Marked for Raphael Posch
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑1 against ADO Den Haag. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 27 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Laurenz Orgler is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match3 Oct 2026
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ziad El Sheiwi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 21, Martin Lienhart is already the best thing here
An average of 7.03 in a first team he is several years too young for. Mattersburg have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match3 Oct 2026
It needed Andreas Posch to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Rapid Wien, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Sep 2026
0‑1 against KuPS. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Strunz is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Raphael Posch. 2‑1 against Altach, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oliver Strunz, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Guido Grillitsch will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Michael Ulmer
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mattersburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 23 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market24 Aug 2026
Marko Onisiwo hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mattersburg can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Mattersburg have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Znamya Truda for Martin Ulmer was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Markus Alaba falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match22 Aug 2026
SV Ried left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
Michael Ulmer damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market17 Aug 2026
Business is business: Marco Wimmer goes
Basel paid $6.6M and Mattersburg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A first appearance Christoph Junuzovic will want to forget — 5.42
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.42, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Andreas Posch was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Markus Alaba is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Markus Alaba
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match15 Aug 2026
It needed Raphael Posch to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Austria Wien, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market17 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Mattersburg will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Market17 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Markus Alaba may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad10 Aug 2026
Michael Ulmer damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market10 Aug 2026
Rapid Wien come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Mattersburg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dominik Lazaro and Mattersburg agree another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Andreas Posch was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Guido Grillitsch falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.83 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match8 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andreas Posch. 2‑0 against Grodig, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Loan watch10 Aug 2026
“I did not go to Red Bull Salzburg to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mattersburg and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 0 matches say the rest.
Market10 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alexander Posch has his answer from Mattersburg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.40 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Raphael Posch commits to Mattersburg for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Markus Alaba falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Guido Grillitsch, and the manager let it.
Match1 Aug 2026
Rapid Wien made Mattersburg work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market3 Aug 2026
Marko Onisiwo is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Mattersburg has been clear about where Marko Onisiwo stands, which is more than many ever get.