Get to Know: SC Rheindorf Altach

SC Rheindorf Altach may not be a household name in European football but they have definitely turned some heads over the last few seasons advancing to the Europa League Playoff Round two of the last three years.

The Austrian Bundesliga club was founded in 1929 and advanced to play in the Europa League qualifying rounds by finishing 4th in their domestic league. They moved on to the Playoff Round by defeating Belgium club Gent 4:2 on aggregate while in 2015/16, their first continental campaign, they lost to Portuguese side Belenenses in the Playoff Round by an aggregate score of 1:0.

To learn more about the ins and outs of this up and coming club we spoke to Christian Adam, a sports journalist for Vorarlberger Nachrichten who began by examining Altach’s key players:

“There are three players who have been with the team since 2009. Keeper Martin Kobras (31), captain Philipp Netzer (31) and defender Andreas Lienhart (31). Netzer is the one who organizes the defense and has made almost 200 appearances for the club while scoring 23 goals. Kobras will get the nod in goal as the 1st choice keeper Andreas Lukse is injured. However, Kobras has played in 206 matches for the club and is more than capable.”

Adam continued breaking down the side: “Stefan Nutz is a new addition to the team and he plays behind the forward, while 23-year old Cameroon National Team midfielder Moumi Ngamaleu is the most important player recently played for his side at the Confederations Cup in Russia. Hannes Aigner may be the oldest player at 36 but he has scored many goals, 62 in 117 matches while also being a very important players in terms of team spirit.”

Due to the club’s quickness they are very deft both on the attack and on defense: “They play an offensive style mostly in a 4-1-4-1 formation and are very good in switching over from defense to attack, because of players like Ngamaleu, Christian Gebauer and Kristijan Dobras who are extremely fast paced.”

Klaus Schmidt recently came on board as the Altach’s head coach after Martin Scherb lasted a little over half a season: “This is the first time Schmidt is Bundesliga. Last season he saved second division side FC BW Linz from relegation but the problem he has now is that the squad is not built for both the Bundesliga and Europa League. Schmidt is an very emotional coach and the players like him because he is goal-oriented, modest and clear, but most importantly puts the team first.”

Attach may be a small city with a population of only 6,300 but the as Adam says the spirit is high: “There are always about 5,000 fans looking to go to matches but the home stadium, Cashpoint Arena has only 3350 seats, so for the Europa League Altach has to play in Innsbruck at the Tivoli-Neu Stadium that seats 16k spectators. The club expects to have over 6,000 fans travel the 180 km to the match on Thursday.”

Adam summed up Altach’s chances in the two legged tie as a sporting one: “They feel like they did two seasons ago when they got by a bigger club. This year they see Gent as a bigger club than Maccabi. so they believe that they have a sporting chance to go through. But there are a number of players injured and Aigner is out of the first leg due to yellow card accumulation.”