Snow! Bloody snow in mid-April! We'd got ideas about traveling early to this match early so we could have a look around Switzerland's southern-most town but snow in Winterthur plus a miserable forecast down South provoked a re-think. It was also the day that Donny were to confirm an immediate return to the Championship. Yeah...more about that later.
Strangely, Winterthur's "Fanatics" supporter's club published two sets of public transport instructions for this match; an easy way and a stressful way. A 5:45 pm kick-off meant, for us that there was little point in the stressful version so we kept things simple. But was there some coded message in that offering of a stressful means of getting to Chiasso?
Despite the awful weather, we enjoyed a stress-free, comfortable trip down to Chiasso, obviously tuning in to our respective English football games at the appropriate time. As we arrived in Chiasso, Donny went a goal down in their match against Notts County. Automatic promotion was very much in the balance again. Another message?
We had plenty of time to get to the game and so had a bite to eat while listening to the first halves of our respective matches. On half-time we still had an hour to get from the station to the stadium. Easy!
Points Time.
Getting There
1 / 10.
First of all, with the rain, there weren't too many people around. One of the ones who was said that as it had been raining solidly for two days, he didn't think the game would be on. Nahh! No way would Chiasso have allowed Winterthur and their fans to travel. He didn't know where the Stadio Comunale was though and nor did anyone else. Obviously one of those Community Stadia that the community know nothing about.
Outside the station was a pretty major bus-stop, but we couldn't see which bus was going to take us to the stadium. In the end, we resorted to asking every bus that stopped if they were going anywhere near the football stadium. They weren't but did tell us the bus that did. For anyone needing the information, it's the 517, which we obviously couldn't find on the bus timetables.
Time to crack out Google Maps, our standby that had got us out of problems two weeks running. This annoyed me somewhat because it meant I was going to miss the remainder of Donny's match commentary. Google Maps promptly showed us that the stadium was five minutes away. We went where it said to go and it wasn't a stadium so it was back to the bus stop where buses were pulling in again (and the match had kicked off). Hallelujah! One of the buses was the mythical 517 and it dropped us right outside the stadium. Choice words were said about how well community facilities in Chiasso are signposted and how clear bus timetables are in this part of the world. Donny had also lost.
Friendliness
8 / 10. Yes, Chiasso are a friendly little club. They started a bit shakily though. We didn't like the 18 SFr admission price and the security guys were a bit funny when the missus dropped her hat over on the wrong side of the barrier and I wanted to hop over to retrieve it. Seeing I wasn't trying to mount a one-man pitch invasion, they were OK once they'd understood and when I fell on my backside on my first attempt to vault the barrier, they had fully appreciated to lack of threat offered by these strange English guys.
But Chiasso did win me over after the match. We went over to the opposite side of the ground for a beer at the end and they were happy to allow the Winti faithful to sing a few songs. As it should be. They did burn a Lugano pennant though. They don't seem to like them very much!
Safety
7 / 10. No issues with the ground, no fences, terracing a reasonable height but the security was a bit slack, perhaps understandably. No bag-check on the gate and no control on leaving then coming back into the ground.
View
5 / 10. Stadio Comunale, Chiasso is the third of the four Stadia in Tessin we have to visit on the Swiss 36 and up until now, it's the best, although it doesn't have much competition. The stadium has a covered, seated main stand and open terracing the rest of the way around the ground. Unfortunately, there's a six-lane athletics track between the fans and the action, which pretty much ruins the view from the ends. But at least, unlike the other two Tessin clubs I've seen (Lugano and Bellinzona), they don't have visiting supporters suffering this awful view. Instead, visitors are given half of the terrace opposite the main stand and so have a decent view.
Atmosphere
5 / 10. The 250 fans who braved the horrible weather gave a reasonable account of themselves. Obviously, we didn't hear a thing from the seated section but the 7 Winti fans (including us) on the terrace were loud and proud. Good effort also from the Chiasso Kop but something a bit silly from the club.
A big tarpaulin separates the home Kop from the away fans so that they can't see each other. Without the tarpaulin, there would be a great opportunity for some banter between fans, needed when the gates are so small. How silly is the tarpaulin? Read on!
Refreshments
7 / 10. Football is weird. As I've said, seven Winterthur fans made the trip and braved the elements on the open away terrace. Another 15 or so watched from the comfort of the main stand. Us seven obviously couldn't be separately catered for, catering for seven is a non-starter. We did have two security guards though! To get a beer and a bite, we were directed out of the stadium and around to the main stand. Our tickets weren't checked at either end and we walked, of course with the home fans who emerged from behind their tarpaulin. We weren't accompanied around and mixed with home fans freely before returning to our respective sides of the tarpaulin. Strange!
Heineken beer was available from a reasonably well stocked bar. Foodwise, there were various Italian things cooking on a barbecue. I asked about one and was told it was a "salmonella". A dubious name, I know but it looked good and tasted better.
Overall
33 / 60. Main issue is sorting out directions to and from the stadium. Other than that, it's OK.
The Match
Didn't really make up for the awful conditions if I'm honest, but Winterthur won, so what can you say?
Unfortunately, Chiasso's lack of ability in informing the community where the Community Stadium actually is caused us to arrive at the stadium after 20 minutes. By this time it had all happened. On 18 minutes, Marco Aratore hit a shot against the underside of the bar and the rebound was hit against the post by Kris Kuzmanovic. In the end, Chiasso managed to scramble the ball out for a corner. The corner was duly placed by Kuzmanovic onto the head of Patrick Bengondo and Winti had the lead. I bet it was good, that bit!
Sadly, the rest of the game wasn't but in conditions where playing the ball on the deck was risky due to it failing to cross the swamp between the passer and the intended target, what could we expect? Winterthur made by far the better of the conditions but not by really creating themselves. Chiasso were simply stifled by a solid defensive performance.
So for the rest of the match, neither 'keeper was particularly troubled. The only talking point was Chiasso finishing the match with 9-men. Both dismissals came due to two bookable offences, the first in the 79th minute. Dragan Mihajovic was about to leave the field anyway but changed the decision to substitute him by ill-advisedly going out of his way to have a chat with the referee on his way off. The referee clearly didn't enjoy the conversation and showed him his second yellow. Apparently, his first had been for another obscenity expressed to the referee, heard all around the ground. I didn't hear it, I hadn't arrived. Silly though!
Emiliano Dudar took a slightly early bath in the final minute of the match for a second foul judged to be bad enough to merit a yellow.
Solid from Winterthur - but nothing more.
As ever, after the match the Winti players came over to celebrate with all seven of us in the away end. We were offered a beer in the bar after the match, which was gratefully accepted. And that was our downfall really. A combination of the beer from the team and Google Maps trying to direct me to Milan central station resulted in our missing the last train back to Winterthur (which we would have been pushed to get anyway). Still, an overnight in Tessin isn't the worst thing that could happen!
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