You may not believe it but the Austrian football team was once regarded as Das Wunderteam and tickets for their World Cup ties in the 1934 competition were hot! The team was the "cream" of Red Vienna, the toast of European football at the time and the Austrians arrived in Italy for the World Cup as favourites. It was a fixture against Scotland in Vienna in May 1931 that turned people's heads. Scotland had all the tradition behind them, the second oldest FA Cup competition and a professional league. The Scots were beaten 5-0, the first time they "fell" to a European Continental side. There was a run of 18 unbeaten matches by the Wunderteam, with 15 wins, including a demolition of Germany 6-0 away and then 5-0 at home.The new stadium, "Praterstadion" was sited in the middle of parks and gardens set at Vienna's heart and held 60,000. The Swedes, French, Italians, Hungarians and Czechs were all given the same treatment. In December 1932, the team visited England playing at Stamford Bridge, and in a flowing game, England won 4-3. Coach, Hugo Meisl, had put together a side of substance based around Matthias Sindelar...Der Papierene, the "man of paper". I have mentioned him before....I know you will want to look him up, then read the blog!
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/wunderteam.html?m=0
Today the Austrian team (Das Team), an original nickname, is ranked 23rd in the World and would love Marko Arnautovic to get around the pitch a bit more. He has already upset the North Macedonians, by using an abusive comment about the opposition's "mother" being Albanian......and a few things..
Apparently, if they were an England league side, they would be Huddersfield Town, BIG in the 1920-30s, with rare resemblance since! Never mind, if you happen to be in the country, Tiergarten Schonbrunn, founded in the capital in 1752, is the World's oldest continuously operating ZOO. I love it! In Eurovision they would give Italy 12pts and Spain NUL. Not one of their squad plays in the PL and Marko is slumming it in Shanghai Port. he did score the 3rd goal in their tie against North Macedonia, in the 89th minute, making it 3-1.
North Macedonia are ranked 62th. Lake Ohrid, at 980 feet (approx 300m) is one of the deepest and the oldest in Europe (apparently). They will give Croatia 12 points and Greece NUL in Eurovision. 37 year old Goran Pandev is the icon of the country's football, sadly not a singer, and he scored his team's only goal.
North Macedonia (Macedonia until February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. ... The majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people.
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