Flo Rieder against "Ex"

“Don Didi” now becomes Austria’s record man

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

WAC face WSG Tirol in their Bundesliga home game on Sunday (2.30pm) and the recently transferred Florian Rieder - who had very little luck in Wolfsberg. And "Wolves" coach Didi Kühbauer is an Austrian record man at kick-off! Cup derby is scheduled.

Including the Cup, five games in a row undefeated, most recently the 3:0 win over double winners Sturm - "but", says WAC captain Dominik Baumgartner, "the really tough games are only now coming up. Because everyone expects us to be just as successful against our upcoming opponents." Like tomorrow Sunday against WSG Tirol, next Saturday against Hartberg. The start of a real "home game orgy": In the last ten competitive matches in the fall, the "Wolves" have home advantage no less than seven times (!). Including the highly charged cup derby against Klagenfurt, which has been fixed for Wednesday, October 30, as expected. The match will kick off at 8.30pm, as it is one of three matches broadcast by ORF via conference link.

Sole lead
The home match festival kicks off on Sunday with a match in which Didi Kühbauer will write Austrian soccer history. He is still tied with Heri Weber (69) with 738 Bundesliga games as a player AND coach, but "Don Didi" will now take the sole lead against WSG Tirol.

Heri Weber is the clear number one as a player with 573 games (for Sturm, Rapid, Salzburg), "Küh" (who, unlike the Styrian, also played abroad - for Real Sociedad, Wolfsburg) is only in 25th place with 421.

As a coach, Weber made 165 appearances (for Rapid, Salzburg), Didi has 317 (for Admira, St. Pölten, Rapid, LASK, WAC).

"A super story"
"If you dreamed of great things as a young boy and then you polarize like I did, then it's a great story, of course. But I was never a statistics person and I can't buy anything for the record. The team is more important to me, it's important that it works well again against Tirol, that we win," emphasizes Kühbauer.

In his "record match", he will have a 27-year-old Viennese referee, Isa Simsek, making his Bundesliga debut. Former top referee Stefan Meßner will act as his mentor and advisor. 

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Flo Rieder gegen den Ex-Klub

„Ich will das letzte WAC-Jahr nicht missen!“

The late 1:0 at the Hartberg premiere of former WAC coach Manni Schmid by ex-Spitaler Max Fillafer meant Tirol's fourth "rejection" in the seventh match. Semlic's side have failed to score five times in these seven games and have scored more goals than any other team with just four.

Return to Wolfsberg
One player who wants to change this as quickly as possible was still in WAC kit just four weeks ago: Flo Rieder (28) returns to Wolfsberg tomorrow after a year in Lavanttal with his Tyrolean compatriots. Where - after an embarrassing shitstorm from the Klagenfurt fans - he started the summer of 2023 highly motivated and with a lot of drive - and where a lot of things didn't go as the nimble 1.71 m mini would have liked.

22 appearances in the Bundesliga (one goal), three in the Cup (two goals), in the end - when it was clear that he would have no future at WAC - the early termination of his contract - that was it. "I always say: everything has a purpose in life, always question myself first - it just wasn't meant to be. But it was an instructive year, a year I wouldn't want to miss - simply because I got to know great people in Wolfsberg."

He is under no illusions about the difficulty of tomorrow's task. "WAC is an extremely difficult opponent - they have strong guys and a great coach." And for Tirol, Lukas Hinterseer (muscle), the most prominent returnee, is also missing.