Marked for Raphael Dragovic
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Oct 2027
Raphael Dragovic damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Match23 Oct 2027
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Georg Vogel scored in the 89th minute, Admira Wacker had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Stripfing took the lot.
Match25 Oct 2027
24 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Martin Grillitsch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match23 Oct 2027
Still nobody has beaten Stripfing
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
The terraces25 Oct 2027
He is 20 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.
Match23 Oct 2027
Three points for Stripfing, 1‑0 the final word against Admira Wacker in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad25 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Stripfing
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukas Mühl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nico Mikulic, and the manager let it.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
A promise honoured at Stripfing
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Market
The Kevin Arnautovic talk will not go away
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Oct 2027
Raphael Dragovic damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Georg Vogel commits to Stripfing for another 5 years.
Squad18 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stripfing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match16 Oct 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Stripfing did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Looking ahead18 Oct 2027
Top-of-the-table clash for Stripfing
Admira Wacker next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Stripfing
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukas Mühl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marlon Morgenstern, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Player ratings
The afternoon belonged to Georg Vogel
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
When it matters, Martin Grillitsch plays
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stripfing lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Martin Grillitsch 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Stripfing
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukas Mühl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Valentino Alaba, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Stripfing know it.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Austria Klagenfurt in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Xaver Dragovic knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Xaver Dragovic trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market11 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Marcel Posch’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
9 appearances away from home and 6 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Stripfing
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cukaricki have kept their man, and Stripfing go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Patrick Laimer 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alexander Lainer has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market26 Jul 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sebastian Arnautovic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market26 Jul 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Maximilian Wimmer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market26 Jul 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Raphael Dragovic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Xaver Dragovic 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Stripfing board go back on their word
Something was promised, a deadline passed, and it did not arrive. Trust inside a football club is built over years and spent in an afternoon.