Three midweek matches in the Bundesliga today. Second-place Austria Wien got a huge victory at third-place GAK but couldn't make up any ground on Rapid Wien who also earned three points on the road. Admira Wacker pounded Pasching with a hat trick by Roland Linz. GAK 1 - 3 Austria Wien Bregenz 1 - 2 Rapid Wien Admira Wacker 4 - 0 Pasching It's looking like this season could turn into a two-horse race between the big clubs from Vienna.
And suburban Admira-Wacker Mödling is in sixth - well above their normal relegation struggling position.
I think GAK can play a part, Sturm and Salzburg will surely get back into it somehow - so nothing is decided yet...
Two games between the teams from Vienna and Graz. Rapid Wien lost for the first time this year and for the first time in 17 Bundesliga matches. Amazing turnaround after their terrible streak in the middle of last season. Austria Wien could only gain a point on the leaders. With their win, GAK is now only three points behind Austria Wien with a game in hand. No, Schachner's a good coach, and I wouldn't count them out. Austria Wien 1 - 1 Sturm Graz GAK 2 - 0 Rapid Wien Bregenz 2 - 2 Admira Wacker Kaernten 1 - 2 Salzburg Mattersburg 4 - 2 Pasching
Haven't posted results from the Austrian Bundesliga in a while, so this should get us up to date. Round 11: Admira Wacker 1 - 1 GAK Austria Wien 3 - 0 Kärnten Pasching 1 - 2 Rapid Wien Salzburg 0 - 1 Bregenz Sturm Graz 0 - 1 Mattersburg Round 12: Bregenz 4 - 2 Austria Wien GAK 1 - 1 Pasching Kärnten 0 - 3 Sturm Graz Mattersburg 1 - 1 Admira Wacker Rapid Wien 1 - 0 Salzburg With a third of the season concluded, Rapid Wien expands its lead to seven points over Austria Wien. Bregenz (almost relegated last year) has moved into third place thanks to two victories in a row. GAK has slipped to fourth with two ties.
There's no way for me to describe how stoked I'd be if Rapid won the league this year. That means we'd get at least one CL quali in the sold-out Prater - awesome!! Of course then the problem would be holding on to all our young talent. Guys like Ivanschitz, Hofmann and Wallner are not going to be around for long if Rapid qualifies for the CL.
Round 13: Admira Wacker 4 - 2 Rapid Wien Austria Wien 0 - 1 GAK Kärnten 1 - 2 Mattersburg Salzburg 0 - 2 Pasching Sturm Graz 1 - 1 Bregenz The only place Salzburg gets results these days is in the UEFA Cup. They continue to sit in last place after a home loss to Pasching. Big win for Admira over runaway leaders Rapid Wien. Austria Wien missed a chance to make up some of Rapid Wien's seven-point lead but lost at home to GAK, who are now third and only one point behind Austria Wien.
Round 14: Rapid Wien 2 - 0 Sturm Graz Mattersburg 0 - 1 Austria Wien GAK 1 - 0 Salzburg Bregenz 3 - 2 Kärnten Pasching 3 - 0 Admira Wacker Not much change at the top as all four leaders won. Rapid, Austria, GAK, and Bregenz each added three points to their tally. Pasching made up for a 4-0 loss at Admira Wacker several weeks ago by beating them convincingly at home 3-0.
Hoffmann didn't play for some reason. Pretty routine victory for Rapid. If they can win at the "Verteilerkreis" on Wednesday, it will be huge - the way Rapid has been playing, a ten-point cushion would be hard for Austria to overcome I think.
Round 15: Austria Wien 2 - 0 Rapid Wien Kärnten 1 - 4 GAK Sturm Graz 0 - 1 Pasching Bregenz 2 - 1 Mattersburg Salzburg 1 - 2 Admira Wacker In another thread, I stated that this round seemed destined for a number of ties. Well, there wasn't a single one. Not much change in positions in the table, but all the top teams (Austria Wien, GAK, Bregenz, Pasching) gained three points on Rapid Wien. Huge win for Austria Wien in the big rivalry match with Rapid Wien to close the gap to four points. Salzburg, Austria's lone remaining participant in Europe, continues to languish at the bottom of the table with only 10 points from 15 games. It was a miracle they beat Udinese; I hold little hope for them advancing over Parma.
Round 16: Admira Wacker 0 - 2 Austria Wien GAK 2 - 0 Bregenz Rapid Wien 3 - 1 Mattersburg Pasching 3 - 0 Kärnten Salzburg 5 - 0 Sturm Graz Top teams continue to win. Austria, Rapid, and GAK all posted victories. Key win by GAK over Bregenz to open up a three-point lead for third place. At the other end, last-place Salzburg posted a very impressive 5-0 drubbing of Sturm Graz, vaulting them from tenth to eighth position. Kärnten is now at the bottom.
Round 17: Austria Wien 0 - 0 Salzburg Kärnten 2 - 0 Rapid Wien Bregenz 1 - 2 Pasching Mattersburg 0 - 0 GAK Sturm Graz 2 - 0 Admira Wacker Atop the league, Rapid lost to last-place Kärnten, but neither Austria Wien nor GAK could make up the full three points. Instead, they each drew a point closer to sit 3 and 4 points back, respectively. After three losses in a row, Sturm Graz won this week. Even though they beat leaders Rapid Wien, Kärnten remain last, tied on points with Salzburg. It was a good week for the bottom three teams.
Round 18: Admira Wacker 1 - 0 Kärnten GAK 1 - 0 Sturm Graz Pasching 2 - 4 Austria Wien Rapid Wien 2 - 2 Bregenz Salzburg 4 - 0 Mattersburg With the tie at home against Bregenz, Rapid Wien maintains a one-point lead over Austria Wien and is therefore crowned "Herbst-Meister" as leaders after the first half of the season. But both Austria Wien and GAK made up two points on them this round. Rapid seemed to be running away with it earlier in the season, but now only two points separate those three teams.
Sturm vs Pasching I am betting Pasching X2 at Sturm today. The prices are tasty as Pasching is at least equal. Ok, they lost 2-4 at home to Austria, but Austria is much stronger than Sturm is. BTW, are you guys betting also or is this just a football talk site? Because noone ever says something about betting ... Greetings, Schwarzenegger
Mostly a talk site, bro. Most of the Big Soccer posters are based in the U.S. I think there are only three posters here from Austria, and I don't bet. Maybe Schwarzweiß does, I don't know.
I don' t care about betting either... By the way, Sturm - Pasching finished 2:2. I have been to the game, it was just like a rollercoaster... First, 0:1 for Pasching, scored by Carlos Chaile, then the equalizer and tournarround goal 1:1 and 2:1, both scored by Sturm's chilenian Francisco Rojas. But in the end, in the 90th minute there came a tragic own goal by Sturm's australian defender Eddy Bosnar. It was a good game but we had desire for those three points you know...
That was a great one. I don't care about the fact that we lost against those suckers, but still we are the number 1 in supporting our team. Some pictures: Sturm-Supporters: http://www.sturmflut.net/Neu/Pictures/Photos/20031123-02.jpg http://www.sturmflut.net/Neu/Pictures/Photos/20031123-01.jpg http://www.sturmflut.net/Neu/Pictures/Photos/20031123-04.jpg http://www.sturmflut.net/Neu/Pictures/Photos/20031123-03.jpg http://www.sturmflut.net/Neu/Pictures/Photos/20031123-05.jpg http://www.gakhardknocks.at/fotos/2003-2004/231103/images/38.jpg GAK-Supporters: http://www.sturmflut.net/Neu/Pictures/Photos/20031123-08.jpg http://www.gakhardknocks.at/fotos/2003-2004/231103/images/25.jpg http://www.gakhardknocks.at/fotos/2003-2004/231103/images/29.jpg Video by the GAK-Supporters: http://www.gakhardknocks.at/fotos/2003-2004/231103/1.jpg
Nice pix - certainly looked like a great atmosphere on TV. Question: which is the bigger of the Graz clubs? Also, are either of you guys coming to Vienna for next Sunday's game?
Round 19: Sturm Graz 2 - 2 Pasching Austria Wien 5 - 1 Admira Wacker Mattersburg 1 - 1 Rapid Wien Bregenz 1 - 0 GAK Kärnten 0 - 3 Salzburg Austria Wien takes over at the top of the table with a demolition of Admira. Rapid Wien (second) could only get a point at Mattersburg, and GAK (third) came up empty at Bregenz (fourth). And what's happened to Salzburg?! Last four matches yielded three wins and a tie (away to leaders Austria Wien) and a combined score of 12-0! Only in eighth place after a terrible start but moving up quickly. Tough year so far for Sturm Graz, Schwarzweiss. (Nice pictures of the Grazer Derby.) Still, only five points out of sixth place. If they could turn it around like Salzburg...
Mattbro I would say that's still Sturm, even though we had two very bad seasons so far. I mean, Sturm has got many more fans than GAK. Our club has got more publicity, and even in the big countries of football, fans are still remembering their Champions League fights with Sturm Graz. Seen from the finances, the clubs are equal at the moment I'd say. I actually wanted to go to Vienna, but unfortunately I haven't got the time... Quaker I don't think we'll do like Salzburg that quick - remember, they gave us a 5:0 away defeat. And in my point of view, our coach Mischa Petrovic isn't the right one for higher objectives then avoiding relegation... Those pictures can't even tell how great the athmosphere really was... As though we aren't the sportive number 1 in Graz, we still are the better supporters ;-) Some more pictures from our derby: http://www.brigatagraz.com/albums/album25/DSC05011.jpg http://www.brigatagraz.com/albums/album25/DSC05018.jpg http://www.brigatagraz.com/albums/album25/DSC05022.jpg http://www.brigatagraz.com/albums/album25/DSC05028.jpg http://www.brigatagraz.com/albums/album25/DSC05026.jpg Could you tell me, are the US soccer supporters same as that?
In general, U.S. soccer fans are more subdued, but there are active supporters clubs for each MLS team. My hometown and MLS Champion San Jose Earthquakes really had a good playoff showing this year, and the fans created a wonderful atmosphere. Lots made the trip to Los Angeles (5-6 hour drive) to see the final. Here are some good shots of one of the Earthquakes fan sections in L.A. (I just got cut off on the right of the top one):
I think those SJ Supporters need some organisation. If they would try it the european way, I'm sure they'd we good supporters...
Round 20: Salzburg 0 - 1 Austria Wien Rapid Wien 1 - 1 Sturm Graz GAK 4 - 1 Kärnten Pasching 3 - 0 Bregenz Admira Wacker 2 - 0 Mattersburg Austria Wien earned a valuable three points by beating a hot Salzburg team on the road. Going into the winter break, Austria Wien is Wintermeister with a three-point lead over Rapid Wien and a four-point lead over GAK. Round 21 takes place on Feb. 21, 2004.