To bid farewell to the Bundesliga, Austria host Lustenau in another derby in Altach on Saturday (5pm on live ticker>>>).
A final “threesome” with rivals Vorarlberg should ease the pain of missing out on relegation a bit. “Of course we want to win the game at the end of the season,” declared coach Andreas Herroff. In Altach, many players are saying goodbye.
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Two years after the Oberhaus gig, the Lustenauers will be shooting smaller roles in the future. After recent good results, Herapp’s troops look forward to a relegation battle at Schnabelholz. However, SCR managed to avoid this with a 1-0 win at WSG Tirol.
“We’ve been fighting to stay in the league for a long time, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough in the end,” lamented Herroff, who was on a recovery mission in Austria during the winter break.
Heraf has to do without several players in the season finale due to injuries. “It doesn’t make sense to take big risks with one or two sick players,” the coach said, referring to the game, which is essentially about prestige.
Nine players leave Altach
The Altachers, on the other hand, want to keep the white shirt of the season in the last Vorarlberg derby. The Rheindörflers were flawless in the previous three duels (3:0, 3:0, 1:0). “It would be nice if we had four derby wins in one season. We have to give something more to the fans in the sold-out stadium,” said coach Joachim Standfest.
The full SCR cast will give their farewell performance. Ten years after Altach’s Bundesliga record player Jan Zwischenbrugger, the 33-year-old defender did not play again this year. Goalies Tobias Schützenauer and Alexander Eckmayr and Felix Strauss, Constantin Reiner, Manuel Prietl, Nosa Edokpolor, Jan Jurcec and Dominik Reiter also say hello.
“We wanted to extend the contract with Consti Reiner and we had an option to buy. But he wants to go back to Poland for personal reasons,” explained sporting director Roland Kirchler. The same applies to Schützenauer.
Altach would have preferred to keep the senior
They would also have liked to keep veteran Bridle. The 32-year-old, who suffered a cruciate ligament tear earlier in the season, has different plans. “Because of his injury and his personal situation with the family, he said he would end his professional career,” said Kirchler, who briefly evaluated the Kirchler/Standfest team after year one.
“Basically, the season is good for me. But we can do better and we have to reward ourselves more in the future.”
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