After years of playful sadness, Ralf Rangnick has revolutionized the Austrian national team: it is now playing successfully and respectably – while the DFB may be annoyed.
Almost exactly a year ago, in its third game under team boss Ralf Rangnick, the ÖFB team drew 1-1 against the reigning world champion France. Austria had even led for a long time, only in the final phase did Kylian Mbappé equalize.
The ORF reporter then received the team boss for an interview with congratulations, but he absolutely didn’t want to accept them. “I don’t think there’s anything to congratulate,” countered Rangnick. “I’m not at all happy with this result.” Well, it fits: at least a draw against the world champion! Rangnick: “Excuse me, why ‘after all’?” And so it was clear what the ÖFB had gotten itself into.
Nothing symbolizes Rangnick’s previous work in Austria better than this episode. The Swabian perfectionist has come to awaken this cosy, pessimistic and melancholic football nation. The 64-year-old still wants more and, above all, does not accept that everything was better in the past. Back when the miracle team of the 1930s defeated the world and the Cordoba heroes of 1978 defeated Germany.
Austria leads its European Championship qualifying group
A year after taking office, Rangnick’s achievements are remarkable: the ÖFB team plays football that is as successful as it is respectable. With ten points from four games, Austria leads its European Championship qualifying group. In June they drew in Belgium and beat Sweden 2-0. The numbers for victory: 21:3 shots on target, 63 percent possession, 46,300 spectators in the Ernst Happel Stadium. Sold out!
Austria in the European Championship qualification: The table of group F
Long after the kick-off, the fans were still celebrating their team: “Oh, how nice! It’s been a long time since we’ve seen anything like that!” Rangnick sparked a football euphoria in Austria that has not been seen since Marcel Koller was in office. Under the Swiss, the ÖFB team had qualified for a major tournament on their own for the first time in 18 years in 2016, but then failed miserably in the preliminary round and then missed out on qualifying for the World Cup.
Koller’s successor then served what is possibly the most paradoxical tenure of an Austrian team boss in history. The German Franco Foda led the ÖFB team into the top Nations League, into the round of 16 at the 2021 European Championship and achieved the best point average of all modern team bosses. But: not a single opponent better placed in the world rankings was defeated, his wait-and-see style of play annoyed fans and players alike and the Happel Stadium emptied rapidly. Austria urgently needed a modernizer, a euphorizer.
Ralf Rangnick: Austria instead of Germany
Incidentally, it was similar in Germany at the time. With the difference that not only the performances of the team were disappointing, but also the results. In the search for a successor to Joachim Löw, a certain Ralf Rangnick was traded, among others. In fact, he even offered himself offensively for the post of national coach.
“It’s a job that leaves nobody cold,” he said on Sky at the time. “Right now I’m free.” His application documents included as a reference, among other things, the invention of the established Bundesliga club TSG Hoffenheim and the decisive creation of the Red Bull empire, as well as successes with FC Schalke 04 and a four-chain lesson on television.
Instead of getting the free Rangnick, the DFB preferred to recruit triple coach Hansi Flick from FC Bayern Munich in the summer of 2021. He could come up with a DFB past, which was extremely well received by the association. Rangnick then worked for a few months as managing director of Lokomotiv Moscow before surprisingly becoming interim manager of Manchester United. Then his phone rang: ÖFB sports director Peter Schöttel was on the other side of the line.
Schöttel actually found Rangnick’s interest in the Austrian team boss post to be “impossible”, as he later revealed. But it costs nothing to try. It should be worth it. Rangnick actually felt like the task: he saw the untapped potential of the players, many of whom he knew from his many years in the Red Bull empire. And maybe he also felt like proving something to someone at the European Championships in Germany.
Ralf Rangnick: Criticism from the legends and a strong start
After Rangnick’s arrival in Austria, the main public debates initially focused on one thing: his nationality. No matter how wonderfully someone can teach outside instep and interface passports if he has the wrong passport. The national football legends grumbled happily. “I would have liked an Austrian solution,” said Hans Krankl, for example. Regardless, the Cordoba hero generally rejected Rangnick “because he’s an arrogant person and because he thinks he invented football.”
Peter Pacult expressed himself similarly, he would even “puke when I hear the word RB style”. Pacult once had to leave as a coach of RB Leipzig because, in the opinion of the new sports director Rangnick, he was not suitable for this so-called RB style. All the legends demanded a chance for their Hawara, that’s something like a special in Austria: the eternal Fast team boss Andreas Herzog. Incidentally, at the time he was in the process of being relegated from the Bundesliga with Admira Wacker Mödling.
Despite all the skepticism, Rangnick got off to a promising start, beat runners-up Croatia 3-0, lost unluckily to Denmark and still drew against France. “Excuse me, why ‘after all’?”
Rangnick did not prevent relegation from this strong Nations League group. In the six games since then, however, five wins and the draw against Belgium have been achieved. On the day of the World Cup opening game in Qatar, Austria beat European champions Italy.
Austria: Amazing quality in tip and width
Apart from the results, it is particularly remarkable how Rangnick gave the ÖFB team a courageous, spectacular style of play within a very short time. High pressing, purposeful attacks, lots of shots. RB style stop. It is the complete contrast to Foda football, the almost identically staffed team is unrecognizable. “Rangnick has taught us a new way of thinking. We’re not wetting our pants anymore,” says Christoph Baumgartner.
The new Leipziger shone against Sweden with a late brace. Otherwise, current, former or future Salzburg players shaped the starting XI, which was formed in a 4-4-2 system. Keeper Alexander Schlager is moving from LASK to Salzburg in the summer, while striker Junior Adamu is moving on to SC Freiburg for 9.5 million euros. Xaver Schlager and Nicolas Seiwald formed the control center in midfield.
“It doesn’t make sense to keep these players off the leash,” says Rangnick. “If you tell them we’ll stay behind and wait for the opponent to give us the ball voluntarily, you rob them of all strength.” Each word must appear to its predecessor like a little slap. The ÖFB team is currently wild and young, in the starting eleven against Sweden only captain and defense chief David Alaba from Real Madrid was over 30 years old.
Austria has an amazing quality both in the top and in the breadth. For example, Marko Arnautovic and Marcel Sabitzer only came off the bench against Sweden. RC Lens’ Kevin Danso, just voted into the top-11 of the Ligue 1 season, sat there for 90 minutes. Konrad Laimer, newcomer to FC Bayern Munich, was even completely missing from the squad.
Schöttel praises Rangnick: “His optimism takes everyone along”
Whether Rangnick was surprised by the performance against Sweden, he was asked: “No. I was confirmed that these players are just bursting with mentality, greed and the will to win.” Rangnick wants to make victories and good performances seem normal. It curbs the euphoria and only makes it greater. “His optimism takes everyone with him,” said sporting director Schöttel.
Possible quarters for the European Championships in Germany were inspected last autumn. Of course Austria will take part, there is no question about that. Speaking of quarters: Rangnick is moving into a house near Salzburg these days. “Then I’m definitely Austrian,” he jokes. It is possible that people behind the border are now annoyed that it has come to this – because, as is well known, nothing has changed for the better at the DFB under Löw’s successor Flick.
2023-06-26 06:00:00
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