Hickersberger relishing 2008 task
Thursday, January 5, 2006
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The new Austria coach Josef Hickersberger said the challenge of building a strong team for UEFA EURO 2008™ on home soil was key to his taking the job.
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Work ahead
In an interview with the Austrian Football Association website, Hickersberger spoke of the work ahead in preparing Austria’s footballers to shine in front of their own fans. “The major reason why I definitely wanted to become national coach again is the 2008 European championship in our home country,” said Hickersberger, who coached Austria at the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. “This is an incredible challenge for any coach, and of course for myself as well.”
Preparatory matches
Hickersberger, who played for Austria in the 1978 World Cup finals and also has widespread club coaching experience, said he was looking forward to the challenge of guiding the team through a series of preparatory matches for 2008. As co-hosts with Switzerland, Austria qualify automatically.
Players’ duty
“First of all, I would like to quote the former national coach Leopold Stastny, who always said that a national-team match remains a national-team match,” he said. “Even if these matches will be friendly games, they are matches in which a country’s best players oppose, and players have a duty to their own country to give of their best in such games.”
Suitable opponents
Hickersberger said the Austrian association would be seeking suitable opponents for the warm-up matches. “The ÖFB has very good contacts, and we will certainly find appropriate opposition,” he explained. “I have no worries that we will not have sufficient preparatory matches, or that the opposition will not be strong enough.”
Click here to read the full interview
Click here to go to the ÖFB website