Madlener’s craziest game as a forward coach

“For me it’s over and done with. The positive outweighs the positives.” The 3:4 defeat of SK BMD Forwards Steyr against Liefering must have been like a punch in the stomach for coach Daniel Madlener, but there was nothing to shake his optimism: “We got through stupidity and mental weakness, but it was one of the strongest performances of the team since I’ve been a coach in Steyr.”

The hosts took the lead shortly before the break after a highly questionable penalty – Madlener: “That was a foul on our goalkeeper and not a penalty” – after that Joel Dombaxi, Tolgas Günes and Tobias Pellegrini had the Steyrer 3-1 in brought leadership. But in the closing stages, the Young Bulls turned the game around: an unnecessary loss of possession led to a goal (69′), a goalkeeper error to equalize (82′) and a header after a corner kick in injury time to make it 4:3 for Liefering. Madlener: “We had chances to score the fourth goal, so we’re empty-handed. But it will make us stronger.”

Forward is tenth in the table after two games with just one point, but could have won both games, some say: should win.