OH, Austria...

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Austria hasn't had the start they wanted to the season. While hopes weren't too high when things started off, they surely can't be any lower than they are right now. From the minor drama, the poor plays and the even worse scores, team Austria finds themselves sitting at 4 points through 9 games, sporting an extremely disappointing record of 1-7-1 and are good enough for last place thus far this season. Nothing, to be fair, has really been clicking for the team and the results are all to clear on the standings page. A few nights ago, the team was absolutely smacked around by team Canada, laying on the mercy law to Austria - forcing a forfeit for game 3 and really messing with the minds of Austria. Canada came in, cleaned up and did so very quickly as they embarrassed Austria and probably left them thinking what went right as opposed to what went wrong (because the list would likely be shorter then).

Moving forward, I feel as though the team is going to have to take a look at all their options. Personally, it's a new team and these hurdles of playing together, learning and communicating properly are going to take time. Communication is key and rumor has it, that's something that is missing in the Austrian game chats. Another issue could be their defensive game. While team owner, CreamedCORN, likes the lay the blame on defender Fat Creepy Guy, to me and to others - he hasn't played too poorly. For myself, it's an all around team defensive game that's lacking. How many 2 on 1's are the forwards going to give up before they realize they also have to play a little defence? For some games against Germany, things seemingly got better - but for a few games there was way too many poor defensive moments for the team and left me with the following question. If you leave your defence out to dry - what can you really expect from him in those difficult situations? Take the guy and there's a strong chance of a pass. If you watch the pass, expect a sneaky goal to be popped in because the goalies lately couldn't even catch a cold if they were playing nudes, balls out. 

Things are rough for Austria and I think it's going to take sometime to figure out. There's a lot of strong teams out there and they're looking to exploit teams with weaknesses and right now, Austria is ripe for the taking and unfortunately, are starting to run low on the good lube. While things are shit, there have been some good moments where the team has had nice bounces, strong periods and looked like they could add 3 points with a win. For now, you can basically compare them to the NHL's Edmonton Oilers. Potential is there, so at times is skill and good moments, but damn - right now do they suck.