Russia, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary: in the years in which the communist model reigned supreme, in the East individual talent was caged in the name of the collective and every victory was transformed into an exaltation of power
More than an invention, this is the story of a model. The model of Eastern football. What was it? When and how did it develop? Which were the teams that, more than the others, carried the idea forward? Which technicians were able to impose themselves and guarantee an evolution for the entire environment? Were they defensive or offensive? Basically, how was football played beyond the Berlin Wall? The answers require a long journey down memory lane and a careful analysis of the sporting phenomenon in the communist universe. Playing football in Moscow or Bucharest, in Prague or Budapest, in Warsaw or Sofia, at the time of the Cold War, was an affair that also involved political issues. The players were regimented, part of the army or the police. Their mission was to win on behalf of the people and the state, so as to show the West that their methods and qualities were superior. Any event, any match was experienced as if it were a duel between two opposing philosophies, and it is from this perspective that one must look at reality if one wishes to understand what football was at the time of the hammer and sickle. The exasperated athleticism and rigid tactical dispositions that the Eastern teams displayed are the qualities that we often find nowadays, when there is a lack on a technical level (because there is no one left in the youth sectors , who teaches kids how to block or how to kick the ball) we try to make up for it with running, with frenetic speed and with a vision of the match that is very similar to a chess challenge. I move this pawn, you advance with the rook, I respond with the bishop, and so on. But where has the fantasy gone?