As this weekend was a working weekend for me the limited temptations of a cold and breezy day accompanied by the friendly Tyrolian police and their cuddly Alsatians couldn’t compete with the joys of a full fridge of beer and food, or with the need to clear the decks of work so that I could finally write a report of some sorts for the Hall game a week earlier. It’s not that I don’t have priorities; it’s more to do with not having time to prioritise anything.
Fortunately, you would think, there is the Regionalliga-West online ticker service, which is like playing the earliest versions of football manager, before they even portrayed the games. Every 2 or 3 minutes there’s a comment like: ‘Union come forward’ or ‘The referee blows for an offside’. When you are not at the game you are grateful for every morsel of information, however useless and incomplete, but submissions like ‘Armin Hobel, as usual with his head shaved, but now with a beard’, will not be of much use to anyone looking for clues to the balance of the game.
By the way, Armin Hobel was the ‘star’ who played for Wattens last season. When they played at our place all he seemed to do was stand around waiting for a decisive pass. ‘Here I am – pass it to me!’ In the playoff game for promotion to the second division he took a ridiculously arrogant penalty in the shootout and cost his team the efforts of an entire season. A couple of weeks later he was on his way. Now he’s at Union Innsbruck and pretty certain to be relegated.
Ticker:
2 mins. ‘Union Innbruck take the first shot at goal via Todorovic’. The tension builds!
5 mins. Union are playing better at the back than against Wattens. This is relevant for the 200 people who saw Union vs Wattens, but is not of much use to me.
8 mins. ‘Hobel heads a Stanic cross into the arms of the Austria’s keeper’.
After 8 minutes there have only been three ball contacts – all of them by Union Innbruck. That’s 100% possession for Innsbruck.
10 mins. ‘Innsbruck has had more of the game so far, but hasn’t been able to make anything count yet’. 3 contacts for Innsbruck in ten minutes. We are being slaughtered!
13 mins. ‘First shot on goal by Schriebl’. The whole point of a ticker is to tell you about the game, but if you don’t know the Schriebl is an Austria Salzburg player then the information is as useful as ‘dog runs across pitch’. We know a lady called Irmi Schriebl; was it her?
16 mins. ‘Goal – Marko Vujic makes it 1-0 for Austria Salzburg’. First Irmi takes a shot at goal and now we’re 1-0 up. If you’re a slow reader like me you have to keep scrolling the action bites back as there’s so much happening now.
20 mins. ‘Innsbruck are doing more for the game. Austria Salzburg has scored the goal. Their fans are making lots of noise’. It has to be said, Innsbruck only allowed us 200 tickets, but if you play in a division of teams hoping to be promoted to the second division – professional football – why can you be allowed to have a ground that is not even suitable for third division football?
I’ll fast forward to the most important highlights of an action-packed first half:
35 mins. ‘Safet Todorovic sees yellow’. He plays for Union Innsbruck, as does Marco Golovic, who also gets a yellow-carded in the 37th minute.
My personal favourite entry has been erased for some reason. The value of a ticker is greater the more complete it is, but oddly enough one of the entries I read on Saturday has been removed. I can only tell you what I remember reading. Something along the lines of: ‘What is Hobel doing on the pitch? He’s not there to work, is he?’ Sounds like he was having one of his I – Armin days. Why they took it down, I don’t know.
43 mins. ‘Hobel heads past the post’. This is the kind of post we like to read.
45 mins. ‘Goal – Safet Todorovic. Innsbruck 1 – Austria 1’. This is not the kind of post we like to read. Apparently the ball was deflected and Hobel then claimed the goal. I’m sure that sort of thing has a positive effect on team spirit.
Having nicked a goal on half time a few Union fans couldn’t resist taunting the Austria fans, and a few of the Austria fans couldn’t resist being taunted. However, fortunately nothing came of it and the half time break was used to recharge after such as stunning 45 minutes of top class football.
Second half
Sounds like we came out better in the second half and Union Innsbruck were looking to save the point.
55 mins. ‘Hirsch shouts at his teammates to get into gear’.
Three more yellow cards for Innsbruck – Frasch, Stanic, Geiblinger – and it reads like we’re putting them under pressure.
76 mins. ‘Salzburg are going for the three points’. That’s correct.
80 mins. ‘Goal – Marko Vujic. Union Innsbruck 1 – Austria Salzburg 2.
These were the games we let slip in the first half of the season and I was waiting for the immediate equaliser...
86 mins. ‘Yellow card for Schaber (Innsbruck).
90 mins. ‘Ref adds on 3 minutes’.
90 mins. + ...Yellow cards for Hirsch and Wührer...and I was expecting some sort of ‘...and a penalty’... entry, but a few minutes later Elvis had left the building and the game finished 1-2.
All the best and see you in Maxglan!
Roge
