Purple holiday in Vienna: Austria celebrated a successful end to the season.
Photo: imago/Chris Bauer
When I recently reported in Berlin about my plans for an expedition to Vienna, all that came out of my crowd of admirers was weary smiles and pity: Austria’s home games are even more boring than Bayern Munich’s, I should go to Rapid, Vienna or Wiener SC. Rapid was too green for me, Vienna played away and at Wiener SC it’s more about celebrating yourself. Why not go to Austria, which has achieved brilliant European feats in the last millennium?
Off by train to Vienna, in the Bohemian Prater a Bierstadl stilt and through the Löwygrube to the stadium. A few months ago, Austria seemed insolvent and was traded as the number one relegation team. This year she scraped participation in the European Cup and caused a lot of euphoria in the Violet camp. In fact, the game against Sturm Graz was almost sold out with over 14,000 people, and you could already smell the anticipation in front of the stadium.
Because the Graz away block was also filled with young people who loved to sing, the result was a wonderful stadium experience with many goals and gnarly fan folklore. Pyro and smoke pots are tolerated in Austria’s league as long as nobody throws their firecrackers on the lawn. That is very praiseworthy and must be copied in Germany. The lively smoking in the stands, garnished with Falco’s “Rock me Amadeus” as the entrance music, motivated the visitors to singsong, which startled the ducks in the nearby village pond well after the end of the game. The 82nd minute was very poignant when the scoreboard reminded me of Ivica Osim. The Graz coach died on May 1, which was also the club’s 113th birthday and Osim’s 81st birthday. The entire stadium stood and applauded.
Dudinnen and Dudes, the atmosphere was outstanding, also because both teams happily shot away and scored six goals. Austria won 4-2. And because Rapid also smeared with a village team (which belonged to a litter box manufacturer, you only get that in Austria), the Violets were even allowed to celebrate the city championship. In Austria’s fan curve, friends from Essen from Rot-Weiss showed their flag several times and informed the Viennese about their promotion to Germany’s third division. Austria vs. Graz offered the level of a good game in the second division.
While I was already mentally preparing for the best schnitzel roll in the second division at Florisdorfer AC the next day, Austria’s Freudenchor accompanied me to the subway. There, fanatics from Graz and Vienna met peacefully without this meeting leading to unnecessary differences.
On Sunday, FAC followed FAK. Austria’s second league proved to be of a high regional league level, at least on the day of the expedition. The Florisdorfer AC from Vienna won against the 2nd team of the Linzer ASK in front of 900 spectators. The early evening event spoiled me with four goals, the FACers won 3:1. Gaining information: The 2nd teams of the Austrian Bundesliga clubs are not allowed to appear as such, but have cute names like FC Juniors OÖ in the case of Linz.
The range of food in the stadium was very old school. Yes, I ate a schnitzel soaked in mayo and ketchup semi-edible. I call the atmosphere in the group friendly, family-like. Now and then two dozen die-hards sang in the fan block behind the goal. The FAC became runners-up and narrowly failed to get promoted to the top division. Next season, First Vienna FC, another Viennese club, will play in the 2nd division, so this derby will definitely be worth it.
