JUVENTUS-AUSTRIA 1-1
— Vittorio Pozzo | 17/07/1933 —

Juventus is definitively eliminated from the European Cup. On their own pitch, the Italian champion team not only failed to reach the score that was necessary for admission to the final of the competition, but they were not even able to beat the winners of the Austrian Cup. Truly, to be precise, it would be necessary to say that, rather than being able to, Juventus was unable to win. The Bianconeri had all the opportunities to score the necessary and sufficient number of points to eliminate Austria, and they were all excellent. But what matters is the result.

THE ELIMINATION OF THE CHAMPIONS.

The tournament is not favorable to the units holding the champion title in their respective countries. Juventus did nothing yesterday but follow the fate of its sisters and rivals. First Hungária, champion of Hungary, capitulated, then Stavia, champion of Czechoslovakia, surrendered; then First Vienna, champion of Austria, surrendered. The Italian champions were the last ones to understand that the event had no concern for them either. And they lowered the flag. To defend the colors of our country in the great international competition, the awards were passed to the second place, Ambrosiana.

The match between Juventus and Austria could truly have been a great event throughout the term, if two elements had not conspired against it: the season and the excitement.

Once again there was proof that the month of July is already too late in the summer to host competitions of great international importance. Too late for the public and too late for the players. A match like yesterday's, played in May, would have filled the capable Turin Stadium. After a football "cure" lasting nine or ten months, the athlete is not so easily seduced by the attraction of roasting in the sun for a few hours in the afternoon. And, for their part, the players who have fought tenaciously for an entire season cannot, absolutely cannot, be in the best physical and technical conditions at the moment in which the heat's offensive intervenes to increase the difficulties.

Secondly, the excitement, it was said. The need to climb a gap at all costs which appeared to most to be unbridgeable, on the Turin side, the fear of losing the advantage acquired and of being subjected to unpleasant treatment on the Austrian side, had contributed to creating a state of spirit of great nervousness and excitement. From the first moments of the match it was understood that there was no question of calm and mastery of nerves on the part of the men on the pitch: through sheer haste, Austria, who had led the first attack, immediately missed an opportunity to score, and due to an exclusive lack of firmness, Juventus made a mistake immediately after, through Borel II, what should have been the opening point of the day. The players on both teams were on edge; they became offended at the slightest contact with an adversary, they exchanged hard blows, they were not careful when it came to the weapons and systems to use. The meeting suffers directly. It took on that typical color that corresponds to the English definition of a cup match, that is, a match in which the danger of direct elimination leads to sacrificing everything for the result and making the match a battle. Consequently, everything technical and refined that two units like Austria and Juventus can produce was not seen: it disappeared, suffocated by the ardor and harshness of the combat.

A GOOD MISSED OPPORTUNITY.

Austria, to tell the truth, opened hostilities as if it intended to give the Turin public a fair idea of its technical value. He immediately led one of the fastest advances, and continued, keeping the five ahead in line, as if the uniform adopted corresponded to the concept that the best defense is a good attack. The uniform itself could not find explanation, after the first advance mentioned above, for the simple fact that Juventus taking the initiative cut them off from action and made the Viennese first line inactive. In the 21st minute, the point scored by the black and whites made the guests stagger as they lost their confidence in the tactics adopted. A period of uncertainty then set in, a sort of transition stage between the attack and the defense, in the sense that the attack was partially mobilized without the defense being! fully organized itself on new systems; that was — incidentally — the period in which Juventus should not only have won the match, but also be the basis for a score of some importance.

Upon resumption, things changed. Blum, the coach who was a great full-back, knows how to organize a defense that blocks the way to the net. It was a question of preventing the Turin team from scoring another two points in the forty-five minutes remaining to reach the end of the match. And then, on the Austrian side, three full-backs and four half-backs were seen with the consequence that every Italian attacker found himself inexorably marked. Only a few men were left up front; just enough, with the occasional reinforcement of one of the inside forwards, to keep the game open and give the Italian defense work and headaches.

THE TIREDNESS OF THE BLACK-WHITES.

No wonder therefore if, in similar circumstances, nothing or almost nothing was seen of Austria's overwhelming and irresistible attacking play, and nothing of the Viennese team shines brightly except for its pure defence.

Sindelar, the pivot around which the Austrian team's mechanism physically and morally revolves, fired a violent and sudden shot right in the first minutes of the match, a shot from which a goal could have resulted; he then had a few more touches and a few stretches of his wings, nothing more. Around this man who is truly an artist of the ball, but who is also a cunning man in faking injuries and in irritating and dismantling an opponent, a small barrage of rudeness and incorrectness breaks out — not unilateral, we repeat, but with question and answer. The real Sindelar, all ball play and all tactics, was not seen.

In his place, a simply gigantic Nausch was seen. Caught in the thick of the fight, finding himself almost continuously in the line of fire, Nausch resisted fearlessly and with his colleague Graf formed an almost insurmountable barrier to the Turin advances. He never resorted to pretenses of the type that his attacking center is a specialist in, he faced the opponent head on, like a strong man; his behavior aroused full sympathy.

The Austria team is strong, positive and compact. But yesterday the thing was sensed rather than noticed. Flashes here and there, fleeting hints of a sudden spread of offensives, all based on the solid construction of an excellent defense, but nothing continuous and little that is truly effective. Austria must be an interesting team to see put to the test in a less heated match, where they play more and fight less.

Juventus told the public a clear word about the degree of tiredness they are pervaded by. For some time this tiredness had been surfacing and appearing here and there. Yesterday it emerged into full light. The team is no longer the same as it was three months ago. It could and should have won yesterday's match, perhaps with a large number of goals; however, nothing would have changed in their current physical conditions.

It will be said that the championship is as tiring in Austria as it is in Italy, that the Austrian teams play even more than ours. What is the answer to which is that in Austria the squads take the tram to go from one camp to another for different meetings, while in Italy they undergo intensive treatment for nine months with journeys such as Turin-Palermo or Vercelli-Bari or Trieste-Napoli, and that our environment is infinitely more exhausting than the calm and good-natured Viennese environment. The measure to shorten our championship is sacrosanct.

None of the Juventus players on the pitch yesterday are today in the conditions they were in weeks ago. Of the attack, for example, Ferrari alone worked with his usual precision and continuity. Borel, one of the men on whom Juventus bases its hopes for the future, had a dark day. He had lost momentum, speed, ball control, initiative, shot on goal. He will find everything without a doubt, he must not be discouraged; but yesterday he was not in order. Orsi was meticulous and active, but lost too often in trifles, and the right side of the attack was devoid of any penetrative and incisive force.

HOW THINGS WENT.

The half-back line works hard and doesn't deserve the quantity of the work. And the quality that was not always desirable. Rarely during the match were we seen, for example, those long and sudden crosses to the wings which widen the play, which cut the opposing defense out of action and which set up an advance in a practical way. And even the extreme defense, which lined up a limping Caligaris, was already seen in a better light.

As things went, Juventus should have won the match with a substantial margin of goals in the period of the first half in which the opponent staggered under the barrage of attacks as if waiting to stall, and then again in the last quarter of an hour of the match. In the first half, luck certainly had a hand in the development of things in the form of the posts which seemed to stand in the path of the shots on two or three occasions; but in the second half it was a case of real slowness and inaccuracy on the part of the Juventus forwards. The team, at the restart, no longer had any courage, they played without conviction, as if they were short of time and could no longer lead to any concrete result.

The crowd that witnessed the test can be estimated at twenty thousand people.

A whole host of authorities in the grandstand: the Podestà Dr. Paolo Thaon of Rerel with the two deputy mayors; the Commander of the Army Corps, Gen. Gordesco; the President of the F.I.G.C., gen. Vaccaro; the Secretary of the same, eng. Barassi; the lawyer Mauro and the Austrian technical commissioner Hugo Meisl, and technicians and journalists from every part of Italy.

The two teams appeared on the field in the following formation:

Austria: Billich; Graf and Nausch; Najemnik, Mock and Gall; Molzer, Stroh, Sindelar, Spechtl and Viertl.

Juventus: Combi; Rosetta and Caligaris; Varglien II., Varglien I. and Bertolini; Sernagiotto, Cesarini, Borel II., Ferrari and Orsi.

The direction of the match was entrusted to the mammoth Czechoslovakian Cejnar.

Austria led the first attack: the action ended with a half-jump ball shot by Sindelar, who sent the ball whizzing just over the crossbar.

Juventus' reaction was furious and immediate. Borel immediately found himself in an excellent position: he shot with his left foot and missed the target. For half an hour there was only one team on the field. The Viennese fortress was subjected to a real siege, and in the 21st minute it capitulated. Billich throws himself at a strong center from Sernagiotto, stops, but doesn't hold the ball; Ferrari is on the spot and with a tip he sends it into the net from two steps. Great enthusiasm.

Spurred on by the public and by the desire to increase their lead, Juventus continues its strong attack. It is at this moment that it should fatten its loot. In fact, Austria feels the pinch and is dissuaded; particularly the centre-half Mock seems to disappear. But Borel doesn't take advantage of it at all.

In his stead, Ferrari was enterprising. One of his shots violently hit the post, another deflected off the well-placed goalkeeper. Then it was Cesarini's turn to shoot; again the cross-post helped Billich in the save. Lastly, Ferrari met a Sernaglotto centre by header and devolved hard into the net. The ball smacks into the junction of the two posts to the right of the goalkeeper who, resigned, had not even moved.

Austria only had one reaction move before the end of the half, but it was enough to give the crowd the shivers; the right winger Molzer sprinted away on his own, glided to within two steps of the goal, got himself into an excellent situation, but was slow to shoot. Combi makes a desperate save.

THE AUSTRIANS DRAW.

The recovery. We expect an even stronger Juventus offensive than that of the first half. Instead, the minutes pass and the game initially stops at half the pitch and then leans towards the half of the pitch defended by Combi. A few shots from far away challenge the Turin goalkeeper. The Viennese attackers, reduced to three, take courage and conduct increasingly frequent raids. It takes a quarter of an hour for Juventus to extricate themselves. And then Borel finally shakes himself and, seconding Orsi, tries to break through on his own. His shot is saved by Billich; however, the ball escapes the goalkeeper and almost rolls into the net.

The game becomes tough, sharp and violent. The referee doles out free kicks left and right. The Juventus players still attack, but with less and less conviction. Borel, alone ahead of Billich, misses an excellent opportunity with his head.

At the 30th minute, a cold shower for those who were still hoping. Stroh, the small inside right, takes advantage of a slip between Bertolini and Caligaris, runs away alone, reaches a few steps from the goal, hints at passing to Sindelar and then instead opens directly. The shot hits Combi's leg almost point-blank and the ball rockets into the net. 1:1.

It's the end. In a furious counter-attack, Juventus still had an excellent opportunity to score. Ferrari extends between the full-backs who don't move, Cesarini, who took Borel's place in the centre, should attack in the middle and find an opening; however, he is slow to take action. This opportunity is also smoked out. The referee blows his whistle to end the tough contest while the ball is in the Vienna half of the field. Austria is a European Cup finalist.