3-1 against Jordan: Austria is only fun for a few seconds

MArko Arnautovic cheered, which is generally a good sign for Austria. In the case of Arnautovic, even when there is celebration, there is still latent danger, but behind every expression of joy the 37-year-old can also hide provocation towards the opponent. But in this case, a short, somewhat tired run in the 102nd minute of the game against Jordan no longer led him into emotional spheres: Arnautovic patted himself on the chest twice after converting the penalty to make it 3-1 on the national eagle, he briefly pointed his finger towards his family in the stands, then he let his teammates welcome him.

The Austrians in the western blocks of the stadium, noticeably outnumbered by the cheerful Jordanians, were also in each other’s arms more relieved than euphoric. It was a cheer that had a message: the story was over.

Ralf Rangnick later named this moment at the press conference as the moment in which the game began to be “really fun” for him. It was a bit ironic because the referee only blew the whistle again for a few seconds afterwards. But you could also hear from Rangnick: fun and joy were not the virtues that Austria had to concern itself with in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In a way it was a paradoxical situation for a small Alpine country with some very good football players and a very successful football coach: Can you take part in the finals of a World Cup for the first time since 1998 and start straight away with a so-called mandatory victory? Jordan, which is even less important – at least in terms of football – as has been particularly often pointed out in the local press, is 39 places behind Austria in the FIFA world rankings. Talking about a class difference between 24th and 63rd place, or even using a list as a hook, Rangnick didn’t find any of that particularly interesting: On the one hand, he refuted the argument that this game was against a smaller opponent with footballing warnings. Then, however, he also called it “an endgame,” knowing the group constellation was mean. And in this unclear situation, one must still say: Rangnick was right with his analysis.

On the one hand, the fact that winning the final has already created an excellent starting position. On the other hand, Jordan really wasn’t to be underestimated. The opponent was “uncomfortable to play against,” said Rangnick later: “They once again exceeded my and our expectations.” Coach Jamal Sellami’s team appeared courageous and courageous, especially after they had survived the initial phase: the ominous drinking break also brought a twist in the game between Austria and Jordan. Only the ÖFB boys clearly had the baton in their hands and the lead from the 20th minute onwards: Bremen’s Romano Schmid scored with a fabulous long-range shot. It was a worthy goal to revive long-faded memories of great Austrian World Cup moments. Schmid, 26, created one, although there was little respectability behind it.

“I didn’t think we were really dominant in the first half,” Rangnick said later. With numerous slight mistakes in the build-up game, little access in defense and hardly any structure in pressing, the Austrians lacked some of the characteristics at the start of the World Cup that have made them an unpleasant team in recent years. However, World Cup Austria played so sleepily at times, as if they had just gotten up early in the morning in their home time zone, and conceded the equalizer through Ali Olwan (50th): “We were only dominant with the substitutions, from the 60th minute onwards,” said Rangnick.

On the one hand, this could be seen as an easy admission that the starting lineup did not meet the requirements. Konrad Laimer, for example, played offensively but inefficiently in the unfamiliar ten-man position. And Sasa Kalajdzic hardly found his place in the center of the attack against numerous Jordanians around him; Rangnick corrected his choice at half-time and brought Arnautovic into the game. Above all, it was the two players who had just joined in March who turned the game around for Austria.

Paul Wanner and Carney Chukwuemeka have ended up wearing the red Austrian World Cup jersey since March after different career histories and national team selection processes. Luckily for Rangnick and his coaching team, that was the conclusion of the first game: Wanner brought a lot of calm on the ball, Chukwuemeka found space behind the leaders and was physically present. This is also news from San Francisco: The small football nation of Austria now has a plan B on the bench with which they can turn games around. With which they can create a pressure phase like in the second half, in which an own goal after a corner ultimately brought the advantage to 2-1, after an Arnautovic goal had been disallowed for handball shortly before.

Now the Plan B thing is good news for Austria, the country is rightly happy about a successful return to the world stage: history is written, done, highly official doesn’t matter This is also the question raised with the mandatory victory.

For the next opponent, however, the whole thing is wonderfully irrelevant. Austria’s players could hardly answer the last questions about Jordan when they were already talking about Argentina, the big second group game next Monday. “Messi, Messi, Messi,” was already echoing through the hallways in San Francisco. At some point, captain David Alaba just smiled when asked again and said that “you don’t really have to say anything more to him” in order to avoid having to say more.

It is not to be expected that Argentina will be in a sweat of fear because of the names Wanner and Chukwuemeka: Coach Lionel Scaloni has so much quality on the bench that plans H to L are more likely to be available if necessary. However, the Austrians get another plus point in return that they are happy to have on their side. With the 3-1 win from the first game behind them, they can return to the role of the small challenger nation.