“Of course memories come up. I walked in the door and there were a lot of familiar faces,” said Klaus Schmidt in the “Sky” interview before the away game with SCR Altach at TSV Hartberg.
The 55-year-old was employed in East Styria until November of the previous year, and together they managed to stay up in the 2021/22 season. Around five months later, Schmidt returned to his old place of work and drew 2-2 with his new club (match report >>>).
“Of course that doesn’t leave you cold,” said Grazer about the return, which represented a “sentimantel journey” for Schmidt, but the Altach coach had to put aside any sentimentality and emotions for 90 minutes.
Schmidt satisfied despite being in the lead
His team made it easy for him, the Vorarlbergers were already leading 2-0 after goals from Lukas Gugganig and Jan Jurcec. “After the first half it almost went by itself,” explained Schmidt.
“But then Hartberg answered really well. We lost the thread for a quarter of an hour and got the two goals there,” says the coach, addressing the double strike from Jürgen Heil (58th) and Dominik Prokop (60th).
The Styrian was still satisfied with the point win. “The team fought back brilliantly after conceding those two goals and deserved this point even though we could have played the game home in the first half.”
When asked about the two different halves, Schmidt says: “We played it really calmly, but in the second half Hartberg played ‘all-in’ and gave up one or the other position at the back. As a result, they had more players up front. We have them didn’t defend well at the beginning and that’s how the 2:2 came about.”
However, there is no anger at the Styrian, the positive reaction to the derby bankruptcy of the previous week is much more predominant. “It has to be said that we lost a game in Lustenau and now we have a completely different face here away from home. It was a different team that played today.”
Hartberg rewarded himself after a “terrifyingly passive” first half
His successor Markus Schopp could say the same – but about the second half of his Hartbergers.
“The first half was frighteningly passive from us, waiting, actually not what we had in mind. As a result, the opponent was actually able to lead 0:2 relatively easily, and could probably even have led 0:3”, was Schopp frustrated.
But “in the second half we managed it much better and in the end we can reward ourselves. You have to be satisfied with the point over the 90 minutes,” the Hartberg coach gratefully took the draw with him.
Jürgen Heil, who initiated the turnaround with a dream goal, was partly responsible for this. “I don’t know if I’ll shoot many more of them in my career. It went well off my feet and that was brutally important at the time, because then we lived brutally again and that was actually very important,” smiled he.
