Pre-season friendly defeat against FC Orenburg

It might be a bit exaggerated to say that the Orenburg and Vidi teams were waiting for a shooting match in Eggendorf, but the reality is that the village near Vienna has a shooting range next to the football pitch, and some of the local citizens were killing time with clay pigeon shooting in the Sunday morning heat.

Our team's opponent finished first in the Russian second division, but for administrative reasons they were not promoted to the top flight. Manager Imre Szabics chose the following side to face the Russians: Gundel-Takács - Funsho, Rus, Lüftner, Konjok - Dárdai, Pinto, Alef, Kovács I. - Houri, Zivzivadze.

A little over a quarter of an hour into the game, our opponent's goalkeeper Goshev made a bad clearance, and the ball fell to Ruben Pinto, and our Portuguese midfielder volley the ball back, but the former Russian U21 international goalkeeper got back to the goal in time. In the 21st minute, Goshev had work to do again, Konjok crossed the ball in sharply from the right, with the goalkeeper well placed to meet the low shot. 

Five minutes later, Funsho played a good ball to István Kovács, who showed good skill before roling the ball into the net, but the referee had already blown his whistle for a foul. Five minutes before the end of the half, Budu Zivzivadze broke towards goal, but the Russian keeper made a brave diving save to pick up the ball, and soon afterwards Kovács' cross was a little high for Dardai, who was still able to head towards goal, but the attempt was no trouble for Goshev.

The Russian's first chance came in the 44th minute, when Ilya Vorobev's powerful shot was pushed away for a corner by Gundel-Takács. We had more chances in the first half, but the teams ended the first forty-five minutes without a goal. Vidi came out for the second half with Gundel-Takács, Alef, Fuhsho, Zivzivadze remaining in the dressing room. They were replaced by Dala Martin, Stopira, Szabó Levente and Marcel Heister with the latter making his first appearance in a Vidi shirt. 

At the start of the second half, a mix-up inside the penalty area led to a shot from our opponents, which Konjok got a hand too, but there was little our player could do about it. In any case, the Austrian referee awarded a penalty, which Dimitri Vorobev confidently converted (0-1). Three minutes later, Rus attempted a long-range shot, but missed the target. After 60 minutes István Kovács and Ruben Pinto left the pitch, to be replaced by Evandro and Bourard. With sixty-five minutes on the clock, a left-wing attack ended with the ball with Bidlovskiy, who unfortunately curled the ball brilliantly into the far post from 25 metres to give them a two goal lead (0-2). 

In the 74th minute, Dárdai went past Russian substitute Polataev, who tackled in suspicious circumstances, but referee Alan Kijas' whistle remained silent. Two minutes later, Heister's low shot whizzed past the left post. Then Evandro played the ball to Dárdai, whose promising shot was intercepted by the Russian defenders. By then Gábor Vágó and Péter Kövesdi were on the pitch, as was Tóth Tamás, who replaced Michael Lüftner, Adrián Rus and Levente Szabó. The last meaningful incident of the pre-season friendly was Houri's free kick, which fell to Stopira who shot powerfully, but the Russian goalkeeper came out of his goal well and rose high to claim the ball ahead of the head of our defender wearing the captain's armband. In the final minute, Dala produced a great save, as Bidlovskyi's close-range shot was saved by the young keeper. FC Orenburg won the match by two goals.