Europe, from A to Z (or W, actually)

I have decided to follow the DanW19 / Shedender challenge, to manage my way through Europe in alphabetic order. My plan is to make at least one update at the end of each season.

Trophy Cabinet

Austria
Erste Liga (SC Austria Lustenau, 2013/2014)
tipp3-Bundesliga (FC Red Bull Salzburg, 2015/2016)
ÖFB-Cup (FC Red Bull Salzburg, 2015/2016)

Belarus
Persha Liga (Khimik Svetlogorsk, 2018/2019)



So, first stop: Austria!

SC Austria Lustenau

After having holidayed until March 2013, I took over underachieving Austria Lustenau who found themselves in 9th position after 21 matches. I managed to get the team up to a decent 6th.



I’m not really happy about how we play; I can’t seem to find any consistency. Hope fully that will come next season. I think we need to strengthen the squad with one or two central defenders, one central midfielder and one striker.

As you know I had Austria Lustenau first time and they were a good side, look at Marc Sand, he plays for a non league Austrian team but he certainly helped in the Ersta ligue!

good start mate

Thanks Zan and Dan, I had Sand on trial for 2 weeks and he managed to get injured for 5-6 months his first day at the club. But I’m more than happy with my new man!


Transfers

As you can see a lot of players leaving the club. I would have like to keep Boya but his wage demands was ridiculous.

Here are my new players
One of two new centre backs. Teufl (doesn’t that mean the Devil in German?) will be a starter together with Tipuric.


Another solid defender who get quite a lot of playing time.


This Hungarian international will rotate with Zwischenbrugger and Salomon in the middle.


I’m very happy with my new striker. Hajduk is a quick poacher with good finishing ability.

Halftime in the league, and we’re sitting 7:th. Not a place I’d like to stay in for a long time. The two last games saw us dominate the opposition totally without being able to turn it into goals. To lose theses games (0-1 and 1-2) despite a 65-70% possession and around 15-5 in goal attempts is just painful.
Still it’s only 7 points up to the top in this extremely tight league, and 18 matches to go.

Definitely one of the tighter league tables I've seen! your not far off the pace either chap!

Good luck mate very tight

not a bad start, its tight pal

Thanks for reading and commenting, guys. If I can get through the snow today, I might be able to play some more...

Going for a more attacking mentality but with a more defensive tactic did the trick. By moving my AMC down as a DMC we won more ball, both in our own half and higher up on the pitch. The attacking midfielder never really found a position for his self anyway.



That's not an amazing run of results, but in this league where everybody can beat anybody, it's good enough!



30 games played – 6 to go, and the next match is the Ländle Derby against Altach!

All to play for chap! Keep it up

Nice effort with this mate, keep it up for sure!

Thanks Dan and t-mase for the support!





36-year-old captain Jürgen Patocka lifted the Erste Liga trophy in his last career game, having decided to retire after the season.



After scoring two late own goals to tie the important Derby, Altach never recovered and only took two points from the following five games. They were actually quite terrible after the winter break, only managed to win three matches. We secured the league title in the Lustenau derby against FC Lustenau 1907 in a 2-1 win at home with three games to go.

Star players:
Berthold Teufl: The defender played all 36 games this season and was solid as a rock.
Igor Hajduk: 18 goals. Thanks Igor.
Sacha Boller: The German midfielder can be used all over the midfield. Mostly he’s been playing as a left-winger. He produced 6 goals and 8 assists, most of them in the last quarter of the season. He claimed third price in VdF Fussballer des Jahre (Footballer of the year).

Now let’s see what we can do against the big boys. There will be no major transfer activities as we don’t have any money… If opportunity knocks, I might try to move to a bigger club.

How weird this is turning out to be! You win the league in 2013/2014! I win the league in 2013/14, Shedender wins the league in 2013/2014 and Maiden has a fair chance of doing it in his 2013/2014 season!

Eventful!

Dan, it seems that that is the year for winning - let's how we do in the top league!
---



What a start in the Bundesliga!



Berthold Teufl keeps on impressing, he missed one game due to a lighter injury and then we conceded 3 against Rapid Wien. In his 7 matches he’s got an average rating of 7.96, with three PoM awards.

Another player that haven’t had any problems taking the step up to a higher stage is Igor Hajduk. He was injured in the beginning of the season, he came on as a substitute against Red Bull Saltzburg and scored a hat-trick. Then he scored one of the goals against Rapid Wien and the winner against Admira Wacker.

Top start of The season pal. Could be a fine season for you. Think your the furthest date into this now

Thanks, Dan. I just want to take as many poits as possible now, I have such a small squad so a couple of injuries/bans/international call ups at a bad time could se us drop fast. Where's your updates?

well done on promotion and a strong lead start

Thanks zan!
---





After our fabulous start when we had lady Luck on our side, she turned our back on us when we entered October. Seven games without a win, and only two points in the league. We went out from the cup after an over time goal against minors Bregenz.

The media started talking about me not wanting to change tactics, but I thought that the way we played made me a tactical mastermind in the beginning of the season. We’ll stick to the plan.

And then our fortunes turned again – a corner kick in the 92:nd minute was headed by Teufl, and hit Roth in the back to give us a win against Wiener Neustadt. We followed that up by beating league leaders Rapid Wien away, where Hajduk scored after 5 goalless matches (including a missed penalty vs. Sturm Graz).

Its funny how quickly form can change! Big blow but be interesting to see how you cope after the winter break now! still having a storming first season in the top flight"

small slip but nothing you wont regain im sure!

Dan & zan, I am quite worried to be honest, but still so far the season is going over expectations as we are expected 9:th.
---





Hajduk keeps on scoring, but the defence is looking very shaky. And I’m not too happy with my goalkeepers either.

Going into the winter break we still hold the 4:th place in the league, something I have to be pleased about of course. However I feel that we might be falling apart anytime, just a few more bad results and we’re down to 8:th.

Going into the break just eight points behind really leaves it all to play for with a couple of solid winter signings to sure up that defence buddy! Keep it coming

Didn’t manage to find anyone good enough who wanted to join our team, so we’ll have to do with the squad we have. But we didn’t seem to need anyone as we started the new year by demolishing Sturm Graz, 3-0 at home.



Then we lost 1-0 to Austria Wien away, and it was not much to say about that. But then came the ridiculous match agaist Red Bull Saltzburg. They had 1-0 and we were pushing for the equalizer, and then this happens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld-qveOMZxQ

What! A goal from a throw in! Is that allowed?

After three games without us finding the net, we scored 9 in the coming three matches, earning us 6 points that keeps us in 4:th position, now 12 points after leaders Austria Wien.

defeinitely could seal a spot in europe this year! keep it coming

as zan said, got a chance for the title and European football buddy"

Thanks guys for the encouragement!
---





April started of well enough, but then we were hit bad by injuries. In the match against Austria Wien and RBS we had 5 first team players injured including the goalkeeper and my best goal scorer Hajduk. Agains Rapid Wien we didn’t have enough players to fill the bench. We recalled Yusuf Özüyer from loan and he score almost a hat trick (the own goal was his) in the last match to secure a place in Europe.



So while Shedender and Dan enjoying life in the beautiful Belarus, I have to endure yet another year in Austria…

My second season in the Bundesliga with Lustenau started quite mediocre, 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss if I recall correctly. But way below mediocre was the way Red Bull Salzburg started – only 2 points after 5 games. Combined with their 6:th place in the league last year, the board had seen enough, the manager had to go.

Top season mate and a great opportunity there for you!

Cheers, Dan, this sure is a great opportunity. I can hardly get a better team in Austria.
---


I took over die Rote Bullen with a couple of days left in the transfer window, and with quite a lot of money. I paid a lot for two young guys: Sean Watson, an American striker and Leonardo Pereira a Paraguayan right-winger, both will prove to be money well invested.



As you can see I started my Red Bull career by beating my former club, a questionable penalty saved my day. Only one loss so far, and I’m really happy about the way we play.
In his 12 matches Pereira has produced 11 assists and one goal, giving him an average rating of 7.52, and Watson has scored 10 goals in 13 appearances (AR 7.55).



In the January window I will try to find a similar player to Pereira to the left flank, and maybe I will buy Teufl from my former team Lustenau to bolster the back line. If I don’t win the league with this team, I don’t know what to do…