No losing allowed!

Bundesliga has the first crisis summit of the season

LASK has recently been down twice in a row in the Bundesliga and was also unable to celebrate a "resurrection" in the European Cup against Bucharest. Will they succeed today in Vienna?

(Bild: SEPA.Media | Severin Aichbauer)

(Bild: F. Pessentheiner)

(Bild: Dostal Harald)

(Bild: Scharinger Daniel)

(Bild: GEPA pictures/ Manfred Binder)

No losing allowed! Even though only three rounds have been played in the Bundesliga, this applies to both Austria and LASK at the Vienna Generali Arena on Sunday at 5pm. 

Austria and LASK have already met 156 times in the Bundesliga! But hardly ever as early as this year as the first crisis summit of the season, in which the rule for both teams in round four on Sunday is: no losing! After all, the pressure in the purple and black-and-white cauldrons is already pretty high for a number of reasons:

• EUROPACUP FLOPS: Austria embarrassed themselves with an exit against Finnish no-name club Tampere. LASK were downright shockingly weak in their 1:1 home draw against Bucharest on Thursday.

The Violets from Vienna were eliminated in the European Cup qualifiers against Tampere.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

• BUNDESLIGA STARTS: Austria Vienna got off to a moderate start with four points from the games against BW Linz (0:1), WAC (3:1) and Hartberg (1:1), LASK disappointing with three from the games in Hartberg (2:1) and against Altach (1:2) and Salzburg (0:1).

LASK, in the picture Robert Zulj (l.), lost to Salzburg in the last round in Linz.

(Bild: GEPA)

• TRAINER DISCUSSIONS: After round...1, the Viennese were already shouting in the direction of new coach and former LASK supervisor Stephan Helm: "Coach out!" At LASK, Thomas Darazs was counted out live in the studio by ORF experts after the 1:1 draw against Bucharest. Fittingly, the rumor mill is now firing up that Michael Wimmer, who was fired by Austria in the spring, sat in the stands during the last two LASK games.

LASK coach Thomas Darazs.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

• FAN PROTESTS: LASK supporters started the season with a 19-minute boycott at the opening game in Hartberg. They let Austria investor Jürgen Werner know where the fish starts to stink at the start in Linz. And a week later, at the first home game in Transparentform, they also told sporting director Manuel Ortlechner: "Werner and Orti out!" The latter, however, is more likely to happen at LASK to sporting director Radovan Vujanovic, who has long since been ousted by Andreas Wieland.

Austria fans at the season opener in Linz against FC Blau Weiß.

(Bild: Dostal Harald)

• TRANSFER POLICY: With Austria's 100-time former team player Aleksandar Dragovic and Germany's former world champion Jérôme Boateng, Austria and LASK presented the most notable additions of the summer. However, one of them is highly controversial . . .

Austria's top signing Aleksandar Dragovic (r).

(Bild: F. Pessentheiner)

• EX-FREUNDE: For years, Jürgen Werner and Siegmund Gruber were regarded as a successful sporting team in Linz. From today's perspective, however, the shared footballing fortune of the Welser and theTrauner was probably first and foremost an Innviertler: Since Oliver Glasner left LASK in 2019, the club has increasingly become a "graveyard" for coaches and a "through-house" for professionals, where there often seems to be an unconventional coming and going. For example, Tobias Lawal, who is now out injured alongside captain Zulj, is now almost the only identity figure at Linz. For Jürgen Werner, on the other hand, Favoriten never became his home. On the contrary: Austria would actually like to pay off Werner's investor group "WTF" by winter in order to finally get rid of the former LASK vice-president. However, this would require up to eight million euros due to high interest rates. And Austria, which is still financially ailing, does not have that at the moment, at least until the planned sale of the stadium!