BENU Men's Hungarian Cup: amazing final, Fradi wins for the seventh time

Although it took nearly six minutes for the first goal of the final, the match quickly fell into expected patterns, as the Fradi scored three goals in the last two minutes. Manhercz Krisztián took advantage of a man-up situation, then Edoardo di Somma, and just 10 seconds before the buzzer, another man-up was earned, which was converted by Márton Vámos. Therefore, not much good was seen from BVSC in the first eight minutes.

However, the railway team placed themselves on the scoreboard after more than ten minutes through Zsombor Ekler, but it did not seem like the scenario would change significantly for a time. Then Márton Vámos attempted to finish sharply from an acute angle, Viktor Gyapjas reached it, and somehow everything turned around from there. Instead of 4-1, a 3-2 followed, as Erik Csacsovszky nicely took advantage of an advantage after a timeout, then Miklós Csapó found a gap in the shield, and the score was equal. Subsequently, goal followed goal, with the green team consistently taking the lead, but BVSC immediately responded, then at 5-4 another Fradi man-up was missed, while Konarik Ákos on the other side not only beat Soma Vogel but also the buzzer, bringing a surprising result at half-time: 5-5 - and what was moderately amazing was that BVSC managed to score five in a single quarter.

The season of surprises did not end there since in the third period, after another missed Fradi man-up, Zsombor Ekler gave the lead to BVSC. Ádám Nagy immediately equalized from a man-up, but Ekler could not be stopped, finding the gap between Vogel and the crossbar. The railway team even had two more chances for an additional two, but they could not capitalize. Ákos Nagy beautifully shot to the long corner from action, and then, 45 seconds later, Stylianos Argyropoulos solved the lead finishing, giving the advantage back to the Champions League winner (8-7). Not for long, Ekler scored his third goal in a row, sending the ball perfectly above Vogel's head. Furthermore, BVSC had another man-up towards the end, but Mátyás Mészáros hit the post with seconds ticking, so the final period began from 8-8.

Mandic entered the center with Mészáros hanging on his neck, and as the ball came between them, the physical mismatch turned into a penalty, which Krisztián Manhercz easily put into the net. Similarly, Csapó smoothly sent another man-up from the side - and although Manhercz subsequently brilliantly shot from the side, on the other end, Ákos Konarik did not miss... The clock was ticking, with only five minutes left, and the teams were still equal (10-10) - this had not happened against a Hungarian team for quite some time for Fradi.

Not that the members of the champion team panicked; they turned the tide from a harmless shot, with Mandic finishing a man-up situation to break the deadlock. However, a more serious commotion followed on the next Fradi action - first the green bench protested after a free-throw goal by Mandic was cancelled due to a man-up (the referee apologized), but then the ball went over the block. While the conflicting decisions were being sorted out, Daniel Varga's blood pressure rose above 150.

They could finally play on, but not for long, and another justified Fradi-man-up followed, which Vendel Vigvári scored. From that point on, what happened was similar to the tighter FTC matches - the pressure caused the opponents to crumble: Ákos Konarik's shot hit the crossbar and landed near the goal line, but Vogel did not push it in, while Szilárd Jansik casually placed Varga Vince's attempt near the goal - within 2:16 minutes, the reigning champion practically settled the final rush with a 3-0 run. It became five, as BVSC tried a 7 on 6, but all it resulted in was Vogel saving, and then shooting into the unguarded goal - later, Gergő Fekete's lob shot went in at 0:25. Zsombor Ekler scored one more, his fifth goal, but this did not affect the outcome - FTC-Telekom won the cup for the sixth time in a row.

Szolnok took the bronze - with a rather convincing performance, they crushed Honvéd led by Norman Schmölz, who scored four goals. The Szolnok team was already two goals ahead at halftime, then in the third quarter, they sealed the match with a 1-4 run. Their key was the defense in a man-down situation: Honvéd had 15 attempts from man-ups, but only two goals were scored - so Szolnok stood on the podium.

BENU Men's Hungarian Cup

Final

FTC-Telekom–BVSC-Manna ABC 15-11

Bronze Match

Endo Plus Service-Honvéd–Szolnoki Dózsa-Praktiker 7-12