Season 2020-2021 in review

Changes to the squad

During the summer transfer period, several footballers left Vidi: Zsombor Berecz, Anel Hadzic, Georgi Milanov, Attila Mocsi, Mate Patkai, Balint Szabo, Krisztian Tamas and Paulo Vinícius continued their careers elsewhere. Szabolcs Huszti and Roland Juhasz retired, and Armin Hodzic, Bence Gundel-Takacs, Patrik Nyari, Oliver Tamas, Mario Zeke and Daniel Zsori left on loan. Akos Elek and Marko Futacs started the summer preparation with our NB III team.

Of course, not only did players leave Vidi, but there were also arrivals during the summer: Alef from Cyprus, Evandro and Ruben Pinto joining from clubs in Bulgaria, Emil Rockov from Serbia, and Budu Zivzivadze from Mezokovesd. Bendeguz Bolla returned to us from Zalaegerszeg after a loan spell.

Training camp in Bukfurdo

Unlike in previous years, due to the pandemic, this time our team did not travel to Austria for a training camp. The squad prepared in Bukfurdo from the 25th July to the 4th August and during this time we also played four friendly matches. All of which ended in draws (0-0 against Haladas, 2-2 against Slovan Bratislava, 1-1 against NS Mura and the game against NK Nafta Lendava ended 2-2).

All the way to the Play-off's in the Europa League

Due to the pandemic, in the qualifiers of the Europa League matches, going through to the next round would be decided over one match. We played 1-1 at home against Bohemian FC and won 4-2 following a penalty shootout. In the next round we managed to win 1-0 away against Hibernians FC of Malta. In the third round we drew 0-0 against the French side Stade de Reims at the MOL Arena Sosto, and won 4-1 on penalties, so we made it into the EL playoffs, where the Belgian Standard Liege defeated us 3-1 away. This meant we failed to make it to the Group Stage.

We lost valuable points in the league, but we advanced confidently in the MOL Hungarian Cup

We started the season with two draws, 3-3 away in Zalaegerszeg and 1-1 at home against Paks. Then we managed to win three matches in a row, but in October, we dropped valuable points against Budapest Honved and Ferencvaros. We spent the winter break in 2nd place, but we had a huge disadvantage (12 points) against the league leaders FTC.

We played two rounds in the MOL Hungarian Cup in the autumn, winning both with confidence: we won 5-0 in Tiszafoldvar and 4-1 in Gardony. In the latter game, our number one goalkeeper, Adam Kovacsik, suffered a serious injury and was forced to miss the rest of the season.

Further news about our team was that in October 2020, Loic Nego became a Hungarian international player, and just a month later he played a huge role in getting the national team to the European Championships.

Vidi trained in Croatia in January

Due to the coronavirus epidemic, our team broke a long tradition and this time did not travel to Spain but to neighboring Croatia for a training camp between January 6-16, where five friendly matches awaited the players. We won twice (1-0 against Rijeka, 6-2 against Orijent) and a draw (2-2 against Osijek) but there were two defeats also: (3-1 to Sturm Graz, and 2-1 against Dinamo Zagreb) .
During the winter transfer period, Samy Bourard came from the Netherlands, Palko Dardai from Germany, while Arpad Tordai arrived from Romania on loan. Boban Nikolov and Marko Futács left permanently, and Krisztian Geresi moved on loan to Felcsut.

We started the spring season poorly, with manager Gabor Marton leaving in February, who was temporarily replaced by Tamas Szalai on the bench. Then from the 1st April, Imre Szabics became the head coach of Vidi

We started 2021 with historical success, winning 5-0 away in Ujpest - we had never scored 5 goals in the NB I league game at Megyeri ut before. In the continuation, however, we also lost to Kisvarda, Budapest Honved, FTC and MTK, so in February Gabor Marton left Vidi. Tamas Szalai temporarily took his place, under whose leadership we managed to recover from the loss of form and, among other things, we defeated Ferencvaros away in the MOL Hungarian Cup. On the 1st April, Imre Szabics took over the management of Vidi's team and was assisted by two of our former players, Roland Juhasz and Sandor Torghelle. Under the leadership of the new coaching staff, Vidi won five of the 7 league matches remaining in the season, and we lost once and drew the other. At the end of the season, we finished 3rd in the table behind FTC and the Puskas Academy.

It would have put a sweetner on the season if we had managed to win the MOL Hungarian Cup, and we had a good chance to do so, as we played against Ujpest in the final, who we managed to beat three times in the championship (5-1, 5-0, 4-0). However, Ujpest won the cup final with the goal scored in extra time to win 1-0. We played the last 20 minutes with 9 men.