Swiss 36 No. 30 - Sportplatz Linthstrasse, FC Tuggen

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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Swiss 36 - No. 29 - Stadion Bergolz, FC Wil 1900

Playing at St. Gallen last season may have hurt!

FC Wil 1900 v FC Winterthur

Wil are another of those teams who were asked kindly by the Swiss FA to renovate their stadium and bring it up to standard. As a result, they played their games last season at St. Gallen's AFG Arena. One of those games, the last of the of the 2012 games before the winter break was quite literally the most unpleasant football-watching experience of my life. Watching your team get beaten 4:0 is never fun, do it in temperatures of -7 degrees and it's just nasty! The only slight consolation was finding out what the Winti chant "Arsül in der AFG" (apologies for spelling) meant. It means "People of no fixed abode in the AFG". Winti sang it to the Wil fans to the tune of "Go West" by the Pet Shop Boys. Very amusing!

 

So, I was confident I would enjoy this match more than I enjoyed that one even if our local rivals, now abide in their new abode. So what did we think?

 

Points Time

Getting There

9 / 10. One of the best in this respect. They don't put special buses on to the ground, but then again, it can't be more than 5 minutes walk from Wil station to the Bergolz. It's signposted too plus you see the floodlights almost straight away. I still saw some Winti fans getting the bus though(?)

 

Friendliness

7 / 10. Started badly. Walking in we received the customary pat-down and bag search and the security guy found a plastic cup in my bag that he didn't like. This cup has been taken into many Swiss stadia. It's also been refused entry to some so I wasn't too annoyed. As he was dropping it in a trash bin, I did voice my concern though. It cost 11.50 SFr (about £8)!

 

"Ey - Yup!" I said. "That's expensive mate" (perhaps not quite in those words).

He told me that I could put it on the floor near the entrance but they could not take responsibility for it! That is the first time security at a Swiss ground has actually said that to me. Normally there is some kind of cloakroom ticket system or they just put items safely in an office (or shed). So I'm not happy.

 

Then I notice Mrs. Duck strolling into the stadium with exactly the same cup in her right hand. Worth a try? I thought so and pointed it out. Yeah, I'm an idiot! I only succeeded in getting Mrs. Duck's cup confiscated too plus the inevitable agrivation that caused! Annoying! Really security, if I was the type to throw things at footballers, it wouldn't be £8 cups. They did say that someone else might take it off me and throw it at the players. Really?

 

So at this point Wil had lost 7 or so points on the friendliness scale and had our cups been nicked they'd have been in minus points. But they redeemed themselves. Very nice staff at the refreshment stand, which wasn't caged in as it is at the AFG were the first help, and then, on our way out, the security guys brought our cups to us. Ahhh you see, all bluff!

Safety

1 / 10. The Fuzzy foot-test has a clear winner! I mean...wow! The terracing steps are about 60cm (just about 2 feet). They are very much more appropriate for sitting rather than standing. But there are crush-barriers so it is obviously intended that fans stand! Now consider that this stadium has been renovated. I believe this is considered acceptable by the Swiss Challenge League. It's totally bloody ridiculous. Somebody who is in some kind of authority obviously doesn't know what they are doing. Should anybody take a tumble on this terrace, they will be hurt. If it does happen, I hope that somebody gets the sueing they rightfully deserve.

So death-trap terraces. Can we make it any worse? Yeah - throw some fences in with very high nets above the fences and any escape onto the pitch in the event of a crush is prevented. Then again, in the event of a crush, most would have broken bones due to falling down the terrace so escape isn't required. Wil kept a point for not putting razor wire on top of the fences. Damn! I bet I just gave them an idea!

 

View

6 / 10. Didn't think much of the view from the away end, mainly because of that bloody fence!

 

Atmosphere

3 / 10. Wil fans bang a drum. You don't hear them sing so much but they do bang a drum. As for Winti fans, well, they did their best as ever, but when the stadium looks like the exercise yard at Alcatraz, it does put a bit of a downer on things! I think Wil's first step in generating an atmosphere could be to put fans in pleasant surroundings rather than treating them like caged animals.

 

Refreshments

6 / 10. Standard Swiss football fare but done quite well. The Schnitzel Buttie was especially good and I also tried a Bockwurst (a red sausage) for a change - again nice. Shitzengarten beer though, and it was the only alcoholic thing on offer. It's seriously difficult to get a decent beer in Switzerland so something else would have been most welcome.

 

So decent food but not so much choice. Crap beer with no choice at all!

 

Overall

32 / 60. One of the most unpleasant places I've attended to watch football.

The Match

What a totally bonkers afternoon! I started not paying too much attention to the game due to Donny Rovers playing out the final minutes of their 1:0 win against Leicester City, which I was watching on my phone. Wil had already gone 1-up while I was doing this, Ivan Audino netting for the home side after just 2 minutes. But Rovers had won, surely Winti would cheer further my excellent mood.

 

Well, Rovers finished and cue this game going crazy. Claudio Hollenstein got through the Winterthur defence and lured Leite out of position. A simple ball to Jordan Brown gave the German-Jamaican the easiest of finishes. 16 minutes gone and two down. But two minutes later and Winti had pulled a goal back. Antonio Marscheno getting his first goal for the club, hitting the ball into the top right corner. We had to wait 4 minutes for the next goal, and it was an equalizer. Marchesano played a great ball to Marco Aratore to supply the finish. Winti were going to win this - or so I thought…for all of a minute.

 

Free-kick to Wil on their left. The ball is crossed in and a beautiful header, sadly from Winti's Patrick Baumann flies past Chris Leite. 3:2 Wil. Two minutes later and the home team had restored their two-goal advantage. Federico Platero heading home a corner. So, 5 goals in 9 minutes and defending from both teams that was comedic.

 

Before half-time Winti had two decent chances to get back again. Marchesano and Aratore both bringing good saves from Anthony Favre in the Wil goal.

 

Into the second half, and somewhat predictably, both managers had seemed to calm their teams down a little. The second half was almost played like a proper football match. But it was Wil who were to extend their lead. Winti tried to play offside, (on this day they'd have been better off trying less advanced defensive strategies) and got caught. Pascal Cerone played in Audino for his second and he was to complete a hat-trick on 82 minutes with the best goal of the game; a great shot that gave Leite no chance.

 

87 minutes and Winti got a consolation. Patrick Bengondo was given far too much room the Wil penalty area and he made it 6:3. But it was academic. A crazy score line after a crazy first half. More than a little dissatisfaction voiced by the Winti fans after the match. A little unfairly for me. The players worked, but the defence is pretty appauling.

 

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Swiss 36 No. 28 - Gurzelen Stadion, FC Biel-Bienne

FC Biel-Bienne v FC Winterthur

 

Live football and live music are two passions of mine. Two passions that normally sit together quite happily without any clashes of interest. But once a season I find myself up a mountain near Bern having a great time listening to bands while FC Winterthur have a fixture somewhere and so try to tempt me away.

 

Last season they were at Locarno. Too far from Bern to really consider leaving the Gurten Festival and returning later. They won 5:0 so that put pressure on this year's decision on whether to miss some of the music.

 

This year Winti were playing Biel-Bienne in a match that re-opened their Gurzelen Stadium. Biel is just an hour away from the top of the mountain, it was a Swiss stadium that we hadn't yet seen and it was a re-opening. Obviously we were schlepping down the mountain.

 

So could the Gurzelen live up to the Stade de la Maldière, where Biel had taken up temporary residence as their stadium was being renovated? Well, as it happens they hadn't done a bloody thing! You see, Biel-Bienne were told by the Swiss FA that the Gurzelen did not meet Swiss Challenge League standards. What Biel-Bienne then had to do was to demonstrate a viable plan for refurbishing the stadium. They didn't have to actually do anything. But they obviously failed to get an acceptable plan together and so were vanquished to Neuchâtel.

 

Points Time

Getting There

7 / 10. As ever no problem at all on the trains but it's not all that clear where to go once where to go once you arrive in Biel. We knew there was a bus, it was just a case of finding where from. Luckily it was Winti fans to the rescue as we bumped into a party of them and were soon on the right bus.

 

Friendliness

6 / 10. The good bit was the stadium security. We arrived direct from the Gurten Festival and so had some things in our Rucksacks that weren't appropriate for a football stadium. But we'd separated what we needed in the stadium from the rest of the junk that we had, and the security guys were happy to look after our bags while we were watching the game.

 

The bad bit? Portable toilets. See what I mean hadn't done a bloody thing?

 

Safety

9 / 10. Not much of a problem with safety. The only fencing separates home and away supporters, which is fair enough. The terracing is at a safe height. The only thing missing for me are crush barriers. Also the stadium allegedly holds 15000 spectators, which might be a few too many.

 

View

9 / 10. The only question would be whether you could see if the stadium was full.

Atmosphere

 

5 / 10. Very disappointing. Apart from the match ball being parachuted in and the banner in the photo, there was nothing to say this was a re-opening. Quite sad really, that the town couldn't turn out to welcome their football team back home. In the event, only 1580 fans did so. Hopefully when renovations are made, more will take interest.

 

Refreshments

5 / 10. The same standard stuff that you get at every Swiss ground but at least all the drinks were refrigerated. The beer was Heinekin, which says it all!

 

Overall

 

41 / 60. No, not as good as Stade de la Maladière

 

The Match

Well with the stadium offering little to write home about, could the match be any better. Sadly not.

 

Winti were coming into the match having lost their opener away at Schaffhausen. On that subject, I'm afraid Stadion Breite is going to have to take some penalty points (not that I'm bitter at all). In the away end of the ground, the first challenge was getting beer. Winti brought 800 or so away supporters with them, which isn't bad for a team who get about 2000 for a home game. First game of the season plus a local Derby, surely a reasonable away attendance could be expected. Well, one beer pump served the 800, very slowly. Many Winti fans missed the entire first half queuing for beer. That takes four points off Satdion Breite's refreshment score I'm afraid. The away fans were also well and truly fenced in. Two points from safety. Needless to say, Schaffhausen will now think twice about beating Winti in our next meeting!

 

But I digress from the match against Biel at the Gurzelen. It all started well enough. Winti soon were flowing in the first half and wave upon wave of Zürcher attacks were being made with very little in the way of opposition. This is why are left the rock festival. To enjoy a sunny day and your team dominating their opponents finishing up 3:0 winners.

 

Well, that's what would have happened had Winti converted the countless chances that they made. Instead they led just by a single goal at half time, scored through a familiar combination of a Stefan Iten cross and Patrick Bengondo header.

 

Happy at half time? Sure, but you did have that feeling that Biel's determination to play absolutely no part in the game couldn't continue. It didn't and the home side were much better after the break. They were more aggressive than Winterthur and were pressing for possession much higher up the pitch. On the hour, Biel der deservedly equalized. Bengondo, back defending was surprised when Sejemovic nipped in from behind him to steal the ball as he was trying to clear. Bengondo pulled his opponent back and the referee pointed to the spot. Di Nardo beat Studer comfortably with the penalty.

 

Seven minutes later and Biel had the lead. A mistake by Sereinig was confounded as he and Patrick Schuler both tried to close down the ball carrier, meaning that somewhere there was a free man. He was actually in the penalty area and Giuseppe Morello found Christian Miani with a simple low cross. The finish was easy.

 

Winti hadn't been able to cope with Biel's improved second half commitment, and it was going to get worse. Janko Pacar, on to try to provide more attacking teeth in the final minutes did well breaking on the left side. A tug back on his shirt resulted in the young striker taking a silly kick at his opponent. Red card and Winti were out of the game. They weren't handling Biel with 11 men, so 10 was a hopeless situation.

 

2:1 to Biel and the pre-season title favourites were looking nothing like a potential super league side.

 

Stop Press

Recently we also had the pleasure of once again visiting the Paul Grüninger Stadium (SC Brühl) for a second round Swiss Cup match. When we went into the ground we noted that tickets were either seated or standing. They were not home and away. Winti fans and Brühl fans mixed happily on the terraces enjoying friendly banter exactly how football should be. That is with the exception of Brühl beating Winti on penalties of course. I can also report Brühl are the first team to react to the rubbish I write here. I noted that Brühl were letting in under 9's for free while at Winti, free entry is granted up until the age of 16. Brühl agreed on the value of attracting supporters while they are young and so have changed their prices.

 

More points are going Brühl's way on friendliness and atmosphere categories (you see, I'm not such a bad loser!).

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Swiss 36 No. 27 - Stadio Comunale Lido, FC Locarno

FC Locarno v FC Winterthur

Last Swiss 36 visit of 2012/13 season and indeed the last game of the season in the Swiss Challenge League. Also the Stadio Comunale Lido is the last of the stadia that we have to visit in Tessin. Among all those lasts, we had to have a first, and so we took the decision to travel by fan-bus instead of by Train.

We loaded up the AC/DC (beer as well as rock music) and met the Bierkurve fan bus at the Schützi just before noon. Yes, it looks like its been in a few battles but it is surprisingly comfortable. Certainly it was good to enjoy the 4 hour trip down to sunny Tessin with fellow fans....and indeed pissheads.

 

So - comfort compared with the train, not as good but only because we couldn't move around and had to wait for toilet stops. Other than that not bad! The journey time was if anything a tad shorter even with the toilet stops....or was I speaking too soon?

 

Points Time

Getting There

9 / 10. We had a good trip! We also noticed the train station about 10 minutes or so walk from the stadium so if the choice was public transport, it would probably have been equally as good.

 

Friendliness.

10 / 10. "Win-ter-thur!" sang the Locarno faithful

"Loc-car-no-o!" came the reply. How friendly could it be? OK, I'll let the English fans into a secret. Locarno are a kind of sister-club to Winterthur. We love 'em, and they love us. Hence the mutual singing that went on from time to time. I'm not sure they'd be so welcoming to Lugano or any of their other Tessin rivals but Winterthur are always welcome at the Stadio Comunale Lido.

Safety

8 / 10. Our fourth and final Tessin stadium and we saved the best until last. To be fair, the competition isn't great but Locarno have no fences. I've brought back the Fuzzy-foot test to show the only minor concern - a terrace height that's great for sitting but if there were more of a crowd, a slip could cause quite a fall. On the subject of crowds, Stadio Comunale Lido state a capacity of 11000. That looks about 3000 too many to me.

 

View

6 / 10. We've got that word "Comunale" in the stadium name again. I'm going to make a generalization here, which I hope doesn't offend. If your stadium has words like "Community" or "Municiple" in it's name it will be (as we say in Yorkshire) "neither Now't nor summat". Not a football stadium, not an athletics venue...not really anything. I hope that doesn't offend. I mean, it's not like saying all kids called Tyler are pains in the arse is it?

 

5.5 Lanes?

So there you have it. A 5 and a half lane athletic track around the pitch with big areas of field events at either end. Every stadium in Tessin has an athletics track. Is Tessin a hot-bed for athletics that I don't know about? Well, I googled "famous Tessin athletes" to find out.

Google's reply: Did I mean "famous Tennis Athletes" or "famous Russian Atheltes or "famous tass(?) athletes"? Says it all really. Politicians in their determination to please everyone piss-off their main customers.

 

Rant over!

 

Atmosphere

7 / 10. Friends. It was as simple as that really. Not electric like you get at a local Derby but very enjoyable for all that.

Refreshments

7 / 10. Standard fare cooked on barbecues around the ground. All very enjoyable but nothing special.

 

Overall

 

47 / 60 . Best ground in Tessin. Just lose the running track.

 

The Match

Not a classic and not one Winterthur will like to dwell too long over. Locarno were bottom of the league and would have been relegated if it weren't for the demise of Bellinzona, who due to financial problems will not be taking their place in the Challenge League next season. So technicalities save Locarno from the drop.

 

The points penalties imposed on Bellinzona had brought them in range of Winti for the last game of the season. If Lugano could do us a favour, a victory would have given Winti a runners-up spot. The way I've written about that, I think you can guess that it's not what happened. Lugano did the business, beating Bellinzona 4:3. So Winti just had to beat the basement club then!

 

The first quarter of the game belonged to the home team with their best moment coming when an audacious attempt to lob Christian Leite by Drilon Pacarizi found the post rather than the back of the net. It had taken Winti 20 minutes to get out of their own half, and when they did, Patrick Bengondo was unusually wasteful with a header from close range. But the lead went deservedly to Locarno on the half-hour.

 

Locarno cleverly switched play to the left wrong-footing the Winti defence, Amos Ngan then crossed for Marko Bicvic to first slam against Leite's post but then make no mistake with the rebound that conveniently had come back to him. Locarno one - nil to the good with Winti looking like it had been a hard season for them.

 

Early in the second half and Nick von Niederhausen was brought into the fray for his last game in a Winti shirt, his transfer to Vaduz next season being confirmed. And von Niederhausen did bring something to the up to then disappointing away team. Within 10 minutes of the restart, Winti had the game level again. Janko Pacar was able to play the telling ball, crossing for Marco Aratore to slam home. But the comeback was to be short-lived. Just 10 minutes later, Mate Bilinovac ran at the Winterthur defence who backed off allowing him to the edge of the area. A simple pass to Drilon Pacarizi and a good finish returned the lead to the Tessiners.

Winti nearly had a point they had scarcely deserved. Patrick Bengondo glanced a header inches wide from Altin Osmani's free-kick but it stayed at 2:1. Disappointing for Winti but a nice way to celebrate a reprieve from relegation for our Tessin friends. Nice for the missus too. That shirt Mr. Iten is wearing now resides in her wardrobe. Thanks Stefan!

We went to the bar to celebrate with the locals but unfortunately news that the traffic back home was bad meant our leaving earlier than we otherwise might. We could have took a hint and got the train home but no, we'd come on the fan bus. We'd leave on the fan bus.

Eight hours later (yes, eight) the fan bus rolled into Winti. So much for principles! Never mind, as ever the Winti fans made the best of a bad situation.

 

 

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Swiss 36 Extra - Cow Bingo!

FC Dulliken v FC Olten

Being noisy, English FC Winterthur fans, Mrs Duck and I have slowly become World-Famous in Winterthur. "Bullshit Referee!" has become something of a catchphrase since an infamous debut on Schützi TV and now we are being asked to do interviews for the local newspaper.

 

So we spent an evening drinking beer with local freelance journalist, Damian Keller the day before Donny Rovers performed their final second promotion spectacular in Brentford. Donny obviously formed a large part of the conversation and our liking for the bizarre in football was also mentioned.

 

Damian let us know about Cow Bingo. Football and crap. It's a natural combination for a fan who's team has spent far too long in the lower divisions and something we had to see.

 

So a few weeks later, we 'd travelled the couple of hours out to Dulliken, a village near Olten where the home side were entertaining FC Olten. The clash was a top of the table, local Derby. OK - Swiss Liga 2 (the sixth level in the Swiss pyramid system) is a regional league so a Derby was pretty much guaranteed. But table topping football followed by cows crapping live. What more could you want for entertainment on a Sunday afternoon?

 

So, is a shitting spectacular the way to bring in the fans? Well apparently, yes it is. Just over 900 spectators turned out to watch Swiss sixth flight football. The majority of second flight teams have lower attendances. And why not? There was plenty of good food available on the barbecues and at 10 SFr a ticket with the chance of winning a car, bovine bingo was worth a flutter.

 

But football first and we watched a game where, frankly both teams would have needed all night to get a goal. There were some decent skills on show elsewhere on the pitch with one Dulliken player making a double backheel to turn his opponent that was worthy of a bigger stage.

 

First Prize

The ball was not going to find its way into a goal though, sometimes you could point fingers at wastefulness among strikers on other occasions you were just left wondering how it had stopped out. But 0:0 it was and there was a quite hush as cows started to gather at the far side of the neighbouring pitch.

 

With quite a crowd gathered around the pitch, Eric led out is team. His tactic was to keep everyone guessing for the opening minutes, galloping with his teammates all over the pitch showing no particular tactics. After a few minutes, fans who had lots in the penalty areas were starting to look like they could have made shrewd investments. There was a twitch of a tail, an "ooooh" from the crowd but Jim, on the right wing as just teasing.

 

A dog that was passing then tried to take matters into his own hands. Could he scare a heifer into action? Nope, he just received a long, incredulous stare before the herd took a few steps towards him. Obviously my plan of whipping on a lion mask and roaring should the cows come near my area of the pitch wasn't going to win the day.

 

Eric eyes the crowd nervously

The crowd was getting inpatient. "Schiesse! Schiesse! Schiesse!" chanted a group of kids near to us. Fittingly, it was Eric who won someone a car with an attractive dribble in the inside left channel. This started something as a few minutes later, an electric Bike was won after significant movement in midfield.

 

But it was all taking too long. I think the coach had to take some of the blame. Surely the diet of the young team needed to be examined before the big day? You can't have heifers eating Chicken Vindaloo, that's just not natural but I'm sure Aloo Gobi would have produced a faster moving game! People started to drift away and we followed them, returning back to the clubhouse for some more of that excellent steak and Apèrol Proseccos.

 

We chatted with the Dulliken fans while the referee had to follow the cows alone, carefully marking the midpoint of their pats in accordance with the rules. Luckily, the rules mean the match is over after two hours, by which time only 8 of the 10 prizes had been awarded.

 

The trainer was disappointed.

"Eric's been looking like he could shit for Switzerland all week", explained coach Jürg. "But on the day, in front of such a big crowd, he just got nervous."

 

"Wouldn't nerves be a good thing?

 

"No, he bottled it!"

 

Exactly what is not needed by Cow Bingo teams. Anyway, a unique day for me. I cannot yet remember complaining that there wasn't enough shit on a football pitch!

 

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Swiss 36 No. 26 - Paul Grüninger Stadion, SC Brühl

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.

 

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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Swiss 36 No. 25 - Sportplatz Spitalacker, FC Breitenrain

FC Breitenrain v FC Sion II

Largely through coincidence, we've already seen Breitenrain twice on our travels; at Schaffhausen and in St. Gallen. We were quite taken with the club's small but enthusiastic away following and so chose Sportplatz Spitalacker as our next visit to an erste Liga Promotion ground.

 

What we found at Spitalacker was another little treasure. The Spitalacker turns out to be a former international stadium. In 1922, Switzerland beat Holland 5 : 0 at this ground in front of 12000 people.

 

"The Spitz is our Home"

90 years on and the ground's new residents are FC Breitenrain, a club formed in 1994 through the merger of local rivals, FC Minerva Bern and FC Zaehringia Bern. Breitenrain are obviously proud of their ground as the photos in the club-house and the banner at the far end show.

 

Points Time

Getting there

7 / 10. Obviously no problem in getting to the Swiss capital. Once there, it's not totally clear. In any case, it's a bus ride to Spitzacker and then a 5 minute walk.

Friendliness

9 / 10. As I mentioned earlier, I had previously enjoyed Breitenrain's away following getting behind their team to help bring them back from 2-down to beat St. Gallen II 2 : 3. We recognized the guy with the megaphone from that game and bought him a beer. Very nice people eager to tell us about their club and interested in why two English people are bothered about Swiss football. Generous too as we both left with Breitenrain scarves compliments of the fans.

Safety

4 / 10. But for goodness sake don't go changing anything radically, Breitenrain. The all-wood main stand is beautiful. It may not get a safety certificate in a league above the erste Liga Promotion but will Breitenrain compete above this level? Even if they did, could you destroy such a thing?

 

Home and visiting fans are not segregated. It's a shame that this has to be a safety requirement but they are not segregated and nor do I see an easy way of segregating them at the Spitzacker.

 

View

Great casual seating facility

8 / 10. Unlike other grounds in this league, Breitenrain keep modest with their official capacity of 1500. The fans are right on pitch-side and there were no restricted views that I could see. The casual seating facility was great, even though it reminded me more of watching a Cricket Match on a village green rather than watching football. If Breitenrain filled the ground, I can't see a problem in 1500 people all managing to get a decent view.

 

But there isn't any terracing and one side of the ground, behind the goal on the far side as you enter is inaccessible.

 

Atmosphere

5 / 10. Great effort from the "singing section" of the fans, they kept going throughout the game. Unsurprisingly, nothing at all heard from Sion II. I can imagine the atmosphere being a little better when local rivals FC Tuggen come visiting.

 

Refreshments

9 / 10. Now we've been here before at FC Aarau (for example). We see things on menus and are sadly let down when we find they are not available. So when we saw Holzfäller Steak (lit. Lumberjack Steak, traditionally from Pork-shoulder) we thought "nahh...they won't have any"

 

But they asked us if we would like beef or lamb! OK, not a traditional Holzfäller, but bloody beautiful all the same. 8.50 SFr for a lump of rump steak in the Swiss capital? You won't do better anywhere else around there! Otherwise there was the traditional sausage and what looked like a well stocked bar in the clubhouse. Breitenrain look after their fans well!

 

Overall

42 / 60. Charming club with a charming ground.

 

The Match

Sadly, not a classic by any means and nowhere near the match we'd enjoyed the previous week in St. Gallen.

 

Sion II started marginally the brighter of the two sides and came close after 10 minutes when a corner was played cleverly to the near corner of the penalty area only for the shot to just miss the top corner of the Breitenrain goal. Just before half time, the visitors should have had the lead. Stefane Rauti found himself one-on-one with Portmann in the Breitenrain goal. The 'keeper stood up well but could only push the ball back to Rauti. This time he rounded Portmann only to place it wide of the open goal.

 

After the break and predictably Sion took the lead. Gaëtan Karlen was left unmarked in the area to head home a cross from the left wing. But Sion II only held their lead for 2 minutes as Breitenrain came back with the best moment of the game. Claudio Zenger scored the equalizer, swinging a free kick into the far corner of the goal from a tight angle.

 

Just two further chances before the end. Portmann earning his stripes with a fine save to keep a ferocious shot out of his top right hand corner and at the other end, Breitenrain flashed a cross through the Sion six-yard area that just needed somebody to stretch that bit more.

 

But it finished 1:1, probably a fair result in the end.

 

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