Day 7, Group B: Genesys OSC Budapest (HUN) v FTC Telekom Budapest (HUN)
After two 9-9 draws and a 9-8 win at home in the Champions League, and also after two really tight games against Ferencvaros in the domestic competitions (FTC edged them out by a single goal on both occasions, with some luck), Camp OSC were hoping for a positive outcome in the in-house battle of the two Hungarian sides.
Instead, it’s all gone by halftime when they were 3-10 down. This time Ferencvaros was the absolute dominant force in the pool – after a balanced first period they staged a 1-7 rout in the second. A double in 35 seconds kicked off that quarter, Gergely Burian pulled one back for 3-5 but next came the real storm, a 0-5 rush which killed the party by halftime. The FTC players were overwhelming, they delivered a perfect 4/4 conversion in man-ups while killing each of the hosts’ 6 on 5s, 0/4 in this period. OSC changed goalies but this time it didn’t help either (it had worked against Jug two weeks ago).
Being down by seven, OSC couldn’t have high hopes any longer – and in the third things didn’t change that much. Just the difference grew, to nine goals at 4-13 after Daniel Szakonyi stopped a penalty too. He was tremendous once more, delivered 13 saves while his colleagues’ combined stood at 5 at the end.
Well, his percentage dropped significantly in the last period, since after 7-16 OSC could finish the match with a solid 5-0 run to make the final scoreline somewhat consoling (still, their master shooter Krisztian Manhercz finished the game with 1/8, another reason for the heavy defeat).
In ten days’ time they meet again, but the prospects don’t look that great for OSC, while Ferencvaros seem to be on their way for a fourth straight F8 appearance.
How they saw it
Daniel Varga, coach, OSC
“We found ourselves up against some overwhelming power, we could withstand the pressure for half a period, not longer. Then we conceded a series of goals which could have been avoided with better concentration, with better speed and that broke the team badly. We needed one and a half periods to come back to life. At the halftime break we decided not to try catching up our rival in this game, but to catch up ourselves in order to be able to carry on building our own future. As I saw, we somewhat succeeded in that, however, only the following matches will tell how well we worked for that.”
Zsolt Varga, coach, FTC
“The gap was so huge that the team started laying back kind of automatically – the players eased up, let the level of concentration and tension drop a bit, like when we got off our foot from the gas in the car. I asked the team to maintain their focus for four periods but once you build such a big advantage like we did, the other team feels no more pressure and start playing with ease. We are happy to have a match like this, happy for the outcome, for the players who did their job with self-confidence. Still, it was just one game and we are yet to play a lot more with OSC this season. Of course, a coach always misses something, always looks for even better solutions, still, it was very positive to see some elements we had practiced now in match situation. We can be satisfied with the result, though not with the number of goals conceded, however, that could be thanked to that special fourth period.”
