21.12.2020 05:15
(Akt. 21.12.2020 05:15)
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Salzburg coach Marsch gave his team a grade of 2
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In 2020, too, the winter crown is in the biggest Christmas package for soccer series champions Red Bull Salzburg. However, the defending champion stumbled initially, the present almost had been delivered in Linz. LASK, however, left the big chance with a 1: 1 at Austria. The title fight seems more exciting than it has been for a long time. At the top of the league, four teams go into the short break within one point until the restart at the end of January.
Salzburg coach Jesse Marsch was not completely satisfied after a turbulent autumn, including recently worth seeing but unrewarded Champions League appearances. His grade for the past few months? “I think two. We played better than two, but the results were worse,” said the American.
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On Sunday it was the third loss of the season in the league in a 3-2 draw against WAC, the third in the last five games. No wonder that the competition, which is not flawless with the exception of Sturms, has recently come so close. LASK, Sturm and Rapid hold at 24 points, only one less than the “Bulls”. The secret winter king is of course the Grazers, who will contest the supplement at the WAC on January 17th. Salzburg could even start from second place at the spring start in Altach on January 23rd.
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It was noticeable on the master’s side that they conceded at least one goal six times in a row. A circumstance that caused Marsch some worries again on Sunday. “I think we played well, but we didn’t defend well enough,” he said in view of the goals conceded by Jonathan Scherzer (51st), Dejan Joveljic (52nd) and Eliel Peretz (79th). Marsch compared the game with the 1: 3 also at home against Sturm at the end of November. “Sure it’s frustrating. But I can’t be so negative with our group trying so hard,” he stated.
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One who will be missing from this group in spring is Dominik Szoboszlai, who is the next young star to leave the club for RB Leipzig in winter as expected. Don’t be afraid of march, he assured me. “We lose Szobo but get an American, he’s a great player,” he said of US midfielder Brenden Aaronson, who is moving to Salzburg from Major League Soccer. And then there is the Liefering farm team, “many of these young players are almost ready,” Marsch was convinced. They should be too. “There is always a possibility that we will lose someone.”
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LASK wants to upgrade rather than lose anyone. Dominik Thalhammer reiterated the search for a man for position 9 in view of the injury misery in the center forward position. “We are thinking about that intensively,” said the Linz coach. Sunday evening ended with hanging heads for his team in the last excitement of the domestic football year. Rene Renner failed at Austria deep in stoppage time with a penalty kick to Patrick Pentz. After a brief moment of shock, Thalhammer immediately went into attack mode.
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“Our path has only just begun,” the head coach stated. His team showed a great development in autumn. “We can look back positively, with the task of becoming an even better team in the spring,” said Thalhammer. The next two weeks up to the start of preparations in early January will also be used in Linz to “come down and look in the rear-view mirror”.
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Thalhammer described the starting position before the start of spring as exciting. “Of course it’s nice for the league when Salzburg is weak. I think that’s good for Austrian football,” he said. His captain Gernot Trauner also didn’t want to quarrel after missing the opportunity to make the leap forward. “It would have been nice to be at the front over the winter break. But it won’t be decided until the spring anyway,” said the defender. After the ten rounds that follow there, the points are divided. The top field could then line up again closely.
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