Archive for April, 2023
RapidHammer on Wednesday
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!
FarAwayThing Down South
I had not heard of Farthing Downs in Coulsdon, south London, until TimeOut Magazine reported that it was about to become an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The planned proposals would add it to the Surrey Hills AONB, which it adjoins, making it the first London area to achieve this honour, giving it extra protection from planning proposals and ensuring it’s well conserved in the future.
TimeOut describes Farthing Downs which belongs to the City of London as a nice looking park with scrubby grass, hedgerows and trees; but if you go deeper, it is a magical place, one that’s dotted with the mysterious detritus of history, from neolithic burial mounds to traces of Saxon farms to the remnants of WWII anti-aircraft guns. It’s already designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its impressive range of flora and fauna, including skylarks, orchids, pipistrelle bats, roe deer and Roman snails (which our Latin-speaking forebears brought over to enliven their lavish banquets).
What about visiting Farthing Downs on the next trip to London? It’s half an hours ride on the train from Victoria Station.
Buffy Ettmayer 1946-2023
Er schoss Wacker Innsbruck 1970 in der Südstadt zum 1:0-Sieg im Cupfinale gegen den LASK und gewann damit den ersten Titel für die Tiroler, und er war ein Jahr später eine der Stützen beim ersten Meistertitel für Wacker: der Wiener Hans “Buffy” Ettmayer. Anschließend wechselte “Buffy” dann nach Deutschland zum VfB Stuttgart und begeisterte auch dort die Fans.
Am 26. Januar 1974 trug er sich mit dem insgesamt 10.000. Tor der Bundesliga zudem in die Geschichtsbücher ein, der Treffer wurde zugleich als Tor des Monats gekürt. In der deutschen Bundesliga war Ettmayer anschließend noch für den Hamburger SV aktiv, mit dem er unter anderem Europacup- und DFB-Pokal-Sieger wurde.
Den Spitznamen “Buffy” bekam Johann Ettmayer vom österreichischen Teamchef Leopold Stastny. Das tschechische Wort bedeutet „kleines Dickerchen“. Den 1,72 m großen Ettmayer begleitete die Meinung, dass er übergewichtig sei, während seiner ganzen Karriere und er machte tatsächlich aus seiner Vorliebe für Torten, Schaumrollen und auch ein „Burenhäutl” kein Hehl. Den “dicksten Bundesligaspieler aller Zeiten” nannte ihn Ben Redeling in einem sonst allerdings durchaus freundlichen Artikel. Er selbst nahm es locker: “Ich bin der einzige Österreicher, der seinem Rucksack vorne trägt”, meinte er einmal schmunzelnd in Bezug auf seine 85 kg bei nur 1.72 m Körpergröße.
Obwohl er auf Klubebene zahlreiche Tore erzielte, blieb ihm das im österreichischen Nationalteam (oben) in seinen 30 Spielen zwischen 1968 und 1975 verwehrt. Gut erinnere mich noch (oder eigentlich blieb es mir in schlechter Erinnerung), dass “Buffy” auch einen Elfmeter nicht für Österreich verwandeln konnte.
Peter Linden berichtet darüber auf seinem Blog “Peter Linden Live: “Eigentlich unglaublich, dass einem Spieler mit dieser Schusskraft, der für Wacker Innsbruck in 137 Spielen 68 Tore erzielte, für Stuttgart 34 in 97, in 30 Länderspielen kein Tor gelang. Er traf Stange, Latte, alles, nur nicht ins Netz. Nicht einmal bei einem Elfmeter. Den vergab er 1970 im ausverkauften Wiener Praterstadion gegen Vizeweltmeister Italien. „Buffy“ scheiterte an Italiens Tormann Enrico Albertosi, Österreich verlor das EM-Qualifikationsspiel 1:2.”
Nun erreichte uns die Nachricht, dass Hans „Buffy“ Ettmayer am Samstag im 77. Lebensjahr verstorben ist. Der schlagfertige “Schmähbruder” ist für immer verstummt. Die Erinnerung an “Buffy” wird lebendig bleiben. Den Ehrentitel HANSE DER WOCHE, den der RapidHammer dem Johann Ettmayer hiermit posthum verleiht, hat sich der zu früh verstorbene Goalgetter wirklich verdient!
Saturday Fever
How football used to be. Includes clips from Spurs v Man City in the 1960 season. Also snippets of Wolves, Cardiff and Celtic fans arriving at their games.
WHU Goal Given by VAR
Nayef Aguerd headed a free-kick into the Saints’ goal in the 25th minute of Sunday’s relegation “six pointer”. The goal was given after a lengthy VAR check. Assist: Thilo Kehrer. It was Aguerd’s first Premier League goal!
West Ham 1 Southampton 0
The goal made the nervy Hammers team stronger and play with more confidence for the rest of the first half. But in the second half the Saints were the better team again and West Ham were sitting deep and somehow getting the win over the line.
Knowing that the loser of this game would finish the day bottom of the Premier League, David Moyes’s approach was very cautious and the Hammers played quite passive in a very anxious London Stadium.
Very important 3 points, but an unconvincing performance which won’t win over Moyes’s critics. “I would still sack Moyes today and appoint Rodgers [who got sacked recently at Leicester] before an other team take him,” a West Ham fan tweeted after this important win.
And a Leicester fan suggested a manager swap: the West Ham fans would be happy with taking Brendan Rodgers, he said, and he would take Moyes for the rest of the season, too.
That won’t happen of course. Well it was a win, but not a victory that has brought much relief to the London Stadium. The relegation fight is still on and West Ham now are hoping for a point or another three in the next game against Newcastle at home on Wednesday.
Come on you Irons!
“Climate King” in Germany
Though eyebrows were raised when it was announced that King Charles’s first state visit since ascending the throne would be to Europe rather than to a Commonwealth nation, and his visit to France was postponed amid unrest over pension reforms, the monarch’s visit to Germany was a big success. (Quotes from The Telegraph)
The undoubted success of the King’s German visit and the warmth of the welcome he and the Queen have received shows it to have been a good choice for the beginning of his reign. The King’s German antecedents are well-known but his own personal association perhaps less so. He has been to the country 40 times, the first when he was a 13-year-old, and demonstrated his facility with the language by delivering much of his speech at the Bundestag in Berlin in German. It was warmly received by German MPs, who responded to the King’s evident love of their country and whose good humour and cultural references were greatly appreciated.
This visit is all of a piece with Rishi Sunak’s efforts to reset the UK’s relationship with Europe, an ambition that the King shares, judging by his welcome for the EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen at Windsor recently. Showing the leaders of Europe’s biggest nation that Britain remains a friendly and influential neighbour is part of that strategy. As with the late Queen’s in 1965, this state visit feels like the beginnings of a new era in Anglo-German relations.
“Our countries are working together to promote global health, to help developing countries overcome their challenges and prosper and to advance the urgent and vital journey towards net zero.”
Some German newspapers have dubbed Charles III the “Climate King” and “King Cool”, and asked whether King Charles would vote Green. They declared “A king is supposed to be neutral. When it comes to environmental and climate protection, Charles is not. He can’t vote. But he would vote green if he could.” They also said that the King, who has visited Germany over 40 times, “sees us Germans as natural allies in this ecological revolution.”
Renate Künast, a senior MP for the Green Party which is currently part of the German coalition government, said she once met Charles for tea and cucumber sandwiches at Highgrove when she was a minister and called him “a Green King”.
Though Charles avoided the word “Brexit”, he also referenced to it, saying that despite the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the bond between the two countries “will remain firm”.
After his visit to Berlin and the speech at the “Bundestag” the King visited Hamburg, Germany’s “most British city”, where hundreds of well-wishers braved the rain to cheer the King and Queen consort. Many were impressed that he had come in a normal Intercity Express train and paid for his own ticket.
The King stood shoulder to shoulder with Germany’s president in a symbol of reconciliation as they laid wreaths in remembrance of the victims of war and the bombing of Hamburg.
In the ruins of a bombed out Hamburg church, destroyed like much of the city by Second World War Allied raids, King Charles and Frank-Walter Steinmeier stood motionless after leaving floral tributes.
The King’s wreath of poppies featured a handwritten card with the poignant message “In everlasting remembrance“ with the same words in German below and the signature “Charles R”. Queen Consort Camilla left her own tribute of a single white rose.
She had earlier laid a white rose on the bronze Final Parting kindertransport sculpture, which was erected in 2015 and depicts two groups of children – those who were evacuated to new lives abroad and the thousands transported by train to concentration camps.
Created by Frank Meisler, it is one of five such installations across Europe, one of which is at Liverpool Street Station in London (below).
Lisa Bechner, a second generation survivor who was awarded an honorary MBE in 2022 for services to UK-Germany relations and the British commemoration of the kindertransport rescue effort, said: “Even as Prince of Wales, the King was very supportive and people from the kindertransport scheme memorial meet every five years at Buckingham Palace or St James’s Palace.
“Now, with this Royal visit, it is the first time the German government are showing appreciation of the sculptures and that is why it is important.”
Between November 1938 and August 1939, thousands of children were bundled onto trains and travelled unaccompanied by their parents to countries whose language and culture they did not know. Few saw their families again.
The UK continued to accept children and young people until 1943, taking in 10,000 in total.
Focus Magazine even asked if it was time Germany had a good-tempered King of their own following the disastrous reign of Kaiser Wilhelm, the country’s last King who was seen as indecisive and ineffective during the First World War.
Correspondent Ulrich Reitz asked, “after this humorous, warm-hearted and simply winning performance by Charles, many may be wondering whether such a king would not do us Germans good”.
The differences between Charles and Wilhelm were “not only in character”, he said.
“Charles is trying to bring about peace in his country. Wilhelm cultivated strife at home and elsewhere, and German megalomania, a legacy Germans still gnaw on.”
EXTRA TIME 
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