Handshake refused
Ilzer angry: “Klauß should be told once”
The discussion about alleged espionage by Sturm Graz at Rapid has escalated around the clash between the two clubs in the Bundesliga on Wednesday. Sturm coach Christian Ilzer refused to shake hands with Rapid coach Robert Klauß before the 3:1 win for Graz at the Allianz Stadium and harshly criticized the German after the final whistle. "Patting down a coach is not customary in Austria. Maybe you should tell him that," said Ilzer.
The bone of contention was a statement made by Klauß at the press conference on Tuesday, according to which Sturm had sent an observer to Vienna in recent days to take a close look at the Green-Whites' training sessions from a higher parking garage level of a shopping center adjacent to the training pitches. "Sturm Graz are present at every one of our training sessions anyway. They try to spy on us with spies, we see them every time anyway and then send them away again," Klauß explained with a smile on the podium of the media center in the Allianz Stadium.
"Have better things to do"
This was followed the next day by a fierce reaction from Ilzer at the same venue. "We have better things to do than watch a Rapid training session from this funny tower. Not every car parked up there with a Graz number plate is a 'spy' from Sturm Graz," said the Styrian and also said towards Klauß: "If there's a problem from his side, then he can call me if he's paranoid somewhere. My way of sorting things out is from man to man. And not by staging a story and running it through the media."
According to Ilzer himself, he has no interest in watching a Rapid training session. "I'm a fan of attacking soccer. He has made Rapid much more stable, but when I look at the xG value (note: indicates the number of good scoring chances) under Zoki Barisic and under Robert Klauß, there is a clear decline." This was followed by a jab at Klauß for switching to a back three. "If he then plays a different system, like today, then there's no automatism in it. He's probably not doing himself any favors."
"Should come"
The 46-year-old invited Klauß to a Sturm training session. "If he really wants to, he should come to us. But he'll go home depressed because he'll see the intensity and commitment with which we work."
Ilzer emphasized that he has great respect for the Rapid players. "They were always tough duels, but there were always shake hands at the end. That's what I want. The better player should win. I don't need someone who stages an extra story with a hypocritical smile, that's not my style, I'm not a fan of that."
"My word counts"
The alleged Sturm espionage activities first became an issue on the day before the Styrians' 1-0 win over Rapid last Friday. According to Ilzer, there were also talks with Rapid officials in the course of this. "I said I would speak to my analysis department again, that nobody was watching Rapid training. I can't say whether there was anything before that or not. I promised them that no one would come, my word counts for something. We have other things to do than watch a training session of Robert Klauß", explained the Sturm coach.
Klauß did not want to comment in detail on this topic. "I'm generally more interested in my club, my team. I don't want to add fuel to the fire, I have to live with the reproach and can still sleep well. The defeat annoys me more than the accusation."
The second defeat against Sturm within six days was a serious blow for Rapid in the battle for third place, as the gap between the fourth-placed team and third-placed LASK grew to five points. The Hütteldorfer also have Klagenfurt, who are level on points, and Hartberg, who are one point behind, breathing down their necks. However, a win at LASK on Sunday would not only be urgently needed due to the situation in the table, it would also be a motivational boost for the cup final against Sturm on Wednesday.
Guido Burgstaller, Lukas Grgic and possibly Leo Querfeld, who all missed the 3-1 defeat, are likely to be back for this match. Nenad Cvetkovic is also likely to feature in the starting line-up - the Serbian central defender made a successful comeback with the professionals after recovering from a cruciate ligament rupture and an eight-month break. "You could already see that he can help us with his presence," said Klauß.
"Not playing such a big role"
The Rapid coach called for the right conclusions to be drawn from the two recent defeats against Sturm. "But the cup final is there for you to go in with everything you've got. The games before that don't play such a big role."
Kommentare
Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.