A star is born.
...at least one.
This Round of 16 Romania vs. Austria matchup might not have been the most anticipated of them all, as neither of these teams are expected to make any waves later on in this World Youth Cup. However, as we've learnt so far after witnessing the shocking eliminations of teams such as France and Portugal (who've lost to Switzerland and South Korea, respectively), this first edition of the competition might end up being the ultimate underdog World Cup - so it might make sense to pay attention to these otherwise uninteresting sides. English fans got the memo and surprisingly enough, were able to fill the Valley Parade (Coral Windows Stadium) up.
It's fair to say that this wasn't a spectacular encounter. It was more of an endless midfield battle with few clear-cut-chances for either side; it was the kind of hyper-tactical match that the managers and wannabe managers alike surely loved to experience, not so much for your typical football fan. Neither team was able to exercise dominance over the other, which was to be expected beforehand anyway.
After just three minutes of play, Austria had to deal with an injured player, as midfielder Demaku is brought down and seemed unable to continue on. The foul didn't look as hard enough for to have such a powerful effect on him, but though he kept trying to return to the match and carry on, he would be substituted by the 23rd minute. A tough blow for Austria's aspirations in this match as one of their most talented players is off for the day.
Meanwhile, in a very timid manner both sides were trying to get to the opponent's last third of the pitch. No team decided to bet on attacking profusely; rather both chose to hold on to their defensive solidity and wait for the perfect opportunity to counter-attack. Now, while Romania tried to use Mihaila (one of the top-scorers of the tournament with two goals scored in their previous encounter) down the right-wing to create some danger on the run, Austria preferred to keep the ball possession and wait much more patiently for an opportunity to attack. Anyway, neither were having much success: it's fair to say they were both able to get a few shots here and there, but none was really worthy of note.
After ten minutes of mild action, no shots were taken for ten more minutes. Argh. Is this going to be Northern Ireland vs. China all over again? I sure hope to never see such a terrible event ever happening again. It'll haunt me until the end of days.
Worry not, dear writer, said Austria. More precisely, one of the most feared attacking duos of the competition, one that the WYC is revealing to the general audience. I'm speaking of Krienzer and Edelhofer. By the 23rd minute, Krienzer got the ball in front of Romania's defense, decides to lob it to Edelhofer...
...and the man rides the elevator, gets out on the 56th floor, jumps without any parachute and dives to glory! He scored! What a potent header by one of the most exciting (and beforehand, totally unknown) talents in this WYC!
The goal sparked a foul fest for the remaining minutes of the first half. Fifteen minutes without any shots on goal - right after Krienzer tried a ultimately unsuccessful one - and too many fouls everywhere. Romania was entirely to blame for that as by the end of the first half, they had ten fouls against Austria's only one. The goal took a toll on their mental well-being and Austria took advantage of the situation and established control over the game. I give all credit to Austrian manager Aivanschitz as you can perfectly see how in each moment of the match this team is able to assert itself with class and solidity. Despite the fact that neither of their defensive players is particularly skilled, they were able to pass the ball around among themselves when the team was building up play, effectively participating on that process. It was a joy to watch, truly.
At half time, Austria's winning 0-1 and despite the fact that the shot count was balanced, the ball possession levels reveal how Austria treated the ball better than their rivals.
If most expected a vivid reaction by the losing team Romania for the second half of play, that clearly didn't happen. In fact, it was Austria who almost scored the second goal on a couple of occasions: first it was Hahn who almost scored from a beautifully taken free kick - the ball seemed to be ice-skating on air, such was the graceful swerve it had - and then it was Radulovic who hit the post on the edge of the box.
Andrei wouldn't be able to stop any of those if they had gone in.
At this point, Austria deserved to be winning by two goals. I say this not so much for their offensive production - as those two shots pretty much sum their second half attacking ventures (even if Romania didn't do any better) -; rather, a star was born in this second half on Austria's defensive side: and that star single-handedly stopped the entire Romania's offense. Meisl, the centreback, rose up to the challenge: he had already threaten to taken over in the first 45 minutes but he must've taken something at halftime, because he absolutely exploded later on. I'm not exaggerating: he won every challenge, he never got dribbled, he blocked shots, crosses, and passes of all kinds; he patrolled the midfield, the CB area where he belongs, he covered for his left back, his right back, and even his CB partner Moormann. Meisl was possessed by the spirits of Van Dijk, Maldini, Nesta and Cannavaro all at the same time.
Even so, Romania was able to get a clear-cut-chance to score - their most dangerous one of the entire match. Ten minutes before the end, Moormann misses what looked like a simple header to try and clear the ball away from danger, but it ends up on J. Markovic's feet and he instantly gets one-on-one with the keeper, who manages to save it.
Moments later, Austria's right-back gets injured and because the team is all out of subs, he has to painfully carry on playing.
Fortunately for him, he wouldn't need to play the extra-time as Austria secures the 0-1 win over Romania - and rightfully so as the Austrians were the better team out there on both sides of the pitch during the whole match.
Man of the Match: Meisl. The task of marking Markovic would always be a tough one for any defender but Meisl definitely rose to the occasion, in style I'd add. This was by far the greatest defensive exhibition we've had in this WYC2019 and one that would be very tough to beat. Meisl, I don't know if you'll ever make it on professional football, but save this game's broadcast and you won't even need a football agent to land you a job.
Up: Krienzer and Edelhofer. I don't know if there's any other attacking duo as finely tuned as this one. Each always knows where the other is at all times, they share the offensive workload perfectly and flawlessly: exhibit A, the goal they've built and scored.
Up: Screciu. Sad to see this exciting midfielder go, as he never fails to impress defensively and offensively: if he's usually only a defensive-minded anchorman, this time he took the reins of the team's offense and acted like a box-to-box-meets-anchorman.
Down: Markovic. Meisl and Moormann denied him the chance to shine at all times - and even when he had a bit of space, he could never do anything noteworthy with the ball.
, i remember the last season Real Madrid had the best CF duo in the world in that current save, which were Fernando Torres and Djibril Cisse. They were 99 overall (in old Fifas, old players were not on decline as in ML.)
