summary of match against Croatia

June 8th, 2008 | by: j | Comments(6)

I’d like to offer a hearty congratulations to our friends Croatia who won today’s match 1-0. Croatia played quite well as we all expected and with much of the media enjoying making negative commentary about the Austrian squad prior the match, I suspect everyone has rightfully found out just how far the Austrian team has advanced.

The road to developing a world class squad is a long arduous task and to become a top forty squad in the world takes an enormous investment by the nation’s regulatory body. The Österreichischer Fußball-Bund (Austrian Football Association) did precisely that by investing in the sports development at the youth level and has invested wisely. Fruits of these labors have already paid off with the shocking with last summers U-20 World Cup when the team advanced to the semi-finals and naturally today’s performance. For nations looking to improve international play, take a good look at the ÖFB and how they have invested within the country and truly helped developed players and coaches domestically.

To review today’s performance and call it a perfunctory point to announce absolute success is of course early. However much needs to be said of the teams development and I want to stress, team. The heart and soul of the team was shown quite strong today and I’m sure many thought with the early goal, the nails in the coffin were being hammered-in, the team reacted in a way that makes us all a fan of this beautiful game. Against the odds and facing a team far superior in skills, they fought with an insatiable desire to succeed and to bring honor to Austria.

As the match wore on, possibly the most obvious point was the developing confidence in the team. This is possibly the teams greatest weakness and it will take time to overcome this but in-time they will. In considering the “man of the match” it was quite a challenge to highlight one particular player and it is far beyond my ability to try and convince of you being unbiased. At the back Emanuel Pogatetz patrolled with his usual tenacity and makes it impossible not to be a ‘boro fan. Sebastian Prödl continues to play far beyond the maturity of a twenty year-old and gives promise to a long fruitful career. René Aufhauser and Andreas Ivanschitz seemed to be everywhere and the passing of elder statesmen of the Euros, Ivica Vastić, proved he has a great deal left in his game. Ümit Korkmaz and Martin Harnik, 22 and 20 respectively, gave Croatia absolute fits and was one verge of leveling the match at any time.

All that makes might make the “man of the match” choice difficult but without much debate it is Coach Josef Hickersberger. Against all odds, including those within the country who felt the team should renounce its position at the Euros, he brought them together.