Burgenland: It’s A Place

By: Abby | July 29th, 2008

Burgenland- the easternmost and least populous of all of Austria’s states. It’s right up against the border with Hungary and was the subject of only mildly interesting territorial debates in the 13th century, and not so much since. It was also the provider of Arsenal’s most recent friendly opponents.

The Austrian training camp is an Arsenal tradition. Unlike every other big club in Europe, Arsenal doesn’t go off to big-money glamor friendlies on other continents. They rarely go anywhere, really. When they first announced a partnership with the Colorado Rapids, based in my former residence (and current parental residence) of Denver-ish, I was selfishly hoping for a Denver-based American pre-season tour, but that’s unlikely to happen while Arsene is still in charge. He wants pre-season to be about training for the season, not making lots of money, and you can’t help but respect that. So instead of Chegdu Blades or Colorado Rapids on multiple continents, we’ve got Szombathelyi Haladas and a Burgenland XI, all within close range of our normal training grounds. Even the one glamor friendly we do have lined up before the Emirates Cup, against VfB Stuttgart and our old friend Jens Lehmann, isn’t all that far away.

Anyway, Burgenland. Just as a 1-1 draw shouldn’t make us despondent, a 2-10 win shouldn’t let us get carried away. They can only show you so much. What we did see: Nicklas Bedtner, Carlos Vela, Theo, and bright English talent (you read correctly) Jack Wilshire all know where the goal is. Nicklas showed off a little more of his outstanding control of high balls. And the team turns off a bit after scoring ten goals. What else can be said?

It’s nice watching, anyway.

In other news, quotes came out about Cesc going to Real Madrid in the future, and the blogs hadn’t even finished discussing them before Cesc came out and said they were total crap. Cesc does this right- he’s a savvy sort. As if we couldn’t love him any more.

We may be interested in Udinese’s Gokhan Inler. Or not. I would not be surprised to see us signing a new midfielder. Will it be Inler? Who knows? Not me, certainly.

We’re up against Stuttgart tomorrow, and Jens Lehmann is hoping to debut for his new club. They’ve just come through their Intertoto Cup tie against FC Saturn Ramenskoe of Moscow- barely, after losing the first leg 1-0 and needing extra time to eventually go through with a 3-0 win. However, against Arsenal they’re likely to have all their German internationals back from their longer break, which possibly means that we’ll be seeing Mario Gomez (who is staying at Stuttgart, which is probably the best for him, although I’d love to see him at Arsenal next season) and new captain Thomas Hitzlsperger.

However, you don’t have to get your Stuttgart information from me- the Offside has their very own VfB Stuttgart blogger, the lovely Anna. Head over there to learn all you need to know about Arsenal’s next opponents.