SC Brühl v FC Basel II
The Swiss FA should be pleased with the first season of the Erste Liga Promotion as it comes into it's final round of fixtures with three teams still in with shout of winning the title. The match of the day was at Schaffhausen where the league leaders were at home to the third placed club YF Juventus. Unfortunately, we've already visited Schaffhausen's Stadion Breite so we had to look elsewhere for our next Swiss 36 visit. We chose SC Brühl, where should Schaffhausen slip up, Basel II could nip in and steal the title.
But you don't want to know about that, you want to know who was Paul Grüninger. Well it's a good question and a nice story. Of course, he was an ex-Brühl player, playing for the team during their Swiss Championship-winning season in 1914-15. He later became president of the club, but this is not for what he is remembered.
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| Paul Grüninger |
In 1938, he was serving as Canton St. Gallen's Chief of Police as Switzerland closed her borders with Austria after the Nazi annexation. With the border closed, Jewish refugees could no longer flee the Nazis by entering neutral Switzerland. Grüninger exploited his position by forging the registration documents of desperate fleeing Jews to indicate that they had entered Switzerland prior to the border closing so preventing their extradition as illegal immigrants. In this manner, some 3600 refugees were spared their lives and the horrors of being returned to the Nazis.
The Germans informed the Swiss of Grüninger's exploits and in 1939, he was brought to trial for the falsification of 3600 Jews' entry papers. He was dismissed from his high-ranking post in the Police Force, losing his pension rights in the process. In 1941 he was convicted of "breach of duty". Although his noble motives were recognized, the court nonetheless felt he had abused his position and should not have broken the law. Grüninger was fined and jailed.
The rest of Grüninger's life was difficult. His sacrifice was forgotten and as a felon, he found it difficult to get work. Despite this he never regretted his actions during the war saying in 1954 that it was a matter of saving Human lives and so how could he consider bureaucracy as important?
A media campaign in 1970 resulted in the Swiss government sending him a reserved apology without reinstating his pension rights or reopening his case. In 1972 Grüninger died in poverty.
But the campaign to exonerate Grüninger continued. Eventually, in 1995 Grüninger was rehabilitated by the Swiss Federal Government and his convictions were annulled. He is now remembered through various schools and a bridge in St. Gallen as well as a street in Jerusalem.
And then of course there's the Paul Grüninger Stadion, as it was re-named after renovation in 2006.
Points Time
Getting There
9 / 10. Just a bus ride from St. Gallen station to Krontal and then the stadium is signposted and less than five minutes from the bus stop.
Friendliness
6 / 10. No issues on the day. We didn't speak to any Brühl fans but they did win a couple of points by noticing we had visited the stadium from a posting on Twitter and asking us how it was. Nice of them to notice.
On the negative side of things, we weren't keen on the entry prices. Standing anywhere in the stadium is 15 SFr, which is on the steep side for this league. Under 9s get in free, which sounds great until you consider that at Winterthur, one league higher, it's free entry if you're under 16.
Safety.
8 / 10. Absolutely sufficient for the league they are in. Home and away fans do have different areas of the stadium and complete segregation of home and away fans would be an easy matter should it be necessary.
View
7 / 10. On the day absolutely fine and the main stand looks like it provides excellent seated viewing. Standing is available on all four sides so all well and good although there is very little terracing at the ground. With only 900 seats, you have to wonder how well fans toward the rear are going to see should Brühl ever sell out their 4400 capacity.
Still, that said, Brühl have some nice picnic style tables in the food-sales areas although we thought the really nice area on the decking outside the restaurant was for sponsors. Could be wrong though.
Atmosphere
4 / 10. Not much noise at all from the Brühl faithful. In fact they were generally out-sung by 3 or so Basel fans providing good support for the U21s. Then again, the visitors had a little more to shout about.
Refreshments
8 / 10. Apparently, Brühl is renowned for the perfect sausage according to Stadionwurst (stadium sausage) so we went for the acclaimed Kalbsbratwurst (Veal Sausage). A disappointment I'm afraid. I've eaten hundreds of these sausages since coming to Switzerland. They don't touch a good Cumberland sausage and this particular one was, for me just like the rest.
But having completely blown my chances of ever being welcomed back by Brühl, I'll try to make amends by commenting on the great selection of wines and what looked like excellent pasta dishes in the restaurant. Were these available during the game and at half time? I don't know, I didn't try due to being side-tracked by a sausage. I'll definitely give them a go next time!
Overall
41 / 60. Very reasonable.
The Match
Brühl looked a good team, though sadly only for 10 minutes after which their young opponents blew them away with a blistering 7 minute spell.
Norbert Frrokaj was the first to test Mirko Salvi in the Basel goal with a free header. Salvi dealt with it well and on 10 minutes needed to be sharp again, this time pushing away Giuseppe Coppola's shot from about 10 yards. With Dario Koller looking especially dangerous on the Brühl right, it looked like Basel's title chances were to be scuppered without having to look North at what was happening in Schaffhausen.
Straight after Coppola's effort, Boban Antic's punch wasn't anywhere near to reaching one of his defenders and Musa Araz made him pay for the error. One-nil, an unlucky mistake by the 'keeper but Brühl were still the better team. Just a setback? Well two minutes later, the Basel lead was doubled. Brühl lost the ball in midfield and Simone Rapp broke away to beat Antic without any defender getting near him. On 17 minutes the game was over. Thomas Inauen attempted to tackle a Basel forward in the clumsiest of fashions and the referee was rightly pointing to the penalty spot. Denis Simani took an excellent penalty and it was 3:0. 7 minutes of Brühl's season they will long to forget.
They didn't give up though. A corner caused a bit of panic in the Basel area and Brühl intelligently played the ball back and out of the area for Sebastian Van der Werff to curl a shot unfortunately just wide of Salvi's post. More sloppy defending from Basel, being dispossessed twice in their own half handed Brühl another decent chance. Coppola drove the resulting effort just wide of Salvi's left post.
Right on half time, Basel made in four with a good counter-attack that saw four passes move the ball from defence to attack and Florian Müller finished the move, injuring Antic in the process.
Into the second half and it took just 3 minutes for substitute 'keeper Arif Celebi to be welcomed into the game by the Basel attack. Simone Rapp made it five for the visitors.
That really was game over. Basel had done their job, Brühl had been hammered and now seemed to have lost their appetite for the game. They did get a consolation goal though, and it was the best of the game. Florian Steiger scoring with a great shot from range. But it wasn't a day Brühl will want to dwell on.
Despite their victory, Basel II did not take the Erste Liga Promotion title. That went to Schaffhausen who beat YF Juventus 2 : 1 so pipping the young Baselers to the title on goal-difference.
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