Austria Lustenau: Frustration with the Referee and Themselves

Austria Lustenau suffers a late defeat against Austria Wien. Deep in injury time, the Vorarlbergers concede the controversial 1-2 goal.

They lament the late goal conceded in the 93rd minute. Kang Hee Lee heads the ball onto the crossbar after a cross. Kelvin Boateng then converts the rebound with an overhead kick into the corner, where Lee, next to Domenik Schierl in goal, is in an offside position.

Goalkeeper Schierl has absolutely no understanding for the referee's decision: "It was clearly offside for the goal. The player who falls into the goal area clearly interferes with me. I could put 20 goalkeepers there, and every one of them would tell you the same thing."

No Understanding for the Referee's Explanation

The referee explained to Schierl that Kang Hee Lee, who was lying on the ground, had not looked at the ball and therefore could not interfere with Schierl.

The goalkeeper does not understand this reasoning: "What is that supposed to mean? Either it interferes with me or it doesn't. And it clearly interfered with my action, and that's why it's offside for me."

Coach Markus Mader also cannot comprehend Christian-Petru Ciochirca's decision: "From my point of view, the goal scorer is offside at the beginning. After that, he intervenes, so it's an offside goal. But it doesn't matter, because the game won't be replayed, and the points won't come back."

"At Some Point You Have to Have That Killer Instinct"

"We've managed again to revive a team that was dead, a stadium that was dead," Mader expresses his annoyance.

Mader is particularly bothered by the carelessness in playing out transitional situations: "In such an important game, you have to have that killer instinct at some point, and we didn't manage that."

The hosts from Wien-Favoriten did get into the final third for long stretches of the game – but nothing tangible could be created there. "They had no solutions going forward. The match plan would have almost worked perfectly, if the result hadn't been so negative in the end," Mader says.

Good 80 Minutes Amount to Nothing

Up until the 80th minute, the Lustenau players spoke of an "outstanding performance", from which, of course, they can't benefit now.

According to Schierl, nobody will have fun on the eight-hour drive back and say, "We played really great until the 80th minute." "We gifted a dead opponent three points," Schierl concludes.

The Vorarlbergers could have decided the game in the 73rd minute. But a powerful shot from Sacha Delaye only hit the post. "And as is often the case in football, if you don't score them up front, you concede them at the back," Mader knows.

Every Bottom-Ranked Team is Revived

According to Mader, Lustenau are in a development process. As a coach, he can only provide the structure and ideas. Only the players themselves can implement them on the pitch, develop themselves, and shed their naivety.

"The problem is simply that we revive every bottom-ranked team. And if this continues, we'll soon be at the bottom ourselves," Mader laments.

In the second round, they lost against GAK, who at that time was level on points with Austria Wien at the bottom of the table. It was even more bitter in the 5th round, when they suffered a 0-4 thrashing against last-placed WSG Tirol.

In the next game, the Vorarlberg derby against SCR Altach awaits Lustenau. The latter is in last place, a position so dangerous for Lustenau.