EXTRA TIME

RapidHammer on Wednesday

April 5, 2023 at 7:38 am Leave a comment

Wednesday of this Holy Week of 2023 is packed with football: my Forza Football App is showing a lot of domestic cup ties, e.g. Slavia Prague vs. Bohemians, FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid, FC Nantes vs. Olympique Lyon, Cremonese vs. Fiorentina, Feyenoord vs. Ajax, RB Leipzig vs. Borussia Dortmund and 1.FC Nürnberg vs. VfB Stuttgart, to name just a few.

Most important of all Cup games is of course the ÖFB semifinal SK Rapid vs. SV Ried tonight at the Allianz Stadion in Vienna (above) with it’s kick-off at 8:30 p.m. Rapid could reach the final in Klagenfurt on 1 May if they beat the team from Upper Austria which is fighting relegation from the Austrian Bundesliga. But the „Innviertler“ are a “cup team” which will not be easy to beat. They have won three out of four cup ties against Rapid and eliminated them last season 1-2 on Rapid’s home turf.

However, as RB Salzburg has already been eliminated from the ÖFB Cup this year by Sturm Graz, the chances of winning the final could be higher than in previous seasons and therefore it’s all but important that Rapid reach the „Endspiel“ this year after they have lost twice to Salzburg in the ÖFB Cup Final in recent years.

This time the opponents would be Sturm Graz or LASK (playing the second semifinal tomorrow). But first Ried has to be overcome tonight! Come on you boys in green!

And of course London has another „cup final“ tonight for David Moyes’s men at West Ham‘s ground at Stratford which kicks off half an hour later than Rapid‘s game. The match against Newcastle Utd is another possibility for the Hammers to climb away from the relegation zone after their 1-0 win over Southampton last Sunday.

Well, I fear that the atmosphere will again be an unhappy one like it was on Sunday most of the time (despite of the result!), and there will be a feeling of angst and anger around London Stadium – much different from the happy mood when Mark Noble played his last game there (below). I am sure everybody will feel a tenseness similar to a knock-out tie albeit this game’s a Premier League match. With a win West Ham could even climb up into 12th, though they are only one point away from the relegation zone prior to tonight‘s games.

On the Holy Saturday a visit to Fulham is the next game for West Ham, but tonight the focus is on doing well against the Saudi‘s Newcastle United which have beaten Manchester United lately and are sitting third in the Premiership with three league wins in a row.

With so much live Football this evening I will have to postpone watching the newest episode of “Ted Lasso” which comes out every Wednesday! In the meantime I will read a funny article on West Ham’s website about a visit of Charlie Hiscock, the actor who plays AFC Richmond’s kitman, to London Stadium. As AFC Richmond are really on a run of brilliant results in their third season of this Apple TV series, let’s hope that this visit is a good omen and the Hammers can finally come good and put some wins together in their most difficult season for years now.

Come on you Irons!

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