Image: APA/EXPA/JOHANN GRODER
LASK is longing for the first football title since 1965. As is well known, the shortest way to end this dry spell is the Austrian Football Cup (of good hope). It “only” needs six victories – albeit in a row – to lift the trophy. The Black and Whites, who will open the 2023/24 Bundesliga next Friday (8:30 p.m., ORF 1) with the hit against Rapid in the Raiffeisen Arena, are starting the competitive season today: At the Vorarlberg Regionalliga West club SC Röthis (18 Uhr, ORF Sport+), the athletes are the big favorites in the first round of the cup.
Neo coach Thomas Sageder does not dream of taking his opponent lightly when he makes his competitive debut. “Small opponents try to make life difficult for the big ones through extreme emotionalisation and intensive duels. We are prepared for that,” says the 39-year-old Riedauer. This also applies to his team, who want to have learned the lessons from the most recent test against second division club Vienna (4: 2). The athletes were 0:2 behind after just four minutes. “Of course it was something like a warning shot, you have to be there from the first second in every match. That won’t happen to us again,” emphasized LASK captain Robert Zulj.
A good omen?
The fact that the cup season begins on the sports field on the Ratz, which can accommodate 2,000 visitors, may not be a bad omen. A year ago, the later triumphant SK Sturm was also a guest there and celebrated an unchallenged 6-0 victory in front of 1487 spectators.
Tips may also come from the LASK additions Jörg Siebenhandl and Ivan Ljubic, who wore the Graz jersey at the time. The injured players Tobias Anselm, Sanoussy Ba, Adil Taoui and Philipp Wiesinger are not there.
Röthis as a counterpart to LASK
Two football worlds are colliding in the Ländle today: On the one hand, the European Cup starter LASK, who now have half a world selection with a total of 16 different nations. “In the cabin we only speak English so that everyone can understand each other,” reveals Captain Zulj. This also benefits neo-coach Sageder’s foreign language skills: “In one-to-one conversations, I try to speak the player’s national language as much as possible. In addition to German, I also speak English and a little French.”
Today he mainly has to deal with the Vorarlberg dialect: opponent Röthis does not have a single legionnaire in his ranks, all kickers who are in the starting XI today come from the immediate vicinity. “We’re eleven friends, a tight-knit bunch. That’s our big trump card,” says midfielder Mario Bolter. That goes beyond the lawn: “The boys go away together, also go on vacation together. We do a lot together privately.” Nevertheless, it will take a great moment in the cup: “We know what qualities LASK has.”
The cup duel also brings back memories of his time in Upper Austria for Sageder: In the 2005/2006 season, the former professional soccer player (92 Bundesliga games, 243 games in the 2nd division) played eight Bundesliga games for Pasching. “We had a great team with Radoslaw Gilewicz, Christian Mayrleb, Carlos Chaile and Josef Schicklgruber. I was able to take a lot with me.”
Source: Nachrichten
