Vienna Capitals beat Fehérvár AV19 3:2 in a club friendly on Thursday evening at the Sóstói Stadion in Székesfehérvár. The away side took all three points from the encounter, extending a run of positive results. To be fair, both teams arrived with plenty of questions to answer after their recent fixtures.
Vienna Capitals came into this match showing sharper edges. They had won 3:0 against Dukla Trenčín on Wednesday and were looking for rhythm before the competitive season gets underway. Fehérvár, by contrast, had lost 1:6 to Banská Bystrica on Sunday and needed to find something to build on.
The visitors have the deeper squad and showed it in the way they managed the game. They had already beaten Fehérvár 1:0 back in March and carried that confidence into this encounter. And here's the thing — third-place Vienna were not chasing anything, which let them play without pressure.
Fehérvár paid for a sloppy opening. They had won 4:3 against Košice a couple of weeks ago but lost 1:4 in the game before that, and the inconsistency showed. The hosts had three straight defeats to Graz 99ers in April and were still working through those issues.
Cup football has its own rules, but this was just a friendly, so the result tells us more about preparation than promotion. Vienna Capitals turned things around after the break and controlled the tempo. Fehérvár AV19 will need more time before they look like a side ready for the league.