FC Tuggen v SC YF Juventus
...Like the poster says! It's international week and therefore a great opportunity to fit in a Swiss 36 trip what with no English football or Swiss football in the top two flights.
So where to go? Our options included trips to Geneva or Basel but we plumped for Tuggen, which I thought was a Bern club. Wrong, FC Tuggen are actually the pride of Canton Schwyz. And they should be proud. They are the highest ranked football club in the Canton, with a population of just 3003.
And they do compete in the Erste Liga Promotion. They finished last season 5th out of 16 and this season currently sees them in 8th place in a tight division before this one. 34 goals scored in 11 games with 30 against. That makes an average scoreline of 3 : 3. Could we be in for another goal-fest like the last Swiss 36 trip? We'll come to that later, but in the meantime.
Points Time.
Getting There
5 / 10. Tuggen is a tiny place so as you might imagine, getting there is a bit of a faff. 3 trains and a bus took brought us to Tuggen 90 minutes before the kick-off. It was either that or turning up 30 minutes late, which would never do. So with 90 minutes to kill, it was time to see the sights of Tuggen.
10 minutes later, having seen the church and the cows, we were at a lose end so we headed to the ground, which is on the main road and easy to find.
Friendliness
7 / 10. We didn't really get chatting with any of the local fans before the game, but FCT fans do seem very nice. The program, which is free as it is at most, if not all Swiss football matches, is obviously a home made photocopier job. But it does have a somewhat unusual section introducing various Tuggen players to the fans. Among other things, players are asked what they would do if they were a woman for the day. No, I've tried but I cannot see how a fan would use this information, but the information is their somewhere should anyone need it.
I also liked the attitude of the lady who sold us two bottles of wine. On realizing she's just given two glass bottles to football fans she had never seen before, she asked us not to throw them onto the pitch. We said that we wouldn't. Trust given, received and returned. How nice!
Another nice thing, we bought standing tickets, as we do everywhere if we can. The terracing where there is any is dual- purpose stand/sit terracing. It's concrete so Tuggen provide foam cushions for fans to sit on avoiding cold bottoms. Yeah - friendly.
Safety
6 / 10. Safety is a tough one for these small clubs, as is atmosphere. As I've indicated, the terracing is dual-purpose so the foot test doesn't look good. But it's certainly not the multi-storey North face of the Eiger that we have seen elsewhere. There are no fences and no crowd segregation. The players get changed in the clubhouse then walk though the refreshment area to get to the pitch. There's no doubt the ground is not up to the standards required by the next league up. In fact Tuggen look forward to facing FC Basel in the last 16 of the Swiss cup. The match is taking place at Würth due to Tuggen's ground not being up to scratch for such a big game.
If Tuggen were to get promoted, the Swiss FA would no doubt insist they ruined their ground!
View
6 / 10. I was quite happy with my spot but on three sides of the ground the provision is simply standing behind a rail, with limited space for how many people can do that. Perfectly adequate for the level though and 2800 capacity with 300 seated is reasonable.
Atmosphere
3 / 10. Just 352 attended the match and Tuggen isn't the place to go if you want continuous singing / chanting. There's a cheer when goals are scored, which dies down a little too quickly and the occasional "Hopp Tugga". Like Yorkshire people cannot say Hs at the beginning of words, the Swiss don't bother with any consonants at the end of words.
Refreshments
6 / 10. Plenty of different drinks on offer but not so much choice when it came to food. Drinks-wise, there were beers, ciders plenty of soft drinks and wines. All of that goes with sausages of course. Three different types were available and I tried two of them, and they were fine.
Overall
33 / 60. Run of the mill but for all that, clearly a very nice and over-achieving club.
The Match
Yes, an entertaining contest between two well matched teams. The right team, Tuggen, won in the end, perhaps with a slightly flattering 3 : 1 scoreline.
Tuggen took the lead in the 15th minute after an even and entertaining first spell. Almir Murati got the goal, which I thought was intended as a cross to the far post. But it went in and they all count.
The visitors were back in it inside three minutes. A cross from the right found Mychell Da Silva completely unmarked at the far post and he made no mistake with his header. A disappointing point about the game at this point had been how a couple of players had been making the most of the occasional clip on a shin or ankle they were getting. These are young players in the main, who've maybe been watching too much telly.
So it was good to see the ref make an error which penalized such behaviour. A Juvé player played a beautiful through-ball which had his centre-forward clear through on goal, but he got caught just as he played the ball and let out a scream before collapsing in agony. Much to the away side's disgust, the ref brought it back for the free-kick. He also reduced Juvé to 10 men, asking the injured player who had received treatment to leave the field. It was a mistake on the ref's part but it did put a stop to the yelping and rolling around that had started. If you're going to make a mistake refs, that's a good one to make.
Well, despite briefly threatening to explode, the match stayed lively and level to the break.
Second half and it started frantically with chances at both ends. Tuggen were now clearly looking the better team though and were spending ever more time putting pressure on their opponents. But Juvé came very close to taking the lead. First Tuggen's 'keeper saved well low down but the ball was simply pushed back into danger. This time the 'keeper was rounded only for a Juvé striker to hit the post. The rebound then was skied horribly. Tuggen had been let off and they went on to take full advantage.
In the 75th minute Tuggen had the lead. A free-kick was headed against the base of the Juvé post and it rebounded for a very easy tap-in for Joël Durand. 10 minutes later Durand should have made it three. He'd done the hard work in holding his run perfectly before being free in on goal with the Juvé offside trap in tatters. But the shot was weak and straight at the 'keeper.
In the 89th minute, the referee again got his interpretation of the advantage rule a little mixed up. An attack from Tuggen led to a shot going just wide. As the player shot, he was challenged but clearly the challenge did not cause the miss. But the ref thought it was a penalty and so gave Tuggen a second bite of the cherry, which they accepted.
So once again an enjoyable afternoon of Swiss football. And nice to see the players cleaning their boots before going in the clubhouse. My mum must work there somewhere!
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