With an eye on the World Cup qualifiers
ÖFB: The “one-man question” is not only open in goal
The ÖFB team's goal is not the only open question. A column by "Krone" editor Rainer Bortenschlager.
Almost 170 Austrian fans are accompanying our team to Almaty today. Via Istanbul, Doha and Dubai. An arduous journey. However, the ÖFB direct flight took off without two players: Gernot Trauner stayed in Vienna and will start against Slovenia on Sunday. And Florian Grillitsch is fighting his inflamed lymph nodes in the adductor area with antibiotics. "Apart from that, we'll play with the best possible formation," said ÖFB team boss Ralf Rangnick.
The goal will be rotated again. Salzburg's Alex Schlager will be between the posts today, followed by Bröndby's Patrick Pentz at the Happel Oval. "There's no envy here, it's clearly and openly communicated internally who is playing. Everyone begrudges the other, we push each other," enthuses Schlager about the good atmosphere in the goalkeeping team.
Nevertheless, the rotation is an indication that the team boss wants to keep the one-man question open for the World Cup qualifiers. Whether Austria will be drawn from Pot 1 in the draw on December 13 remains to be seen. The eight quarter-finalists in the Nations League (League A) and the four other best European nations in the FIFA World Ranking will be in the first pot. Austria, in twelfth place, are currently in the hot seat.
Regardless of how Marcel Sabitzer and Co. play now, they can only hope that Poland, Hungary or Serbia do not qualify for the Nations League quarter-finals as group runners-up in the A League. They are all currently third. Nevertheless, Austria's double pack is not pointless: two wins would see them return to the A-League. And as group winners, they would be as good as guaranteed a play-off place if something does go wrong in the World Cup qualifiers.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
Kommentare
Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.