The Austria national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Austria in international competition and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association.
Austria has qualified for seven World Cups, most recently in 1998. The country has not yet qualified for a European Championship; it will play in the tournament for the first time in 2008 as co-hosts of the event with Switzerland.
In the recent years, Austria's play has declined. They suffered extreme embarrassment when they lost 0:9 against Spain and shortly after 0:5 against Israel in 1999. In 2006 Josef Hickersberger became coach of the Austrian national team which was not able to win against Canada 0:2, Croatia 1:4, Hungary 1:2, Costa Rica 2:2 and Venezuela 0:1. The last three matches in 2006 against Liechtenstein 2:1; a notable match against Switzerland 2:1 and Trinidad & Tobago 4:1 stopped the series of bad games and results.
Austria will be playing in Group B with Croatia, Germany and Poland.
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