FC Zürich II v FC Locarno
FC Locarno needed our help! The Tessin club needed to avoid defeat against Zürich's under 21s in their quest to avoid a second successive relegation and regional league football.
You see, FC Winterthur like FC Locarno and the feeling is mutual. Winterthur always get a great reception in Locarno and the match result becomes more and more irrelevant as both sets of fans end up partying late into the night. So with Zürich just up the road from Winterthur but an inconvenient 4 hour drive from Locarno, we were happy to help. Plus, this ground had so far dodged the Swiss 36 so, two birds with one stone.
Locarno's situation was desperate at the start of the season. Lack of funds and players had caused them to only take a single point from their first 10 matches but they have rallied and to still have a chance of survival with two games to go after that start is an achievement. A win today would put Locarno to (at worst) within two points of safety with a better goal difference than the side above them.
Zürich II? Well they are not going to win the Erste Liga Promotion but they are in a fight with Sion II to be the best U21 team in Switzerland, so no easy task for the visitors.
Anyway, to the visit. We travelled to the stadium, on the outskirts of Zürich and met up with friends, Anna, Harry and Peter. I was a little perturbed by the lack of activity on the pitch. 30 minutes before kick-off and only a couple of players warming up. Strange, but the match officials were jogging up and down so I didn't really pay this too much attention.
Noticing my scarf, a fan asked me if it was for YF Juventus. I told him rather indignantly that it was a Locarno scarf and received a "WTF" look. Why would a guy wearing a YF Juventus scarf be visiting a game featuring FC Zürich and Locarno? Mrs. Duck picked up the match heft. FC Red Star Zürich v FC Dardania...Hmmmmm.
A penny finally dropped with Anna that she had directed several FC Winterthur fans to the wrong stadium. Five of us had arrived already and another five or six were on their way. We piled into a car and headed off for another ground, on the outskirts of Zürich, at the opposite side of the city.
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| First impression - it's a bit green! |
Points time.
Getting There
7/10. Not too difficult if you head to the right ground to start with! One stop on a tram and a walk through a car park separates you from Zürich Stettbach train station. This station is two stops on urban trains from Zürich main station and one stop from Winterthur.
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| Yeah...green! |
Friendliness
5/10. We were a bit miffed at the 12 Franc entry price (same as FC Winterthur, one league higher) to watch FC Zürich's under 21s and even more so where we saw people outside the ground watching for nothing through the fence where normally, there would be a terrace behind the goal. They had better view of this game than we had paid to experience at other grounds.
The program is nothing more than a photocopied team sheet. Indeed the program we had picked up from FC Red Star Zürich, two leagues lower was better. The program was free like all match programs in Switzerland but is the worst attempt at a program that we've seen on our travels.
Points were won back in the refreshments hall though where everyone was very pleasant.
Safety
5/10. The ground is obviously not suitable for any bigger game than this, but it doesn't need to be as bigger games will never be held there. Zürich U21s cannot be promoted out of this league as a U21 side and they do not take part in the Swiss cup so this is as big as it gets.
The only minor concern is that in this league, Zürich U21s play Basel U21s. There has been trouble between the rival fans at the first team meetings of these clubs. I doubt the idiots causing the trouble would pick up on a U21 fixture but if they did, with viewing only available on one side of the ground, it could be difficult for the authorities.
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| View from behind the goal. Don't complain - it's free! |
View
6/10. No problem other than the only viewing available is on one side of the ground.
Atmosphere
3/10. The atmosphere was provided by the 10 or so Locarno fans who travelled along with their 10 Winti-buddies. Nothing from the home support. The surroundings don't help. It's all very green and quite clinical. The ground is an impressive community sports facility but has little identity of being home to a football club, which it arguably isn't.
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| Lots on offer in the restaurant |
Refreshments
9/10. I'd like a "Currywurst" please. I answered when asked what I wanted. The lady behind the counter looked at me dumbly. "Currywurst?" I tried again. Still nothing. "Curry.....Wurst". "Ah! Currywurst!" she said suddenly repeating the word more or less exactly as I said it. "Ja!" I said and we both laughed as she explained how she couldn't understand my accent. We then proceeded to have a perfectly normal and fluent conversation, laughing and joking with one another. I get a lot of this! I put it down to the culture shock of meeting an English guy who actually speaks a foreign language fluently.
"He can't be speaking German. He's English!"
The refreshments reminded me very much of Sportanlage Juchof (YF Juventus). Lots on offer at reasonable prices. The Currywurst itself was pretty tasteless but the curry sauce was delicious so they got away with it.
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| Did Liverpool really play here? |
Overall.
35/60. This isn't a home ground rather than a community facility. But it's a good community facility that puts to shame what is available in major British cities. There is no way it could be used for bigger events but it will never need to be.
The Match.
We arrived halfway through the first half to find the visitors 1:0 down. That goal had come in the first minute from Marvin Graf. The lead could have been doubled as we arrived when Mario Grgić hit the post from a corner.
But boosted by the arrival of more fans, Locarno started to come more into the game. Fabian Felmann in the home goal had to save from Magetti and Stojanov before the latter rattled the post. The deserved equalizer was a little lucky when it came. A huge deflection looped a shot from 25 yards from Eldin Muharemi over the Felmann and into the net. Locarno were now much the better side and should have had the advantage going into the break but Becchio blazed over when unmarked seven yards out.
The second half started with a renewed battle in midfield yielding few chances before Locarno really turned the screw after 65 minutes. Relentlessly attacking their young opponents they suddenly were creating chance after chance but were kept at bay partly due to a bit of wastefulness but mainly due to a brilliant performance by Fellmann in goal for the home side. He saved his side at least three times in a frenetic 10 minute period. But in this period Locarno did take the lead. Lorenzo Loiero got the goal from a corner and at this point, the visitors looked the only winners.
But Zürich II could still hit on the break and did so in the 73rd minute. Simonyan and Cirelli combined well to set up Aldin Turkes. A draw would not have been the end of the world for Locarno, avoiding defeat could be enough to take the relegation fight to the final game. But it wasn't to be. After 83 minutes, Buono saved well from Marvin Graf's 25 yard screamer but out the ball came and the striker made no mistake with his follow-up.
He did however make a mistake in taking his celebration to the corner of the ground directly in front of the Locarno fans. He'd just scored a goal that had probably relegated their club so this was a shocking lack of sportsmanship, style, grace and professionalism. I would have hoped a large club like FC Zürich would teach their future stars this sort of thing. The Zürich players got a shower of beer for their trouble. I don't condone this of course, but I can certainly understand.
Locarno couldn't get back on terms in the remaining 10 minutes and so their season is over. Relegation is confirmed but every cloud has a silver lining. Their new league will also include FC Winterthur U21's so the strong relationship between the club's fans will continue.
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