At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lovre Rogić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑0 win over Rapid Wien II, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and First Vienna know which stage they are at.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Marco Gantschnig is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at First Vienna, another week without a signature from Simon Pirkl.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at First Vienna, and 4 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lovre Rogić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bernhard Luxbacher 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Michael Baumgartner kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
13 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Bernhard Luxbacher 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at First Vienna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Rosenberger 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.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Michael Baumgartner was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the First Vienna dressing room was either.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Young Violets? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
11 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Luca Edelhofer
Lovre Rogić 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.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. First Vienna told Oliver Wähling something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Young Violets in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Haris Zahirović is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at First Vienna. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Marco Gantschnig and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at First Vienna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lovre Rogić 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.
“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 First Vienna know it.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
95% of the income goes out in wages at First Vienna
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Louis Birkhahn, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Michael Baumgartner chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Something was said to Christoph Monschein and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. First Vienna found something the first half had given no notice of, and Amstetten could not hold what they had.
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.
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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Lovre Rogić 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad21 Sep 2026
7 new faces, and First Vienna 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at First Vienna has been clear about where Bernhard Unger stands, which is more than many ever get.
A brace, and Karim Onisiwo takes the afternoon — 8.84
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Karim Onisiwo provided it, and the 8.84 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. First Vienna will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about First Vienna and Austria Klagenfurt in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
100 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at First Vienna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lovre Rogić 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.
First Vienna asked and WSG Tirol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Marcel Ecker was one of the reasons people came, and $520.0K does not replace that by itself.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what First Vienna can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamin Rosenberger was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Meguru Odagaki has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“24 caps was 24 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 34 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from First Vienna.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Hertha Wels spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luca Edelhofer provided it, and the 8.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.64 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $260.0K sale of Markus Rusek
He is going to Amstetten, the club has $260.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“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 First Vienna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: River Plate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what First Vienna can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. First Vienna have done the hard part with River Plate, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at First Vienna has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at First Vienna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lovre Rogić 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.
The phone has started ringing about Dean Titkov again, and this time the name on the line is WSG Tirol. First Vienna are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LASK have kept their man, and First Vienna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and First Vienna know which stage they are at.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at First Vienna, another week without a signature from Simon Pirkl.
Marked 7.86. 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
Karim Onisiwo is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad17 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and First Vienna 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Simon Pirkl is living that version at First Vienna, and it tends to show in the first month.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is saying, and nobody at First Vienna is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Lovre Rogić 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marco Gantschnig and First Vienna agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. First Vienna will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
A loan enquiry to Blau-Weiß Linz: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.