Both goals came off the boot of Jozef Sombat who had an excellent game, as did Adam Bombicz, Michael Wernecker and Juraj Fuska. Here’s what the game looked like.

Jaroslav Machovec was in fine form again.

While the ball went past Roman Ostojic, Daniel Pfeiffer quite correctly has his hand raised for offside.

While the ball went past Roman Ostojic, Daniel Pfeiffer quite correctly raises his hand for offside.

There was no real threat here with a a high ball which FC Winden keeper Roman Ostojic easily captured but Kittsee’s steady pressure up close gradually knocked Ostojic off his game.

Daniel Pfeiffer is in hot pursuit of Juraj Fuska who was fleet of foot all day.

Kittsee newcomer Tomas Banovic goes high for the header.

FC Winden coach Christian Bauer was incensed by this call and let the whole world know. Juraj Fuska worried about picking the ball up in front Bauer.

The two Tomases, Banovic and Bastian go high in defense to keep Winden’s Ibrahim Kamasik from the ball. That might be Marek Luscik getting a haircut from Bastian.

Daniel Pfeiffer had a tough afternoon chasing Fuska

Winden’s Daniel Pfeiffer is staggered by Jozef Sombat’s sudden and beautiful header off a floating crosser from Michael Wernecker who celebrates.

SC Kittsee coach Manfred Watchter watches as a wide-eyed Juraj Fuska fiercely throws the ball back into play. The Kittsee party bench watches attentively in the background.

Jozef Sombat outran all the FC Winden defenders this afternoon, here Stefan Haider in pursuit.

Adam Bombicz enjoyed a strong afternoon.

Adam Bombicz glides around Stefan Haider

Stefan Haider can’t reach the ball

Bombicz has laid Haider out on the turf

It was a bitter duel all afternoon between Filip Balazi and Michael Wernecker, The pushing and shoving cost Balazi a yellow card.

White cups everywhere as the young Kittsee home bench crowd cheer on their team and laugh and joke.

Sombat slips past the last Widen defender for a clean shot at Roman Ostojic

Though down 1:0 for much of the match, FC Winden pressed hard on the all second half.

Fuska’s hard shot goes into a bevy of Winden players including Sascha Savoric and Maximilian Kroyer

Filip Balazi has drawn the short stick again chasing a Bombicz in full throttle

Michael Speckl tugs at Juraj Fuska’s hand to attempt to knock him off stride

Filip Balazi attempts to block Jaroslav Machovec from a header in front of the FC Winden net where Roman Ostojic and Marek Luscik wait for the shot.

An FC Winden shot slips across the goal line while Manuel Schiszler watches and hopes

The weather changes towards the end of the game. The evening sky turned into gun metal and navy clouds as huge gusts of wind roared down towards the FC Winden net. The very pretty Lilly walks with her best friend Diana in the wind. Lilly carries a microphone as she took over calling the game from long time veteran Gerhard Flink.

Congratulations Miss Buchta and thanks to Herr Flink for years of service!

A high free kick drops in front of Jozef Sombat who just manages to touch the ball on the bounce. Winden keeper Roman Ostojic seems to track the ball.

The bounce takes a strange angle. Roman Ostojic has one eye on the ball and one eye on Sombat who has beat him once already tonight

Keeper Roman Ostojic guesses wrong and the ball starts to pass over his left glove

Keepr Ostojic cannot recover and the ball floats slowly over him as he falls backwards now. Sombat and Pfeiffer are both transfixed by the slow motion goal.

Congratulations all around for the man of the night Jozef Sombat who closed up a tense game at 92 minutes. From left to right Said Ashraf Soltani, Adam Bombicz, Jaroslav Machovec ,Jozef Sombat, Tomas Banovic, Patrick Pail, Juraj Fuska

Some final fancy footwork from Juraj Fuska. Fuska leaves Pitzinger guessing.

Apart from some pushing and shoving between Wernecker and Balazi, the game tonight was both very competitive and very clean. SC Kittsee deserved to win, FC Winden deserved no worse than a tie for their performance. This is what football is all about. From left to right: Juraj Fuska, Filip Balazi, Mustafa Atik, Patrick Pail, Michael Speckl, Tomas Banovic, Manuel Oswald, referee Durdu Ceri.

Both FC Winden coach Christian Bauer and SC Kittsee coach Manfred Wachter should be very proud of their teams tonight. It was a fast-paced, competitive game where both sides gave their best and every advantage was earned, right to the closing whistle.

[fvplayer id=”32″]

The above is a short video of this year’s Lanternfest in Kittsee.

The substantial crowd for the last home game at 17h on Saturday faced an unpleasant early surprise when Thomas Wickl scored after two minutes. The rest of the first half was fairly evenly matched with Mustafa Atik equalising at the end of the half. In the second half, SC Kittsee enjoyed breakaway after breakaway and notched two more goals. A decisive win over a worthy opponent, which bodes well for the spring season.

The game was very exciting and I have a lot of photos. Here’s the first seventeen including mostly the goals.

At two minutes, Thomas Wickl scored for FC Illimitz making the home crowd nervous after the ASV Deutsch Jahrndorf game where another top ranked team dominated SC Kittsee.

Fuska’s goal here is to keep Gartner from getting to the ball and win a corner after too hard a backwards pass. Illmitz held the Kittsee players quite often. Seemed a strategy with them.

SC Kittsee coach Manfred Wachter was unusually intense at the Illimitz game.

Adam Bombicz delivers assist to Patrick Pail goal. Right after this pass, Patrick Pail knocks the ball straight into the net at a high angle.

FC Illmitz keeper Patrick Kamper gets a hand on this one, under siege from both Michael Wernecker and Jozef Szombat

Mustafa Atik scores for FC Kittsee. Keeper Patrick Kemper is left well out of position and on the ground this time.

SC Kittsee keeper Manuel Schiszler has been driven into the back of the net by a previous save. Fortunately Patrick Pail is there to head away an attempt by Thomas Zwickl to notch a second goal for Illmitz.

Adam Bombicz created a number of dangerous attempts on the FC Illmitz net. Thomas Zinkl and Patrick Kamper foil this one.

Michael Wernecker attempts to push a loose ball into the net. Thomas Sazl holds Wernecker while keeper Kemper tries to block the ball. The second half of the game turned into a bit of a nightmare for Kemper with SC Kittsee forwards in front of him in one on one or two on one situations again and again.

Jozef Szombat knocks in his first goal. This goal put SC Kittsee ahead 2:1. Szombat enjoyed a one on one chance which visibly angered keeper Kemper. Defender Filip Kutaj doesn’t seem to be in a rush to hinder Szombat.

Congratulations to Szombat for the go-ahead goal. A moment of real joy and camaraderie for SC Kittsee. Adam Bombicz, Mustafa Atik, Rafael Artner, Jozef Szombat, Michael Wernecker, Tomas Bastian, Christoph Drobola.

Jozef Szombat enjoyed another clear breakaway. Thomas Sazl preferred to stop Szombat with a two-hand hold than face the anger of keeper Kemper.

Referee Manuel Gregorits rewards Thomas Sazl with a well-deserved red card for this two-handed hold. Is it better to be down 3-1 with 10 minutes left in the game or to be down 2-1 with ten players? At the 80 minute mark the goal is worth more than the red card but even if Szombat is left alone one on one with the keeper, there’s a good chance the keeper will be able to stop his shot. The red card is a sure thing. Interesting tactical decision.

Sebastian Skerlan is a very good player and a fierce defender but an inveterate troublemaker with a yellow card or red card almost every match. It was an astonishing and amusing moment to see him carry the captaincy for SC Kittsee. If Sergei Ramos can be captain at FC Real Madrid and for Spain, why not Skerlan?

Jozef Sombat notches his second goal, as Michael Zwickl arrives too late. Keeper Patrick Kemper doesn’t stand a chance. The score is 3:1 and we are already in extra time. SC Kittsee fans breathe a sigh of relief. The game is ours.

Patrick Kemper watches Szombat’s second goal float over his head helplessly.

Happy teammates Adam Bombicz, Jozef Sombat, Juraj Fuska celebrate a well-deserved win. Each enjoyed an excellent night.

Here’s a few photos.

Obligatory fries and leberkase sandwiches. Fortunately for the gourmets, Bisto Hannah was there with excellent goulash.

Kahr/Post Office is turned into an open-air bar, lit by the shop windows.

Delicious 2018 Red Cuvée in elegant glasses poured by off-duty music verein leader Claudia Domschitz.

Constantin collecting an ice cream cone. The goulash is in the silver pot.

These guys were very good, the lead singer had a rich and acccurate baritone, and his players hit all the notes. This is the best band I’ve heard play Kittsee.

She’s in the Bistro Hannah car, enjoying delicious goulash and the music.

Most of the evening he played with his friends in an extensive playground with jousting, nut cannon and boat swings.

Tadten team posted an excellent write-up of the game play in German. Here’s a quick translation:

After the draw at home against UFC Pama, a “tricky” away game awaited us in Kittsee.

From the beginning, we were well in the game against the somewhat unsettled home side. We were clearly in control and dominated the game.

We also had some good chances, but often we were not precise enough or we did not get the last pass or we missed the right time to play the better positioned team mate.

So we missed some good chances to take the lead, although we were still dominating the game. Initially, the home side did not score much or even anything.

But after half an hour, Sebastian Pichler scored the well-deserved 1:0 for our team after a (dream) pass from Dominik Christ.

Shortly before the break, the home side had their only real chance to score: After a misunderstanding in our defence, Adam Klekner made a great save. We go into the break with a 1:0 lead.

Immediately after the break, we concede an “avoidable” goal after a standard situation.

After that, the game was even in difficult conditions (snow flurries). We are no longer as dominant as before the break, the home side is now a bit better in the game. There are no big goals on either side until the end. So it remains 1:1.

Conclusion: Before the break we could have or should have decided the game for us. Unfortunately, we failed to take advantage of the many good opportunities. After the break, we couldn’t generate as much pressure and therefore had to be content with the 1:1 in the end. Now full focus on the upcoming derby against Wallern!!!! Gemma boys!!! Vuigas!!!!

Tadten frustration after their strong first half is understandable.

That’s not to say Wallern’s tactics weren’t effective. Kittsee coach for the evening Markus Roth felt compelled to pull Patrick Dietmann at 2:1 as Dietmann was so angry about being repeatedly fouled. I can’t really blame the referee Arif Erdem: he called many yellow cards and couldn’t have his eyes everywhere. It would take a league season ban on some Wallern players to bring them under control. There’s little video at these games so it’s hard to police deliberate dangeous behaviour meaningfully.

Kittsee jumped out to an early lead which they maintained until 67 minutes. Kittsee fought hard for the go-ahead goal but Wallern was able to hold them off. While it was a pity to lose those two points, the fight in Kittsee’s team until the end was a good augur.

SC Kittsee came in well-prepared. After getting out to their usual 1:0 early lead, they kept running and running hard. At the start of the second half their hard work was rewarded with a second goal by Mario Marko. Jozef Sombat added a final goal at 75 minutes. Pavol Bellas could have added another two with a bit of luck. That’s the way to do it: start hard and never let your opponent catch his breath. The team effort made for a nice shutout evening for Manuel Schiszler.

Winden has not won a game yet despite three ties and what looks like a strong set of players, with great leaping ability (check the pictures). I’d have to see Winden play a few more times (unlikely) but it looks like there are a few players working very hard and some who are not keeping pace. A frustrating season no doubt for them.

PS. I’m sorry there are not more pictures from the second half. When Kittsee was ahead the reception from Winden officials became rather frosty. It wasn’t my best night: I tried a new focus technique with 3D Tracking and it didn’t consistently, losing me and the players some very good sequences.

To download full size originals, please open up the picture in the lightbox and press the download button. Rights: use of the pictures for private purposes is permitted and welcome (desktops, private prints not for sale). Use of the pictures for commercial purposes is by permission only: photographic copyright belongs to Alec Kinnear, model rights belong to the individual players. These photos are made for the pleasure of the players, joy of our village Kittsee and for the benefit of Austria’s Burgenland Liga Nord. While I celebrate friendly competition between villages, it should remain friendly. Any attempt to injure one another is unwelcome. However competitive we may be, we are first of all neighbours and fellow citizens. Accidents do happen but no one should struggle with a limp for life or a bad knee as a result of a deliberate dirty tackle or kick.

Kittsee got off to a strong start with a goal from Jozef Sombat half way through the first half. After that Kittsee seemed to take their foot off the gas a bit but Pavol Bellas’s strong personal effort netted Kittsee a goal at 58 minutes. With a 2-0 lead and a clear advantage in play, Kittsee decided to hang back a bit and wait out that the last thirty minutes. Of course that resulted in a

The last twenty minutes were quite strange. The referee called many questionable flags against Kittsee, while every 50-50 ball went to Tadten. It was more than ten calls in a row. Most notably there was a situation where Pavol Bellas was pulled down by the Tadten player but it was Bellas who was penalised. Fortunately Bellas controlled himself and didn’t pull himself a card.

Kittsee saved its yellow cards for extra time and got away with a win. I’d like to see Kittsee’s talented men to thump these weaker teams much harder early. When the game is 4:0 or 5:1 and there’s twenty minutes left, they can afford to relax. Trying to run out on 1:0 and 2:0 will end in grief for them against stronger teams than Tadten.

An early goal from Jozef Sombat had the home crowd happy. Manuel Schopf answered quickly for SC Andau but Kittsee dominated play. To the Kittsee home crowd and even players, it looked like referee Faruk Sevik seemed to be favouring Andau. The free kicks, disputed balls seemed to all go Andau’s way. Pavol Bellas received a yellow card at 27 minutes for an aggressive tackle. When ten minutes later a Bellas breakaway was called back on a non-offside, he lost his temper. The second yellow card sent him out of the game with a red card at 44 minutes. There was almost a riot on the sidelines during the ejection with another four yellow cards handed out.

Andau grabbed the lead at the end of the first half 2:1. Kittsee was able to match with a goal from Jaroslav Machovec. The play was fairly even but at 72 minutes Ibrahim Kasik notched a second goal, giving Andau a 3:2 lead. Kittsee worked hard to even again but the missing eleventh man began to take its toll as the minutes ticked on.

SC Andau deserves credit for neutralising a dangerous Kittsee attack. The last seven minutes were very hectic with a fair number of good chances for Kittsee.