Swiss 36 No. 17: Stade Universitaire Saint-Léonard - FC Fribourg

FC Fribourg v SC Kriens

A first trip out to a team that has profited from the Swiss League's reorganization took us to Fribourg, the capital of the Swiss Canton of, well Fribourg. The re-shuffle has also brought national football to this canton so in this case we can call it a bloody good thing!

Not the prettiest

As ever, it was an easy trip out to Fribourg, and a local kindly put us on the right bus to the stadium. It took us through a picturesque town that looked well worth a visit before dropping us near a flyover on an industrial estate.

Was it an industrial estate? The only certainties about where we were, were that it was bloody ugly and really confusing. It was however, the best place in the world to be caught short. As we wandered the maze of building sites, heading towards the floodlights, we must have passed about 30 portaloos of different shapes colours and sizes. We didn't take advantage and instead followed a winding route to the stadium.

It was one of those infuriating things. We could see the stadium as soon as we got off the bus, but kept having to turn away from it as our way was blocked. Even when we arrived, the entrance proved illusive.

Not so nice inside either

Once we did get in, unfortunately, I can't say the view improved much as it seemed wherever you were, you were looking at the industrial estate that you'd just negotiated. 

Still, time to look for some positives. At 10 SFr. (£6.78) Friburg have the lowest entrance price that we've found so far. Yes, it's not the highest level of football, but it's great value! It was also good to see equality in football being showed off to a greater extent than I've ever seen before with two of the officiating team being women.  And the far-side assistant was a fit woman at that!

Points time

Getting There

7 / 10. Not a problem with the train and then the bus. The bus dropped us within 10 minutes of the stadium but then it go confusing. I'm sure it will be better when it's finished around there.

I think some might want a word about bigger dugouts!

Friendliness

8 / 10. Good to get a hand from a local to find the ground and the guys running the refreshment stall did go and look through the stock in the merchnadizing stall (which wasn't open) to try and find the car-pennants we were after. But during the match, nobody from Friburg said a word to us.

As we were walking round to the refreshment stalls at half-time a call of "Hey, English" came from the small group of Kriens fans. They had recognized us from our earlier visit to the Kleinfeld Stadion. We enjoyed their company for the second half and after the match we were given a lift back to the station. One of them actually travelled with us as far as Zürich showing us that if we ask, with the Swiss-wide rail pass, we can sit in first class if second is too crowded.

Stop Press: SC Kriens friendliness points increase by three!

Safety

9 / 10. No fences. My only minor gripe would be that the terracing was a touch high and some repairs were needed.

View

View from the ends

4 / 10. As the stadium name suggests, it's a multi-purpose job with an athletics track and the trimmings all the way around. At the ends, it makes for a poor view. But apart from that athletics track, it's OK from the main stand.

Atmosphere

2 / 10. Very difficult to do much when there are just 300 spectators in the ground. The 20 or so from Kriens were easily the most vocal in the stadium.

Refreshments

6 / 10. As you can imagine, all reasonably priced. We had a hot wine each, which was very nice in the cold and the rain. But although it was very reasonably priced, it was the standard beer / sausage / chips fare.

Overall

36 / 60. At these prices, more Friburgers should go!

The Match

Certainly decent. It took just two minutes for the visitors to take the lead. Abada's ball down the left allowed Palko to play in Rexep Saqi who finished well into the bottom right corner. On 15 minutes, it was two with Kriens' top-scorer Ridge Munsy finishing well from the edge of the area.

The Girls did a good job

Friburg were really struggling to keep in the game in the first half. Further chances from Munsy and Guto were not converted before on 33 minutes against the run of play, they were back in the game. Abdoulaye Koné finished a fine move down the right-hand side and we had a match. Friburg pressed on until half-time and it looked like we were in for a good second half.

We were, but the show was put on by the visitors who took over. Saqi netted his brace in the 58th minute before a fitting finale in the 70th minute. Intricate one touch passing between Edi N'Tiamoah and Ridge Munsy allowed Munsy to score the best goal of the game. Impressive from Kriens in the end and the result was no more than they deserved.

And as for Esther Staubli, the referee,  she did well.  I've certainly seen referees take more rubbish from players and seldom seen so many players told to "get up"!

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