Hugo Meisl [1] ( German: Hugo Meisl ; November 16, 1881 , - February 17, 1937 , Vienna ) is an Austrian footballer and coach . The brother of another famous football player, Willy Meisl .
 Hugo Maisl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname | Mozart football | ||||||||||||||||||
| Born | November 16, 1881 Malešau, Austria-Hungary (now: Malešov , Czech Republic ) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Died | February 17, 1937 (55 years old) Vienna , Austria | ||||||||||||||||||
| Citizenship |  Austria | ||||||||||||||||||
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The author of one of the most famous phrases in the world of football:
 | The best defense is an attack. |  |
Content
Biography
Hugo Meisl was born November 16, 1881 in Maleshau, Bohemia , in the family of a wealthy Jewish merchant and banker Ludwig Meisl and his wife Carolina. The father wanted to give his son a good education, so by the age of 12, when the family moved to Vienna , Hugo spoke German , Czech and English , and in Vienna Hugo, who studied at the banker at the commercial academy, began to study Italian , French , Swedish , Spanish and Dutch , being a versatile person. Maisl started playing football there in Vienna, joining one of the oldest Austrian teams - Vienna-Cricket & Football Club , but Maisl was forced to end his career as a player in 1904, having left to continue his studies, first to the Italian city of Trieste , and then to France, to Paris .
In 1905, having returned to his homeland and worked for some time as a bank clerk in Lenderbank, Meisl began his career as a football referee, which he completed in 1926; in 1907, Meisl became a FIFA referee, having worked at 16 international matches, including the 1912 Olympics .
Coaching career
In 1911, Meisl began working as a coach in the Vienna club Amateuren , and a year later in the Austrian national team , his work was interrupted during the First World War , when he went to the front, where he was the chief supply officer in the Klausewitz bastion. From 1919 to 1937, Meisl worked as the head coach of the Austrian national team. Maisl was a great friend of Jimmy Hogan , an English coach, the author of the "Scottish style" [2] , whom Maisl met during his trip to Britain , and then repeatedly invited the Englishman to his country, to which he responded with consent. Hogan showed Meisl the best examples of British football and tactics, initially Meisl occupied the “geometry” of British attacks shown by Hogan, and then, already in Austria, Hugo combined them with the traditional technical football and the game scheme used by almost all Austrian teams - 2-3 -2-3, redone in 2-3-5 [3] , and from this combination the Danube style of play was born. And then, in the early 1930s, the “new” national team of Austria, already playing according to the “WW” scheme [4] , nicknamed Wunderdim for the inimitable attacking style of play that brought results. So, the team from April 14, 1931 [5] to December 7, 1932 [6] played 14 matches, of which they did not lose a single one, the most impressive victories were the win against Belgium 6: 1, against Scotland 5: 0 [7] , Hungary has 8: 2, France 4: 0, Germany 6: 0 and 5: 0, Switzerland 8: 1, Sweden 4: 3 and Italy 2: 1. But in total, from April 1931 to June 1934, she only suffered 3 defeats in 31 games, scoring 101 goals in them.
Austria went to the world championship of 1934 in the rank of one of the main favorites, before the tournament defeating Italy in Turin 4: 2. At the championship, the Austrians beat France in extra time with a score of 3: 2. Before the match with Hungary, Meisl, using his position, forced to change the match appointed by the referee Louis Bart to the Italian Francesco Mattea. The arbitrator's decisions were not controversial, in particular, he did not award a penalty to the gates of Austria [8] . The match ended with the defeat of Hungary 2: 1, during the match with the Hungarians several players from the Austrian base were injured, which forced Meisl to say that "it was a fight, not a match." Before the semi-finals with the Italian national team, the Italian head coach Vittorio Pozzo , a former friend of Meisl, said: “we have no chance”, but before the game it started to rain, which leveled the superiority of the Austrians in technology, and the Italians won 1-0, highlighting the main problem of the national team Austria and the entire Danube football school - poor physical fitness of players. In 1936, the Austrian national team went to the 1936 Olympics , reached the finals [9] , where they again lost the Italian, this time with a score of 1: 2. January 24, 1937 in Paris, Meisl led the team for the last time, in this match she won the French with a score of 2: 1.
“All eleven players must be in constant motion to prevent the enemy from guessing their intentions. Even in the center of the field, moving forward towards the opponent, one must immediately give the ball into free space, where the attacking player should already be running. Our system ... In short, we do not have a system. Intelligence, speed and surprise are success factors. ”
Government Career
In 1924, Meisl was one of the organizers of the Austrian professional league, and in 1927 in Venice he was one of those who proposed the creation of the first European international tournaments - the Mitropa Cup for clubs and the Central European Cup for national teams. From 1905, Meisl was a functionary of the Austrian football union , from 1926 until his death he held the post of general secretary of this organization. Meisl also worked in FIFA, since 1912, being a delegate to the international federation of football associations from Austria.
Hugo Maisl died on February 17, 1937, near his desk in Vienna, after a cardiac arrest. He was buried with honors at the Vienna Central Cemetery (4th Gate, Group 3, Row 4, Number 11).
Notes
- ↑ In many Russian-language sources, his surname is indicated in the form of Meisl or Meisel .
- ↑ A game uncharacteristic for Britain, when the ball remains mainly on the grass. Football players played mostly in a short pass, and the number of crossings, long passes and a header was minimized
- ↑ This pattern was nicknamed “WM” or “Pyramid”. This scheme, created by the Englishman Chapman , was “revolutionary” from the side that it gave the “classical” central midfielder the opportunity to be in any part of the field. It was this innovation in the center that became the prototype of the modern position of the dispatcher.
- ↑ Named the "method." Created by Vittorio Pozzo
- ↑ 2-1 victory over Czechoslovakia
- ↑ defeat 3: 4 from the English
- ↑ May 16, 1931, this defeat was the first for the Scots from the continental team
- ↑ The Spaniards were carried away from the field in batches
- ↑ Austria lost in the semifinals of the national team of Peru , but due to the decision of the leadership of the Third Reich, the semifinals were invalidated, and Peru after that left the tournament in protest.