World Cup qualifiers: Rossi opts for Géresi and Varga

football Hungary

MLSZ

Marco Rossi has announced his latest Hungarian men’s national squad for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers against Poland, San Marino and Andorra later this month.

Roland Varga, who has been in outstanding form recently since his January move from Ferencváros to MTK, has been recalled by Hungary’s head coach, while Krisztián Géresi and Balázs Tóth will join up with the national squad for the first time. Rossi is also counting on Willi Orbán, who underwent a minor hand operation last week, and Dániel Gazdag, who missed last November’s matches through illness, for these first three 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

Géresi is a player Rossi wanted to sign when he was the coach of Slovak club DAC, but a career-threatening injury put paid to that transfer three years ago and he is only now showing the kind of form on loan at Puskás Akadémia which made him one of Hungary’s most promising young talents with parent club MOL Fehérvár.

Meanwhile, goalkeeper Balázs Tóth is proving that he is one of Hungary’s most talented goalkeepers every week at Puskás Akadémia, the club which currently lies in second place in the OTP Bank Liga table.

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“As I’ve said in the past, if no one attracts attention with outstanding performances, there is no point in changing the squad from last autumn”, Marco Rossi told mlsz.hu in regard to the upcoming World Cup qualifiers. “However, Dominik Szoboszlai and Norbert Könyves are injured and Ádám Gyurcsó isn’t playing much at his club at the moment, so I can’t count on them this time.

At the same time, Roland Varga has done very well following his change of club, because he’s playing a lot and scoring a lot of goals, so he is in excellent shape. The same can be said about Krisztián Géresi, who has the skills we need, and although he’s not yet in top shape, I’m confident this call-up will give him more impetus to achieve this. Balázs Tóth gets an opportunity due to the absence of Ádám Kovácsik, who is struggling with injury, and thanks to his good performances, which have confirmed him as one of the best young goalkeepers in the country”.

The World Cup qualifying campaign will start with a home match against Poland on March 25 in the Puskás Arena, and continue three days later in San Marino and on 31st March in Andorra.

Marco Rossi says the two away matches will also be difficult so the right attitude is essential.

“We have three very difficult matches ahead of us in March,” Rossi admitted. “Poland, which currently has officially the best player in the world, is the second strongest team in our group and they are now led by an excellent new head coach, Paulo Sousa. According to form on paper, we should defeat San Marino and Andorra, but winning these two matches will also be an extremely tough task. A couple of years ago, we saw in Andorra what could happen if we wouldn’t take an opponent seriously enough. The defeat in Andorra showed that even a match against a small team can be very difficult if we are not focused enough mentally and don’t take the match seriously enough”.

The domestically-based national squad members will meet in Telki on Thursday 18th March with their foreign-based teammates due to arrive at the national team headquarters after their weekend league matches. The squad will travel to San Marino on 27th March after their first World Cup qualifier against Poland and then on to Andorra on 29th March.