Victory in the First Winter Friendly
In freezing temperatures, the first friendly of this year's winter training programme took place at the Körner Training Center powered by VARTA. Head coach Robert Klauß's squad played a test match against Lower Austrian 2. Liga side SKN St. Pölten. For organisational reasons, the match was not open to the public. New winter signing Romeo Amane trained individually in the weights room, as did Ryan Mmaee. The latter is back in full team training, but will be only gradually introduced to match situations until he’s back at full fitness. Noah Bischof was absent due to muscular problems.
The starters for the first half were led onto the pitch by captain Louis Schaub. From the kick-off, the action immediately moved into St. Pölten's half of the pitch, nevertheless, SKN had the first major chance, which goalkeeper Niki Hedl thwarted with his foot (11'). The Hütteldorfers’ most notable chance came from a corner kick, but a Louis Schaub header hit only the crossbar (26'). After just over half an hour, defender Nenad Cvetkovic had to leave the field early with problems in his right calf. Shortly before the break, the ball did indeed find its way into the Wolves' net, but the supposed scorer, Thierry Gale, was probably just a whisker offside before he put the ball in, so the teams would head into the changing rooms level at 0-0.
Eleven fresh Rapid players came on for the second half of the match. Among them were two young Rapid II players, Eaden Roka and Daniel Nunoo, who are also traveling to the training camp in Benidorm with the senior team for the first time. The new-look XI was led by captain Matti Seidl, and he also had the first half-chance after the change of ends, but his header was just a few centimeters wide (48'). However, his second attempt was to be more successful: after a beautiful combination, our captain took the ball from just outside of the box, and placed it perfectly and unstoppably into the far left corner: 1-0 (65')! In the end, this was the final result, and the Hütteldorfers would therefore begin their winter training fixtures with a friendly win. This week, the Green & Whites will continue their week-long training camp from warmer climes, in Benidorm!
Photos: GEPA
SK Rapid – SKN St. Pölten 1:0 (0:0)
Körner Trainingszentrum powered by VARTA
Goal: 1:0 Seidl (65.)
Line-up: Hedl (46. Gartler); Oswald (46. Bolla), Cvetkovic (38. Vincze (46. Schöller), Gröller (46. Raux-Yao), Böckle (46. Roka); Sangare (46. Kerschbaum), Borkeeiet (46. Grgic); Schaub (46. Lang), Jansson (46. Seidl); Gale (46. Wurmbrand), Beljo (46. Nunoo)