Austria national football team. EURO 2008. Group B

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The Austria national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Austria in international competition and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association (German: Österreichischer Fußball Bund).

Austria has qualified for seven World Cups. The country has not yet qualified for a European Championship itself. It will play in the tournament for the first time in 2008 as co-hosts the event with Switzerland .

Pre-war Period of Austrian Football

The Austrian Football Association was founded on 18 March 1904 in the Empire of Austria-Hungary. Under coach Hugo Meisl the team enjoyed success in the 1930s.They became a dominant side in Europe and earned the nickname "Wunderteam". On 16 May 1931, they first defeated Scotland.

In the 1934 FIFA World Cup, they finished 4th after losing 0-1 to Italy in the semifinals, and 3-2 to Germany. At the Summer Olympics 1936 they were runners-up in the Football. They again lost to Italy, 2-1. (They had actually lost in the quarterfinals to Peru, but were re-instated after Peru withdrew after a re-match was ordered.)

Austria had qualified for the 1938 finals.That time Austria was annexed to Germany in spring of that year in the Anschluss, they withdrew and did not play any matches. For political reasons, some players from Rapid Wien had to be merged into the German team. After World War II, Austria was again separated from Germany. Austria's best result came in 1954. Tthey finished third after losing the semifinal to eventual champion Germany. It was their best result ever.

1970's and 1980's

Austria reached the World Cup in 1978 and 1982. The legendary striker Hans Krankl and co-star Bruno Pezzey lead the team to the victory. This Austria team is widely regarded as the best post-WWII Austrian football team ever.

In the Football World Cup 1978 in Argentina, they had lost two games and would almost surely finish last in their Second Round group of four teams, but they put in a special effort for their last game in Córdoba against Germany, and eliminated the defending world champion, beating them 3-2 by goals of Krankl. The celebrating report of the radio commentator Edi Finger ("I werd narrisch!") became famous in Austria, while the Germans regard the game as a disgrace.

During the Football World Cup 1982 in Spain, Austria and Germany met again, in the last game of Round 1, after the other two teams in their group had played a day earlier. A score by German striker Hrubesch after 10 minutes meant that both teams would advance if the 0-1 would be the final score, and thus both teams defended this result for 80 minutes in what was an exceptionally boring game.

Austria was eliminated by losing to France in the Second round group stage of three teams.

1990s

Led by striker Toni Polster, Austria qualified for the 1990 World Cup, but were eliminated in the first round.

Much worse was to faile 0:1 against the Faroe Islands in the qualifying campaign for the European Championship 1992. It was one of the biggest upsets in footballing history. The game was played in Landskrona, Sweden because there were no grass fields on the Islands. It was a sign for things to come: Austria suffered another couple of years of botched qualifying campaigns.

In the World Cup 1998, Austria were drawn in Group B along with Italy , Cameroon and Chile . Their appearance was brief but eventful, as they managed the curious feat of only scoring in stoppage time in each of their matches. Against Cameroon, Pierre Njanka 's superb goal was cancelled out by Toni Polster 's late strike. In their second game, it was Ivica Vastic who curled a last minute equalizer, cancelling out Marcelo Salas 's disputed opener. Austria weren't so fortunate in their crucial, final match at the Stade de France . Italy scored twice after half-time; a header from Christian Vieri and a tap-in from Roberto Baggio. Andreas Herzog 's stoppage time penalty kept up Austria's unusual scoring pattern, but was not enough to prevent Austria finishing third in the group, behind the Italians and Chileans.

Recent years

In the recent years, Austria's play has declined. They failed to qualify for the next World Cups and European Championships, and suffered extreme embarrassment when they lost 0:9 against Spain and shortly after 0:5 against Israel in 1999. In 2006 Josef Hickersberger became coach of the Austrian national team which was not able to win against Canada 0:2, Croatia 1:4, Hungary 1:2, Costa Rica 2:2 and Venezuela 0:1. The last three matches in 2006 against Liechtenstein 2:1; a notable match against Switzerland 2:1 and Trinidad & Tobago 4:1 stopped the series of bad games and results.

In 2007 Austria played against Malta (1:1), Ghana (1:1), France (0:1), Scotland (0:1), Paraguay (0:0), Czech Republic (1:1), Japan (0:0; 4:3 after penalty shoot-out), Chile (0:2), Switzerland (1:3), Ivory Coast (3:2), England (0:1). and Tunisia(0:0).

In 2008 they played their first match against long time rivals Germany (6.2.2008) in Vienna. Austria played very well, but still lost 0-3. The next match of the year was against the Netherlands in Austria (26.3.2008), Austria started off brilliantly going 3-0 up, however the Netherlands ended up coming back and winning 4-3. Austria's next match was against Nigeria (27.5.2008), which ended in a 1-1 draw.

As a co-host for the 2008 European Cup, Austria will have its chance to redeem its name once again before and during the European Championship.