333rd Vienna Derby. / Picture: APA / HERBERT PFARRHOFER
Great anticipation, a lot of excitement and no winner: the Viennese football derbies have been offering something similar recently. The 1-1 draw between Austria and Rapid was the fourth consecutive point division in the prestige duel on Sunday. The fourth-placed Hütteldorfer could live better because of the double burden of the European Cup. The favorites under Manfred Schmid are still waiting for their first victory after six rounds and are going into the international break with the “Rote Laterne”.
The food on offer in front of only 11,035 spectators in the Generali Arena was of the leaner variety, before the break each team had a top chance, after the break there were two. The draw in the 333rd clash, the 300th in the league, was the logical consequence. “It was a very muddled game. I believe that the draw is 100 percent fair,” said Schmid. After Lukas Mühl's goal (33rd), the 50-year-old had been able to hope for a break in the form of his first win after three draws and two defeats. Marco Grüll (47th) thwarted his plans and shot Austria, who were four points away, back to the bottom of the table.
“Of course I feel sick when I look at the table,” admitted Austria's coach. “It is clearly not enough of the points.” The next two weeks should therefore be used intensively to initiate the turnaround. “There were a lot of technical inadequacies, playback errors and lack of concentration. We also failed in many phases to finish the switching situations better, it was not playful enough,” said Schmid, who saw a great need for improvement. There is no trace of resignation. “I have the feeling that the team is developing. We have to work on it now so that it gets better in the next few weeks,” said the ex-Austria kicker the route to be followed.
The players also long for a sense of achievement. “It has to look out more, but we don't have to hide. We'll get out of there again”, right-back Georg Teigl was certain. Maybe one or the other new player could help. The transfer window is open until Tuesday. “You shouldn't forget our squad situation, we have a relatively small squad. You have seen how Rapid can step up, we swapped one youth player for the other,” said Schmid.
But the density of the squad among the Hütteldorfer, who started with the same starting line-up as on Thursday in the Europa League promotion in Ukraine, is by no means rosy. That is why they are hoping for reinforcements in the face of six more EL games in the fall. “I also believe in Santa Claus, so I am convinced that he will bring something,” joked Kühbauer. It would be very good for the team to be better positioned across the board. “Because the burden is not getting any less.”
One of the people who gets along well with it is Grüll. The offensive player, who was brought from Ried in the summer, scored in the fifth competitive game in a row, and his scoring is seven. “Due to our squad situation, Grülli had to work from the first minute and he works incredibly well,” said Kühbauer, praising his goalscorer. There was no trace of the 23-year-old taking off. “He's a smart guy and he's so on the ground. Despite his goals and because he's better known now, there is no sign of him starting to fly.”
Grüll's joy about his first derby goal – although he is, as everyone knows, “not a header monster”, he hit with his head – was clouded by the missed win. “In the end, Austria can live with the 1-1 draw better than we can,” said the outside player. His interim résumé was very positive: “We have reached the Europa League, I personally scored a few goals. Let's hope it continues like this.”
He is one of those players who are not in the national team and can enjoy the upcoming break. Rapid has five kickers, including strikers Ercan Kara and Taxiarchis Fountas. “We'll really use the ten days to relax, but there are a lot of players in national teams too, so you can't train what you want again,” said Kühbauer. In any case, the break came at the right time. “If you have 13 games in 40 days, it's not just a physical but also a mental story. The players aren't machines, they're people. I think they were already at their limit.”
That could also be heard from the actors themselves. “You could see that we were a bit tired from the many weeks in England,” said goalie Paul Gartler. That was certainly one of the reasons for the mixed performance. “When I look at the statistics, I see that we were better everywhere, but we didn't bring what we can to the field,” summarized Kühbauer. After the break, Admira is waiting at home, Austria competes at LASK.
