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WSG Tirol is in the group of champions, yes, you read that correctly in the MEISTERGRUPPE and therefore, it is already clear, it will also be part of the Austrian football league next season. Certainly you could have won a euro or two with a bet on a WSG in the top 6. The Tyrolese were “the No. 1 candidate for relegation” from the start. Silberberger and Co. have said that quite frankly and have accepted this role from the beginning.
To do a sports comparison: Before the season started, the WSG was as likely as Tom Brady to win the Super Bowl in his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but as we know today, of course both Tom Brady and WSG did. the impossible possible.
It is shortly before 7pm on Sunday when the Tyrolese are certain when it is clear that they have made the perfect sensation.
Hello Bundesliga
But let’s start at the beginning, almost two years ago the Tyrolese were already doing something that hardly anyone would have thought they could do: they were promoted to the Bundesliga. With six victories (in a row) at the end of the season, the Tyrolese overtake favorite Rieder and thus fulfill President Diana Langes’ dream: to make the WSG No. 1 in Tyrol. (Wacker Innsbruck was relegated from the Bundesliga a few weeks earlier after just one year)
After the last game in Horn, the Kristallkickers, the families and the fans who traveled with them, will break all the dams, and no one will forget the subsequent bus ride back to Wattens. The driver of the “Sisi” bus blocks traffic for a short time because he drives several laps in a row in the wrong direction at the roundabout at the Wattener Autobahn exit. The following Sunday the tractor passes Wattens, the freshly baked Bundesliga kickers cheerfully celebrate. Many members of the team, including the coach, accompanied the club on the way from the regional league to the first division, and for them their biggest sporting dream has come true.
‘Ana von uns’ with Benjamin Pranter and Florian Toplitsch
So despite Wacker Innsbruck’s relegation, Tirol have a Bundesliga team. For the WSG, the Bundesliga adventure does not start as WSG Wattens, but as WSG Tirol, as the Silberberger troop will be called from summer 2019.
WSG Tirol: reached the typical Bundesliga
To the Bundesliga adventure
The Tyrolese start off in a rage, celebrating a 3-1 win against Vienna Austria. The fall of football then goes to the WSG as probably many expected: the WSG is always in the bottom third of the table (except at the beginning), six losses in a row ensure that the Silberberger-Elf winters with the red lantern.
Routine: the supposed great trump card?
It is clear that something has to happen in winter. Too often the Tyrolese act too naive, Thomas Silberberger’s team can be told in every match that they have little Bundesliga experience in their ranks. With Fabian Koch, Stefan Maierhofer, Bruno Soares and Thanos Petsos, the WSG leadership brings solid names with a lot of routine but little game practice. At first, the plan seems to be working. The Tyrolese score seven points in the first four games, overtake two teams and advance to the qualifying round in tenth place, but then Corona arrives.
Crown breakage and motorcycle accident
The victory at Hartberg should be the last competitive game for WSG Tirol in nearly three months. The Austrian soccer league is on hiatus due to the corona pandemic. In Tyrol, quarantine regulations are even stricter than in the rest of Austria. Team training is out of the question.
For a long time it is unclear whether the championship can be played to the end, but it is then decided that the league will continue from June under strict conditions. Ten rounds in a month, ten rounds, which in the case of the WSG decide relegation or relegation. Right at the start, the Tyrolese conceded a sensitive 0: 5 bankruptcy against SKN St. Pölten. Thomas Silberberger sees everything from his sickbed. The Tyrolean coach suffered a serious motorcycle accident a few days earlier in which he suffered an open fracture. Silberberger’s foot had to be operated on several times during the following days, but only ten days after the accident, accompanied by a doctor who changed his bandages several times a day, he and his team traveled to Südstadt and Vienna Favoriten for the doubles. away.
Silberberger himself knows that this is more than crazy, the doctors – he says – “of course they advised him against it.” But anything other than the fact that he still wants to be there doesn’t suit Thomas Silberberger.
Even if the coach is “on board” again and the scheme moves up and down on one leg, the team has to get by for most of the week without its boss and that, Silberberger is sure today, “no Can work”. Before the last day of the match, the WSG is 12th in the table, there is a great showdown with its direct competitor Admira. The Tyrolese have several maximum opportunities during the 90 minutes, but they cannot take advantage of any of them. The game ends in a 0-0 draw, the WSG will be relegated from the Bundesliga on July 4, 2020 after just one year. Thomas Silberberger is a man with scars that night, still struggling with his serious injury right now. Later he talks about one of the worst days of his life. Often and often, he will keep quoting this July 4th, over and over again in the episode he will say in interviews: “If someone had told me July 4th” or something similar. Of course, on July 4 no one would have thought that the Bundesliga chapter is far from over for the WSG.
Back in League 2?
WSG President Diana Langes is in her second home, the Spanish resort of Marbella, as planning begins for the new season. Silberberger and Köck get on the plane. Although it should be mentioned that Köck pushes the not yet mobile Silberberger in a wheelchair through the Munich airport and onto the plane. You need to plan League 2 or the question of how things will go. What is clear from the start: while the coach and the sporting director wonder a lot if they are still the correct personal data for their respective jobs, the president does not doubt for a second the Silberberger / Köck duo despite the sports decline.
The Mattersburg cause and the second chance
Everything will change on July 15, 2020. Mattersburg is in dire financial straits due to the commercial banking scandal, the WSG can look forward to one more year in the Bundesliga.
As it becomes increasingly unlikely that Mattersburg will stay in the league, what they say is a laborious and grueling time begins for the WSG leadership. Stefan Köck and company have their hands tied, planning is not possible. Officially, the Tyrolese are planning for both leagues, but Silberberger admits they very soon planned “mainly” for League 1 because “they couldn’t imagine how that should be done for the SVM.”
In any case, Tyrolese cannot make transfers during this time. Köck: “It would be easier for us to build a team for the Bundesliga than for the second division.” The reason for this: Because many players only have one contract for the first division, the WSG has 14 players for at the moment. the Bundesliga, but only five for the second division.
On August 5, the WSG was safe. The Tyrolese are still first class. Stefan Köck: “As I have said several times, I do not like when someone is worse than us and I feel compassion for the SVM. But of course I am very happy that we can play one more year in the Bundesliga ”. The WSG now has a month to build a powerful team.
What the Wattener emphasized over and over again in the following days is the following: “There are two factors involved in this Bundesliga story, the sporting and the economic. We work very well, apparently not Mattersburg. So we use and look forward to this second chance. “
Youth trump card
As already mentioned, WSG management has to build a powerful team in a fairly short period of time. Silberberger and, above all, coach Stefan Köck work around the clock. A change in strategy will soon become apparent. All the newcomers are no more than 23 years old, between the exits there are four players over 30. At that time, Stefan Köck seriously declared that they were ten years younger. Of course, the people of Wattenern are met with some skepticism, but a few months later it is clear that those responsible for the WSG have probably done a lot of good.
The second year
In September, the Tyrolese begin their second chance season with their young troops. The WSG lose in the first round (very unfortunate) to the newly promoted Ried, but the spirit of optimism can already be felt in this first game of the new season. Something is different, the acting is fresh, daring and inspiring. Of course, one or the other might have thought, “Well that’s going to be fine again,” but you can still feel that a lot has changed. And this sentiment must be confirmed, the Tyrolese get five wins and two draws in the twelve autumn games, wintering in fifth place in the table, in the group of champions. In the spring, it looks like the Kristallkicker will approach the top 6 with big strides. But then, almost shortly before the finish line, comes the weakest first phase of the WSG. Six games without a win ensure the Tyrolese are not in the top 6 for the first time since November, two rounds before the points are split.
Silberberger: “No one would have thought we had anything to do with top-level sport”
The “Grande Finale” – hard to beat in terms of excitement
On lap 21, however, the Tyrolese are late back on the winning route, brought home after a good performance with three points from Wolfsberg, and suddenly they have it back in their own hands. On Sunday at 5 pm the time has come: showdown! The WAC, Hartberg and WSG fight for two places in the top 6 for 90 minutes, now there are always football matches, final phases and scenes that can hardly be overcome in terms of tension and that is why they always stay in your head.
The Sky conference on Sunday night is definitely one of those moments. The WAC quickly secured clarity in Vienna Favoriten, finishing the basic round in fifth place, so the WSG and Hartberg remain. It looks good for the Tyrolese for 75 minutes, then Hartberg changes the game against St. Pölten and all of a sudden the WSG is over. The game against Rapid ends 1: 1 – very little. At Hartberg, however, it is not over yet, in the 94th minute Kofi Schulz scores 3: 3 and knocks Hartberg out of the master group and the WSG into the master group at the last minute. WSG defender Raffael Behounek has announced to the Dusters that he will hang a photo of Kofi Schulz in the booth. Thomas Silberberger announced in an interview with Sky (of course with a wink) that he wanted to bring Schulz to the WSG in the summer.
Silberberger: “Can’t beat it in terms of dramaturgy”
In any case, all the dams are broken afterwards, the Wattener have achieved what nobody and probably not even they thought they could do: the jump to the top 6 and thus, as already mentioned at the beginning, logically the ticket for another season in the Austrian. Bundesliga.
Since promotion less than two years ago, perhaps more has happened at and around the WSG than at many other clubs in ten years, at least enough to explain it all to a football fairy tale.
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