“Unfortunate and undeserved! However, the 3-0 defeat by Germany nourishes a lot of hope”, read the Internet site of the Austrian Football Association, OFB, in its assessment of the first international match of 2008. The encounter with Germany four months prior to the start of the 2008 UEFA European Championship™ was respectively assessed by the Austrian media. “A terribly nice fiasco” was the headline in the newspaper “Der Standard”. Three goals conceded, no goal scored, but one hour of good football bringing clear domination and many good chances to score against the three-time European champions and reigning World Cup bronze medallists prompted “Kleine Zeitung“ to the following headline: “It was fun anyway. There is hope in this defeat”.

The clear defeat is indeed deceiving, for the Austrian team on the whole matched their opponents – apart from their failure to score. Thomas Hitzlsperger, with a long shot (53rd) when the host team was still clearly dominant, Miroslav Klose (63rd) and Mario Gomez (60th) scored the goals. Thanks to two major saving actions by German defender Per Mertesacker to thwart Roland Linz, a shot against the goalpost from Martin Harnik, and some good saves by the otherwise very uncertain German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, the visitors kept their goal clean. But the most important insight for the Austrians was that the attack was ultimately ineffective. Martin Harnik, the 20-year-old with Werder Bremen, who often plays on the right side of defence with the Bundesliga’s top club, attacked alongside Roland Linz, who recently returned from Portuguese club SC Braga. The performance of this duo was creditable, but they missed the qualities of former Austrian top goalscorers such as Hans Krankl and Toni Polster.

OFB head coach Josef Hickersberger did not want to discuss why he had dropped older strikers Mario Haas, 33, and Ivica Vastic, 38, for Linz, 26, and Harnik. He and his staff had taken the German coaches and scouts by surprise. Hickersberger decided his team should be on the offensive as never before, so lined them up in a 3-5-2 formation instead of the usual 4-5-1 system. “If we want to get the crowds behind us at the European Championship we cannot play defensively over 90 minutes”, disclosed Hickersberger, who had earlier preached the opposite on taking over the job in 2006. The almost sell-out crowd (48,500) at Ernst Happel Stadium reacted enthusiastically. Austria will play Germany again in the third group match of the 2008 UEFA European Championship™ in Vienna on June 16, the city which will also host the European final. The hosts will then probably tend to remember “Cordoba” with hope again. In that Argentine city, Austria defeated Germany 3-2 during the FIFA World Cup on June 21, 1978, and sent the then reigning World Cup champions home prematurely. “We don’t have to freeze with respect when we meet the German team”, Hickersberger said, in regard to the preliminary round match of UEFA EURO 2008™.

The 59-year-old will steadfastly maintain his style until then. His reply to a question asking whether he would not rather include the older strikers was: “That’s also a question of philosophy. Juergen Klinsmann initiated a generation change in Germany. Now they have a strong team and are among the European Championship favourites”. He emphasised the encouraging signs from the encounter: “The players saw that they are capable of getting even an opponent such as Germany into difficulties by such a style of play.” Emanuel Pogatetz, who made his comeback after Hickersberger had forgiven him in the autumn of 2006 following some biting criticism, pointed quite clearly to the weaknesses, however: “I think we saw that we have to work on physical fitness. We could not maintain our level after 60, 65 minutes. Then the Germans overran us, had all the space they needed and coolly exploited their opportunities”, the defender with Middlesbrough FC said. But the former Bayer Leverkusen player, who contributed to the improved performance of the team as did Linz, also recognised the progress: “The first half made me proud. The Germans were lucky that the score remained at 0-0”.

The visitors had an advantage because the German Bundesliga had restarted after the winter break. The Austrians practically came straight from their winter break without any match practice, as the Austrian league was not scheduled to resume until 10 days after the international encounter. “We have lost and don’t know why. But we know that we have made a step forward”, captain Andreas Ivanschitz said. The 24-year-old playmaker produced a convincing performance, following harsh criticism from many Austrian media representatives. Hickersberger rightly praised the blond star of Panathinaikos Athens.

Alexander Manninger, who keeps goal for AC Siena in the Italian Serie A, performed excellently from the start. But his performance declined as did that of the entire team. The 30-year-old might have saved Gomez’s header for the 3-0 final score after a cross from Lukas Podolski. Hitzlsperger’s first goal, a low shot into the corner of the net after a defending mistake was impossible for him to reach. Manninger’s view was impeded. “I only heard after the match that he has been blamed for mistakes. I did not see anything from the coaching bench”, Hickersberger disclosed. Juergen Macho was missing from the squad with concussion, Helge Payer was also missing. Hickersberger hopes to be a step nearer to solving the question of who will be in the Austrian goal at the 2008 UEFA European Championship™ after the next big friendly against the Netherlands in Vienna on March 26.