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One of the best performances of the Hungarian national football team I've ever seen,

Yesterday:

Portugal - Hungary 2-2,

even if scoring the equalizing goal just before stoppage time, it must have been noted that there were at least one (or even two) situations where a penalty should have been awarded for our team because of Portuguese handball. We also hit the post once, however, the opponent did so twice.

It was a great game, nevertheless - and congratulations for our goalie, Balázs Tóth, who played earlier for Kazincbarcika and born in Zubogy, a nearby village in my county.

Even if we clinch the second spot in our group, a very hard playoff will await our team, where our chances are not too big. And saying a big thank you to FIFA, several teams weaker than Hungary from other federations will qualify - if there are 48 teams, why there aren't more European teams instead of chanceless teams mostly from Asia and Africa???!!!

First top division football match of the team of my hometown:

Puskás Akadémia FC (Felcsút, the team of our prime minister, silver medallist of last year) - Kazincbarcika 2-1

Instead of Lake Balaton I would recommend visit the town of Eger, not being much farther from our capital.

Volleyball is a surprisingly unpopular sport in Hungary. While sometimes played as a hobby sport, there are not too many professional volleyball players and teams in my country. Our national teams suck, too, especailly the men's squad. Top division volleyball matches also do not attract much supporters, to say the least...

On the other hand, my hometown is a volleyball town. Kazincbarcika only has around 24 000 inhabitants, still, we have won the top divison volleyball title five times, also winning the National Cup three times. That made us possible to compete in international cups (CEV Cup) and leagues (MEZVA) earlier. Last year we have won the bronze medal in the top division national league. The primary school I attended between 1989-1997 is a major source of newly trained/developed talents.

That is quite impressive, given the size of the city. I'm comparing with Italy, where maybe football culture is different, but a 24k city would have the resources for a team, but not the pool of people to get a good set of players 😅

Was football already a big thing there, as in "let's get kids to play in school, let's have little local tournaments" ?

Hungary is a smaller country than Italy, we have only about 9.5-10M inhabitants. After the capital, the second largest city, Debrecen has just over 200.000 inhabitants. Kazincbarcika is the 48th largest city/town (however, we were in the top30 around 1990) in the country.

The fun fact is Kazincbarcika will be far from being the smallest town with a top division football club. 10 cities/towns will have a top division football club, and three is smaller than Kazincbarcika: Paks (19.000), Kisvárda (16.000) and Felcsút (1.700, Viktor Orbán's home village).

I don't think football is especially popular in the town nowadays. In the 80s and 90s it would have been less surprise to see our football team in the top division, when our junior team played in the highest tier, producing players for the Hungarian national team, and the town (with much more inhabitants than today) was crazy about football. But we lost the promotion playoff both in 1982 and 1990 (against famous Hungarian clubs MTK Budapest and Budapest Honvéd). The team wasn't intended to earn promotion before the start of the season. Several players came from Debrecen who were neglected there, including two former national player teams as well. They (Bódi and Varga) become the leaders of our team. When we kept on being in the 1st/2nd place of the table, the club checked for its financial support and after having success, decided to go for the promotion. Even before the last round it seemed surrealistic, but still, by now it has become reality.

By the way the most successful sport here is volleyball: we have five national championship titles and three national cup victories. The team also played in international cups and in the central European league. This season we earned the bronze medal in the national championships. But in Hungary, volleyball is much less popular than in other parts of the world, our men's national team is very far from being a big gun internationally.

Old forum members might remember when I posted about the football club of my hometown. An info, especially for them, but for others, too:

Yesterday, a fantastic and unbelievable thing happened. KolorCity Kazincbarcika SC finished in 2nd place in the second division (NB II) of the Hungarian Football League, reaching promotion to the top division of the first time! Great result for such a small town (24.000 inhabitants at the moment, though it was around 40.000 around 1990).

1 Kisvárda 17 7 6 58
2 Kazincbarcika 14 11 5 53
3 Vasas Budapest 16 4 10 52
4 Kozármisleny 13 8 9 47
5 Szentlőrinc 12 11 7 47
6 Mezőkövesd 12 8 10 44
7 Szeged 10 12 8 42
8 Budapest Honvéd 11 7 12 40
9 Budapesti VSC-Zugló 8 14 8 38
10 Csákvár 10 6 14 36
11 Soroksár Budapest 9 8 13 35
12 Budafok (Budapest) 9 8 13 35
13 Ajka 8 11 11 35
14 Békéscsaba 8 9 13 33
15 Gyirmót FC Győr 7 10 13 31
16 Tatabánya 6 6 18 24

The 12 teams of the top division will look like this in the next season:

Ferencváros (Budapest)
Puskás Akadémia (Felcsút)
Paks
Győri ETO FC
MTK Budapest
Diósgyőr (Miskolc)
Újpest (Budapest)
Nyíregyháza Spartacus
Debrecen
Zalaegerszeg
Kisvárda
Kazincbarcika

Two teams from Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county! Great! And five teams from the Eastern part of the country (three from Budapest and four from Transdanubia). However, Kazincbarcika will be the westernmost located club of these five teams.

Unfortunately, our stadium is not eligible for playing top division matches there. We will play probably in Mezőkövesd or Miskolc-Diósgyőr.

Kazincbarcika will get a new stadium AND a Fidesz mayor, soon.

Meanwhile the "newbie" Győri ETO FC finished 4th in NB1 (after an incredible spring performance), they will participate in UEFA Conference League qualifications. Probably a first round fail, but still...

(Too bad, ETO is full of foreign players. That's not the team I supported since the '80s)

I think our mayor is a crypto-FIDESZ mayor, or at least has a secret agreement/alliance with the governing party...

Old forum members might remember when I posted about the football club of my hometown. An info, especially for them, but for others, too:

Yesterday, a fantastic and unbelievable thing happened. KolorCity Kazincbarcika SC finished in 2nd place in the second division (NB II) of the Hungarian Football League, reaching promotion to the top division of the first time! Great result for such a small town (24.000 inhabitants at the moment, though it was around 40.000 around 1990).

1   Kisvárda      17   7   6   58
2   Kazincbarcika      14   11   5   53
3   Vasas Budapest      16   4   10   52
4   Kozármisleny      13   8   9   47
5   Szentlőrinc      12   11   7   47
6   Mezőkövesd      12   8   10   44
7   Szeged      10   12   8   42
8   Budapest Honvéd      11   7   12   40
9   Budapesti VSC-Zugló      8   14   8   38
10   Csákvár      10   6   14   36
11   Soroksár Budapest      9   8   13   35
12   Budafok (Budapest)      9   8   13   35
13   Ajka      8   11   11   35
14   Békéscsaba      8   9   13   33
15   Gyirmót FC Győr      7   10   13   31
16   Tatabánya      6   6   18   24

The 12 teams of the top division will look like this in the next season:

Ferencváros (Budapest)
Puskás Akadémia (Felcsút)
Paks
Győri ETO FC
MTK Budapest
Diósgyőr (Miskolc)
Újpest (Budapest)
Nyíregyháza Spartacus
Debrecen
Zalaegerszeg
Kisvárda
Kazincbarcika

Two teams from Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county! Great! And five teams from the Eastern part of the country (three from Budapest and four from Transdanubia). However, Kazincbarcika will be the westernmost located club of these five teams.

Unfortunately, our stadium is not eligible for playing top division matches there. We will play probably in Mezőkövesd or Miskolc-Diósgyőr.

The fate of my potential job as a researcher (now I am accidentally working at the sales department) can be decided 17th January 2025, when the public defense of my doctoral dissertation takes place...

The 17th is tomorrow -- may you have an excellent defense!

Thanks.

92% and summa cum laude.

Thank you very much.

This track was NOT designed to be the track of the year, it rather intended to be a track to make time difference even between top pipsqueaks, and maybe to open a way to some new tricks to be found even after two and a half decades of racing.

I feel somewhat pity as I didn't have a real effort - but I must confess, I could have not reached a top spot on the scoreboard of this track even at showing full effort. Congratulations to the top drivers, great job.

Respect for the Sammarinese team. Surpirisingly low percentage of Italian-born (or other foreign) players, so it is really their merit.

There's been a long time passed since the last time I gave information about the football team of my hometown. Hungarian Elite Divison consists of 12 teams, the second tier consists of 16 teams (there is no separate Eastern/Western Group as it was earlier). KolorCity Kazincbarcika SC plays in the second tier, but after the autumn half-season, our team can be found at the 2nd place of the table! That is far beyond expectations, meaning a promotion to the elite division. However, this is only a dream as we only have a very small 'stadium', let alone being the farm team of the first division team of Diósgyőr VTK (Miskolc). The key of this success is the two former players of Debreceni VSC (Varga and Bódi), who, desipte being formerly part of the Hungarian National Team, had become redundant players in Debrecen - resulting in contracts with our second tier team.

The fate of my potential job as a researcher (now I am accidentally working at the sales department) can be decided 17th January 2025, when the public defense of my doctoral dissertation takes place... I am 41 now and if it turns out that there is no chance of being a researcher of the University of Miskolc, I'll search for a job in the industrial sector...

Have you shat today?

I planned to make a decent replay this weekend on my track - but, awed by the times on the scoreboard, I am not sure if it's worthy. I am ahead of my public defence of my doctoral dissertation, let alone xmas... I am not sure if I can send another replay into the competiton, despite observing such a fierce battle at the top.

Aria

Tom Araya

chili beans

Penile cancer