Austria in football frenzy
Rangnick feels a lot of love and gets into trouble
13.06.2024, 11:28 a.m.
Austria is in football fever – thanks to Ralf Rangnick. The coach is revered in the Alpine republic and is probably getting more love than ever before in his career. Despite several bitter defeats, the coach believes in a strong European Championship in his German homeland.
Ralf Rangnick let his players go first. Then he also took time for the many fans. In Berlin, after the public training of his Austrian national team, the coach signed autographs within sight of the large Olympic Stadium and posed smiling for photos. His first major tournament as national coach, in his home country – and from Germany’s neighboring country, he is receiving more love as a coach than perhaps ever before.
“I have arrived in an incomparable way, as a coach and as a person,” said the 65-year-old, the oldest head coach of the tournament, to the weekly magazine “Zeit”. “There has never been a lack of respect and appreciation at any of my stations. However, the fact that the word love is often mentioned here is certainly no coincidence.” On Monday evening (9 p.m./ARD and MagentaTV as well as in the live ticker at ntv.de) The Austrian Football Association (ÖFB) team will start the tournament against runner-up France. The group matches against Poland and the Netherlands will then follow in Berlin on 21 and 25 June.
Rangnick knows his limits
In order to be able to devote himself fully to this matter of the heart, Rangnick has turned down FC Bayern. “We invested two years here in Austria to get to where we are now. I didn’t want to jeopardize that,” he told “Kicker”. And he didn’t want to risk his health by trying to do both. “I know what it’s like to exceed your strength. I didn’t want to experience that again under any circumstances,” he said, referring to his burnout, which forced him to leave Schalke in 2011. Nevertheless, turning down Bayern was one of his “most difficult professional decisions.”
The fact that he was viewed with skepticism in Germany for a long time was sometimes very painful, the coach admits. When he explained the back four and pressing in the German football stone age in the ZDF “Sportstudio” in 1998, he had the reputation of being a professor. His work for the financially strong and therefore controversial projects of Dietmar Hopp in Hoffenheim and Red Bull did not make him any friends among traditionalists.
But that doesn’t change the fact that the 65-year-old is a great modernizer and developer. He shaped the style of all teams in the Red Bull cosmos, which the Austrians now also cultivate: aggressive pressing, lots of energy, as direct a path towards the goal as possible. This also suits the ÖFB team so well because many players already know these ideas from Salzburg and Leipzig. “You can just tell that the team and the coaching staff are a perfect fit, like a glove,” said Bayern Munich midfielder Konrad Laimer in an interview with ntv.
The euphoria in Austria is great
The Austrians are coming with a lot of tailwind. They showed how unpleasant they are as opponents with friendly wins against Germany, Serbia and Turkey, among others. They qualified with ease. What makes the team particularly strong? “The absolute willingness to contribute in the interests of the team and not take themselves too seriously – you could describe it as a family,” said Rangnick. The euphoria is great by Austrian standards. 3,000 fans recently came to the public training in Windischgarsten, Upper Austria, in the pouring rain. Even if the team did not get one of the venues close to the border, many will make the trip.
The reputation as a dark horse is often an omen for a quick exit, as the ÖFB selection itself has known since 2016. Above all, the Austrians have been drawn into what is probably the toughest group with France, the Netherlands and Poland. “If we want to progress in the group, we have to perform at the absolute highest level,” said Rangnick. “But if we manage that and progress, then there won’t be many more difficult opponents.”
“They really hurt, no question about it”
But there is also a lot of bad luck with injuries. With captain David Alaba (Real Madrid) supporting from the bench, Xaver Schlager (Rasenballsport Leipzig), Frankfurt loanee Sasa Kalajdzic and the actual number one in goal, Alexander Schlager, a whole axis is missing. “They really hurt, no question about it. But if everyone else stays healthy, we’ll be able to put a really strong team on the field,” promises Rangnick.
With the pressing machine, you can definitely surprise big teams and the group opponents also have to complain about a few losses. If Austria advances, it will be interesting to see how sustainable the intensive style works in a tournament like this. Many of the successful nations have recently chosen a much more cautious approach. “Yes, it is very unlikely that Austria will become European champions. But it is not completely out of the question,” said Rangnick.