On most winter days, a 1.6 second lead over a German athlete in Austria isn’t worth too many reports. In the realm of hundredths of a second, on the downhill and slalom courses in the World Cup, with such a gap you find yourself in the no-man’s land of the rankings; in such cases, German athletes are not mentioned in the red-white-red gazettes. Only: This late winter Saturday was about football events. And it turned out: every hundredth of a second advantage counts there too.
The new record for the fastest goal in an international match has been held by Christoph Baumgartner since Saturday and not by Florian Wirtz, who scored about 1.6 seconds later against France, meaning that from now on he only holds the national record in Germany – and himself Austria was more likely to hear jokes about its frightening slowness on social media.
At least they both agreed that it wasn’t a coincidence. “We’ve done this variant several times before, sprinting away from the kick-off at full risk. The sequence of steps somehow worked out so that I got the run,” said Baumgartner after the game about his goal, in which he – unlike Wirtz – didn’t even have a passer. From the kick-off point, the Leipzig man dribbled through the ranks of the Slovakian defenders, shot low into the corner and thus scored the door opener on an evening that still left the Austrians with mixed feelings.
It was definitely noticeable when the Austrians won 2-0 in Bratislava that the Austrian team was forced to play differently. Compared to the triumphant 2-0 win over Germany in Vienna last November, four potential regular players were missing in David Alaba, Philipp Lienhart, Sasa Kalajdzic and Marko Arnautovic, but 20-year-old Leopold Querfeld from Rapid Vienna made his debut in central defense. Lienhart and Arnautovic should at least be fit again by the start of the European Championships on June 17th. As things stand, Alaba will hardly be able to do so after his cruciate ligament rupture at the end of December – at least not for match practice before the tournament.
Alaba will hardly be fit again in time for the European Championships after his cruciate ligament tear
The nation’s knee will therefore determine the hopes of a surprise at their neighbors within the Austrian national team, because without Alaba the ÖFB not only lacks footballing class, but also the mental security imported from Real Madrid, which Ralf Rangnick’s team had recently distinguished. The team boss saw “many unforced errors” against Slovakia, but also a few recommendations for higher tasks.
In the absence of the biggest names within the squad, it is primarily Baumgartner and Michael Gregoritsch who are supposed to organize the offensive – as well as 32-year-old Andreas Weimann, who has now been with West Bromwich Albion in the English second division for his entire career playing football under the radar. Only three players have played more games in the Championship in their careers than Weimann, who has a kind of on-off relationship with the national team: Since his debut in 2012, he has played 21 games in the national jersey, some with breaks lasting years.
Against Slovakia, Weimann scored the second goal of the day shortly before the end and, after a “significantly better” second half (Rangnick), confirmed a realization about the Austrians a few months before the European Championship: Even without numerous top players and too much footballing brilliance, at least they are true Results.