Our team played its first pre-season match at the training camp in Turkey, facing FC Drita, the leaders of the Kosovo top flight.
We had to wait barely two minutes for the first opportunity. We won the ball midway inside the opposition half and Balázs Farkas tried his luck from around seventeen metres, but his effort went narrowly wide of the right side of the goal. Play continued to take place mostly in front of the Kosovo goal and, after a quarter of an hour, we could also record the first shot on target: following a Kispest throw-in, the ball fell to Medgyes in the inside-right channel and he struck first time with his right foot. The shot had a fine trajectory, but the attempt ended in goalkeeper Smakiri's hands. Drita first reached our penalty area in the 22nd minute, when Tusha fired a loose ball from a corner towards Rácz's goal, but it went well wide of the bottom-right corner. A minute and a half later there was a fine sequence inside Drita's box: under pressure from two defenders, Farkas passed to Medgyes, our winger got in front of one Kosovo player and dribbled past three more, but Ovouka blocked his shot. The most dangerous chance was created by the Kosovans just after the half-hour mark. Malipi tried to lob the onrushing Rácz and, although he did not succeed, Tusha collected the rebound off Rácz and, after taking a touch, managed to shoot, but the ball deflected up off Pauljevics and eventually flew centimetres over the bar. Ten minutes before the end of the first half, Smakiri punched Bévárdi's free-kick into the middle and, eighteen metres from goal, Medgyes again opted for a first-time strike; this powerful effort narrowly missed the bottom-left corner. At the other end, Tusha this time aimed for the near post from the left, but Gergő Rácz got down to the low shot and turned it behind for a corner. The first half was played at a high intensity and it produced a Kispest goal: Zoltán Medgyes worked the ball on the left before his pass found Bévárdi on the opposite side, who lifted it into the middle first time. The Kosovans headed that away, but Sigér collected the rebound and, after a shooting feint, scored while falling, with the help of the right post. After the goal we created another chance, but Smakiri saved Pinte's left-footed thunderbolt.
We picked up after the break exactly where we had left off. This time Zsombor Bévárdi took centre stage, cutting inside from the right wing before curling a beautiful left-footed effort into the far corner. Like Sigér, it was Bévárdi's first goal in a Kispest shirt. A few minutes later we could have put the match beyond doubt: the ball moved from Farkas to Sigér and then to Medgyes, whose low through ball sent Farkas clean through, but our forward rolled his shot wide. After that, Medgyes and Bévárdi also aimed for the bottom-right corner, but both efforts missed the target. The former came from open play, the latter from a free-kick. Tamás Feczkó made several substitutions in the 70th minute, allowing our 20-year-old forward Szilveszter Hetyei to make his first-team debut, while Bonifác Csonka also came on among our new signings. For Gábor Megyeri, this was his first match of the season with the first team and he was called upon to produce a fine save, stretching to keep out Ovouka's shot from a tight angle. There were no more major chances in the closing minutes, so we opened our training camp in Turkey with a two-goal victory. Our next match will be on Wednesday (from 15:30 Hungarian time) against Serbian top-flight side Jedinstvo.
PRE-SEASON MATCH
Side, Turkey
FC DRITA–BUDAPEST HONVÉD 0–2 (0–1)
FC Drita: Smakiri – Bytyqi, Ovouka, Sheji, Ramushi – Huruglica, Ibrahim, Pacolli – Tusha, Malipi, Azmeraj.
Came on as substitutes: Maloku, Zulfiu, Dabiqaj, Mesa, Behlali
Head coach: Zekirija Ramadani.
Budapest Honvéd: Rácz G. (Megyeri G., 70.) – Pauljevics (Csonka, 70.), Szabó A. (Ene, 46.), Csontos (Pekár, 70.) – Bévárdi (Holman, 70.), Sigér (Szabó T., 70.), Somogyi (Szamosi, 70.), Hangya (Petrók, 46.) – Pinte (Keresztes, 46.), Farkas B. (Hetyei, 70.), Medgyes (Vernes, 70.).
Head coach: Tamás Feczkó.
G: Sigér (43.), Bévárdi (49.)
