Fear and Loathing in Vienna

The scene of the crime...a crime against football.

 The last time I was at Austria Vienna's stadium, it had been part of a highly unusual yet enjoyable evening in September 2022, yet there wasn't a single Austrian on the pitch. That was because the Generali Arena was hosting a friendly match between Qatar and Chile for some reason. It was a great game, which finished 2-2 and involved a brief cameo from Ben Brereton-Diaz, but with the stadium more than half-empty, I would definitely need to return for an Austria Vienna game at some point.

Fast forward three years and that point has finally arrived. Back in August, I visited Austria's fierce rivals, Rapid Vienna as they played out a goalless draw against Rheindorf Altach, but now comes the turn of Austria Vienna as they host Blau-Weiss Linz. The hosts should be absolutely buzzing following their 3-1 win at Rapid, and given that away fans couldn't attend, they'll certainly be welcomed home as heroes.

The previous visit did spawn a blog for that unusual friendly match along with an overview of Austria Vienna's illustrious historu, meaning this blog won't focus a great deal on that. Rather, it will focus on the day itself - how does it compare to their fierce rivals down in Huttendorf? More importantly, will I see my first Austrian Bundesliga goal? 

Roses are red, Violets are Blau...

In short, yes I will, but at what cost? And I mean cost in both a metaphorical and literal sense, given that more often than not with Austrian football, you'll pay 20 Euros at least for a football match that really doesn't justify such a price tag. 

Perhaps I've been unlucky with the games I've chosen, but in almost 50 euros worth of Austrian Bundesliga football I've seen this season, I've been treated to one goal from the penalty spot. In fairness, the goalless draw at Rapid was at least somewhat entertaining as far as goalless draws go, but even so.

Vienna's relative proximity to Brno, twinned with a 5pm KO meant that I could at least sleep in and take the 11.40 bus after grabbing some breakfast in Brno. The only problem was I'd accidentally booked a bus to the airport, meaning I probably looked suspicious as the only passenger without at least one bag. In any case, getting from the airport to the city was easy enough, albeit incredibly crowded. I just about managed to escape at my stop.

During the journey from Brno, we also had the alarming sound of...well, an emergency alarm as we crossed over into the Austrian border. It seemed Austria wanted to test out their emergency provisions. If the morning coffee doesn't wake you, a bus full of emergency alerts, test or otherwise, certainly will. I should have perhaps taken that as a warning to just turn back and go back to Brno in hindsight.

Going into the game, Austria Vienna were on a high following last week's 3-1 derby success at Rapid as mentioned. Having started the season so poorly, including a cup loss to third tier Voitsberg, and a winless four game start in the league, AND a defeat to Baník Ostrava in the Conference League, Austria Vienna were now cruising on a four game winning streak.

The away side meanwhile have had an indifferent start, equally experiencing a four game winless start, only this time with all four games being losses. The last four have been more promising, with two wins, a draw, and a loss. Having said that, the loss was at the behest of city rivals LASK, so it will have undoubtedly stung. All signs pretty much pointed to a home win.

Before making my way to the ground, I decided I'd walk to one of my favourite buildings in Europe, Schloss Belvedere, only to find it was undergoing construction work. I should have taken that as another sign that this was the wrong choice of fixture this weekend. In any case, I made my way from Sudtiroler Platz to Altes Landgut - a mercifully convenient and quick subway journey.

The game was perhaps the worst I've seen all season. Both teams cancelled each other out for 75 minutes with barely a chance falling either way, until a foul in the box I didn't actually see led to a penalty for Blau-Weiss Linz. It was converted by Shon Weissman to the delight of the travelling support. Incidentally, this is a man who Fortuna Dusseldorf backed out of signing because of his comments which supported 'wiping Gaza off the map'. Lovely guy. Free Palestine.

The only highlight of my exeprience within the ground was the noise - both home and away fans were loud and proud throughout. For whatever reason, a man in a Bayern Munich shirt managed to succesfully goad the away fans, and the home ultras delayed the second half kick-off with a random firework display. 

Overall though, it was probably the only positive from a grey and dreary occasion. The chips were also incredible, and the toilets were clean (and they offered some respite from a dreadful game). Oh, and the beer naturally tasted like soap, as unfortunately most Austrian beers tend to. I like a clean taste, but come on.

I took the subway back to Sudtiroler Platz after the game and had two hours or so to kill, with trains and buses to Brno stopping until 9 for reasons unclear. When I finally did manage to board a bus, it was stuck in around half an hour's worth of traffic just outside Vienna. In all honesty, I'd started to grow tired of Vienna - I'd been countless times and it was still the only city or town I'd properly visited in Austria. 

I did at least manage to entertain myself during the long wait with Sid Lowe's excellent Fear and Loathing in La Liga, which I would highly recommend for an extensive history on not just El Classico, but the politics and history around it. It also helped me come up with a suitable title for the blog.

Perhaps it's the soapy beer, the overpriced everything, the lack of functional plug sockets at the main station, or even the terribly signposted bus station, but I've probably had my fill of Vienna for the time being at least. I was home by around midnight, questioning a lot of life choices, but at least safe in the knowledge Stevenage were top of League One...

This week's planned fixtures: Blansko v Frydek-Mistek on Saturday afternoon, followed by Velké Meziříčí v Žďas Žďár nad Sázavou on Sunday morning.