Austria May 2010

Hartberg 0 Admira Wacker 4 in the Austrian 1st Division.

It was easy enough for second placed Admira especially with Hartberg losing league top scorer Burger with a shoulder injury early on.

Krammer got two and there were headers from Hanikel and a superb one from Horvath.

Admira, who were a class above the home side, finished the scoring early in the second half and they stayed in control although sub. Schober proved a tricky winger and Michael Kolbl
put in some decent efforts.

The home fans amongst the 2000 crowd still enjoyed themselves as the beer flowed for this final game of the season.

Admira also had their group of fans although, despite this win, their team missed out on the league title to another Wacker as leaders Innsbruck also won.

To finish - some wine in the very conducive town centre on a mild evening in Styria.

UAE 3 Moldova 2 played at Anif.

In a village just south of Salzburg with a mountain backdrop this international friendly took place before around 100 people including 2 Moldovan fans (with 3 flags)

The game turned out to be reasonably watchable with UAE outpassing Moldova in the first half.

Tigirlas got the scoring going with a decisive volley then UAE hit back with a goal deflected in from a free kick then another after the Moldovan keeper failed to hold a shot.

In the second half Moldova stepped up their pace and eventually equalised through sub. Bulgaru. But the Asian team had the final say when Khalil was put through to slot home the winner.

After a sunny start the match ended in the rain which continued as I drove back towards my hotel near Steyr.

England 2 Japan 1 in Graz.

And so to the final match of this short trip to Austria.

This warm-up game prior to the World Cup seem to throw up more questions than answers for the England team.

Or maybe we were just getting the mistakes (and experiments) out of the way before the real thing starts.

As it turned out it didn't do Theo Walcott any favours (or Tom Huddlestone who played well)

Japan showed their generosity by gifting us a penalty, from which Lampard missed for the second time in succession, and then scoring two own goals.

I suspect Brazil and Spain will not be so helpful should we play them in South Africa.

more pics at http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/396217929