Austria national football team

 Austria

Nickname(s)	Das Team
Association	Austrian Football Association
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Dietmar Constantini
Captain	Marc Janko
Most caps	Andreas Herzog (103)
Top scorer	Toni Polster (44)
Home stadium	Ernst Happel Stadion
FIFA code	AUT
FIFA ranking	68
Highest FIFA ranking	17 (May 1999)
Lowest FIFA ranking	105 (July 2008)
Elo ranking	59
Highest Elo ranking	1 (May 1934)
Lowest Elo ranking	72 (Feb 2009)
Home colours Away colours
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	Round 1, 2008

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.

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 1978 FIFA World Cup 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, which had still chances of qualifying for the Final. The Austrians laso denied the defending world champion a trip to the Third Place match, beating them 3-2 by two goals of Krankl, plus an own goal. The celebrating report of the radio commentator Edi Finger ("I werd narrisch!") became famous in Austria, where it is considered the miracle of Cordoba, while the Germans regard the game and the Austrian behavior as a disgrace.

During the 1982 FIFA World Cup 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, while all other results would eliminate one team or the other. After ten minutes of furious attack, Horst Hrubesch scored for West Germany, and the two teams mainly kicked the ball around for eighty minutes with few attempts to attack. The game became known as the non-aggression pact of Gijon. Algeria had also won two games, including a shocking surprise over Germany in the opener, but among the three teams that had won two games, was eliminated based on goal difference, having conceded two late goals in their 3-2 win over Chile. 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 and Northern Ireland were 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, despite playing some entertaining football in the closing stages of Euro 96 qualification.

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

Austria national football team before the match against Spain, 18 November 2009

In recent years mainly due to many of the 1997/98 team retiring from the international arena or the sport altogether, 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. After only eight months Karel Brückner was released in March 2009 and the position was subsequently taken by Didi Constantini. Even though Austria did not manage to secure automatic qualification or a play-off spot for the World Cup 2010, they still managed a memorable 3-1 win over France during qualifying, which was also France's only defeat in qualifying. Other memorable matches were Romania 1-1 Austria at away and Austria 2-1 Romania at home.

Since then, the Austrian team has played a friendly match against Denmark with Arsenal FC's superstar Nicklas Bendtner which was won 2-1. Three more friendlys are fixed: On the 19th May 2010 against Croatia, on the 11th August 2010 against neighbor Switzerland and on the 09th February 2011 against the Netherlands. In the qualifying for the UEFA EURO 2012 the Austrians will play against Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Turkey and arch-rival Germany.

Records at major tournaments

World Cup record

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1930	Did not qualify
1934	Fourth place	4	4	2	0	2	7	7
1938	Qualified but withdrew 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
2010	Did not qualify
Total	7/18		29	12	4	13	43	47

European Championship record

Year	Result	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1960 to 2004	Did not qualify
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 qualification matches for the 2010 FIFA World Cup against Lithuania on 10 October and against France on 14 October 2009.^[3] Caps and goals as of 9 September 2009.

0#0 Pos. Player Date of Birth (Age) Caps Goals Club - GK Christian Gratzei September 19, 1981 (1981-09-19) (age 29) 0 0 Sturm Graz 1 GK Helge Payer August 9, 1979 (1979-08-09) (age 31) 18 0 Rapid Wien 12 GK Andreas Schranz May 2, 1979 (1979-05-02) (age 31) 6 0 Austria Kärnten 2 DF Aleksandar Dragović March 6, 1991 (1991-03-06) (age 19) 4 0 Austria Wien 5 DF Christian Fuchs April 7, 1986 (1986-04-07) (age 24) 27 0 Bochum 14 DF Ekrem Dağ December 5, 1980 (1980-12-05) (age 30) 0 0 Beşiktaş 18 DF Manuel Ortlechner March 4, 1980 (1980-03-04) (age 30) 5 0 Austria Wien 4 DF Jürgen Patocka July 30, 1977 (1977-07-30) (age 33) 3 0 Rapid Wien 3 DF Franz Schiemer March 21, 1986 (1986-03-21) (age 24) 10 1 Red Bull Salzburg - DF Andreas Ulmer October 30, 1985 (1985-10-30) (age 25) 1 0 Red Bull Salzburg 16 MF Julian Baumgartlinger January 2, 1988 (1988-01-02) (age 23) 1 0 Austria Wien 8 MF Daniel Beichler October 13, 1988 (1988-10-13) (age 22) 4 0 Sturm Graz - MF Christopher Drazan October 2, 1990 (1990-10-02) (age 20) 0 0 Rapid Wien 13 MF Andreas Hölzl March 16, 1985 (1985-03-16) (age 25) 10 2 Sturm Graz 10 MF Jakob Jantscher January 8, 1989 (1989-01-08) (age 22) 4 0 Red Bull Salzburg 6 MF Yasin Pehlivan January 5, 1989 (1989-01-05) (age 22) 5 0 Rapid Wien 15 MF Thomas Prager September 13, 1985 (1985-09-13) (age 25) 13 1 FC Luzern - MF Paul Scharner March 11, 1980 (1980-03-11) (age 30) 26 0 Wigan Athletic 9 FW Erwin Hoffer April 14, 1987 (1987-04-14) (age 23) 14 2 Napoli 17 FW Marc Janko June 25, 1983 (1983-06-25) (age 27) 12 7 FC Twente 11 FW Stefan Maierhofer August 16, 1982 (1982-08-16) (age 28) 9 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 7 FW Roman Wallner February 4, 1982 (1982-02-04) (age 29) 25 5 Red Bull Salzburg

On call

0#0 Pos. Player Date of Birth (Age) Caps Goals Club - DF Markus Suttner April 16, 1987 (1987-04-16) (age 23) 0 0 Austria Wien - MF David Alaba June 24, 1992 (1992-06-24) (age 18) 0 0 Bayern Munich - MF Veli Kavlak November 3, 1988 (1988-11-03) (age 22) 4 0 Rapid Wien - MF Florian Klein November 17, 1986 (1986-11-17) (age 24) 0 0 Austria Wien

Recent call-ups

0#0 Pos. Player Date of Birth (Age) Caps Goals Club DF György Garics March 8, 1984 (1984-03-08) (age 26) 22 1 Atalanta - MF Christoph Leitgeb April 14, 1985 (1985-04-14) (age 25) 25 0 Red Bull Salzburg 15 MF Christopher Trimmel February 24, 1987 (1987-02-24) (age 23) 2 0 Rapid Wien DF Ronald Gërçaliu February 12, 1986 (1986-02-12) (age 25) 14 0 FC Ingolstadt 04 MF Zlatko Junuzović September 26, 1987 (1987-09-26) (age 23) 4 0 Austria Wien MF Ümit Korkmaz September 17, 1985 (1985-09-17) (age 25) 6 0 Eintracht Frankfurt MF Stefan Lexa November 1, 1976 (1976-11-01) (age 34) 6 0 SV Ried FW Thomas Pichlmann April 24, 1981 (1981-04-24) (age 29) 2 0 Grosseto FW Marko Arnautović April 19, 1989 (1989-04-19) (age 21) 1 0 Werder Bremen

Staff

• President: Dr. Leo Windtner
• Director of Sport: Willi Ruttensteiner
• Head Coach: Didi Constantini
• Assistant Coach: Manfred Zsak
• Goalkeeper Coach: Franz Wohlfahrt
• Conditions Coach: Roger Thomas Spry
• Advisor: Thomas Janeschitz

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Serbia 10 7 1 2 22 8 +14 22  France 10 6 3 1 18 9 +9 21  Austria 10 4 2 4 14 15 −1 14  Lithuania 10 4 0 6 10 11 −1 12  Romania 10 3 3 4 12 18 −6 12  Faroe Islands 10 1 1 8 5 20 −15 4

Austria  – 3 – 1 3 – 1 2 – 1 2 – 1 1 – 3 Faroe Islands  1 – 1 – 0 – 1 2 – 1 0 – 1 0 – 2 France  3 – 1 5 – 0 – 1 – 0 1 – 1 2 – 1 Lithuania  2 – 0 1 – 0 0 – 1 – 0 – 1 2 – 1 Romania  1 – 1 3 – 1 2 – 2 0 – 3 – 2 – 3 Serbia  1 – 0 2 – 0 1 – 1 3 – 0 5 – 0 –

Euro 2012 qualifications

Austria was competing in Group A in qualification for UEFA Euro 2012, together with Kazakhstan, Turkey, Germany, Belgium and Azerbaijan.

Manager history

Name	Nationality	From	To	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Win%[4]	Notes
Hugo Meisl	Austria-Hungary	22 December 1912	3 October 1914	6	3	1	2	11	9	50.00
Heinrich Retschury	Austria-Hungary	4 October 1914	1 August 1919	22	8	3	11	45	47	36.36
Hugo Meisl	Austria	1 August 1919	17 February 1937	127	68	29	30	326	206	53.54	Created the Wunderteam. 4th place at the 1934 World Cup. Winners of the 1932 Central European International Cup. Runners-up of the 1930 and 1935 Central European International Cup.
Heinrich Retschury	Austria	22 May 1937	24 October 1937	5	2	1	2	10	10	40.00	Qualified for the 1938 World Cup.
From 1938 to 1945 there was no national team due to Anschluss.
Karl Zankl	Austria	19 August 1945	3 October 1945	2	0	0	2	2	7	0.00	Died while in the position of national coach.
Edi Bauer	Austria	3 October 1945	4 March 1948	11	4	0	7	26	28	36.36
Eduard Frühwirth	Austria	4 March 1948	1 September 1948	5	3	0	2	9	9	60.00
Walter Nausch	Austria	1 September 1948	15 November 1954	47	21	10	16	119	87	44.68	3rd place at the 1954 World Cup.
Hans Kaulich	Austria	15 November 1954	28 March 1955	1	0	0	1	2	3	0.00
Josef Molzer	Austria	29 March 1955	3 September 1955	3	1	1	1	6	8	33.33
Karl Geyer	Austria	3 September 1955	21 April 1956	5	2	0	3	8	14	40.00
Josef Argauer Josef Molzer	Austria  Austria	21 April 1956	9 August 1958	18	7	6	5	37	27	38.89	Qualified for the 1958 World Cup.
Alfred Frey Franz Putzendopler Egon Selzer Josef Molzer	Austria	9 August 1958	15 October 1958	2	0	0	2	4	6	0.00
Karl Decker	Austria	16 October 1958	28 February 1964	36	16	3	17	60	67	44.44
Josef Walter Béla Guttmann	Austria	7 March 1964	11 October 1964	5	3	1	1	6	5	60.00
Eduard Frühwirth	Austria	20 November 1964	13 January 1967	15	4	3	8	12	23	26.67
Erwin Alge Hans Pesser	Austria	13 January 1967	24 June 1968	10	3	2	5	18	19	30.00
Leopold Šťastný	Czechoslovakia	1 July 1968	30 September 1975	49	15	16	18	58	62	30.61
Branko Elsner (caretaker)	Yugoslavia	6 October 1975	19 November 1975	2	1	0	1	6	3	50.00
Helmut Senekowitsch	Austria	1 March 1976	30 June 1978	26	14	4	8	40	26	53.85	Qualified for the 1978 World Cup.
Karl Stotz	Austria	1 August 1978	14 December 1981	24	13	6	5	43	25	30.61	Qualified for the 1982 World Cup.
Georg Schmidt Felix Latzke	Austria  Austria	5 February 1982	2 July 1982	8	5	1	2	11	7	30.61
Erich Hof	Austria	7 September 1982	21 November 1984	15	6	3	6	22	20	30.61
Branko Elsner	Yugoslavia	15 January 1985	18 November 1987	18	5	5	8	20	28	27.78
Josef Hickersberger	Austria	1 January 1988	14 September 1990	29	10	7	12	36	39	34.48	Qualified for the 1990 World Cup.
Alfred Riedl	Austria	15 September 1990	10 October 1991	8	1	3	4	6	16	12.5
Dietmar Constantini (caretaker)	Austria	10 October 1991	13 November 1991	2	0	0	2	1	4	0.00
Ernst Happel	Austria	1 Januar 1992	14 November 1992	9	2	3	4	18	17	30.61
Dietmar Constantini (caretaker)	Austria	15 November 1992	18 November 1992	1	0	1	0	0	0	30.61
Herbert Prohaska	Austria	8 January 1993	29 March 1999	51	25	9	17	96	73	49.02	Qualified for the 1998 World Cup.
Otto Barić	Austria	13 April 1999	21 November 2001	22	7	6	9	31	35	31.82
Hans Krankl	Austria	21 January 2002	28 September 2005	31	10	10	11	47	46	32.26
Willibald Ruttensteiner Andreas Herzog Slavko Kovacic (caretakers)	Austria  Austria  Austria	30–September–2005	December 2005	2	1	0	1	2	1	50.00
Josef Hickersberger	Austria	1 January 2006	23 June 2008	24	5	8	11	29	40	20.83
Karel Brückner	Czech Republic	25 July 2008	2 March 2009	6	1	2	3	9	13	16.67
Dietmar Constantini	Austria	4 March 2009	Present	6	3	1	2	9	8	50

As of 05 June 2009

Legacy

Classic

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. To further distinguish themselves from Germany, the Austrians had used an all-black away kit, but as of 2010, the white shirt and black shorts is used as the away kit.

References

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/

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