Hungary

Hungary 1991-94 Away, matchworn/prepared v Greece
Hungary 2020-21 Home

Not many Hungary shirts stand out, but this old Umbro template definitely does! Generally recognisable as the Wales template, the green and red arrows also mesh nicely with the colours of the Hungarian crest. There is a lot of whitespace on the lower parts of the shirt and only minimal additional detailing on the collar and sleeve cuffs, but it works out very nicely indeed. One definite strange addition is to the collar. There are buttons to attach the collar to the rest of the shirt as well as the classic buttoned collar. Considering it isn’t exactly vast, it is hard to imagine why this was deemed necessary, but there you go.

Used across both 1992 Euros qualifiers and 1994 World Cup qualifiers, Hungary followed a very similar pattern for both.  They took 6 points off bottom placed Cyprus and Luxembourg respectively, but failed to finish above any of their other competitors. For 1992, they managed a draw against each of their other opponents (Soviet Union, Italy and Norway) with two against Norway, but failed to capitalise on weakness to grab wins, which left them close, but behind the rest. 1994 saw a sole draw against Greece but Russia and Iceland beat them home and away to leave them a little further distant.

Let me introduce you to the most unnecessarily large sleeve cuffs in the history of football shirts! They’re just massive. Both Hungary logos though, adds a little extra to the shirt, and there are also subtle horizontal stripes across the front in a deeper red. Other colours help to add to the shirt and the white Adidas stripes and collar do help with that, with additional green on the collar which adds a surprising amount. The FA logo being white and red helps it blend in a little more and draws attention to the traditional crest, definitely a nice touch.

Gracing the 2020-21 Nations League in these shirts, Hungary were promoted to League A. Drawn with Russia, Serbia and Turkey they defeated the Turks home and away, but drew at home to Serbia, winning away and lost at home to Russia despite drawing away. This still proved to be enough though, with them 3 points clear of the Russians thanks to results elsewhere. In this shirt they also played their play-offs for the 2020 Euros. A comfortable 3-1 defeat of Bulgaria led to a late late 2-1 comeback against Iceland to secure their spot. All in all, a shirt that brought good things!

Overall, this performance is not typical of Hungary. In recent decades they’ve hovered around 3^rd/4^th in their qualifying groups, with a World Cup play-off loss in 1998. Their recent pick up in form has resulted in back-to-back Euros qualifications via the play-offs but nothing on the world Cup front et. But their deeper history is much more interesting. 9 World Cup appearances, runners-up in 1938 and 1954 (the famous Miracle of Bern) and 3^rd then 4^th place in the 1964 then 1972 Euros. The revolution took most of their talent and they’ve never been the same since, but their history is greater than most national teams in the world. In the Nations League they were initially promoted from League C due to the restructuring but now have been promoted into A on merit alone. A return to form for them?

It would be very hard for the women’s team to live up to that reputation and, of course, they cannot. However, they were one of earliest active UEFA women’s team, first trying to qualify for the 2^nd ever Euros. They’ve done well several times, but the closest they’ve come is a lost play-off for the 1991 Euros. They’ve dropped off a little since those days but are still ranked amongst the pot 3 nations. The men’s youth teams have been similar to the senior team, with serious success far enough back, though some more recent stuff has been great. Last at an U21 Euros is 1996 (and went to the 1996 Olympics), they also have 2 final appearances in the 1970’s. They’ve been to six U20 World Cups and 2 U17 World Cups, coming 3^rd in the 2009 U20 World Cup and reaching several youth Euros. The women’s teams are both regulars in the elite qualifying round, though the step up to actually qualifying is a tricky one. They did make the 2005 U19 edition but lost every game and haven’t been back since.

In futsal, Hungary are reasonably ranked, but not overly strong, having been to 3 Euros but losing every game. They tend to do well in qualification but fall short of the better teams. They didn’t make the U19s and fell short of the women’s futsal Euros on goal difference, but it is definitely a strong variant for them. Beach soccer has been more variable for them, though they’ve done well in the Euro Beach Soccer Cup and perform strongly in the Euro Beach Soccer League. Mainly a Division B team, they have played a single season in Division A to date. In terms of World Cup qualification, they’ve come within 2 goals of it, losing the decisive match 3-2 to Switzerland in 2011.

With a solid start to 2022 qualification, Hungary were looking to fight for the play-off spot for qualification. They took 4 points off a strong Poland and even took a point from England, while picking up the expected wins against Andorra and San Marino. However, home and away losses to Albania sank them, while that left them only 3 points from the play-offs, they were well behind and goal difference and even were in 4^th place. Not quite good enough.