Women's national team: Back on the pitch in September

The Hungarian women's national team took part in a warm-up tournament in Turkey just before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, winning all three matches against a Kazakh club, then the national teams of Hong Kong and Romania, the latter characterised by some excellent goals in a 7-1 victory.

Markó's team was therefore perfectly prepared for those European Championship qualifiers originally planned for the spring. However, the pandemic changed all plans, so according to a new competition calendar released by UEFA, Hungary will face Sweden on 17th September and Latvia five days later on 22nd, both away from home.

"A slight problem is that we play away twice. The squad last met up in March, when several players were missing so the full squad was last together last November", Edina Markó told mlsz.hu. "The Simple Női Liga is over so the players are now taking a short break before already starting to prepare with their clubs in early July. The new league season will hopefully start in mid-August. With this in mind, we've had to plan the team’s schedule while preparing for every eventuality, including the fact we might not be able to play any international matches until the qualifiers. That’s why I’m planning three one-day get-togethers with the players here at home, including warm-up matches with the Under-19 national team and the U23 age group. Previously, I've named a bigger provisional squad which also includes girls who have outgrown the U19 squad but haven’t yet reached the full squad, so now I can watch them too in these matches. We’ll have around five days to prepare once our players based abroad have returned home before we travel to take on a very strong, team ranked fifth in the world in the form of Sweden, an opponent which hasn’t halted football life during the virus either. Although we played well in the home match against the Swedes, our team tired towards the end and succumbed 5-0. Many of our national-team players have already played matches at home or abroad, but there are also squad members who have only done individual training and attended fitness maintenance sessions with their clubs without getting any match sharpness.

Markó has been present at every Hungarian women’s championship match since the season's resumption and says she is proud of the way the teams have survived the recent period.

"I was most keen that no one would be injured. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries - Fanni Vágó suffered a ligament injury in the second of her team Ferencváros' European qualification play-off series with MTK, but she is expected to be back in action by September, while the start of the domestic league in August will mean that the players will already have some matches in their legs before the national squad gets together. One could see the girls' lack of recent football in their movements; there were several mistakes, but they played just as determinedly as if they had been playing every week. All three contests between MTK and Fradi were very exciting, both teams being so well matched that only nuances decided the overall outcome".

In recent weeks, three of the Simple Női Liga's best players have been transferred to clubs in top foreign championships. First ETO announced that Dóra Süle and Laura Kovács will continue their careers with SC Sand Frauen in the German Bundesliga, then Anna Csiki bade farewell to Ferencváros after eight years to join Swedish club Gothenburg FC. All three are also members of Hungary's national team.

"For us, this is evidence (of our hard work developing players). In recent years, we have built a young national squad whose members are capable of performing at the highest level, so it is not surprising that players are being transferred to top leagues abroad. This is a big step forward for them and if they play regularly in their new teams, it will be reflected in the national teams' results", Markó concluded.