Debutant Wurmbrand Earns us a Point in Wolfsberg

 Despite heavy rain in large parts of Austria, the ADMIRAL Bundesliga resumed after the international break, and the SK Rapid team led by captain Matthias Seidl travelled south to face Wolfsberger AC, managed by our former head coach Didi Kühbauer. Robert Klauß’ squad had some painful omissions, including Isak Jansson, who is suffering from a ligament injury and will be out for some time. New signing Ryan Mmaee was also still out on Saturday, as were Noah Bischof, Furkan Dursun and Guido Burgstaller. It was all the more pleasing, then, that youngster Nikolaus Wurmbrand was able to celebrate his Bundesliga debut and his starting debut for the Green & Whites, and that Dion Beljo was ready to make his return to action.

On a rainy evening in the Lavanttal, the Rapid players showed their presence in attack in the early stages, but there were no major chances to be seen in the opening twenty minutes. The first real foray forward came courtesy of a fine bit of combination play between Dion Beljo and Matthias Seidl, but it was brought to an end by the defenders in the penalty area (22'). Just a few moments later, the ball was in the net, but the goal scored by our number 7 was unfortunately disallowed for offside (24'). Just under ten minutes later, the scoreboard finally showed 1-0 to Rapid, and this time it counted: Our 18-year-old homegrown player Nikolaus Wurmbrand marked his debut in the perfect fashion, after showing strength to hold onto the ball, he barged into the area on the right, before firing a low shot in towards the near post! 1-0 (30')! Our youngster then almost added an assist, but Louis Schaub only managed to hit the crossbar with the goal at his mercy (33'). After a convincing first 45 minutes, we went in at the break with a one-goal lead.

The hosts have started the season well, and they came out of the locker room looking much more lively. An equaliser was on the cards, and in the 51st minute, Dejan Zukic skipped past our defence to make it 1-1. We looked for an answer, repeatedly getting in front of goal after some good moves from Niki Wurmbrand, but the decisive pass in the area was proving hard to come by. Head coach Robert Klauß reacted and brought on fresh players: Dennis Kaygin and Tobias Hedl, who was also making his Bundesliga debut, replaced Schaub and Wurmbrand, meaning that the Hedl brothers were on the pitch together for the first time! The newly introduced Kaygin delivered a powerful free-kick onto the head of Nenad Cvetković, but his header missed the target by a few centimetres (83'). In stoppage time, Moritz Oswald also came on in place of Mama Sangaré, but the scoreboard was not to change, so after an exciting 93 minutes, we at least took a point back to Hütteldorf.

Fotos: SK Rapid | Widner