match one v France

After a very positive Euro’s, Karel Brückner now leads Austria towards a return to the World Cup. The road will be a tough one as UEFA is only allocated thirteen spots so the task at hand will be squeezing out important points and equally laying a foundation that the high-flying under-21/19 squads can build upon. Austria is included in a very tough Group 7. While it includes todays opponent France, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania and Faroe Islands. Excluding the Faroe’s each of these matches will be extremely uphill battles and Austria will need to be highly disciplined in their play.

Karel Brückner’s challenge today will be against France, led by the rarely predicable Raymond Domenech who is likely checking horoscopes and ouija boards right now to figure out the best lineup. Maybe at the same time he can figure out how he managed to keep his job after a pathetic Euro tournament because it still is a mystery to anyone in the Football world. Without question Les Bleus have went through a bit of transition and to me they are still searching for identity after Zinédine Zidane’s retirement and I can’t imagine it will be any easier without Claude Makélélé and Lilian Thuram. France also comes into this match missing Franck Ribéry, Patrick Vieira and Marseille’s Hatem Ben Arfa out with injuries. While France are heavy favourites, for Austria there is no better time to upset Les Bleus.

Karel Brückner commented “we have respect but not fear” and will take the same tactical approach as their recent 2-2 draw with Italy. With this in-mind, it’ll be a tight defensive scheme heavy on counter-attack. He has been extremely tight-lipped and completely clamped down practices. René Aufhauser and Marc Janko have been singled out by him for their play and you can expect another stellar performance from Middlesbrough Emanuel Pogatetz in the back-line of Spartak Moscow’s, Martin Stranzl, Wigan’s Paul Scharner and Sebastian Prödl of Werder Bremen. Set plays could play a huge role and both Marc and Sebastian have been very prolific with aerial attacks.

I will update the match once it concludes.