‘fourth back.’ Interestingly, another Hungarian, Bela Guttman, travelled to Brazil where he turned the nation on to the values of a more standard 4-2-4, which became the basis of their great 1958 FIFA World Cup championship team. Management Career National teams 1949 -1956 Hungary International honours 1954 FIFA World Cup Germany? runner-up 1952 Olympic Champion |
