But quite remarkably, what we now know as European Style Football was first developed in the central part of the continent in the early part of the 20th century. Writes Rafiqul Ameer
Five European teams have won the World Cup, Germany, France and England from the north plus Italy and Spain from the South. But quite remarkably, what we now know as European Style Football was first developed in the central part of the continent in the early part of the 20th century. For the first 60 years or so of the 20th century, football in the region flourished greatly despite almost continuous political turmoil.
The Challenge Cup (Austria Hungary) started in 1897. This is regarded as the first international Club Cup in Soccer history. While the competition was open to all the club teams of the vast empire, most of the participating teams came from the large cities like Vienna, Prague and Budapest. Not surprisingly, Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia emerged as major soccer powers by the 1930s.
The Austrians were especially impressive; they hosted 9 of the 10 events and teams from Vienna (or Wiener) won on all 9 occasions. The only exception was in 1908-09, when Hungary hosted the event, and Ferencvaros emerged as the champions.
The ever-rising political tensions in the region meant that there were no events between 1905 and 1908, and the event stopped permanently in 1911. The WWI saw the region devastated and the Habsburg dynasty of Vienna coming to an end. But the Austrian football made a remarkably rapid recovery. The Austrian Cup started in 1918 and the Mitropa Cup (or the Central European Cup) started in 1927. Initially, teams from Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia (countries that had emerged from the old Austria-Hungary empire) participated in the cup; but Italy soon joined. And ‘the Azzurris’ benefitted greatly from the strong level of competition in the cup; as they won the World Cup title in 1934 and 1938.
The tournament lasted till 1992; but the lack of interest among the west European teams meant that it never became a truly Pan European event. But it is rightly considered as the forerunner to the European Cup which started in the 1950s.
By the early 1930s, Austria was considered the major power in Euro football and they earned the nickname ‘Wunderteam’. They were among the favorites for the 1934 WC held in Italy, but they finished only 4th after losing 0-1 to Italy and 2-3 to Germany. They won the Silver medal in the Berlin Olympics in 1936, and were again among the favorites for France, 1938; but this time their fate was decided in the field of politics.
Anschluss in early 1938 meant that there was no Austria anymore; instead the Austrian players became a part of the German team. Initially, it was believed that the combined German- Austrian team would be a power to reckon; but actually Sepp Herberger, the German Coach, had little time to combine the two sets of players accustomed to entirely different style of soccer. Also, there were question marks over the commitment of the Austrian players; Matthias Sindelar, Austria’s greatest footballer of the 20th century, made himself unavailable citing his age (he was 35 at the time). The Germans were eliminated by the Swiss in the first round- a 1-1 draw was followed by a 4-2 victory for the Swiss in the replay.
The Austrian success between the wars can be attributed to mainly two men- Hugo Meisl the brilliant coach and Matthias Sindelar, the center forward. After a short playing career, Meisl became joint coach of the national team in 1913 before taking full control in 1919. He played major parts in starting the professional league in Austria in 1924 and the Mitropa three years later.
On field, his greatest innovation was successfully modifying the 2-3-5 system popular in Euro football at the time. This system was for all-out attack and with very specific jobs for each individual player. Especially, the center forward wearing the jersey number 9, was expected to just score goals and nothing else. Meisl quickly observed that his number 9, Sindelar, was more than just a ‘poacher’. His brilliant dribbling skills and his ability to squeeze between opposition defense earned him the nickname ‘der Papierene’; (the man of paper).
So, Meisl used Sindelar in a slightly deeper role; this tactic consistently gave the Austrians the edge in the midfield; at the same time, he remained prolific in front of the opposition goal. In this sense, Sindelar can be considered the first complete center forward in international football.
Interestingly, the Meisl- Sindelar combination took a bit of time to flourish. Sindelar was flamboyant while Meisl was a strict disciplinarian. It was public demand, more than anything else, that forced Meisl to recall the forward in 1931. The rest-as they say- is history.
Meisl died in 1937. A year later Sindelar avoided representing Germany in the WC. In Jan, 1939, he and his girlfriend died mysteriously at their apartment in Vienna.
In 1998, Sindealr was adjudged Austria’s sportsman of the century.
Although, Austria re-emerged as an independent nation again after the war; their time as a top soccer nation was over. In fact, the authorities couldn’t restart the Austrian Cup till 1958; as they didn’t have enough money and there was no interest from the sponsors.
Still the Austrians surprised many people by finishing 3rd in 1954. Since then they can be best described as a mid-strength European team. Their one moment of glory came at Cordoba in 1978 when they defeated the defending champions West Germany 3-2 in a match known in Austrian Soccer folklore as ‘the miracle of Cordoba’. In contrast, the 1-0 win for West Germany 4 years later is known as ‘the non-aggression pact of Gijon’. Just as the Austrian powerhouse weakened following WWII, emerged the ‘Golden Team’ or ‘The Mighty Magyars’ from Hungary. In the next part of this article I would be mostly focusing on them.
