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| Espenmoos as it was |
FC St. Gallen II v FC Breitenrain
It's sad when a football club moves to a new stadium and the old ground is either torn down to make another shopping centre or worst still, is allowed to go derelict. Sadly, this is what has happened at Doncaster Rovers' old ground, Belle Vue and Swansea City's Vetch Field.
So it's good to see that when FC St. Gallen moved across the city to the AFG Arena in 2008, their Espenmoos stadium continued to be used as a sports facility.
Three of the four sides of the ground have had their terraces and stands demolished, obviously dropping the capacity of the stadium from 11300 to 5700, but with the AFG Arena across the city, St. Gallen simply does not need two large capacity sports venues. Instead, what remained after the demolition was fully renovated and a new, all-weather pitch was laid where one of the stands once stood. The result is a facility that is used for rugby and American football, as well as of course by St. Gallen for their u21s and women's teams. It's nice to see the ground continuing to be used and I think that keeping the unusual main stand is a great touch to keep everyone reminded of the Espenmoos' former glories.
Points time.
Getting There.
8 / 10. Easy on the train. From St. Gallen you just need to take a local train for one stop to St. Fiden and from there, the ground is a 15 minute walk. It's not signposted though, which is surprising considering its previous status of being St. Gallen's home.
Friendliness
5 / 10. No problems at all, but nobody spoke to us either. Home and away fans are allowed to mix freely.
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| Nice informal seating facility |
Safety
5 / 10. Officially, the stadium can hold 5700 and I don't see how that could be done with opposing fans safely. You can walk unhindered the whole way around the pitch and there was absolutely no provision of facilities for away fans. Having said that, the ground certainly doesn't need any further safety measures, it just needs its official capacity to be reduced. It's obvious to me that there will never be a big game played at the ground with the 19700 AFG Arena at the other side of the city.
View.
8 / 10. The same arguments as with safety apply in assessing the view. With just that one stand and no terracing around three sides of the pitch, I cannot see any way a large crowd could all see.
But the Espenmoos will never see a large crowd so why provide for one? Because the Espenmoos is a pragmatic solution and because its so good that its still being used for the purpose for which it was intended when it was built in 1912, it's too harsh to penalize it twice.
For the small crowds that St. Gallen II get the view is fine with only one criticism. Behind one of the goals there's a very high fence which impairs viewing at that end.
Atmosphere.
5 / 10. Surprisingly good! 400 fans attended the game with about 20 or so making the trip from Bern. But they didn't come just to watch in silence as didn't the St. Gallen faithful. A good bit of noise from both plus the amusing sight of a very enthusiastic away fan who hurtled up the touchline with the siren on his megaphone blaring when Breitenrain scored.
Refreshments
7 / 10. Obviously, the obligatory sausage and bread was available but without any sauces, which was disappointing. The beer was the local brew, you've heard of Feldshitsschen, well this is Shitzengarten. So where are they picking up points?
First of all, you could by Ice Creams, which on the lovely day we had was very welcome. Then there's the drinking water fountain as you come into the ground. Drinking water fountains are found all over Switzerland but this is the first one I've seen in a football stadium. Finally, there's the Boccia Club, which provides a nice beer garden in which to consume your beer and sausage.
Overall
38 / 60.
The Match
Was also very enjoyable. Sure, there were plenty of improvement potential for both sides, who are in relegation trouble but still plenty of excitement.
It took St. Gallen's future stars just 20 seconds to have the ball in the net but the referee correctly rule the effort offside. It was pretty clear sign of what was to come though and within 14 minutes, Igor Tadic had a brace and the home side were 2 : 0 up. It looked ominous for the visitors with St. Gallen II dominating play and if anything looking like they were going to rout their visitors.
But despite struggling to get out of their half, Breitenrain began to defend a little better. On a rare foray into the St. Gallen half, a cross was headed back across goal for Dos Santos to have a tap in. However unlikely, the visitors were back in it and you started to see some belief in what they were doing.
As the game went on, you gradually got the impression only one team was going to win it. Breitenrain had obviously decided this was a winnable game and it was no surprise when Claudio Zenger shot in from just outside the area to make the match all square with 13 minutes remaining. On their second half display, they deserved the win and got it in the 89th minutes through substitute Stephan Frey with another finish from just outside of the area.
Well deserved for Breitenrain in the end and the win means five teams are now within 3 points of the relegation places.
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