Cologne loanee Dietz

Altach’s new goalscorer relies on a fighting game

Florian Dietz (l.) celebrates his goal to make it 1:1 against RB Salzburg.

(Bild: DIETMAR STIPLOVSEK)

Two goals in five games, plus one assist: Altach finally have a real striker again who can score and set up goals. The 26-year-old Florian Dietz, who was brought in on loan from 1. FC Köln in the winter, scored and provided the assist in the 3:1 win at BW Linz, and against Salzburg he converted Alexander Schlager's penalty against Mike Bähre to equalize the score at 1:1.

However, the German had not imagined the start of the game against the Salzburg Bulls to be the way it turned out. He was on the substitutes' bench, Mustapha and Diawara were preferred to him. "It was only when the coach explained to me what he was planning to do with the two strikers he had nominated that I understood," said Dietz.

Because half one against the Bulls didn't work out in attack, the Franconian-born attacker came on for Mustapha at the break. With the 1.90 meter tall center forward, the Rheindörfler actually managed to keep Salzburg more occupied in their half of the pitch: "The fighting game suits us, we clearly showed that in this game," says Dietz. Incidentally, this will be the first time in his career that he will be playing in the final third of the championship: "I'm not familiar with it yet, but I know from talking to colleagues that you can only survive in the lower group if you put up a great fight. You probably won't be able to win everything with playful means alone."

Points in Klagenfurt
For Dietz, Sunday's game at Austria Klagenfurt is a very important one: "We absolutely have to score points, every point we pick up before the points are shared is a bonus for us that can help us in the fight to stay in the league. However, Vorarlberg's burden against the Carinthians is huge. Ingolitsch's side have yet to win in the seven matches between the two teams, with just two draws to their name.