In memoriam Gábor Ocskay

The Hungarian sports community was hit again with some devastating news: Gábor Ocskay died because of cardiac failure during the night of March 24. Normally, a death of this type would not make the headlines; it is not that uncommon. But with sportsmen, people always turn their heads, especially in a country like ours.

Gábor was 34 years old, not that old for an ice hockey player as players in the NHL sometimes play at the age of 40+. He dedicated his whole life to hockey. He started his career in 1983, at the age of eight, at Alba Volán SC. He played for that team only, although I'm sure that other managers would have welcomed him at their teams. He was one of the most skillful players of his team and also the national squad. For most of his 17 years in the national team, he played in the top line, along with his best friend, Krisztián Palkovics. They were the dynamic duo of the national team, knowing each other's thoughts from looks and gestures.

Ice hockey is one of the most underrated sports in Hungary. Mostly it gets into the news because of either huge successes or terrible conditions. For the first part I could mention qualifying for the World Championships, the highest-ranked national event, or Alba Volán playing in the Austrian League. The second part, well... Not enough money or well-equipped facilities - just the usual stuff. However, after last year's qualifying tournament, everybody was looking forward to this April.

Gábor always dreamed about playing at the World Championship. He fought for that goal for 17 years, and when it finally was about to arrive, Fate decided other. He was a 9-time Hungarian champion, played 187 games in the national team. According to eurohockey.net, he played 531 games overall, scoring 843 points. He will be with the team during the games in April although it won't be visible on the score sheet. Rest in Peace, Gábor!

Controversy in soccer

The soccer associations are quite stubborn. They're constantly inventing rules to improve the level of the game. The "6+5" rule would forbid teams to have more than 5 international players on the field at a time to help the development of native players. The expanded Euro Football Championship would assure more places to weaker countries (maybe even Hungary would qualify). A third linesmen would help the referee to make the good calls. But one thing they seemingly don't want to implement is the "video referee."

In major American sports, this kind of aid has been present for a long time. Although in different methods, all four major sports league (American Football-NFL, Basketball-NBA, Ice Hockey-NHL, Baseball-MLB) use video replays to make the game as mistake-free as possible. In American Football, coaches can call a "challenge" to show the referee that they disagree with a call. If they're right, the call gets reversed. if they're wrong, they lose a timeout, which are quite valuable in this game. In the other three, referees themselves can decide to look at a questionable situation again (whether a shot was released in time, a puck got over the line, or a hit was legal...).

The reason I'm writing about this is that I was present at a situation where this practice could have been helpful-soccer match, what else. A home player broke into the penalty area with the ball where he was seemingly fouled by an opponent. The referee awarded the home team with a penalty shot and showed the opponent player a yellow card which turned into a red later. The home team broke the scoreless tie with the penalty, and eventually won the game. From the stands, the call seemed correct. But as I read some forums, many people mentioned that television replays showed the foul was not at all evident.

I'm not saying that I'm unhappy with the call; after all, my team won. But it's not the way fans would like to see their teams win games. Also, the frustration of the opposing team's members and fans is understandable. I'm sure I would do the same if the things would have happened the other way around. Also, there were plenty of examples in the past where the video referee could have helped the actual one. However, the FIFA and the UEFA don't seem too convinced for reasons I simply can't understand...

Heroes of Veszprém

In a middle age context, the title could mean a battle that was won near Veszprém. However, Life put this expression into another light. Unfortunately... I'm talking about the handball team MKB Veszprém. They've advanced to the quarterfinals in the Champions League (CL) without one of their best players. He isn't injured, retired, or a member of another team. Mariam Cozma is dead.

As many of you might have already heard, Cozma was stabbed to death in Veszprém on the night of the 8th of February. Two other members of the club also got seriously injured. Members of the team had a little celebration in a club when suddenly things went wrong. What those things were exactly, we might never know. Only the plain facts are clear: a group of 20-25 people, mainly gypsies, exchanged words with the sportsmen, then most of them went outside where weapons were drawn. Cozma was stabbed in the heart, another player, Ivan Pesic, in his kidney. The third player, Marko Sesum, was kicked in his head multiple times. The former could not be saved, the latter two needed emergeny surgeries.

As for me, I had just come back from a week-long ski trip. Eager to cath up with all the news, I opened a Hungarian sports page just to face the cold truth. At first I didn't want to believe it. A professional sports player, member of one of the most famous clubs in Hungary, was killed in "his own" city. I don't want this to become a racist post so I won't mention some other things that came into my mind. The main suspect had been caught since then, but heaven knows if we'll ever learn the whole story.

As for the team, it is almost impossible to imagine what they went through. A friend, a teammate of them died; some of them were even at the crime scene. And they had a CL match next Sunday, exactly one week from the tragedy. In the Main Round, there are no easy opponents, and every game is important. Also, because of the tight schedule, it is not agood opportunity to postpone a match. So the team made probably the best, but also the hardest decision: they would play. I don't have any data about how many people watched that game on television, but I think it must have been a quite high number. The team won that game, and after the final whistle every home player burst into tears. Since then, Veszprém have won 2 of 3 games, and won its group. Ironically, that got them Ciudad Real, last year's CL champion, as their next opponent. Chances are that Ciudad will win. But you can't underestimate the heart of the champion. And, to some extent, our team can already be called as a champion, no matter what happens next.

Fight On, Veszprém! Rest in Peace, Marian!