Marked for Markus Lindner
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Markus Lindner
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. First Vienna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Jürgen Bauer goes up and wins it — 7.99
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.99 for the rest of it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 7.90. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad7 Dec 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 First Vienna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Frank Feller
“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.
Match5 Dec 2026
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Dantas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. First Vienna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout30 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leon Robinson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Marco Gantschnig and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match28 Nov 2026
Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match30 Nov 2026
Position 2, 28 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Husein Balić beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Marco Laimer left the room before anybody could ask which.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 90% of the First Vienna income
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Markus Lindner
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. First Vienna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leon Robinson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Marco Gantschnig 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 7.62. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Marco Laimer was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the First Vienna dressing room was either.
Match21 Nov 2026
Point won or two lost for First Vienna?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Austria Salzburg? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is João Luiz’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and First Vienna needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Markus Lindner
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. First Vienna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match16 Nov 2026
First Vienna refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Marco Gantschnig 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Dantas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Bernhard Unger
“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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bernhard Zimmermann is on it.
Market16 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. First Vienna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Kai Stratznig has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Markus Lindner
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. First Vienna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match4 Nov 2026
0‑1 against Sturm Graz, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” First Vienna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Leon Robinson 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.
Squad9 Nov 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 First Vienna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Amir Abdijanović. 1‑0 against Stripfing, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.95 on the card, and the First Vienna support went home talking about one name.
The dugout9 Nov 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.