Unlike five years ago, ORF 1 not only broadcasts the games from Austria from the Women’s European Championship, but all 31 (!). Wants to further position itself as a women’s station. Especially for those who believe that the European Championships in England are about more than sport. Rather, it is played for the general visibility of women. For equality. Who see football as a symbol that in too many areas of society women are still not given the right relevance and the attention they deserve. In Austria, with only 11,251 registered players, it’s hard to find arguments. The odds that Austria will become European champions are 70 before kick-off.
On the Küniglberg, one hopes for a second women’s summer fairy tale like in 2017 and thus for even better ratings than back then (981,000 viewers on average). When ORF broadcasts Germany against Denmark live on Friday, there will be a team boss on the Danish bench who worked in Austria between 2001 and 2009: Lars Söndergaard, now 63 years old, in eight years in Austria with Austria Salzburg, Austria Vienna , GAK, Wacker Innsbruck, the Red Bull Juniors and in the Salzburg Academy. Söndergaard has been responsible for Denmark’s women’s team since December 2017. At the Austrian, the number of supervisors has increased. 16 are now taking care of Irene Fuhrmann’s players. Five years ago she was the only assistant to team boss Dominik Thalhammer in Holland. Now she has two assistants and a match analyst at her side. On Monday, Fuhrmann had to accept two failures: striker Lisa Kolb is no longer part of the team because of Corona, and the Tyrolean midfielder Maria Platter, a legionnaire in Germany at Turbine Potsdam, because of a broken collarbone during training. Virginia Kirchberger, who was there in 2017, and Annabel Schasching from Sturm Graz are therefore in the squad. As a precaution, Fuhrmann took both of them with him to England as a “backup” anyway, which proved to be a good idea.
The chances of the second summer fairy tale? The first two of the four groups advance to the quarter-finals. England and Norway will give better chances in the Austria group. Nevertheless, Wednesday will always be unforgettable for everyone: In front of 75,000 spectators like in Old Trafford at the opening, no one has played and probably will not play again. Unless Austria shatters all predictions and reaches the final at the already sold-out Wembley Stadium on July 31st. The start will certainly be a special event for the three England legionnaires: for captain Viktoria Schnaderbeck, who plays for Tottenham, for goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger and defender Laura Wienroither (picture above), who are under contract with Arsenal. “We’ll leave our hearts on the pitch in every game,” announced Wienroither, “we’re sure to annoy the big ones that way!”
