To a point, the Cup final showed the precarious state of the Ujpesti Dosza – supreme in the championship, they did not reach the final. Raba Eto and Ferencvaros did – the rising clubs. For Ferencvaros, winning the cup was of prime importance: not that much to show they were not just ‘also runs’, but to get a trophy, as their tradition demanded. Save the season by winning the Cup.
They had the argument – much stronger squad full of current members of the national team, Nyilasi – a star of European caliber. The provincials had no chance at all… But Ferencvaros did not score and the provincials did. They scored only once, yet, it was enough – 1-0 and the Cup went to Raba ETO. Otto Szabo was the goal-scoring hero of the final.
A great victory, of course – Raba ETO had lukewarm season, finishing 6th thanks only to better goal-difference and far behind the 5th placed Honved. They did not count as a force for a long time too. Raba ETO had few trophies – historically, not even a slight match for Ferencvaros. But they won and left Ferencvaros entirely emptyhanded.
Standing from left: Józsa Zoltán – coach, Palla Antal, Pozsgai Lajos, Pásztor Ferenc, Horváth Dénes, Magyar Lajos, Horváth László, Koós pályaedző, Kovács Imre – assistant coach.
Crouching: Pénzes Mihály, Szabó Ottó, Füzi Géza, Szíjártó László, Onhausz Tibor, Glázer Róbert, Pölöskei Gábor, Lipót Gyula.
Proudly posing with the Cup. It was the 4th Cup and 5th trophy for Raba ETO. It was also a sign of revival – so far, the best period in the club’s history was the 1960s, when they won the title in 1963 and added three cups – 1965, 1966, and 1967. But nothing after that – the club, until roughly 1975, was just typical mid-table provincial team. After 1975 they were slowly getting better, becoming one of the rising provincial clubs, although not as promising as Videoton was. Now they won a trophy after 10 years of drought. And it did not look like accidental victory – the squad was good and promissing: Pozsgai, Pasztor, Szabo, Szijarto, Onhausz, Poloskei were more than noticed. If the club was able to keep the best players and add some more for fine tuning, it would be something. Exactly this happened – with the 1979 Cup victory started arguably the best ever period of the club.