Marked for Raphael Fuchs
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mattersburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match23 Nov 2026
The view from the top for Mattersburg
39 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad23 Nov 2026
He is 19, he is averaging 7.07, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Florian Dragovic
17 goals and a season average of 7.33 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nobody wants to play Mattersburg right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Jakob Schöller and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match21 Nov 2026
Altach made Mattersburg work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match21 Nov 2026
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
Michael Lienhart damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jakob Schöller and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market2 Nov 2026
Florian Dragovic wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Mattersburg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad2 Nov 2026
13 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match31 Oct 2026
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Sturm Graz scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Nils Miatke left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Nils Miatke will call it something else in private.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Match31 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Sturm Graz leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Marco Lienhart was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Mattersburg dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
Michael Lienhart damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
SV Ried will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Mattersburg were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.21, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Thomas Lindner 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.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Florian Dragovic
12 goals and a season average of 7.20 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.23 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Florian Dragovic was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Markus Ulmer for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Mattersburg will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mattersburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Peter Junuzovic at 18 — 8.14
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Peter Junuzovic did not need any: 8.14, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jakob Schöller and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Raphael Fuchs was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match3 Oct 2026
After 4 games, Mattersburg finally taste it again
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Rapid Wien; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Match3 Oct 2026
A goal on 91 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The award goes to Raphael Baumgartner, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Match3 Oct 2026
It needed Raphael Fuchs to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Rapid Wien, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matteo Schablas, and the manager let it.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Yannick Häringer
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Player ratings
Pascal Köpke ran the game