1 June 1909 - The Three Lions Take Ten

On 1 June 1909, England won their record 10th consecutive match, beating Austria 1-8 in Vienna. Even more impressively, it came just one day after their ninth win.

Coincidentally, their winning streak started with a victory over Austria almost one year earlier. After beating them 1-6 on 6 June 1908, they went on to defeat them again two days later, 1-11, then followed that with wins over Hungary, Bohemia, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. They returned to Hungary in 1909 to record two more wins, with the second coming on 31 June, then traveled to Vienna to play Austria the following day.

Captain Vivian Woodward (pictured), who had scored four against Hungary the day before, continued his run of form, putting England up against Austria in the third minute. He went on to score twice more to complete his hat-trick and bring his two-day total to seven. He was joined on the scoresheet by Harold Halse and George Holley, who got two each, and Ben Warren, with one.

Austria's lone goal was a second-half penalty scored by Leopold Neubauer.

The winning streak stopped there, as England drew 1-1 with Ireland in their next match, played on 12 February 1910.

30 April 1977 - Austria Cranks Up The Heat

On 30 April 1977, six goals from striker Hans Krankl helped Austria to their record win, a 9-0 victory over Malta in a World Cup qualifier.

After finishing third in the 1954 World Cup, Austria had struggled, advancing only to the group stage in 1958, withdrawing in 1962, then failing to qualify for the 1966, 1970, and 1974 tournaments. But they started off their campaign for the 1978 World Cup by winning their first two games against Malta and Turkey by identical 1-0 scores.

For their third match, they hosted the return fixture against Malta in Salzburg. There, Krankl, who had scored the winner against Malta in the previous game, struck again with a goal in the 9th minute. He scored three more in the span of just over ten minutes (12', 18', 20') before Josef Stering added another in the 30th minute to give Austria a 5-0 lead at the break.

Things were little better for Malta in the second half, as both Krankl (53', 66') and Stering (69') again found the back of the net, along with Hans Pirkner (65'). The final margin of 9-0 remains Austria's biggest win.

They ultimately won their qualification group to reach the tournament, then won their first-round group, but were eliminated in the second group stage.

18 March 1904 - Austria The Great And Powerful

On 18 March 1904, the Austrian Football Association formed in Vienna and soon controlled one of Europe's most dominant teams.

The national side actually predated the creation of the association, playing a three-game series with Hungary between October 1902 and October 1903, but the establishment of the new governing body opened the door for them to join the newly-founded FIFA in 1905.

They chose not to participate in the first World Cup in 1930, despite being one of Europe's strongest teams. Under manager Hugo Meisl, they played an unbeaten streak of fourteen matches from 1931 to 1932, earning the nickname "Wunderteam," then finished fourth in the 1934 World Cup.

With Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938, the Austrian team ceased to exist as a separate entity until the  end of World War II. During qualification for the 1950 World Cup, they withdrew, claiming that the re-formed team was too inexperienced to compete in the tournament. But four years later, they finished third, which remains their best finish in a World Cup.

 Since then, they have failed to recapture their past glory, participating in only four of thirteen World Cups from 1962 to 2010.

12 November 1939 - A Fitting Mark For The Occasion

On 12 November 1939, forward Josef Bican commemorated his appearance for a third national team by scoring a hat-trick.

Bican, who was born in Vienna in 1913, made his first national team appearance for Austria in 1933. He went on to play for them a total of nineteen times--and scoring a total of nineteen goals--through 1936. The following year, he left Austria to play for Slavia Prague where he spent the majority of his career, scoring 395 goals in 217 matches between 1937 and 1948.

After moving to Prague, he switched his national team allegiance to Czechoslovakia. But after only three games (and eight goals), Czechoslovakia fell to the Nazis, who disbanded the team. They attempted to persuade Bican to turn out for Germany, but he declined, choosing instead to play for the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia which, while Nazi-controlled, remained ethnically Czech.

In his lone appearance for the Protectorate, Bican provided three goals in what turned out to be a 4-4 draw with Germany.

He rejoined the Czechoslovakian national team when they resumed play in 1946, making another eleven appearances for them until retiring from international football in 1949.