Austria national football team

Austria

Shirt badge/Association crest
Association	Austrian Football Association
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Josef Hickersberger
Captain	Andreas Ivanschitz
Most caps	Andreas Herzog (103)
Top scorer	Toni Polster (44)
Home stadium	Ernst Happel Stadion
FIFA code	AUT
First colours Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current	92
Highest	17 (May 1999)
Lowest	102 (April 2008)
First international
Austria 5 - 0 Hungary (Vienna, Austria; October 12, 1902)
Biggest win
Austria 9 - 0 Malta (Salzburg, Austria; April 30, 1977)
Biggest defeat
Austria 1 - 11 England (Vienna, Austria; June 8, 1908)
World Cup
Appearances	7 (first in 1934)
Best result	Third place, 1954
European Football Championship
Appearances	1 (first in 2008)
Best result	-

Olympic medal record
Men's Football
	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 as Austria was annexed to Germany in spring of that year in the Anschluss, they withdrew and did not play any matches. For political reasons, some players from Rapid Wien had to be merged into the German team. Theoretically, a united team could have been a strong force, but Coach Sepp Herberger had little time and very few games to prepare, and the united German-Austrian team failed in the tournament. The elimination in Round 1 after two games against Switzerland remains Germany's worst World Cup result.

After World War II, Austria was again separated from Germany. Austria's best result came in 1954, when they finished third after losing the semifinal to eventual champion Germany. It was 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 "de:Nichtangriffspakt von Gijón", 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.

Recent years

In the recent years, Austria's play has declined. They failed to qualify for the next World Cups and European Championships, and suffered extreme embarrassment (similar to the Faroe Islands loss) when they lost 0:9 against Spain and shortly after 0:5 against Israel in 1999. In 2006 Josef Hickersberger became coach of the Austrian national team which was not able to win against Canada 0:2, Croatia 1:4, Hungary 1:2, Costa Rica 2:2 and Venezuela 0:1. The last three matches in 2006 against Liechtenstein 2:1; a notable match against Switzerland 2:1 and Trinidad & Tobago 4:1 stopped the series of bad games and results.

In 2007 Austria played against Malta (1:1), Ghana (1:1), France (0:1), Scotland (0:1), Paraguay (0:0), Czech Republic (1:1), Japan (0:0; 4:3 after penalty shoot-out), Chile (0:2), Switzerland (1:3), Ivory Coast (3:2), England (0:1). and Tunisia(0:0).

In 2008 they played their first match against long time rivals Germany (6.2.2008) in Vienna. Austria played very well, but still lost 0-3. The next match of the year was against the Netherlands in Austria (26.3.2008), Austria started off brilliantly going 3-0 up, however the Netherlands ended up coming back and winning 4-3. Austria's next match was against Nigeria (27.5.2008), which ended in a 1-1 draw.

As a co-host for UEFA Euro 2008, Austria took part in their first major tournament in a decade, with most commentators regarding them as rank outsiders and whipping-boys for Germany, Croatia and Poland in the group stage. Their first match, against Croatia, was a narrow 1-0 defeat. Their second game was a 1-1 draw with Poland, proving they are not the tournament whipping boys at all.

Records at major tournaments

World Cup record

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1930	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1934	Fourth place	4	4	2	0	2	7	7
1938	Qualified, but withdrew after Anschluss with Germany, to play in a united German team	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1950	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1954	Third place	3	5	4	0	1	17	12
1958	Round 1	15	3	0	1	2	2	7
1962	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1966	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1970	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1974	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1978	Second group stage	7	6	3	0	3	7	10
1982	Second group stage	8	5	2	1	2	5	4
1986	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1990	Round 1	18	3	1	0	2	2	3
1994	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1998	Round 1	23	3	0	2	1	3	4
2002	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2006	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	7/18		29	12	4	13	43	47

*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

European Championship record

Year	Result	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1960	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1964	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1968	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1972	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1976	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1980	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1984	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1988	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1992	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1996	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2000	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2004	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2008	Qualified automatically as co-host
Total	1/13

Current squad

The following is the squad for the 2008 European Championships.

Goalkeepers

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	1GK	Alexander Manninger	(1977-06-04) June 4, 1977	27	0	Siena
21	1GK	Jürgen Macho	(1977-08-24) August 24, 1977	14	0	AEK Athens
23	1GK	Ramazan Özcan	(1984-06-28) June 28, 1984	0	0	1899 Hoffenheim

Defenders

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
3	2DF	Martin Stranzl	(1980-06-16) June 16, 1980	45	2	Spartak Moscow
4	2DF	Emanuel Pogatetz	(1983-01-16) January 16, 1983	27	1	Middlesbrough
12	2DF	Ronald Gercaliu	(1986-02-12) February 12, 1986	11	0	Austria Wien
13	2DF	Markus Katzer	(1978-12-11) December 11, 1978	11	0	Rapid Wien
14	2DF	György Garics	(1984-03-08) March 8, 1984	12	1	S.S.C. Napoli
15	2DF	Sebastian Prödl	(1987-06-21) June 21, 1987	10	2	Werder Bremen
16	2DF	Jürgen Patocka	(1977-07-30) July 30, 1977	2	0	Rapid Wien
17	2DF	Martin Hiden	(1973-03-11) March 11, 1973	49	1	Rapid Wien

Midfielders

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
2	3MF	Joachim Standfest	(1980-05-30) May 30, 1980	30	2	Austria Wien
5	3MF	Christian Fuchs	(1986-04-07) April 7, 1986	17	0	Mattersburg
6	3MF	René Aufhauser	(1976-06-21) June 21, 1976	51	11	Red Bull Salzburg
7	3MF	Ivica Vastic	(1969-09-29) September 29, 1969	48	13	LASK Linz
8	3MF	Christoph Leitgeb	(1985-04-14) April 14, 1985	19	0	Red Bull Salzburg
10	3MF	Andreas Ivanschitz (captain)	(1983-10-15) October 15, 1983	41	5	Panathinaikos
11	3MF	Ümit Korkmaz	(1985-09-17) September 17, 1985	2	0	Eintracht Frankfurt
19	3MF	Jürgen Säumel	(1984-09-08) September 8, 1984	11	0	Sturm Graz

Strikers

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
9	4FW	Roland Linz	(1981-08-09) August 9, 1981	31	7	Sporting Braga
18	4FW	Roman Kienast	(1984-03-29) March 29, 1984	6	1	HamKam
20	4FW	Martin Harnik	(1987-06-10) June 10, 1987	8	2	Werder Bremen
22	4FW	Erwin Hoffer	(1987-04-14) April 14, 1987	4	0	Rapid Wien

Notable former players

Harald Cerny Wolfgang Feiersinger Hans Krankl Dietmar Kühbauer Gerhard Hanappi Ernst Happel Andreas Herzog Anton Pfeffer Toni Polster Erich Probst

Herbert Prohaska Matthias Sindelar Ivica Vastic Michael Konsel Markus Schopp Toni Fritsch Ernst Ocwirk Franz Hasil Walter Zemann Franz Binder

Fritz Gschweidl Rudi Hiden Robert Körner Alfred Körner Friedl Koncilia Josef Uridil Johann Horvath Anton Schall Erich Hof Walter Schachner

Wilhelm Kreuz Bruno Pezzey Karl Koller Josef Blum Karl Decker Josef Smistik Walter Nausch Kurt Jara Karl Sesta Alois Vogel Peter Schöttel

Trivia

• Due to the former empire of Austria-Hungary that was dissolved in 1918, games among these teams still serve as a background for an old 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 the same colors as Germany, white jerseys, black shorts, white socks. In order to distinguish themselves, then-coach Hans Krankl chose in 2004 to switch to their former away shirts, which have the same color scheme as Austria's flag, red-white-red. However, to further distinguish themselves from Germany, they also use an all-black away strip.

External links

• Official website
• RSSSF archive of results 1902-2003
• RSSSF archive of most capped players and highest goalscorers
• RSSSF archive of coaches 1902-1999
• Austria national football team /Ambrosius Kutschera/