Dhe Austrian newspaper Kurier published on Wednesday as a precaution a list of the previous “lows” that the national soccer team has suffered in its history. These included a 9-0 win against Spain in qualifying for the EM 2000 and ten years earlier “the mother of all defeats”, the 1-0 win on the Faroe Islands.
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This list contains an unmistakable message: It’s that time again, or at least it is imminent. The past week of international matches resulted in a bland game won 2-0 against the football dwarf Moldau, a turbulent 5-2 in Israel and an unimaginative 0-1 against Scotland.
Qualification for the 2022 World Cup is a long way off, and that in a group that is not exactly bursting with the great powers of football. Next up in October are games against the currently irresistible Denmark and: exactly, in the Faroe Islands.
“Put things right”
After all, Franco Foda, coach of the national team, should then still be allowed to stand on the sidelines. This was assured by the President of the Austrian Football Association (ÖFB), Leo Windtner, on Wednesday. However, this was not a Nibelung oath to the Germans. He thinks “nothing of quick fixes”, you have to work up “things” consistently and give Foda the chance to “put things right”. Even more important: Windtner himself will leave office a few days after the Denmark game and does not want his successor – he has not yet been determined, the applicants are Gerhard Milletich and Roland Schmid – not to put a new coach in front of his nose at the last minute.
Foda himself commented “the things”, as his supervisor called the miserable performances in the past games, as usual without any noticeable emotion: “Of course it looks like there is a step backwards, but we have to go through it. We have to keep a clear head. ”And:“ When things don’t go well, you always look for someone to blame. This is our coaching business, you have to be able to deal with it. “
Christoph Baumgartner and the Austrians lose again.
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Build: AP
His team had tried diligently, but largely without imagination, for an hour and a half to get the ball somehow dangerous in front of the Scottish goal. The Scots did what they are known for, they defended robustly and consistently. Four days earlier, when the Austrians went down 2-5 in Israel, they had shown offensive fireworks, but fell behind due to bad defensive errors (Aleksandar Dragovic and, once again, Martin Hinteregger) and were then counterattacked when trying to catch up caught off guard.
Now captain David Alaba, who was set up a little more aggressively than at his new club Real Madrid, rightly said: “We haven’t found the right solution. The last pass, the conclusion was simply missing. ”And Hinteregger criticized the unsuitable recipe, especially towards the end, to act with high flanks against“ these three buffalo over there ”.
Lots of bland and narrow victories
With this well-placed hint, Hinteregger was pointing less to himself than to the coach, who would ultimately have had to take the right measures. In fact, it was not just yesterday that critics accused Foda of forcing his team into a corset with tactical guidelines that would prevent them from developing their actual talents. Even now he did not take the risk of bringing the talented, 18-year-old Barcelona professional Yusuf Demir into the starting line-up. As against Israel, he was only substituted towards the end, when the skins were already swimming away.
Foda, who was born in Mainz, likes to counter this by referring to his successful record. In fact, the team scored many points under his leadership, at the end of last year it was an average of 2.1 per game, an Austrian team boss had never scored that much. But there were just a lot of bland and narrow victories over nominally weaker opponents, which is why enthusiasm did not really develop.
That only succeeded at the Euro last summer, when the team around Alaba and Marko Arnautovic (incidentally only after two weaker appearances) shone and played a big game, especially in the round of 16 against Italy – admittedly with a last-minute defeat. Now, however, Foda has almost half a team of those Euro kicker injured, namely Stefan Lainer, Xaver Schlager, Sasa Kalajdzic, Julian Baumgartlinger and Marcel Sabitzer.
He tried to inspire confidence anyway. There are still twelve points to be awarded in the qualification. There is also a straw: As a winner of a Nations League group 2020 you could qualify via a play-off in March. With or without Foda, you will probably know after the Scandinavian Games in October.
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