2023-07-29 03:13:28
The opening game of the 50th Bundesliga season ended on Friday with a 1-1 draw between LASK and Rapid – and caused emotional roller coasters for the two coaches. LASK coach Thomas Sageder was happy about the equalizer in the 95th minute, but struggled with his team’s performance in the first half. Rapid manager Zoran Barisic mourned the possible victory and was annoyed about the goal conceded late, but praised his team very much.
“The result feels really crappy for my boys, as well as for our fans. But in terms of performance, it was incredibly good,” said Barisic. “We controlled LASK extremely and didn’t let it come into play at all. We created a lot of chances, but unfortunately we didn’t close the lid,” the 53-year-old summed up.
Nevertheless, from Barisic’s point of view, the positive aspects outweighed the negative. “The team topped what I expected. You can’t expect a performance like that. Very few people thought we were capable of this.”
In the past few weeks, there had been a lot of doubts about Rapid’s quality, especially since Hütteldorfer had been reluctant to enter the transfer market. However, the new acquisitions proved that they can be real reinforcements. Matthias Seidl not only acted conspicuous because of his goal, and Nenad Cvetkovic ensured stability in defense over long stretches.
The fact that Fally Mayulu, of all people, missed the great opportunity to make it 2-0 in the 93rd minute left Barisic with a stale aftertaste. “Nevertheless, it was a really great performance, we will build on that. We want to raise our level little by little – we need patience for that and we will invest a lot of work for that,” promised the Viennese.
Sageder admitted that they had a “very weak” performance in the first 45 minutes. “It had a lot to do with the attitude towards the game, my players didn’t seem to know that they were very good. I wanted to show courage, but that didn’t work at the beginning because we had too much respect.”
It was only after the break that there was an increase, which finally brought a point. Now the LASK is working up. “We’re in a process, but that shouldn’t be an excuse. We’ll sit down and analyze what we need to do better and why we were discouraged,” announced Dietmar Kühbauer’s successor.
Sageder’s players were quite self-critical – Captain Robert Zulj said: “We don’t need to talk about the new coach if you don’t have the courage to play football on the pitch. That’s not the LASK that I know, not the players that I know, and I’ll start with myself.” Zulj also spoke of a “process” that was still ongoing. “Of course you will see in time what the coach expects from us, that’s not possible after three or four weeks.”
Rapid will continue next Saturday with the home match against Altach, LASK has to play away against runner-up and cup winner Sturm Graz. “More than one point would not have been possible today. We have to do better next week,” demanded goalkeeper Tobias Lawal, who kept Linz in the game with a few saves.
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#Mixed #coach #feelings #LASK #Rapid