Marked for Raphael Baumgartner
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.71 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Alexander Eckmayr 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
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Kronberger was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
He is 21 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Levan Eloshvili
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Levan Eloshvili has come out of that comparison in the side, and Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 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 Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The step up is real for Isak Vojić
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Boras was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Levan Eloshvili, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Kevin Schlager was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz dressing room was either.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Raul Marte dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. St. Pölten will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Alexander Eckmayr and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Kronberger was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
At 22 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.99, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.85, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad21 Sep 2026
7 new faces, and Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market14 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A move Matevž Matko would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Matevž Matko is living that version at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Alexander Eckmayr 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Luca Kronberger 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexander Eckmayr's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.