LASK stumbles upon Tyrol: “We distribute many gifts”

LASK ran into WSG Tirol at the beginning of spring in the Bundesliga. The High Austrians suffered a bitter 2: 4, but performance related, defeat in the first game of 2021 when they returned to Pasching, after which they are only number four in the table after the 13th round. The Tyrolese are four points behind as fifth at unusual heights, but they are not euphoric, the clear goal remains descent.

“The disappointment is, of course, very great. We have big plans, but at the end of the day we weren’t prepared enough to implement these things, ”said LASK coach Dominik Thalhammer. Structural problems were the main reason for the defeat. “We were too impatient in our attacking efforts, we lost a lot of ball and Wattens was very dangerous on the counterattacks. They have become more and more self-confident, we have become more and more discouraged ”, analyzed the former ÖFB women’s team leader.

Peter Michorl’s (25th) tour that came out of nowhere didn’t give the Linzers the boost they hoped for. With three hits in twelve minutes, the Tyrolese turned the game around. David Gugganig (29th) hit his head after a corner kick. Nikolai Baden Frederiksen benefited from a serious mistake made by ÖFB goalkeeper Alexander Schlager (37th) and shortly afterwards (41st) struck again in the empty goal after Kelvin Yeboah exploited an oversight in the LASK defense.

“There were a lot of scenes that we strengthened our opponents with,” Thalhammer said angrily. His kickers knew it too. “We didn’t bring anything that we planned to do, we distributed a lot of gifts,” Captain Gernot Trauner said. The first appearance at the Raiffeisen Arena, which will be played for a long time due to construction works at the Linz stadium, was anything but as expected. In the seventh home game it was the first defeat and ended the impeccable record.

Pasching Square is more than 600 square meters smaller than Linz. As an excuse for defeat, the Linz did not want to use that. “If we had had a bigger playing field, the result would have been no different,” Thalhammer said. The gap between Linz (24) and Salzburg grew to four points, with Rapid (27) and Sturm Graz (25) ahead of one. “But what happens is not great,” Trauner said. There is no time to clean up, on Wednesday they will be invited in the sixth WAC, six points behind. “We have the opportunity to fix it,” Schlager emphasized.

For the Tyrolese, for whom Yeboah also scored (71./ penalty), the increase in points was completely unexpected. “Nobody would have expected us to win before the day. I myself did not believe that we could improve our position at the table in this game and extend our advantage over our competitors, ”admitted WSG coach Thomas Silberberger.

That also had to do with the general conditions. Due to the weather conditions, WSG kickers have hardly ever been able to practice on grass recently. “It was a crazy week for a Bundesliga club, I thought all the teams in the regional division had better conditions than us,” said the 47-year-old. He was much better in the match, especially with Frederiksen on loan from Juve. The 20-year-old spoke of “one of my best games” in the WSG suit. The position at the front is to your liking. “I can get more ahead and it is no secret that I am better offensive than defensive,” said the Dane.

Thanks also to him, the Tyrolese have six victories, two of them abroad against the four best teams (previously 3-0 in Rapid), as many as last season, which ended at the bottom. There is Admira, who like the penultimate Altach has twelve points less than the WSG. “We put an exclamation point again and more than we won our position in the table, but we are not talking about the final result. Other clubs do that, we definitely don’t, ”Silberberger emphasized.

The table is also misleading. “If today were the division of points, it would be six points ahead, and if you later lose a direct duel, it will burn again anyway,” says the Tyrolean. Fixing the descent is the big problem. In return, they want to increase their lead over the two worst-ranked teams to more than six points (after dividing the points) in the basic round.