He was a remarkably small man, very thin,\u201d wrote the operatic tenor Michael Kelly. \u201cHis physique gave no indication of genius.\u201d Yet, in his 35 years on earth, Wolfgang Mozart flashed extraterrestrial genius in copious quantity.<\/p>\n
The Mozart of Football\u2019 wrote a Xerox composition in his 39 years. Matthias Sindelar was just 14 when his father died. He left school, therefore, and became a locksmith to support his family. It was, nonetheless, unlocking defences at which he most excelled. From the age of 18, he began taking the Austrian domestic scene by storm.<\/p>\n
Hugo Meisl was, despite a relentless racket for Sindelar\u2019s international call-up, unconvinced. The Austria coach said he had \u201cthe physique of a child\u201d. When an injury crisis struck ahead of a Czechoslovakia clash in 1926, however, the 23-year-old belatedly got his shot. He snatched it in style, scoring one and setting up the other in a 2-1 victory in Prague.<\/p>\n
When Austria drew against the same side four years later, Meisl cast Sindelar as the culprit. The forward played only one of Austria\u2019s next 15 games. Results weren\u2019t sweet. They lost three straight games to Hungary and failed to score at home in two other outings.<\/p>\n
Enter an Englishman. Jimmy Hogan, a trailblazing tactician, was a Meisl mentor. The former aspiring priest persuaded the former bank clerk not only to field Sindelar, but to build his team around him.<\/p>\n
\u2018The Paper Man\u2019 was recycled for the visit of a Scotland machine that had never lost in continental Europe. That distinction wasn\u2019t just rubbed out in the Austrian capital, but shredded to smithereens in a Sindelar-inspired 5-0 defeat.<\/p>\n
The Wunderteam\u2019 had been born. Austria duly embarked upon a battering tour, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Hungary and Switzerland all helpless victims, and conquered the Central European Cup.<\/p>\n
If The Marriage of Figaro was Mozart\u2019s Chef-d’oeuvre, a Vienna virtuoso in 1932 was the same to \u2018The Mozart of Football\u2019. The Hungarians were pummelled 8-2, with Sindelar scoring thrice and setting up the other five.<\/p>\n
Even in a seldom defeat, Sindelar emerged as the headliner. When Austria became the first overseas team to score more than once away to England, ultimately losing 4-3 at Stamford Bridge, he even wowed the referee.<\/p>\n
\u201cSindelar\u2019s goal was a masterpiece, which no-one else \u2013 no-one before him and no-one after him \u2013 could possibly have scored against opponents as good as the English,\u201d said John Langenus. \u201cStarting on the halfway line, Sindelar set off and, in his inimitably elegant manner, dribbled round everything which came at him, finishing with a backheel into the net.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willy Meisl, a journalist and Hugo\u2019s brother, wrote: \u201cHe was truly symbolical of Austrian soccer at its peak: no brawn but any amount of brain. Technique bordering on virtuosity, precision work and an inexhaustible repertoire of tricks and ideas.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a boyish delight in football exploits, above all in unexpected twists and moves which were quickly understood and shared by his partners brought up on the same wavelength, but were baffling to an opposition only a fraction of a second slower.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wunderteam\u2019 travelled to Italy for the 1934 FIFA World Cup\u2122 as the title favourites. \u2018The Paper Man\u2019 headed there not only as the face of football, but also of Austrian cheese, Italian suits and Swiss watches. Astonishingly, 12,000 Austrians \u2013 a staggering total in that era \u2013 crossed the border to see their darling in action.<\/p>\n
Sindelar didn\u2019t disappoint. He scored one and set up another as Austria eked out an extra-time victory over France in the last 16. They then edged a Hungary side spearheaded by the great Gyorgy Sarosi to set up a semi-final against the hosts.<\/p>\n
Italy went into the game having lost just two of their last 30 games, during which time they\u2019d netted 100 goals. Austria had also lost just once in 12 encounters with Italy, recently beating them 4-0 in Genoa and 4-2 in Turin a few months earlier.<\/p>\n
Victory over Hungary had, however, come at a cost. The great Hans Horvath was too crippled to play at the San Siro. Sindelar was also injured, but while his body was made of paper, his heart was made of stone. \u201cHe insisted nothing would stop him playing,\u201d said Meisl.<\/p>\n
Despite being man-marked by Luis Monti, one of the most barbarous enforcers of all time, Sindelar was at his inventive optimum. Unfortunately, despite Austria registering 22 shots on goal, the excellence of Gianpiero Combi blanked them and a controversial goal by former Argentina striker Enrique Guaita settled the showdown.<\/p>\n
Austria\u2019s World Cup dream died 90 years ago today. Just like the imprints \u2018The Magical Magyars\u2019, \u2018Clockwork Oranje\u2019 and \u2018Futebol-Arte\u2019 made on the World Cup, \u2018The Wunderteam\u2019 will be remember fondly and forever. So, too, will \u2018The Mozart of Football\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He was a remarkably small man, very thin,\u201d wrote the operatic tenor Michael Kelly. \u201cHis physique gave no indication of genius.\u201d Yet, in his 35 years on earth, Wolfgang Mozart flashed extraterrestrial genius in copious quantity. The Mozart of Football\u2019 wrote a Xerox composition in his 39 years. Matthias Sindelar was just 14 when his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":986950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27192],"class_list":["post-986949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=986949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/986950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=986949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=986949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=986949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}