29 | September | 2021

Archive for September 29, 2021

The Greens Are Coming

West Ham blog “West Ham Till I Die” takes a look at Thursday’s Europa League game in London. By RapidHammer

On Thursday West Ham will host Rapid Vienna in their first Europa League group stage home game. Their opponents from Austria have qualified nine times within the last twelve years for the UEL group stages and are well known throughout Europe for their passionate support. For me this game will be a very special occasion as I am a lifelong supporter of the “Greens” (or “green-whites” as the club from Vienna is called) and I also have supported the Hammers for many, many years and often been to Upton Park and the London Stadium. Having not been to London for almost two years now, I am looking very much forward to grace the terraces of the London Stadium again, have a pint with friends and revel in the atmosphere of a West Ham game under the lights … and forget about all the bureaucratic obstacles which paved the way to London: take a PCR test in Austria, book a day-2-test in advance, fill in the extensive immigration form, upload all the certificates when checking in and, as a precaution, also print all these papers instead of just storing them on the mobile phone etc, etc.

Back to the football: This is only the second time West Ham and Rapid play each other, the first game having been a friendly in 1955 which ended 1:1 at Upton Park. Though the clubs haven’t met since, their old and more recent history shows some similarities: Rapid Vienna was founded in 1898 as “First Workers’ Football Club of Vienna” when workers of a hat maker formed the club. Like the “Thames Ironworks FC”, Rapid changed its name shortly after their foundation and, also like West Ham, they had different original colours than they have today. The team’s original colours were red and blue, but soon after renaming the club its colours were changed to green and white in 1904. And like West Ham, Rapid have a large and very passionate fan base.

It was back in 1968 when I started supporting Rapid Vienna and, then a young school boy, began to collect newspaper articles related to the club. According to the oldest article of my collection, a then newly signed player said after watching his first home game of Rapid: “That’s an atmosphere I’ve never experienced before!” The astonished man was Tom Soendergaard, a Danish international.

In this year 1968, Rapid Vienna celebrated their 25th domestic league title which meant that they had not only set an Austrian record but became the club that had won most domestic league titles on the continent. However it took them 14 years to bag their 26th championship in 1982. So far Rapid has won the Austrian league 32 times, their last win of the Austrian Bundesliga coming in 2008. Last season and the season before they finished runners-up behind Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg. But much to the regret of Rapid’s supporters’ the wait for silverware now stretches to more than a decade – they never had to wait that long without winning at least the Austrian Cup. Nevertheless, Rapid is still by far the most popular club in Austria, but having significantly less financial funding than Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg (owned by billionaire Didi Mateschitz) Rapid cannot keep up pace with Red Bull. On the other hand Rapid are proud of being a “membership association” which doesn’t belong to anybody else, and they try to compensate the lack of financial fund by supporting young and talented players. However, their biggest talent of recent years, Yusuf Demir (18) has already joined FC Barcelona on loan with an option to buy and wears the read and blue kit numer 11 now.

As to mention some of the players you will see in London Stadium, there are three players with experience in English football: Kevin Wimmer (number 6) played briefly for Spurs and later (like Marko Arnautovic) for Stoke, Christoph Knasmüllner (number 8) played for Barnsley and young Thierno Ballo (number 10) is on loan from Chelsea U23. My favourite players of the current team are defenders Leo Greiml (30) and Filip Stojkovic (22), midfielders Marco Grüll (27) and Robert Ljubicic (5) and winger Kelvin Arase (36).

Regardless of the above mentioned long wait for silverware, the atmosphere generated by the Rapid support in their home ground Allianz Stadium or “Weststadion” (because of its location in the western neighborhood Hütteldorf) is still the best in Austria and something special throughout Europe. “The atmosphere was terrific,” then Aston Villa coach Martin O’Neill had to concede in 2009 (when his team was defeated 1-0 in Vienna due to a goal scored by a certain Nikica Jelavic), and an astonished Villa supporter said: “Jesus, their fans are something else”. Aston Villa was twice eliminated in the Europa League play-offs by Rapid in 2009 and 2010, and the Rapid fans mocked them in 2010: “You’re nightmare returns”.

This time, more than a decade later, and six years after the Hammers’ very own Europa League “double nightmare”, when they were knocked out of the Europa League in two consecutive seasons by Romanian club Astra Giurgiu in 2015 and 2016, West Ham most probably will not taste defeat against their Austrian opponents. Rapid Vienna struggle in the domestic league this season, they are only eleventh in the Bundesliga (consisting of twelve clubs) and have an important league game next Sunday. If they would lose on Sunday the “Green-Whites” would occupy the very unfamiliar last place of the table. Therefore not only West Ham manager David Moyes will select a team different from the one that beat Leeds last weekend, but also his opponent Didi Kühbauer could rest some of his players.

Nevertheless, the Rapid fans are looking very much forward to the game in London and I am sure that the away end will be full of enthusiastic supporters that will make themselves heard throughout the entire game. The “Block West” is known as the best and loudest stand in the country and a large crowd usually follows Rapid to away matches. The “Ultras” (founded in 1988) and other fan clubs have developed a unique fan culture in Vienna and it is their ambition to show a new fan choreography in every game.

But in the return leg against the Irons on November 25th the fans will not only show a new choreography. They will also have to show their vaccination certificate to gain entry into the “Weststadion”. To present a negative Covid test is not enough from October 1st: In Vienna only double-jabbed or people who have had Covid-19 will be allowed into the ground (these rules are in force for all events with more than 500 spectators from October 1st to 31st in Vienna, but could be extended into November , dependent on the situation in the intensive care units due to Covid-19).

But returning to the similarities between the two clubs, also regarding the stadium there is a striking coincidence: Rapid have built a new stadium and moved to the new “Weststadion” exactly the same year in which West Ham relocated to the London Stadium (2016). By the way, Rapid played an English team in their opening game in the new stadium and managed to beat Chelsea in this friendly game.

And, like West Ham, Rapid have won a “war championship”: Rapid beat Schalke 04 in 1941 in Berlin to win the German Championship (when Austria was annexed to the German Third Reich until 1945). One year before West Ham beat Blackburn Rovers to win the Football League War Cup in 1940. Furthermore Rapid and West Ham have both reached two European Cup finals. Albeit contrary to West Ham, the Austrians have lost both of them (1985 in Rotterdam against Everton and 1996 in Brussels against Paris Saint Germain). However, also Rapid have won a European Cup, the so-called Mitropa Cup, a predecessor competiton of the European Cups, in 1930.

However, there’s also something very unique about Rapid Vienna: the “Rapid Viertelstunde”. Almost since the club’s beginnings, the supporters of the “Greens” have announced the last fifteen minutes of the game by rhythmic clapping at home or away.

Therefore don’t be surprised or bemused when the Rapid support will start clapping in the 75th minute – no matter what the score. It is part of Rapid’s rich history to have often managed to turn around a seemingly hopeless situation by not giving up and, with the support from the stands, fighting their way to a win in the last quarter of the game, just before the final whistle. The clapping marking the beginning of the “Rapid Viertelstunde” shall spur the players on and remind them to give everything until the final whistle according to Rapid’s motto: “Auf geht’s Rapid, gemeinsam kämpfen und siegen!” (Come on Rapid, fight and win together).

Come on you Irons and you boys in green!