Austria

The Story

Austria arrives in 2026 for the first time since 1998 — the end of a 28-year absence that has felt much longer to anyone who grew up with the 1978 team that beat West Germany 3-2 in Córdoba, or the 1990 side with Toni Polster, or any of the almosts in between. The bridge back was Ralf Rangnick, the 67-year-old German tactician who took the job in 2022 almost reluctantly and proceeded to turn Austria into one of the most irritating teams in European football.

Rangnick's Austria presses. That's the shortest possible description. They press high, they press in midfield, they press when they're losing and they press when they're winning. It is the style Rangnick invented at Hoffenheim two decades ago, refined at Leipzig, and is now installing on a national team with genuine Champions League-caliber players in Alaba, Sabitzer, Laimer, Baumgartner, and a deeper bench than Austria has had in living memory.

They drew Group K with Chile, Hungary, and New Zealand — the tournament's most winnable UEFA draw. They should be favorites. The question, as always with Rangnick, is whether the sheer intensity of his system breaks his own players before the knockouts arrive. Austria has never reached the quarterfinals in the modern World Cup era. This is the team that could.

3 Players to Know

David Alaba

The captain, one of the greatest defenders Austria has ever produced, and the player with more major trophies than any other active Austrian — Champions League, 11 Bundesliga titles, the Spanish Liga. He's 33, at Real Madrid, working back from the ACL tear that wiped out most of his 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. Rangnick has confirmed him for the World Cup squad; the question is whether he starts or comes on. He grew up in Favoriten, Vienna — his father Nigerian, his mother Filipino — and wearing the Austrian armband on home soil in the 2026 qualifying run has been the most emotional stretch of his career.

Marcel Sabitzer

The Borussia Dortmund midfielder, born in Wels, a top-four Bundesliga player on his day and the heartbeat of Rangnick's press. His career is the Rangnick career — Leipzig, Bayern, Manchester United (briefly), Dortmund — all of them Red Bull- or gegenpressing-adjacent clubs. He's 32, playing the best football of his career, and scored six goals in qualifying. If Rangnick's Austria has one player who embodies the system, it's Sabitzer: box-to-box, aggressive in the press, always arriving in the final third.

Konrad Laimer

The Bayern Munich midfielder, 28, from Salzburg — the player Rangnick cultivated at RB Salzburg and then at Leipzig, the No. 6 who doesn't stop running. He's the one who does the work that lets Sabitzer, Christoph Baumgartner, and the Xavi Schlager trio do theirs. Bayern bought him in 2023 as a free transfer and he's now a starter on one of Europe's biggest clubs. Not a player who scores. A player who is always, always in the right spot.

The Food

Signature Dish

Wiener Schnitzel is the national obligation — a veal cutlet pounded thin enough to read through, breaded and fried in clarified butter until the crust is a pale gold that ripples away from the meat. It's served with a lemon wedge and a side of potato salad or Erdäpfelsalat (warm potato in vinegar and onion). The second answer is Tafelspitz — boiled beef in broth with horseradish and apple-horseradish sauce, the Habsburg Empire's official comfort food. Then Sacher-Torte for dessert, because you are legally obligated. The drink is a Gösser lager or an Almdudler, an alpine herbal soda that tastes like ginger ale's more interesting cousin.

Where to Eat in DFW

Kuby's Sausage House (6601 Snider Plaza, near SMU) is DFW's old-world answer — German-branded, but the menu is deeply Austrian-adjacent and the Kuby family has run the place since 1961 (the business itself traces back to 1728). Order the Jaeger schnitzel, Oma's potato pancakes, a plate of house-made bratwurst, and a Pilsner from the cold case. The catch is hours: breakfast and lunch only, Mon-Sat, 7am-2:30pm, so this is an early-match or group-stage brunch play. For evening matches, Bavarian Grill in Plano is the plan B — Austrian-style schnitzel, full German draft list, open nights.

Fan Culture

Austrian support is the most orderly loud fan base in Europe — red-and-white shirts, a standard-issue chant book ("Immer wieder Österreich"), and a traveling crew that is somehow always approximately the same size no matter the match. The Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna has been full for qualifying; the "La-Ola" (wave) is honored more seriously here than in any country that has come through it since. The smell at a watch party is Stiegl beer, grilled Käsekrainer sausages, and the lingering cigarette smoke from whoever's stepped outside. Austrian fans don't travel in Argentine numbers, but they travel better-organized than almost anybody, and they know the full Radetzky March by heart — including the parts the military band plays.