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	102
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 has not yet qualified for a European Championship; it will play in the tournament for the first time in 2008 when it co-hosts 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 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 Germany met again, in the last game of Round 1, after the other two teams in their group had played a day earlier. A score by German striker Hrubesch after 10 minutes meant that both teams would advance if the 0-1 would be the final score, and thus both teams defended this result for 80 minutes in what was an exceptionally boring game, called 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. As a result, FIFA stages all final group games in parallel times slots ever since.

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 Holland ended up coming back and winning 4-3. Austria's next match is before Euro 2008 is against Nigeria (27.5.2008).

As a co-host for the 2008 European Cup, Austria will have its chance to redeem its name once again before and during the European Championship.

Records at major tournaments

World Cup record

• 1930 - Did not enter
• 1934 - Fourth place
• 1938 - Qualified, but withdrew after Anschluss to Germany, to play in a united German team
• 1950 - Withdrew
• 1954 - Third place
• 1958 - Round 1
• 1962 - Withdrew
• 1966 to 1974 - Did not qualify
• 1978 - Second group stage
• 1982 - Second group stage
• 1986 - Did not qualify
• 1990 - Round 1
• 1994 - Did not qualify
• 1998 - Round 1
• 2002 to 2006 - Did not qualify

European Championship record

• 1960 to 2004 - Did not qualify
• 2008 - Qualified automatically as co-host

Current squad

The following players were called for the friendly match against Germany on 6 February 2008.

Goalkeepers

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
	1GK	Christian Gratzei	(1981-09-19) September 19, 1981	0	0	Sturm
1	1GK	Alexander Manninger	(1977-06-04) June 4, 1977	25	0	Siena
1	1GK	Helge Payer	(1979-08-09) August 9, 1979	28	0	Rapid
1	1GK	Jürgen Macho	(1977-08-24) August 24, 1977	13	0	AEK

Defenders

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
5	2DF	Christian Fuchs	(1986-04-07) April 7, 1986	14	0	Mattersburg
14	2DF	György Garics	(1984-03-08) March 8, 1984	10	1	Napoli
16	2DF	Andreas Ibertsberger	(1982-07-27) July 27, 1982	12	1	Hoffenheim
4	2DF	Emanuel Pogatetz	(1983-01-16) January 16, 1983	23	1	Middlesbrough
15	2DF	Sebastian Prödl	(1987-06-21) June 21, 1987	6	0	Sturm
3	2DF	Martin Stranzl	(1980-06-16) June 16, 1980	42	2	Spartak
	2DF	Andreas Dober	(1986-03-31) March 31, 1986	3	0	Rapid
	2DF	Ronald Gercaliu	(1986-02-12) February 12, 1986	10	0	Austria
	2DF	Markus Katzer	(1978-12-11) December 11, 1978	10	0	Rapid
	2DF	Franz Schiemer	(1986-03-21) March 21, 1986	4	0	Austria
	2DF	Jürgen Patocka	(1977-07-30) July 30, 1977	2	0	Rapid

Midfielders

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
6	3MF	René Aufhauser	(1976-06-21) June 21, 1976	48	10	Salzburg
10	3MF	Andreas Ivanschitz	(1983-10-15) October 15, 1983	35	5	Panathinaikos
8	3MF	Christoph Leitgeb	(1985-04-14) April 14, 1985	16	0	Salzburg
	3MF	Ivica Vastic	(1969-09-29) September 29, 1969	46	12	LASK
19	3MF	Jürgen Säumel	(1984-09-08) September 8, 1984	7	0	Sturm
2	3MF	Joachim Standfest	(1980-05-30) May 30, 1980	27	2	Austria
	3MF	Ümit Korkmaz	(1985-09-17) September 17, 1985	0	0	Rapid
	3MF	Markus Weissenberger	(1975-03-08) March 8, 1975	29	1	Eintracht

Strikers

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
20	4FW	Martin Harnik	(1987-06-10) June 10, 1987	5	1	Werder
18	4FW	Roman Kienast	(1984-03-29) March 29, 1984	4	0	HamKam
9	4FW	Roland Linz	(1981-08-09) August 9, 1981	28	5	Braga

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.

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/