Unsuccessful Season Finale in Hütteldorf
After winning away in Klagenfurt to secure fourth place, the final day of the ADMIRAL Bundesliga season tasked SK Rapid with a home game against TSV Hartberg on Sunday. An emotional matchday, this one was billed as “the day of goodbyes”, as the game marked the departures of several first team players; Marco Grüll, Thorsten Schick, Michael Sollbauer, Martin Moormann, Bernhard Unger, Nana Kasanwirjo and Terence Kongolo, as well as Athletic Coach Martin Mayer. The send-offs before the game, as well as the team walking out of the tunnel for one last time, were magical moments in front of the home fans. For the match itself, Lukas Grgić and Guido Burgstaller missed out with suspension and injury respectively.
The Green & Whites began on the attack, and a lovely bit of link-up play between Grüll and Schick saw Matthias Seidl get in position to shoot, although his effort was straight at the keeper (4’). Much of the opening phase was spent as a battle between the two penalty areas, with most potential openings cleared away at the last moment by the defences, however, from nothing, the guests took the lead when Donis Avdijaj fired in from inside the area. 0-1 (25’). Hartberg pushed on after going ahead, and Niki Hedl had to make a wonderful save to tip a header away from the top corner of the goal (29’). After a lull, a Rapid corner led to Christoph Lang volleying on target, but his effort was also met with a fingertip save at the other end (42’). After a few more chances in the half, the hosts would head in at the break trailing by one.
Isak Jansson came on in place of Fally Mayulu for the second half (46’), but the restart didn’t go according to plan, and after a mix-up in the Rapid back line, Hartberg’s Tobias Kainz was able to double the advantage as he hit the bottom corner (59’). Head Coach Robert Klauß reacted by bringing on Roman Kerschbaum and Furkan Dursun (62’), but the changes didn’t give Rapid the extra boost that they were looking for. Martin Moormann and Maximilian Hofmann made their way on for the final phase (77’), and moments later the Green & Whites came close to getting a goal back when Grüll’s corner was headed just off-target by Nikolas Sattlberger (81’). Unfortunately, in stoppage time, Hartberg added a third with a close range finish from Dominik Frieser (90’+1) and it just wasn’t to be our day.
It was ultimately an afternoon that we all wanted to go down in a different way, but the emotional goodbyes were said, and now it’s time to rest and recuperate over the summer, and come back stronger for next season!
Fotos: GEPA
ADMIRAL Bundesliga | 32. Runde | Allianz Stadion
Tore: Avdijaj (25.), Kainz (59.), Frieser (90.+2)
Rapid-11: Hedl; Kasanwirjo, Cvetković (77. Hofmann), Querfeld, Schick (77. Moormann); Oswald (62. Kerschbaum), Sattlberger; Grüll ©, Seidl, Lang (62. Dursun); Mayulu (46. Jansson)
Ersatz: Gartler, Kerschbaum, Sollbauer, Hofmann, Jansson, Moormann, Dursun