Dab.Docler Successfully Defends Title

MOL League Championship Series (Part 2)

icehockey.hu

@Zavodszky

Once everything was settled after a hard fought battle in which home ice advantage was non existent after game one the Dunaújváros Acébikák (Dab.Docler) were crowned champions of the 2012-13 MOL League. This was the second time that DAB has won the MOL League and is the first team in the short history of the league to successfully defend their title from the previous year. In a best out of seven series that DAB ended up winning 4-2 with only the first match going to the home team. 

The first two matches were covered in the previous article on icehockey.hu, that were split by the two teams, after the series moved to Csíkszereda the away team DAB took back the series lead 2-1 after a 4-3 win in over time. Unlike the first two matches game three had a rather high scoring first period, DAB took the lead 1:20 into the match when Jozef Mihalik set up Imre Peterdi for the even strength goal, the home team answered back two minutes later on a goal by Vaclav Novak. Just past the 10 minute mark the Transylvanian club took their first lead of the match when Attila Góga was able to beat DAB keeper Peter Sevela and put the puck in the back of the net. The home team was not able to get out of the period with the lead, with about five minutes left in the first Nikandrosz Galanisz and Dávid Szappanos teamed up to even everything at 2 all with Szappanos getting the goal and Galanisz the helper. After an exciting first period the next goal in the match did not happen until the 44.50 mark of the third, DAB attempted to put the game away when Galanisz and Szappanos switched roles Galanisz getting the goal and Szappanos the assist this time around. Csíkszereda was not ready to call it a game yet, when the two goal scorers teamed up to even the game at three all when Góga registered his second of the match and Novak getting the assist. Unfortunitly for the home club they could not score again and 3:44 into extra time Attila Pavuk beat Stanislav Kozuch for the game winner. Góga, Novak, Szappanos and Galanisz all finished with one goal and one assist a piece.

Unlike game three, game four had most of the excitement in the third period. Dab.Docler came out guns blazing and showing that they are ready to pull away, less then a minute into the match Pavuk and Szappanos set up Galanisz for the early goal. Neither team was able to take advantage of multiple power plays on each side until the 45:55 mark when István Nagy and Jan Fadrny took advantage of the extra attacker and pulled Csíkszereda even with Fadrny getting the goal. Less then five minutes later Csíkszereda jumped on the man advantage again, this time Tihamér Becze set up Jaroslav Kmit for the go ahead goal. Not to be out done DAB scored their own power play goal less then two minutes later when Lajos Tőkési took a pass from Mihalik and beat Kozuch to put DAB even at 2-2. Just like in game three the home team lost in overtime when Mihalik registered his second assist of the game with Peterdi putting the pass in the back of the net for the game winner. Mihalik was the leading scorer with his two assists.

After game five a clear pattern had developed during the series with excluding the first match the rest were won by the visiting team and all of them being won only by one goal, with three of them being in overtime. With the series now back in Hungary DAB was looking to win the series on home ice and to raise the trophy in front of their great fans. DAB was well on their way to do this, Tamás Gröschl set up Artyom Vaszjunyin who put the puck in the back of the cage at the 12:10 mark. DAB was thirty minutes away from being crowned champions when Huba-Ferenc Bors scored to even everything up at one, Fadrny and Becze had the assits. The match remained scoreless for the rest of the sixty minutes; almost an extra period of overtime was played, at the 77.07 mark Fadrny decided to postpone the celebration for the Hungarian team by scoring a goal off of a pass from Ervin Moldován and winning the game 2-1. Fadrny was the leading scorer with a goal and an assist.

Just to stay with the road team winning every game except for the first one DAB decided that it was time for the to close out the series and bring home the trophy. They did this with a relatively simple formula, lean on the players that brought you this far with a couple other players helping out and you goalie getting a shutout. Sevela did just that by keeping Csíszereda off of the scoring sheet on their home ice. The first goal did not come until the almost four minutes into the second period; Pavuk took a pass from Szappanos and was able to beat Kozuch to go up 1-0. At the half way point of the match Viktor Papp doubles DAB’s lead, Zsolt Azari and Gröschl closed the book on Csíkszereda by scoring at the 57:27 and 58:21 respectively and this way insuring the match and the title for the Hungarian team.

There are some rumors that Dab.Docler is having an eye not only at the Austrian 2nd division but possibly making a jump to the EBEL, but that is a story for another time. Check back in the coming months to see if it comes to fruition.

Here is a look at the MOL League awards as well as the all-star team which was voted on my the writers.

Best Goalie: Patrik Polc-Brassó
Best Defenseman: Victor Lindgren-Dab.Docler
Best Forward: Nikandrosz Galanisz-Dab.Docler
MVP:Nikandrosz Galanisz-Dab.Docler

All-Star Team (voted on my the writers)
Goalie: Peter Sevela-Dab.Docler
Defensemen: Attila Góga-Csíkszereda; Dániel Kiss-Dab.Docler
Forwards: Josh Bonar-Brassó; Nikandrosz Galanisz-Dab.Docler; Dávid Szappanos-Dab.Docler

The Finals are Set

MOL League Playoffs (Part 2)

@Zavodszky

icehockey.hu

            The MOL League championship series match up is set, Dunaújváros (DAB) will be meeting the Transylvanian team Csíkszereda in a best of seven series to decide who is the best team in the league. Let us recap how we got to this, after the first two matches were split in Dunaújváros Miskolc was unable to capitalize on their home ice advantage by losing both matches and there for DAB winning the best of five series 3-1. In the other semi finals pairing Csíkszereda took care of business as fast as possible by winning games one and two at home and then closing out the series with a solid win on the road.

            In game three it seemed that Miskolc would be able to take advantage of the home ice by jumping out to a 1-0 lead just past the half way point of the first period when Martin Saluga and Vladimir Dubek set up Adrián Toth for the even strength goal. Miskolc’s lead would last for a grand total of 25 seconds when Jozef Mihalik pulled the game even on a goal that was set up by Zsolt Azari and Imre Peterdi. There would be no scoring in the second period, however in the third period DAB would put three past the Miskolc keeper in a span for 3:14 when Nikandrosz Galanisz scored twice and Lajos Tőkési once to set the final score at 4-1. There were no major penalties in this match and Galanisz was the leading scorer with his to goals.

            The fourth game of this series was a must win for the home team Miskolc, just like in game three the home team took the lead on goal by Justin Smith, who took a pass from Levente Szilágyi and put it behind the DAB goalie for a 1-0 lead. The score stayed the same the same for the rest of the period and almost through the second as well. With just over half a minute left in the second period DAB was able to tie up the game at 1-1 with an Azari power play goal, Marek Chvatal and Peterdi had the assists. The match stayed tied up at one all the way through the end of regulation; in overtime DAB was able to pull out a second road win when Richárd Nagy was able to close out the series two minutes into overtime which was set up by Mihalik and Ákos Kiss. Attila Pavuk received a game misconduct at 28:24 which meant that he was done for the day.

            In the other semi final series Csíkszereda continued game three right where they had left off in game two. After letting Nové Zamsky take a 1-0 lead on a goal by Lukas Ruzicka Csíkszereda scored four unanswered goals to sweep the series and move on to the finals. Lubomir Hurtaj had two goals with Zsombor Molnár and Ervin Moldován have one a piece.

            The best of seven championship series starts Tuesday the 12^th with games one and two in Dunaújváros and then the series switching to Csíkszereda for matches three and four. Games five and seven will be played in Hungary and game six in Transylvania.

            Be sure to check back for more information in the finals

Szabolcs Závodszky

Twitter: @Zavodszky

Excitement Grows in MOL League Playoffs

MOL League Semi-Finals (Part 1)

@Zavodszky

icehockey.hu 

In the MOL League semi finals both best of five series have played two matches with two different out comes. After two matches in Dunaújváros (DAB) the series heads to Miskolc with both clubs tied up at one. In the other semi final series Csíkszereda has capitalized on having home ice adavtange with taking a 2-0 lead over Nové Zámsky (Érsekújvár) Ice Tigers.

In game one of the Hungarian match up the home team took a 4-0 lead just over 12 minutes in to the game at which time Tim Kehler decided to pull his keeper Krisztián Budai for Dávid Gyenes. Less then a minute into the match, DAB took the lead on a goal by Ákos Kiss on a pass from Nikandrosz Galanisz, about four minutes later Kiss made it 2-0. Not to be out done Galanisz chipped in his on goal after being set up by Kiss and Marek Chvatal, Jozef Mihalik’s shorthanded goal was the one that ended up chassing Budai from the cage. The goalie switch looked like it payed off with Miskolc closing the gap to 4-2 on two goals by Martin Saluga, however they could not get any closer with DAB scoring three more goals. Richárd Nagy and Dávid Szappanos scoring goals five and six with Kiss completing his hat trick with goal number seven. Just for some little excitement at the end Zsolt Azari received ten plus two plus two for checking in the back, roughing and a misconduct. Galanisz lead all scores with five points, a goal and four assists.

Miskoc’s fortunes changed in game number two with a 4-2 win, this time Gyenes got the start from Kehler between the pipes. Justin Smith broke the scoreless deadlock halfway through the first period on a goal assisted by Krisztián Nagy with David Cowen setting up Vladimir Dubek before the end of the period to take a 2-0 lead. DAB was able to even it up on two power play goals by Azari and Szappanos but that was all that DAB was going to get. Smith and Gergő Nagy closed out the scoring, Smith ended up leading all scorers with his two goals and Balázs Láda received 20 plus five for a knee and a game misconduct. Matches three and four look to be a thriller just as the first two have been.

In the other semi final series Csíkszereda won game one 5-3, however they were down 2-0 and 3-1 as late as the 36^th minute. Rastislav Barcák opened up the scoring for the Ice Tigers and Konstantin Mikhailov put one in the back of the net early in the second period to give the team from Slovakia a 2-0 lead. Dániel Tranca brought Csíkszereda back to with in one but less then a minute later Vladimirs Mamonovs put the Ice Tigers back up by two. Zsombor Molnár’s goal closed out the scoring in the 2^nd period, after 40 minutes the score was 3-2. The 3^rd period was all Csíkszereda who had an even strength goal by Tihamér Becze and Tranca had his second one of the match by scoring one short handed. Vaclav Novak closed the door on Nové Zamsky with an empty netter in the closing minutes of the game. This match had its share of penalty minutes with both Tamás Áron Bíró and Martin Baron both getting 10 minute misconducts and Baron receiving another two plus two for roughing. Becze led all scorers with three assists

Game two of the Csíkszereda-Nové Zamsky match up simply put was a blow out for the home team Lubomir Hurtaj opened the scoring at 3:10 of the first, the Transylvanian home team did not let up until the final horn sounded. Hurtaj scored his second one of the match with Novak putting the puck past the keeper for the third goal of the period. After the first it was 3-0 and the Ice Tigers coach decided to pull the keeper Karol Krizan in favor of Jakub Zima. The next 20 minutes were slightly better for Zima then the first 20 was for Krizan, Hurtaj completed his hat trick in the second and Ervin Moldován made it 5-0 after two. Jan Fadrny and Szabolcs Szőcs scored the sixth and seventh goals of the game to give the home team a 2-0 lead as the series moves to Slovakia. Zsombor Molnár got 10 minutes for a misconduct and Hurtaj was the leading scorer with his hat trick.

Check back soon as we close out the semi finals and look towards a promising MOL League finals.

Szabolcs Závodszky

Twitter: @Zavodszky

It’s Not the NHL But It’ll Do

Background on the MOL League

@Zavodszky

icehockey.hu 

The questions that people ask with a slight surprise is “is there hockey in Hungary?” and once they get the answer of YES the next question is “and is it any good?” Well is not the NHL but nothing really is. For five seasons now the top hockey league in Hungary has been running under the name of MOL League. The MOL petrol company has been the main sponsor of this multinational league. Much like the EBEL (Erste Bank Elite League) in Austria which is made up of teams from five different countries, the MOL league is made up of teams from three countries this season (with an eye to expantion). In the past the number of the teams in the league has fluctuated anywhere from seven to ten. The 2008-09 season was the first year of this multinational league with ten teams and the league could not have pictured of having a better inaugural season. The league had four teams from Romania, two Csikszereda teams, HC Csikszereda, and SC Csikszereda, Steaua Bucharest, and Progym Hargita and six from Hungary with three being located in Budapest, Újpest (ÚTE), Ferencváros (FTC) and the newly former Budapest Stars. Rounding out the league was Dunaújváros Acélbikák (DAB), Miskolc Jegesmedék (MJSE) and Székesfehérvár II (the farm team for a team playing in the EBEL).

That first season was a rather exciting one in which ice hockey fans in Hungary had the opportunity to see teams play in a league that they had not really seen before. That first season was won by HC Csikszereda with a very talented and multi ethnic team.

The next season, 2009-10 the number of participants in the league dropped down to seven teams. The two Csikszereda teams merged to form HSC Csikrszereda, Bucharest and Hargita decided to only play in the Romanian league, on the Hungarian side Székesfehérvár decided to not enter a team since they thought they were streched too thin with playing in the Austrian EBEL as well. However not all was lost, a team from Brossó in Romania was formed to have the seven team league. The league title went to the Budapest Stars who after the regular season had finished third but ended up upsetting the heavily favored team from Dunaújváros. The Stars picked up a number of players down the stretch.

The third season proved that this league was on the right track; all seven teams from the previous season were back along with two teams that had sat out the last season. Bucharest was back but rebranded as the Bucharest Rangers and Székesfehérvár’s farm team was back as well. The nine team league title went to HSC Csikszereda, which still had a number of players from the HC Csikszereda team that had won the first title. Unfortunately signs began to show that financially not all teams were on the same level. ÚTE before the season decided to almost go with a complete amateur team with most of the players either still being students or having a job on the side. The idea was to build up a roster of homegrown talent for a couple of years.

Before the start of the fourth MOL League season there was some shocking new to the Budapest hockey community, the Budapest Stars have decided to stop operating their adult (the youth system was left untouched) and the league would be down to eight teams. The league was won by DAB who that season decided not only to play in the MOL League but also in the Austrian 2^nd division with an eye on the EBEL in the future. In the past DAB had in the most consistent team through out the history of the league but had yet to win the title, this was finally accomplished after a grueling season where they made the playoffs in the Austrian 2^nd division as well.

As we are on the cusp of the start of the playoffs for this years MOL League we can notice that hockey in Budapest is bit on a down slide with both ÚTE and FTC missing the playoffs. However there is some good news in that the league has expanded into a third country, Slovakia. This season the league was down to seven teams, Bucharest again decided to sit out the season and Székesfehérvár thought that they would be stretched too thin with their younger players already playing in the Austrian U20 league. To keep the league at seven, Nové Zamsky Ice Tigers from Slovakia have joined the league and made it to the playoffs. This season the playoffs is a final four with the Ice Tigers playing Csikszereda and with MJSE and DAB making up the other semi final pairing.

Check back for more news on the MOL League playoffs

name	season in mol	mol team	nhl draft	drafted by	nhl matches
John Wilkstrom	2008-09	HC Csik.	1997, 5th rd.	Red Wings	0
Cam Severson	2008-09	Steaua	1997, 8th rd.	Sharks	37
Rod Hinks	2008-09	DAB	1993, 8th rd.	Islanders	0
Peter Polcik	2008-09	Stars	2001, 8th rd	Capitals	0
Kristian Kovac	2008-09	Stars	1999, 4th rd	Avalanche	0
Tamás Gröschl	2008-	Stars,DAB	1999, 9th rd	Oilers	0
Branislav Fabry	2009-10	ÚTE	2003, 2nd rd	Sabres	0
Martin Cizek	2009-10	MJSE	2002, 9th rd.	Sabres	0
Marko Kiprusoff	2010-11	Stars	1994, 3rd rd.	Canadiens	51
Nathan Martz	2010-11	Stars	2000, 5th rd.	Rangers	0
Marko Makinen	2010-11	Stars	1995, 3rd rd.	Sharks	0
Chris Eade	2010-11	FTC	2000, 4th rd.	Panthers	0
Jozef Cierny	2011-12	Brassó	1992, 2nd rd.	Sabres	1
Lubos Velebny	2011-12	DAB	2000, 7th rd.	Leafs	0
Marek Chvatal	2012-13	DAB	2002, 3rd rd.	Devils	0
Konstantin Mikhailov	2012-13	IceTigers	2001, 8th rd	Canucks	0

Names in italic were under contract and played match for teams in the MOL but never dressed for a MOL League match

NHL Draft Pick in Budapest?

@Zavodszky

icehockey.hu

Yes if this would be the 2009-10 hockey season then us the hockey fans in Budapest would have had a chance so see the first pick of the 2012 NHL Draft playing for Reaktor Niznekamsk of the MHL. Nail Yakupov is playing his rookies season in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers. During the 2010-11 season Vladimir Tarasenko played for Sibirskie Snaiperi Novosibirsk, who this season as a rookie with the St.Louis Blues has 11 points in 13 games. In case you missed it but every hockey fan has a chance to see someone, one that might become a future NHL star this season in Budapest. The 2012-13 season has been the inaugural season of Patriot Budapest in the MHL, a junior hockey league. The MHL which stands literally for youth hockey league but more known as minor hockey league, is functioning as what the junior leagues are acting as in the U.S. and Canada. 

The MHL is the major junior hockey league in Russia and is the stepping stone to the KHL. Unlike in North America where someone is drafted into one of the three Canadian major junior leagues (QMJHL, OHL, WHL) the MHL signs players who have a chance of being called up to the KHL. Almost all the teams in the league are affiliated with a team in the KHL or VHL (Russian 2nd division) almost like a farm club, the KHL/VHL team can call up a player from the youth team if they feel that that player has out grown the junior league, other times they will call up a player from an actual farm club in the Russian second or third division. Below the MHL there is a second tier, MHL-2, the MHL has a relegation system where at the end of the season two teams go down to MHL-2 and are replaced by two that come up. Since the founding of the KHL the Russian ice hockey federation has been trying to copy the North American system the best it can and theatrically in the end pass up the NHL has the top hockey league in the world. Based off of this logic they are setting up a similar junior system as the one found in North America.

The actual on ice product is quality hockey that at times is rare to see. The league is up there with the rest of the top youth or junior leagues through out Europe just like in Sweden and Finland. Benjámin Nemes, Hungarian All-Star center of Patriot Budapest says that the top teams in the MHL are on the same level as the top teams in the Swedish U20 SuperElit league. The MHL also reflects the style of play that one might have to come to know from Russian players, the flow of the game is a faster pace with more passes. Nemes continues saying that the Russian style is not as restrictive in a style as he experienced in Sweden where everything is played within a structured system.

The MHL has proved that it is an adequate league to be tapped into drafted by the NHL. The last five drafts 35 players have been drafted. Compared to junior leagues in North America and the NCAA (U.S. college league) the MHL has been right in the middle of it. Excluding the OHL which has double digit first round picks and the WHL the MHL has been right behind the WHL and the USHL. Do not be surprised if the MHL closes the gap in years to come
Either way it will be an exciting end to the season for Patriot Budapest, this season could have gone better for the team on the ice. Once the regular season is over they will fight to stay in the MHL and hope to avoid relegation to MHL-2 and to be back better then ever for the 2013-14 MHL season.

Check back in the coming weeks to get a first hand account of the All-Star gala and other news about Patriot Budapest.

Cherno Charges On for Win

@Zavodszky

In case you missed it here is the recap of the Hungary-Romania  icehockey match from last friday. The story can also be found on the English part of icehockey.hu

The national team wins match for new coach.

In what turned out to be a relatively easy win, Hungary put a beating on their neighbors to the east with a 7-0 win over Romania. Hungary took the early lead 1:36 into the first on a goal by András Benk with István Bartalis assisting on the goal. The Huns doubled their lead with Bartalis scoring one for himself from a pass by the 3rd member of their line, Ladislav Sikorcin. The so called “third line” would go on to score 5 out of the 7 goals. With five minutes left in the first period István Sofron received 2 minutes for checking to the head/neck and a misconduct that goes with it. Tamás Pozsgai got 2 minutes for cross checking, luckily the boys managed to kill the penalties.
The second period started off much like the first with the “third” line scoring at 2:33 into the period. Benk put the puck in the back of the net with the help of both Bartalis and Sikorcin. For the rest of the period neither of the red lights lit up behind either goal, however the Hungarians kept up their visits to the penalty box. Bence Szirányi for slashing, Benk for cross checking, and Dániel Kiss for tripping all received two minutes each with Botond Flinta joining in on the fun from the Romanian side for tripping as well.
The third period was the exact opposite of the first except that the Bartalis, Sikorcin, Benk line continued the production; the third period had four Hungarian goals with zero penalty minutes. Bartalis had his second of the game assisted by Viktor Tokaji and Sikorcin to make it 4-0. This was followed less then two minutes later by a János Vas (a: János Hári, Kiss) goal. Balázs Ladányi set up Sofron for the sixth and Benk completing the hat trick to set up the final score on an assist by Bartalis who led all scorers with five points. Miklós Rajna kept the net clean for the shutout.
Check back tomorrow for a review of the Hungary-South Korea match.

Let’s Meet Cherno, the New Coach

@Zavodszky

As I mentioned in my previous post I have been writing for the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federatio, this is the article I wrote about a week ago before Hungary played in a 4 team tournament in Poland. Just a review what has happened since November.

The National Team Prepares Under a New Coach.

After playing an Olympic qualifying tournament on home ice that ended in disappointment to say the least the ice warriors are back at it again. A lot has happened since that November 11th shootout loss to the Netherlands. Just to give a recap, after the qualifying tournament the Hungarian Ice hockey Federation set out to find a new head coach for the national team. The short list was made up of 5 gentlemen, Luciano Basile, Rich Chernomaz, Bob Leslie, Stephan Lundh, and Lance Nethery. All five of these men have qualities that put them on the short list for the post. Leslie, Nethery and Chernomaz at point or another during their coach career have been in charge of a team in the top German (DEL) flight while Basile was familiar with Hungarian hockey when he was with Briancon and coaching Balázs Ladányi, Dr. Viktor Szélig and Bence Szirányi. Basile also has gained international experience at the helm of the Spanish national team, with Lundh and Nethery being the skipper of the Swedish and Swiss teams respectively in the past. In the end the federation thought that Chernomaz was the best choice to take the Hunagrian team back to the elite level of international hockey.

Rich Chernomaz not only has coached at a high level but also played at a high level as an 80kg 180cm right winger. Cherno spent his junior years playing in the WHL and would be drafted by the Colorado Rockies (known today as the New Jersey Devils) in the 2nd round of the 1981 NHL draft. He played 51 games in the NHL, 360 in the AHL and 442 in the IHL before moving on to play in Germany. Taking a look at his coaching CV he has gained valuable experience in the DEL.
Mr. Chernomaz’s first challenge will be to find out what Hungarian players fit where into his system. After a short training camp he will be making his coaching debut on Thursday February 7th in Tychy Poland verses Romania. Rounding out this 4 team friendly tournament will be matches against South Korea on Friday and the host nation, Poland on Saturday. None of the three matches are guaranteed cake walks when you consider that he will be bringing in some new players to the squad, however there will be some familiar faces behind the bench in assistants Diego Scandella and Balázs Kangyal.

One of the most noticeable aspects of the training camp roster at first glance is how young the goalies are. Of the five net minders on the training camp roster no one is above the age of 22. On the blue line the roster is almost completely reversed with a couple of players in their early 20s you can also see the usual veterans as well as someone who is 40+. With regards to the forwards you have the usual mix of international experienced players from Fehérvár, with the youthful future sprinkled in as well.

We will have more in the coming days, weeks and months as the national team prepares not only for the upcoming tournament but for the world championships as well.

Szabolcs Závodszky
Twitter: @Zavodszky

The final roster for the Euro Ice Hockey Challenge:

G
Bence Bálizs (Fehérvár)
Dávid Gyenes (Miskolc)
Miklós Rajna (Fehérvár)
D
Balázs Gőz (Miskolc)
Ádám Hegyi (Miskolc)
Péter Hetényi (Fehérvár)
Dániel Kiss (Dunaújváros)
Balázs Láda (Miskolc)
Attila Orbán (Fehérvár)
Tamás Pozsgai (Fehérvár)
Viktor Szélig (Briancon)
Bence Szirányi (Miskolc)
Viktor Tokaji (Fehérvár)
FW
István Bartalis (Troja/Ljungby)
András Benk (Fehérvár)
Nikandrosz Galanisz (Dunaújváros)
Roland Hajós (Fehérvár)
János Hári (Modo)
Csaba Kovács (Fehérvár)
Balázs Ladányi (Bolzano)
Bálint Magosi (Fehérvár)
Attila Pavuk (Dunaújváros)
Ladislav Sikorcin (Fehérvár)
István Sofron (Fehérvár)
Balázs Somogyi (Dunaújváros)
Dávid Szappanos (Dunaújváros)
János Vas (Dijon)
Márton Vas (Fehérvár)

Guess Who's Back

Rally Cap is Back but a bit different

@Zavodszky

After some timeoff I am back to the blog, however most of my posts will be about Hungarian ice hockey. Both the men's and women's national teams as well as the youth teams. I will also be covering the MOL League, EBEL as well as any Hungarians playing abroad.

The reason for this is that the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation has hired me to write for them in English to spruce up the English part of the website, icehockey.hu (click on the British flag for English language), feel free to check it on a regular basis. This was all because of the post I wrote just before last years world championships by the tittle Hungarian Hockey: Its a real Paprika. 

Check back regularly for your Hungarian hockey news and other sports thoughts as well. Send me a tweet for opinions or questions.

Euro 2012

Here we are at the Euro 2012, the major football event where all the world watches and everyone outside of Europe feels left out. The beauty of this tournament is that it is only sixteen teams and therefore all matches are played at either 6.00pm or 8.45 pm CET. If you are working in Europe during the day then you don’t miss anything. I will just get right to it and get on with my picks.

Group A

            Russia- The lads from Mother Russia got a lucky break with the group that they are in. In almost any other group they would probably struggle to advance to the next round. They will advance but this is not the same team from four years ago.

            Poland- In every major tournament the host team or teams always make it the second round, sometimes they are pushed through by some “lucky” calls, expect this from Poland. Robert Lewandowski is expected to have a big tournament.

            Czech Republic- This is a Czech team that in any other tournament they would finish second in this group. Rosicky needs to stay healthy for them to have a chance.

            Greece- Not expecting them to be blown out but don’t expect a lot of goals either. They could be fun to watch with their emotions.

Group B

            Netherlands- The Dutch are one of the favorites to win the tournament. They will win the group on goal differential. Like any classic Dutch team they will be playing total football or totaalvoetbal in Dutch. They have a lot of fire power, Kuyt, van der Vaart, Robben, van Persie just to name a few.

            Germany- The Germans just like the Dutch are favored to win the Euro. They will finish second because of the goal difference. This is a hard one to pick. The Germans play a more defensive style compared to the Dutch.

            Portugal- Cristiano Ronaldo can not do everything by himself. Yes Nani is ok but the Portugese need about another three Nanis for them to have a chance to advance. Look for Pepe to get sent off in one of the matches.

            Denmark- Denmark will not be letting in a lot of goals but will not be able to keep pace with the other three in the group of death.

Group C

            Spain- The defending Euro and World Cup champions are looking almost as good as in the past. Almost all the players closed a great season on their club teams. With David Villa being out with an injury and Fernando Torres not being him self the past couple of years the scoring may be down then in the past.

            Croatia- They are my sleeper pick, with Olic out with an injury I am not as confident about this pick as before. The Croats have the midfield and the D to make a surprise run.

            Italy- Italian football is not exactly living its glory days. Some players have to miss the Euro because they are caught up in the match fixing scandal that is going on in Italy. The Italians are also missing the power forwards that we have come used to seeing.

            Ireland- The Irish will bring the though football that we are used to but it won’t be enough for them to get out of the group.

Group D

            England- Every time you look up it seams that a player has come up injured. The Three Lions are already with out Lampard, Cahill, Ruddy, and Barry, with Rooney being suspended for the first three matches. For some reason England is not expected to do anything beyond the group stage, therefore there is no pressure on them.

            Sweden- The Swedes have one of the best forwards in the game who has just finished a great season. Ibrahimovic is unstoppable at times when he is not being moody. The Swedes do not have as much depth as usually needed to go deep in the Euro.

Andrei Shevchenko

            France- The previuse generation has just about retired and the next generation for the French as not as good. Yes Benzema is coming of a career year with Real Madrid but they are missing another big time scorer and depth as well.

            Ukraine- The Ukraine has gotten a lot weaker in the past couple of years. Ukraine has been as good as Shevchenko has been. As Shevy has aged the team has weakened.


Finals Results will be:
1. Spain
2. Netherlands
3. Germany
4. Croatia

A Cup Final With Everything: Hooligans and Racists

Tibor Ladányi, László Zsidai, Tamás Kulcsár

I usually do not write about personal experiences or a sporting event that I was at and witnessed with my own eyes or how I saw something. What I experienced on May first has me pretty upset and I thought I would write about it. In case anyone missed it Debreceni VSC who is leading the Hungarian first division was playing MTK Budapest who is one point away from securing promotion back to the top flight, for the Hungarian Cup at the Puskás stadium in Budapest. MTK Budapest historically is considered a Jewish team or a team that was supported by the Jewish community just like Tottenham Hotspurs in England and Ajax in the Netherlands, and Debreceni VSC who was supported by the railway workers in the eastern part of the country. The basic scoop on Debrecen is that they are going for their 6th title in the past eight seasons and just about have it in the bag along with a spot in the Champions League. MTK Budapest last season was relegated to the second division, this season they have yet to lose and have pretty much guaranteed themselves promotion. Just like in any other league, winning the domestic cup earns you a sport in the Europa League unless you have a spot in the Champions League which DVSC already seems to have, and there for MTK would take the Europa League spot even if they lost the cup. Based off of all of this regardless of what happened in the cup final both teams can safely say that the season has been a success. About 12 of us decided that it would be worth the 1000 HUF (about $5) to check out a cup final.

The match itself was exciting and had everything a person that is not a big fan of football (soccer) would have also had a great time. There was a nice family friendly environment in the 4,000+ fans that were in attendance.The first 45 minutes was exciting back and forth with both teams having scoring opportunities. The match was scoreless until the 45th minute when Norbert Könyves put MTK up 1-0 with a blast into the bottom right corner of the net. Both teams made some substitutions early in the second half and DVSC tied it up in the 51th with a goal from French international Selim Bouadla with Péter Szakály putting them up 2-1 five minutes later. In the 60th minute DVSC defender Balázs Nikolov picked up his second yellow card which left Debrecen a man short for the rest of the match. Two minutes later MTK capitalized on this when Tibor Ladányi lofted the ball over the keepers outstretched arms to even the match at 2-2. MTK kept Debrecen under pressure for the remainder of the match when in the 87th minute when László Zsidai put the team from Budapest up 3-2 and it seemed the cup was in the bag for the blue and whites. The MTK youngsters were unable to hold on to the lead for the last three minutes when Szakály struck again for DVSC and sending the match into overtime. After two times 15 minutes the match was still 3-3 which meant it was time for a shootout. The shootout went to the 9th round when DVSC keeper István Verpecz saved Dávid Kálnoki Kis’ shot to give Debrecen their third Hungarian Cup in five seasons.

As we left the stadium with our heads a bit lower then we started the match since we were pulling for MTK we could not really complain since the match had six goals, overtime and a shootout and a player being sent off. We also kept on saying its ok these two teams will meet up again for the Hungarian Super Cup as well. On the metro ride back to the city center at one of the stops two boys in their late teens-early twenties who thought they were hard asses went up to a guy in his mid twenties sitting next to his girlfriend and wearing his MTK jersey and one of them spits on him and demanded he take his jersey off, this punk then follows this up by stating to everyone on the metro that he doesn't want to see any Jewish stuff. The guy with his girlfriend pulls his jersey off embarrassingly and seemed like he was happy nothing happened. The two guys work their way down the car until they get to us were by now there are five of us left from the original group that we had went with. Three of saw what had originally happened at the other end of the car however our friend who organized the excursion had his jersey on as well did not see what had happened. The two guys come up to our friend Zoli, who is rather large and around 190 cm, and ask him “I bet you are Jewish as well so you better take your shirt off”, keep in mind none of us are Jewish. To this Zoli responds back be saying you want it then take it off me. This goes back and forth a couple of times as the two instigators can not come up with anything original. Eventually Zoli gets sick of this and asks them what is their problem with MTK Budapest and what team do they root for. Of course we knew that they didn't care about soccer at all, they were just trying to act like hardasses.

In the end nothing happened but we all felt sick, after a nice afternoon and evening watching some football the day had to be ruined by some clowns like this. There is no room for this in professional sports. When you think of hooliganism you think of England but this would never happen at the FA Cup final, unfortunately these acts still happen in Hungary and other former Soviet bloc countries. When one goes to a sporting event they are supposed to be there to enjoy the family friendly environment, root for their team and hope that your team gets the W.

Gone But Not Forgotten

I recently read an article in Sports Illustrated about the Titanic and how there were two world class tennis players on the ship when it went down. Both of them survived in different manners and about three months later they faced each other in an exhilarating five set match. Karl Behr would defeat Dick Williams 0-6, 7-9, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 at the Longwood Bowl in Boston. Williams would go one to be U.S. singles champion, be doubles champion at Wimbledon and at the 1924 Olympics won the mixed doubles gold medal. Behr would be a member of a number of Davis Cups teams and would eventually be on a winning Davis Cup team with Williams.

Dick Williams and Karl Behr

This got me thinking about the numerous transportation disasters in which members of sports teams or entire sports teams had perished what might have happened if they had survived.

On May 4th 1949 a plane carrying the entire Torino FC team crashed into a hillside as it was returning from Portugal after playing a friendly versus Benfica with 18 players, five club officials and the crew perished in the accident. Today Torino is known as the ‘other’ team in Turin next to Juventus and this season they won the Italian second division to get back to the Seria A. In 1949 they were the defending champions and were a star studded squad hoping to repeat as champions when the disaster happened. Three of the players did not make the trip, Sauro Toma was injured, legendary Hungarian László Kubala who was just recently reunited with his family after they fled communist Hungary stayed in Turin to be with his sick son, and Luigi Gioliano did not receive his passport in time. For the remaining four matches in that season Turino had their junior squad play the matches, in honor of the fallen the remaining four opponents also sent out their junior team to face Torino’s. Torino would win the final four matches and win the Seria A for the 5th time in the 1940s, this would be the last trophy the club would win until they won the league again in 1976.

On February 6th 1958 a flight made a third attempt at taking off from the Münich airport but was never actually able to lift off the ground and skidded off the runway into a fence and a house. Sitting on this flight to Manchester was the Manchester United football team who was flying back after a 3-3 tie against Red Star in Belgrade. Eight players and three staff members died in the crash. At that time Manchester United was coming off back to back titles and would end up making a run to the semifinals of the European Cup when they lost to eventual runner up AC Milan. Among the survivors was nine players among them Sir Bobby Charlton and team manager Matt Busby. Two of the players who survived suffered career ending injuries in the crash

On October 29th 1960 Cal Poly football team was planning on flying back to California after playing a game in Ohio against Bowling Green State University. This ended up being one of those situations where anything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. The plain was a World War II aircraft that was taking off from the Toledo airport when it crashed, broke in two and caught fire. Twenty two of the 48 people on board died including sixteen players. At the time of takeoff the aircraft was about 2000 pounds over the max capacity, visibility was less than what was prohibited for a commercial plane at takeoff and there was partial power loss in one of the engines at takeoff. It was later found out that the pilot of the plane was flying with a suspended licence. After the crash Cal Poly cancelled their last three games of the season and would not play a game outside of California until 1969.

Laurence Owen

There has always been a debate about the Sports Illustrated jinx and if it really exists. The February 13th, 1961 Sports Illustrated cover featured Laurence Owen with the caption “America’s most exciting girl skater”. Two days later on the 15th a Boeing 707 crashed while circling the Brussels airport waiting to land. The plane crashed to the ground and caught fire as it hit the ground killing all 72 passengers which included Laurence Owen and the rest of the U.S. Figure Skating National team on their way to the world championships in Prague. The flight had a number of world champion hopefuls, the U.S. had dominated world figure skating in the 1950s and looked to continue at the 1961 world championships. The world championships were cancelled because of the tragedy. This crash wiped the U.S. skating program off the map. No American would win a major competition until the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble France.

1970 November 14th Marshall University’s football team was returning home from a defeat to East Carolina when the plane carrying 37 members of the team and a number of boosters crashed as it was making its final approach. The entire program was wiped out except for a couple of players and two coaches. The idea of disbanding the program altogether was brought up but a squad was put together for the 1971 season with players from the the JV team and athletes from other sports, some who had never played football in their life.

I am sure most of you remember remember when this past September 7th when Lokamotiv Yaroslav was flying to Minsk Belarus to kick off the KHL season against Dinamo Minsk. Apparently the weather conditions were not ideal and the plane did not reach a high enough altitude to clear a tower which it hit and caught fire. The team perished in the accident, among them were former NHL players Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Salei, Alexander Karpatsev, Igor Korolev and Brad McCrimmon.