Austria national football team: Difference between revisions

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{{nat fs g player|no=17|pos=FW|name=[[Marc Janko]]|age={{birth date and age|1983|6|25}}|caps=5|goals=2|club=[[FC Red Bull Salzburg]]|clubnat=Austria}}
{{nat fs g player|no=17|pos=FW|name=[[Marc Janko]]|age={{birth date and age|1983|6|25}}|caps=5|goals=2|club=[[FC Red Bull Salzburg]]|clubnat=Austria}}
{{nat fs g player|no=18|pos=MF|name=[[Jürgen Säumel]]|age={{birth date and age|1984|9|8}}|caps=16|goals=0|club=[[Torino F.C.|Torino]]|clubnat=Italy}}
{{nat fs g player|no=18|pos=MF|name=[[Jürgen Säumel]]|age={{birth date and age|1984|9|8}}|caps=16|goals=0|club=[[Torino F.C.|Torino]]|clubnat=Italy}}
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{{nat fs g player|no=|pos=GK|name=[[Ramazan Özcan]]|age={{birth date and age|1984|6|28}}|caps=1|goals=0|club=[[TSG 1899 Hoffenheim|Hoffenheim]]|clubnat=Germany}}
{{nat fs g end}}
{{nat fs g end}}


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{{nat fs g start}}
{{nat fs g player|no=9|pos=FW|name=[[Roland Linz]]|age={{birth date and age|1981|8|9}}|caps=34|goals=7|club=[[S.C. Braga|Braga]]|clubnat=Portugal|other=<small>WCQ v. France, 6 September</small>}}
{{nat fs g player|no=9|pos=FW|name=[[Roland Linz]]|age={{birth date and age|1981|8|9}}|caps=34|goals=7|club=[[S.C. Braga|Braga]]|clubnat=Portugal|other=<small>WCQ v. France, 6 September</small>}}
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{{nat fs g player|no=|pos=GK|name=[[Ramazan Özcan]]|age={{birth date and age|1984|6|28}}|caps=1|goals=0|club=[[TSG 1899 Hoffenheim|Hoffenheim]]|clubnat=Germany|other=<small>Friendly v. Italy, 20 August</small>}}
{{nat fs g player|no=|pos=DF|name=[[Martin Hiden]]|age={{birth date and age|1973|3|11}}|caps=50|goals=1|club=[[SK Rapid Wien|Rapid]]|clubnat=Austria|other=v. Germany on June 16}}
{{nat fs g player|no=|pos=DF|name=[[Martin Hiden]]|age={{birth date and age|1973|3|11}}|caps=50|goals=1|club=[[SK Rapid Wien|Rapid]]|clubnat=Austria|other=v. Germany on June 16}}
{{nat fs g player|no=|pos=DF|name=[[Andreas Ibertsberger]]|age={{birth date and age|1982|7|27}}|caps=12|goals=1|club=[[TSG 1899 Hoffenheim|Hoffenheim]]|clubnat=Germany|other=v. Italy on August 20}}
{{nat fs g player|no=|pos=DF|name=[[Andreas Ibertsberger]]|age={{birth date and age|1982|7|27}}|caps=12|goals=1|club=[[TSG 1899 Hoffenheim|Hoffenheim]]|clubnat=Germany|other=v. Italy on August 20}}

Revision as of 05:44, 28 September 2008

Austria
Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)Das Team
AssociationAustrian Football Association
ConfederationUEFA (Europe)
Head coachCzech Republic Karel Brückner
CaptainAndreas Ivanschitz
Most capsAndreas Herzog (103)
Top scorerToni Polster (44)
Home stadiumErnst Happel Stadion
FIFA codeAUT
First colours
Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current101
Highest17 (May 1999)
Lowest105 (July 2008)
First international
Austria 5 - 0 Hungary 
(Vienna, Austria; October 12, 1902)
Biggest win
Austria Austria 9 - 0 Malta 
(Salzburg, Austria; April 30, 1977)
Biggest defeat
Austria 1 - 11 England 
(Vienna, Austria; June 8, 1908)
World Cup
Appearances7 (first in 1934)
Best resultThird place, 1954
European Football Championship
Appearances1 (first in 2008)
Best resultRound 1, 2008
Olympic medal record
Men's Football
Silver medal – second place 1936 Berlin Team

The Austria national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Austria in international competition and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association (German: Österreichischer Fußball Bund).

Austria has qualified for seven World Cups, most recently in 1998. The country played in the European Championship for the first time in 2008 when it co-hosted the event with Switzerland.

History

Pre-war

The Austrian Football Association was founded on 18 March 1904 in the Empire of Austria-Hungary. The team enjoyed success in the 1930s under coach Hugo Meisl becoming a dominant side in Europe and earning the nickname "Wunderteam". On 16 May 1931, they were the first European side to defeat Scotland.

In the 1934 FIFA World Cup, they finished 4th after losing 0-1 to Italy in the semifinals, and 3-2 to Germany for Third place. They were runners-up in the Football at the Summer Olympics 1936, again losing to Italy, 2-1. (They had actually lost in the quarterfinals to Peru, but were re-instated after Peru withdrew after a re-match was ordered.)

Austria had qualified for the 1938 finals, but due to the Anschluss on 12 March of that year, Austria was annexed to Germany. Already on 28 March[1], FIFA was notified that the Austrian FA had been abolished, meaning also withdrawal from the World Cup, with the German team representing also Austria. Theoretically, a united team could have been an even stronger force than each of the separate ones, but German coach Sepp Herberger had little time and very few games to prepare and merge the very different styles of play and attitude. The former Austrian professionals outplayed the rather athletic yet amateur player of the "Old Empire" in a "reunification" derby that was supposed to finish as a draw, yet in the waning minutes, the Austrians scored twice, with Matthias Sindelar also demonstratively missing the German goal, and subsequently declining to be capped for Germany. In a later rematch, the Germans took revenge, winning 9:1. In early April, Herberger inquired whether two separate teams could enter anyway, but "Reichssportführer" Hans von Tschammer und Osten made clear that he expected to see a 5:6 or 6:5 mixture of players from the two hitherto teams.

As a result, five players from Rapid Wien, Vienna Wien and Austria Wien were part of the team that only managed a 1:1 draw in Round 1 against Switzerland, which required a rematch. With Rapid Wien's forward Pesser having been sent off, and not satisfied with two others, Herberger had to alter the line-up on six positions to fulfill the 6:5 quota again. The all-German team led the Swiss 2:0 after 15 minutes, but eventually lost 2:4 in Paris, in front of a rather anti-German French and Swiss crowd, as few German supporters were able to travel to France due to German restrictions on foreign currency exchange. This elimination in Round 1 remains Germany's worst World Cup result, with Nazi policy likely denying both teams a better result.

After World War II, Austria was again separated from Germany. Austria's best result came in 1954, when they lost the semifinal 1 – 6 to eventual champion Germany, but finished third after beating defending champion Uruguay 3-1. This remains their best result ever, and unfortunately the last time for decades that Austria reached the end round of a major tournament.

Over the years, a strong yet mainly lopsided rivalry with Germany developed.

1970s and 1980s

Anchored by legendary striker Hans Krankl and backed up by co-star Bruno Pezzey, Austria reached the World Cup in 1978 and 1982 and both times reached the Second Round, held in team group games that replaced the knock-out Quarter Finals. This Austria team is widely regarded as the best post-WWII Austrian football team ever.

In the Football World Cup 1978 in Argentina, they had lost two games and would almost surely finish last in their Second Round group of four teams, but they put in a special effort for their last game in Córdoba against West Germany, and eliminated the defending world champion, beating them 3-2 by goals of Krankl. The celebrating report of the radio commentator Edi Finger ("I werd narrisch!") became famous in Austria, while the Germans regard the game as a disgrace (de:Schmach von Córdoba).

During the Football World Cup 1982 in Spain, Austria and West Germany met again, in the last game of Round 1. Because the other two teams in the group had played their last game the previous day, both teams knew that a West German win by one goal would see both through, a larger win would eliminate Austria and an Austrian win would eliminate West Germany. After ten minutes of furious attack, Horst Hrubesch scored for West Germany, and the two teams proceeded to simply kick the ball around for eighty minutes with no attempt to attack. The game became known as the the non-aggression pact of Gijon. Algeria had also won two games, including a shocking surprise over Germany in the opener, but was eliminated by the 0-1 result based on goal difference. The Algerian supporters were understandably furious, and even the Austrian and West German fans showed themselves to be extremely unhappy with the nature of their progression. As a result of this game, all future tournaments would see the last group games played simultaneously.

Austria was eliminated by losing to France in the Second round group stage of three teams.

1990s

Led by striker Toni Polster, Austria qualified for the 1990 World Cup, but were eliminated in the first round.

Much worse was the stunning 0:1 loss against the Faroe Islands in the qualifying campaign for the European Championship 1992, considered the worst embarrassment in any Austrian team sport ever, and one of the biggest upsets in footballing history. The game was played in Landskrona, Sweden because there were no grass fields on the Islands. It was a sign for things to come: Austria suffered another couple of years of botched qualifying campaigns.

In the World Cup 1998, Austria were drawn in Group B along with Italy, Cameroon and Chile. Their appearance was brief but eventful, as they managed the curious feat of only scoring in stoppage time in each of their matches. Against Cameroon, Pierre Njanka's superb goal was cancelled out by Toni Polster's late strike. In their second game, it was Ivica Vastic who curled a last minute equalizer, cancelling out Marcelo Salas's disputed opener. Austria weren't so fortunate in their crucial, final match at the Stade de France. Italy scored twice after half-time; a header from Christian Vieri and a tap-in from Roberto Baggio. Andreas Herzog's stoppage time penalty kept up Austria's unusual scoring pattern, but was not enough to prevent Austria finishing third in the group, behind the Italians and Chileans.

21st Century

In recent years, Austria's form has declined. They failed to qualify for the next World Cup and European Championships, and suffered extreme embarrassment (similar to the Faroe Islands loss) when they lost 9 - 0 to Spain and 5 - 0 to Israel in 1999. In 2006 Josef Hickersberger became coach of the Austrian national team, with a notable win against Switzerland in late 2006 bringing to an end a series of bad results.

Austria qualified automatically for the European Championships of 2008 as co-hosts. Their first major tournament in a decade, most commentators regarded them as rank outsiders and whipping-boys for Germany, Croatia and Poland in the group stage. Many of their home supporters were in agreement and 10,000 Austrians signed a petition demanding that Austria withdraw from the tournament to spare the nation's embarrassment [2] However, Austria performed better than expected. They managed a 1 - 1 draw with Poland, gave the Croatians a hard time before losing 1-0 to a Luka Modrić penalty and defended valiantly against the Germans but Michael Ballack's free kick sealed the game in a 1-0 defeat.

Shortly after Austria's first-round exit from the tournament, Josef Hickersberger resigned as the national team coach. Karel Brückner, who had resigned as head coach of the Czech Republic after that country's first-round exit from Euro 2008, was soon named as his replacement.

Records at major tournaments

World Cup record

Year Round Position GP W D* L GS GA
Uruguay 1930 Did not enter - - - - - - -
Italy 1934 Fourth place 4 4 2 0 2 7 7
France 1938 Qualified, but withdrew after Anschluss with Germany, to play in a united German team - - - - - - -
Brazil 1950 Withdrew - - - - - - -
Switzerland 1954 Third place 3 5 4 0 1 17 12
Sweden 1958 Round 1 15 3 0 1 2 2 7
Chile 1962 Withdrew - - - - - - -
England 1966 Did not qualify - - - - - - -
Mexico 1970 Did not Qualify - - - - - - -
West Germany 1974 Did not Qualify - - - - - - -
Argentina 1978 Second group stage 7 6 3 0 3 7 10
Spain 1982 Second group stage 8 5 2 1 2 5 4
Mexico 1986 Did not Qualify - - - - - - -
Italy 1990 Round 1 18 3 1 0 2 2 3
United States 1994 Did not qualify - - - - - - -
France 1998 Round 1 23 3 0 2 1 3 4
South KoreaJapan 2002 Did not Qualify - - - - - - -
Germany 2006 Did not Qualify - - - - - - -
Total 7/18 29 12 4 13 43 47
*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

European Championship record

File:Austria Team.PNG
Austria National Football Team in 2008
Year Result GP W D* L GS GA
France 1960 Did not qualify - - - - - -
Spain 1964 Did not qualify - - - - - -
Italy 1968 Did not qualify - - - - - -
Belgium 1972 Did not qualify - - - - - -
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1976 Did not qualify - - - - - -
Italy 1980 Did not qualify - - - - - -
France 1984 Did not qualify - - - - - -
West Germany 1988 Did not qualify - - - - - -
Sweden 1992 Did not qualify - - - - - -
England 1996 Did not qualify - - - - - -
BelgiumNetherlands 2000 Did not qualify - - - - - -
Portugal 2004 Did not qualify - - - - - -
AustriaSwitzerland 2008 Round 1 3 0 1 2 1 3
Total 1/13 3 0 1 2 1 3

Current squad

The following is the squad for the qualifying match against Lithuania on September 10 2008. Caps and goals as of September 10 2008.

No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club
1 1GK Alexander Manninger (1977-06-04) June 4, 1977 (age 46) 30 0 Italy Juventus
2 3MF Joachim Standfest (1980-05-30) May 30, 1980 (age 43) 32 2 Austria Austria
3 2DF Martin Stranzl (1980-06-16) June 16, 1980 (age 43) 51 2 Russia Spartak Moskow
4 2DF Emanuel Pogatetz (1983-01-16) January 16, 1983 (age 41) 33 2 England Middlesbrough
5 3MF Christian Fuchs (1986-04-07) April 7, 1986 (age 38) 21 0 Germany Bochum
6 3MF René Aufhauser (1976-06-21) June 21, 1976 (age 47) 56 12 Austria Salzburg
7 4FW Stefan Maierhofer (1982-08-16) August 16, 1982 (age 41) 3 0 Austria Rapid
8 3MF Christoph Leitgeb (1985-04-14) April 14, 1985 (age 39) 23 0 Austria Salzburg
9 4FW Erwin Hoffer (1987-04-14) April 14, 1987 (age 37) 7 0 Austria Rapid
10 3MF Andreas Ivanschitz (c) (1983-10-15) October 15, 1983 (age 40) 45 7 Greece Panathinaikos
11 4FW Martin Harnik (1987-06-10) June 10, 1987 (age 36) 14 2 Germany Werder
12 1GK Jürgen Macho (1977-08-24) August 24, 1977 (age 46) 17 0 Greece AEK
13 2DF Ronald Gercaliu (1986-02-12) February 12, 1986 (age 38) 13 0 Austria Salzburg
14 2DF György Garics (1984-03-08) March 8, 1984 (age 40) 17 1 Italy Atalanta
15 2DF Sebastian Prödl (1987-06-21) June 21, 1987 (age 36) 15 2 Germany Werder
16 2DF Paul Scharner (1980-03-11) March 11, 1980 (age 44) 18 0 England Wigan Athletic
17 4FW Marc Janko (1983-06-25) June 25, 1983 (age 40) 5 2 Austria FC Red Bull Salzburg
18 3MF Jürgen Säumel (1984-09-08) September 8, 1984 (age 39) 16 0 Italy Torino

Recent call-ups

No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club
9 4FW Roland Linz (WCQ v. France, 6 September) (1981-08-09) August 9, 1981 (age 42) 34 7 Portugal Braga
1GK Ramazan Özcan (Friendly v. Italy, 20 August) (1984-06-28) June 28, 1984 (age 39) 1 0 Germany Hoffenheim
2DF Martin Hiden (v. Germany on June 16) (1973-03-11) March 11, 1973 (age 51) 50 1 Austria Rapid
2DF Andreas Ibertsberger (v. Italy on August 20) (1982-07-27) July 27, 1982 (age 41) 12 1 Germany Hoffenheim
2DF Markus Katzer (v. Germany on June 16) (1978-12-11) December 11, 1978 (age 45) 11 0 Austria Rapid
2DF Jürgen Patocka (v. Germany on June 16) (1977-07-30) July 30, 1977 (age 46) 2 0 Austria Rapid
3MF Ümit Korkmaz (v. Germany on June 16) (1985-09-17) September 17, 1985 (age 38) 5 0 Germany Frankfurt
3MF Ivica Vastic (v. Poland on June 12) (1969-09-29) September 29, 1969 (age 54) 50 14 Austria LASK
1GK Helge Payer (v. Netherlands on March 26) (1979-09-08) September 8, 1979 (age 44) 15 0 Austria Rapid
3MF Markus Weissenberger (v. Netherlands on March 26) (1975-03-08) March 8, 1975 (age 49) 29 1 Austria LASK Linz
3MF Thomas Prager (v. Germany on February 6) (1985-09-13) September 13, 1985 (age 38) 13 1 Netherlands SC Heerenveen
3MF Veli Kavlak (v. Germany on February 6) (1988-11-03) November 3, 1988 (age 35) 4 0 Austria Rapid
4FW Roman Kienast (v. Italy on August 20) (1984-03-29) March 29, 1984 (age 40) 9 1 Sweden Helsingborg

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 7

Notable former players

Legacy

WC 1998
Classic

Due to the former empire of Austria-Hungary that was dissolved in 1918, games among these teams used to serve as a background for a joke: "Who's playing?" - "Austria-Hungary" -"Against whom?". However, even before 1918 the Austrian and Hungarian parts of the empire had separate teams.

Austria used to play in similar colours to those of the German team; white jerseys, black shorts, black socks (the Germans wear white ones). In order to distinguish themselves, in 2004 coach Hans Krankl switched to their former away shirts, which have the same colour scheme as Austria's flag, red-white-red, but Germany's coach Klinsmann then also promoted the use of red.[citation needed] To further distinguish themselves from Germany, the Austrians now use an all-black away kit.

References

  1. ^ Nazis in der Abseitsfalle - einestages Spiegel Online [1]
  2. ^ "Austria must pull out of Euro 2008, say 10,000 fans petition". theindependent.co.uk. 16/08/2007. Retrieved 16/06/2008. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)

External links

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