There are hardly any better feelings in the world than the exhilaration that comes with putting your nation a goal up in the FIFA World Cup. For Austria’s Romano Schmid, he must be over the moon after a delightful strike of his put them on top in their opening match in the group stage of this year’s competition against Jordan.
Austria had been knocking on the door, and Schmid certainly just kicked down the door to open his World Cup scoring account. The 26-year-old got the ball on a layoff from Xavier Schlager, and Schmid did not miss his opportunity — curling a marvelous strike from outside the box to ripple Jordan’s net, putting them 1-0 up in the 21st minute.
Romano Schmid gets Austria on the board early with this strike
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— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) June 17, 2026
This is Schmid’s first-ever World Cup start, as Austria did not qualify for the 2022 iteration of the prestigious competition after bowing out of the qualifying tournament in the semifinal. Schmid only has three international goals to his name prior to tonight, so this, to this date, is the biggest achievement of his national team career.
Schmid is currently playing his club career for Werder Bremen, a club that narrowly avoided relegation by finishing 15th in the league with 32 points. He scored just four goals for Bremen this past season, as he was more of a playmaking midfielder (eight assists), but he clearly has goals in his repertoire considering how well he put his laces through the ball to score Austria’s opening goal in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Austria must have watched Argentina’s opening group stage match against Algeria, a 3-0 drubbing thanks to a Lionel Messi hat trick, and recognized that they must step up their play if they were to stand a chance of finishing top of their group. Schmid’s wonder strike should do a good job of setting the tone for Austria as they look to earn three points to start things off in the group stage.
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