Swindon Town face 2. Bundesliga side Karlsruher SC at SV Puch Ground in Austria this evening.
Town will look to end their week long break in Austria with a good result against their German opposition.
KICK-OFF is 1730 (UK Time)
Here’s a look at the opposition.
The Manager: Markus Schupp
Since retiring from playing in 2001 Schupp has been in regular work as a coach. Starting as reserve team manager at Sturm Graz before a two season spell as manager of Wacker Burghausen.
In 2007 he became assistant at Hamburg and took a similar position at Red Bull Salzburg.
He joined Karlsruhe as manager in 2009.
Schupp enjoyed a good career as a player making 485 league appearances for Kaiserslautern, Wattenscheid, Bayern Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt, Hamburg, FC Basel (loan) and Sturm Graz.
He won the Bundesliga with both Kaiserslautern and Bayern Munich
He never managed to play for the national team but did earn 7 caps for West Germany in the 80’s.
Currently Karlsruher 1st Team Squad
.1. Jean-François Kornetzky
French goalkeeper who started his career has a youth player with Belgian outfit Lierse before completing his youth career back in France with Racing Strasbourg.
Kornetzky returned to Belgium in 2001 to play for Standard Lüttich but re-joined Racing Strasbourg before finally finding first team action in the French lower leagues with SR Colmer.
In 2004 Kornetzky joined Karlsruher where he has spent most of his time playing for the second team.
.2. Matthias Zimmermann
Teenage midfielder who has already featured for the first team and was a regular fixture during the closing stages of last season.
.3. Stefan Müller
21 year old defender who has been on the books at Karlsruher since 2007.
.4. Godfried Aduobe
Veteran midfielder who started as a youth player with Accra Powerlines before moving to Italy to play with the youth set-up at Torino before moving to Old Boys in Switzerland.
Aduobe started as a professional with Young Boys before moving to Germany in 1996 where he has remained ever since. He played for Greuther Fürth, SSV Reutlingen and Hansa Rostock before joining Karlsruher in 2005.
He has over 130 appearances for KSC and played for Ghana’s national team on three occasions.
.5. Christian Demirtaş
The defender spent the majority of his youth career with Eintract Frankfurt before moving to 1. FSV Mainz 05 in 2004. He played 77 times for Die Nullfünfer before joining KSC last year.
.6. Stefan Rieß
21 year old midfielder is a new signing for KSC. Until the summer Rieß had spent three years playing for Bayern Munich II playing close to 50 games for the German giants second string.
.7. Christian Timm
An experienced forward who started his career with Borussia Dortmund playing 15 times before joining 1. FC Köln in 1999.
Timm scored 15 times for Köln in 68 outings before spending two seasons with 1. FC Kaiserslautern where he struggled to make an impact.
In 2005 he joined SpVgg Greuther Fürth and enjoyed his spent spell scoring 21 times in 81 games for Kleeblätter. He joined KSC in 2007 but has struggled to score goals.
.8. Michael Mutzel
Mutzel started his career with Augsburg before joining Eintracht Frankfurt as a teenager in 1998. He only managed 34 first team appearances in four years before a move to VfB Stuttgart where he also struggled to earn first team football.
Since joining KSC in 2004 the midfielder has settled and has played over 100 times for the first team.
.9. Alexander Iashvili (Captain)
Vastly experienced 32 year old forward who started his career in his native Georgia with Dinamo Tbilisi where he was a goalscoring machine bagging 59 goals in 57 appearances for his hometown club.
He first arrived in Germany in 1997 to play for VfB Lübeck but joined SC Freiburg in the same year.
Iashvili enjoyed a decade long and popular spell with Freibury playing over 250 league games scoring 52 times.
He joined KSC in 2007.
.10. Massimilian Porcello
German midfielder of Italian origin, Porcello joined Arminia Bielefeld from SC Paderborn in 2000 and played over 100 times for Die Arminen.
He joined KSC in 2006 and has 72 appearances to his name.
.11. Andreas Schäfer
Started as a teenager playing in the defence of 1. FC Kaiserslautern II before joining VfL Osnabrück in 2004, playing 150 times.
He joined KSC last year.
.13. Matthias Cuntz
20 year old with a naughty name. Cuntz made his debut for the first team in February.
.14. Anton Fink
Young forward who started his career with 1860 Munich II where he scored 9 times in 61 appearance before signing professional forms with SpVgg Unterhaching.
Fink only spent one season with SpVgg Unterhaching but it was quite successful thanks to 21 goals in 38 matches.
This earned him to a higher division with KSC in 2009.
.15. Niklas Tarvajärvi
Much travelled 27 year old who started his career in Finland with Jokerit and MyPa before leaving for the Netherlands in 2005 to join Heerenveen. Much of his time was spent out on loan with De Graafschap and Vitesse before he was released in 2009 when he moved to Switzerland for a brief spell with Neuchâtel Xamax.
He joined KSC in 2009. Tarvajärvi has also got 4 caps for Finland.
.16. Christopher Bieber
21 year old forward who has spent much time with the second team.
.17. Timo Staffeldt
The 26 year old midfielder has been on the books at Karlsruher since he was only 12 years old.
.18. Macauley Chrisantus
Much is expected of Chrisantus who is currently half way through a two year loan spell from Hamburg.
Still only 19 years old, the forward joined from Hearts of Abuja before joining Hamburg in 2007. He has yet to play for their first team but featured 25 times for KSC last season.
.19. Serhat Akin
A former Turkish international who was born in Bretten, West Germany in 1981.
He first joined Karlsruher SC as a 10 year old but left in his late teens to join Fenerbahçe. Akin played well over 100 times in Turkey winning 3 league titles before leaving for Anderlecht on a Free Transfer in 2005 where he won a Belgian Juplier League champions medal during his first season.
However, he fell out of favour during his second campaign and joined 1. FC Köln on loan.
After leaving Anderlecht he returned to Turkey but couldn’t re-ignite his previous success with Kocaelispor and Konyaspor.
He returned to KSC in 2009.
He has 16 caps for Turkey.
.21. Gaëtan Krebs
Frenchman who started his career with RS Strasbourg. He spent a year on loan with German regionalliga side Sportfreunde Siegen before joining Hannover 96 in 2007.
After only 21 games in two seasons for 96 the midfielder joined KSC in 2009.
.22. Marco Engelhardt
Talented midfielder who started his career with FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt before joining Karlsruher SC in 2001. During his first spell with KSC he played over 80 times which earned him a move to 1. FC Kaiserslautern in 2003.
1. FC Nürnberg was Engelhardt’s next club where he played 45 times between 2006 and 2009. He re-joined KSC in 2009.
Engelhardt won 4 German Under-21 and 6 B appearances and also earned 3 full caps during his career. He was a member of Germany’s Confederations Cup squad coached by Jürgen Klinsmann.
.23. Matthias Langkamp
Former Germany Under-21 defender who started his career with Arminia Bielefeld. Moves to VfL Wolfsburg, Grasshopper-Club Zürich, Arminia Bielefeld (second spell) and Greek outfit Panionios occurred over a three year period before joining KSC in 2009.
.24. Sebastian Langkamp
The younger brother of Matthias has also represented the Under-21’s at international level.
He started his career playing reserve football with both Bayern Munich II and Hamburger SV II before moving to KSC where he has also featured predominately for the second string.
He has 22 first team appearances to his name.
.26. Lukas Rupp
Teenage midfielder who is a product of the KSC youth system.
.27. Patrick Dulleck
20 year old forward who spent most of last season in the second team where he scored four goals.
.28. Thomas Konrad
Another 20 year old who operates at centre back. He made his debut for the senior side in January 2010.
.29. Kristian Nicht
A recent signing from Viking of Norway. Nicht started his career with his hometown club Carl Zeiss Jena before joining Stuttgart Kickers in 2002.
He joined FC Nürnberg in 2003 but failed to make an appearance during his one and only season. Nicht moved to Alemannia Aachen where he played 55 times during his three years before leaving for Norway.
Club Honours
German champions: 1909 (as Phoenix Karlsruhe)
German vice-champions: 1956
German Cup winners: 1955, 1956
German Cup finalists: 1960, 1996
Südkreis-Liga (I) champions: 1909
Bezirksliga Baden (I) champions: 1933
2. Bundesliga champions: 1984, 2007
Southern German championship: 1909, 1958, 1960, 1975
Regionalliga Süd champions: 1969, 2001
UEFA Cup History: 1993-94 (semifinals), 1996-97 (third round), 1997-98 (third round)
UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1996
NOTABLE FORMER PLAYERS:
Slaven Bilić
Michael Harforth
Oliver Kahn
Jens Nowotny
Mehmet Scholl
Michael Tarnat
Guido Buchwald
Thomas Häßler
Sergei Kiriakov
Thorsten Fink
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