Starting Thursday, Austria’s national team will be fighting for Olympic qualification. Linz boss Peter Nader is annoyed that this tournament falls in the middle of the preseason.
“This is again great planning,” said Black Wings Linz boss Peter Nader, referring to the Olympic qualification tournament, which will take place three weeks before the start of the league season.
Nader goes even further and told the “Kronen Zeitung” that he was happy to only have to release one player: “Thank God we only have one team player this time,” referring to goalie Thomas Höneckl.
The Linz team is actually “lucky” because Red Bull Salzburg has to do without eight players during this phase, while KAC has to do without seven. What is actually an honor for any team that has so many players on its team is actually a problem at the moment.
But this tournament, which takes place every four years, is a matter of prestige and Austria must enter the best possible team if it wants to be successful. The reason why this qualifying tournament takes place before the start of the season is very simple: This is the only way the associations have the chance to get their North American legionnaires released for it, see Marco Kasper and David Reinbacher in the Austrian team.
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