Hartberg & Klagenfurt
When soccer dwarves fight giants
The championship group of the Bundesliga starts on Sunday - with Hartberg and Austria Klagenfurt! If you had bet on this duo before the start of the top six, you would probably have won a lot of money. But there are reasons for their successful run - as the two coaches reveal.
A sober look at a few facts and figures (see chart) does not suggest that Austria Klagenfurt and Hartberg are two clubs that belong to the elite of the Austrian Bundesliga. But even if the Carinthians have no official club members or the Styrians have just two (!) full-time employees in the office, the clubs are making sporting history in the current season!
"Klagenfurt have played in the Bundesliga for three years and are at the top for the third time, that alone says it all," says Hartberg coach Markus Schopp, taking his hat off to Pacult's men. "Peter is the oldest coach in the Bundesliga. But that has nothing to do with his age, but rather with the fact that he has taken so much with him in all his coaching roles and at all his stations, which he now passes on to his players honestly and clearly. In addition to his success, you have to look at how Sinan Karweina is currently developing under Pacult. Or that they have recently developed a Greil or a Pink and sold them on," Schopp scatters many roses in the direction of Wörthersee and his "teammate" Pacult, with whom the man from Graz meets again and again at matches of the "Copa Pele legends". "We divide up the halves nicely, he and I," laughs Schopp.
Peter Pacult was an incredibly good player as an active player. As a coach, he passes on what he has experienced to his players honestly and clearly.
Markus Schopp über „PP“
The compliments come straight back from the 64-year-old veteran coach from Klagenfurt. "Schopp did everything right in the summer. He sorted out a lot of players and set up something completely new. I wrote and congratulated him straight after the move," emphasizes Pacult, who explains the two underdogs' run of success quite simply: "Hard work by the players, hard work by the coaching team. There is no other miracle cure!"
However, it is clear that Pacult's third top-six finish is a real source of satisfaction: "At the start of the season, the so-called expert Frenkie Schinkels dubbed us as a certain relegation candidate in a media outlet - even though he once coached Austria Kärnten at the Wörthersee Stadium. But he had zero success there anyway!"
"PP" feels much more on the same wavelength as Schopp: "We don't just want to be there, we can dream of Europe and want to annoy the big boys!"
The first chance will come on Sunday when they face the giants: Hartberg have to go to leaders Salzburg, while Klagenfurt welcome runners-up Sturm. Who will come out on top? "We want to get as far ahead as possible," says Schopp, "Klagenfurt is not on my radar right now."
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