Austria national football team
The Austrian Football Association was founded on 18 March 1904 in the Empire of Austria-Hungary. The team enjoyed success in the 1930s under coach Hugo Meisl becoming a dominant side in Europe and earning the nickname "Wunderteam". On 16 May 1931, they were the first European side to defeat Scotland. In the 1934 FIFA World Cup, they finished 4th after losing 1–0 to Italy in the semifinals, and 3–2 to Germany for Third place. They were runners-up in the Football at the Summer Olympics 1936, again losing 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, but due to the Anschluss on 12 March of that year, Austria was annexed to Germany. Already on 28 March,[1] FIFA was notified that the Austrian FA had been abolished, meaning also withdrawal from the World Cup, with the German team representing also Austria. Theoretically, a united team could have been an even stronger force than each of the separate ones, but German coach Sepp Herberger had little time and very few games to prepare and merge the very different styles of play and attitude. The former Austrian professionals outplayed the rather athletic yet amateur player of the "Old Empire" in a "reunification" derby that was supposed to finish as a draw, yet in the waning minutes, the Austrians scored twice, with Matthias Sindelar also demonstratively missing the German goal, and subsequently declining to be capped for Germany. In a later rematch, the Germans took revenge, winning 9–1. In early April, Herberger inquired whether two separate teams could enter anyway, but "Reichssportführer" Hans von Tschammer und Osten made clear that he expected to see a 5:6 or 6:5 mixture of players from the two hitherto teams. As a result, five players from Austria Wien, Rapid Wien and Vienna Wien were part of the team that only managed a 1–1 draw in Round 1 against Switzerland, which required a rematch. With Rapid Wien's forward Pesser having been sent off, and not satisfied with two others, Herberger had to alter the line-up on six positions to fulfill the 6:5 quota again. The all-German team led the Swiss 2–0 after 15 minutes, but eventually lost 4–2 in Paris, in front of a rather anti-German French and Swiss crowd, as few German supporters were able to travel to France due to German restrictions on foreign currency exchange. After World War II, Austria was again separated from Germany. Austria's best result came in 1954, when they lost the semifinal 6–1 to eventual champion Germany, but finished third after beating defending champion Uruguay 3–1. This remains their best result ever, and unfortunately the last time for decades that Austria reached the end round of a major tournament. Over the years, a strong yet mainly lopsided rivalry with Germany developed.
Source : Wikipedia.com
