Swiss 36 No. 38: LIPO Park - FC Schaffhausen

FC Schaffhausen v FC Winterthur

21 September 2017

A midweek derby with Schaffhausen gave us the opportunity to tick off the one stadium that we have yet to visit in the Swiss Challenge League, FC Schaffhausen's new home, the LIPO park.  It's actually Schaffhausen's second season at the new stadium but sadly, illness prevented our trip out there last season.

I remember first visiting FCS' old Stadion Breite for the first time when our rivals were in the promotion league (I had to get that in).  They had architects sketches and impressions of the new stadium back then (it was March 2013).  It looked great!  Those sketches nearly always do.  I remember being skeptical about whether they would actually get the stadium but credit where credit is due, they have the new stadium.  But does it live up to those artist's impressions?

Points Time.

Getting There.

10 / 10.  I rather genourously gave Breite 9/10.  From Schaffhausen station, Breite was either a bus ride or quite an uphill hike.  Well, LIPO park couldn't really be closer to the station, but not Schaffhausen station, the stadium is in Herblingen.  But in any case it's a direct train from Winterthur or Zürich for that matter (the S24 to Thayngen).  Alternatively you can change in Schaffhausen.  So plenty of trains and the station is on the doorstep of the stadium.  10 points all the way!

Friendliness.

2 / 10.  OK, this was Schaffhausen v Winti and there is a rivalry between the clubs (putting it mildly) so there's going to be police and searching etc.  But frankly, the whole infrastructure makes visiting supporters unwelcome.  Once you are out of the station, you enter a caged walkway which leads to the turnstiles (two at the away end).  Scan your ticket barcode to get into the first area and your in security's territory.  I've had more thorough searches, in fact I wasn't patted down at all but they were interested in my bag.  Once through security you are allowed through a second turnstile.  For an inexplicable reason you go up some steps only to come down again on the other side until you're in the stadium concourse, and out of the cage.  WELCOME TO SCHAFFHAUSEN!  Awful, much like St. Gallen's AFG Arena.

So a generous 2.  The ladies in the refreshments were ok and I think the security guy wished me "viel Spass" (have fun).  

Safety

7 / 10.  Wait a minute, am I seriously trying to say a brand new stadium doesn't get full marks on safety? Allow me to explain.  The stadium is brand new and it's an all-seater. The capacity is 8200 and the seats are comfortably spaced.  That's the good news.  

We English fans believe emergency access to the pitch is an essential safety point.  The Taylor report recommended removal fences after the Hillsborough disaster.  But Swiss clubs and the SFA seem to like them and they are fully installed in at least the away end of the LIPO.  Not only that, but get over the fence and there's at least a 7 foot drop to pitch level.  Then there's that access to the away end, narrow and caged.  Of course, there is a large gate allowing mass exodus from the stadium, but you have to get there first.  

I suspect the way Swiss stadia (even the modern ones) are the way they are due to archaic beliefs within the SFA.  I hope they never end up commissioning their own judge to write a report.  The first question any judge will raise is "why didn't you read this?"

View

9 / 10.  Very good.  Remove / lower fences and get rid of the netting above the fences and it would get full marks.  

Atmosphere

8 / 10.  The Schaffhauser kop were wonderfully welcoming in moving from the stand behind the opposite goal just to be nearer to us Winti fans and we felt the love!  There must have been dissension in their ranks however, as half of them remained behind the goal.  

So why did we have half of the Schaffhauser kop next to us?  Well, I can think of three possible reasons:

• To drown out our singing - Failed!
• To improve the atmosphere on a derby night - Success! - it was bouncing.
• To provoke us - Sadly successful

Sadly, during the game we saw a Winti fan attempting to break a seat and after the game it all got ridiculous with both sets of fans provoking each other from their sides of the fence.  Some Winti fans had ski masks to hide their faces while they tried to get at the Schaffhauser.  Jeez guys!  You're such saddos unable to watch a football match without wanting a fight.  Consign that crap back to the 70s where it belongs.

Fortunately no harm was done.  Just unpleasantness, which we could have done without.

Refreshments.

3 / 10.  I'm absolutely certain home supporters will be better catered for than away fans.  Drinkswise it was beer or soft drinks for us.  The beer was the local brew, Falken Bier.  We call it f***in' beer so you can imagine how good it is.  Coffee? possibly.  Wine? certainly not.  The beer was served by caged-in servers who had two beer pumps for around 300 or so Winti fans.  Needless to say there were queues.  

As for food, there was Bratwurst or sandwiches.  

Overall

39 / 60.  Could be a great little stadium if it didn't make you feel as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit!

The Match

Wasn't a classic.  The defences of both sides dominated the strikers and there were few goal chances. In terms of chances Winti probably had more / better.  No chance was better than in the 25th minute when Schaffhausen's 'keeper Nikolic brought down Manu Sutter for a clear penalty.  Unfortunately, Silvio's spot kick was as weak as the beer and Nikolic saved easily.  Half time 0:0 and looking like staying that way.

Not so.  Ex Winti winger Tunahan Cicek put the home side 1-up with a deflected shot that found its way past Minder.  Unconverted half chances came in reply and matters got worse when Luca Radice became the third Winti player in as many games to see a red card.  In the 87th minute Dangubic was fouled in the area and Schaffhausen confounded Winti's misery as Sessola showed how a penalty should be taken.

2:0 and Schaffhausen win for the first time under their new coach while Winti find themselves in a very worrying lack of form.

Swiss 36 No. 37: Stade des Peupliers - FC Bavois

FC Bavois v FC Basel II

16 September 2017

Killing two birds with one stone (or, if you're German, two flies with one swat) that's what this weekend was all about.  It's also Swiss cup weekend and FC Winti have a tie with plenty of banana-skin potential in Delémont.  But we covered "La Blanchèrie" many moons ago so a different stadium was needed.  Why not promotion league newcomers, Bavois?  We'd actually planned this one as it also gave us the chance to meet up with our friends from Basel II.

Mrs Duck had the excellent idea of combining the Swiss 36 trip with Winti's match in Delémont, meaning we only came about a third of the way back to Winterthur and meaning that I'm writing this one propped up comfortably in a quiet hotel room.  

Strangely, with the rest of the organization, things weren't quite as well thought out.  I was hustled out of the house because we were only just going to make the 5:00 pm kick off before having to dash back for match tickets.  We then found that we did have more time than we thought because of a sudden inability to tell the time that had struck Mrs Duck (good news actually as we had time to get some food for the train).  

Even on the train, we soon saw we were still going to arrive 90 minutes before kick-off, a little unnecessary as we weren't anticipating a 50k plus crowd (nearer 50 plus actually).  So what do you do in Bavois for 90 minutes?

Absolutely nothing, it's only a village of a few thousand people.  Fortunately this piece of information was supplied to us by Schieri-Leroy, a referee who we met on the train.  He was on his way to Yverdon where he was running the line in Yverdon's match with Sion II.  He was good company on the long journey, which as a result went quickly.  To burn a bit more time, we went on to Lausanne before traveling back up to Bavois.

Leroy was actually wrong about Bavois.  The population is actually 946 according to the community website.  However he was quite correct in that there's nothing there!  

So here's a community of less than 1000 who have a football team playing in the third flight of Swiss football at a ground in the village!  Credit where credit is due, that's impressive!  But is their stadium?  Points time.

Getting There. 

9/10.  Absolutely no problem.  The S1 train runs every hour between Grandson and Lausanne.  If you're coming by train, you'll most probably arrive either via Lausanne or Yverdon.  You get can this train from either city.  You can see the ground from Bavois station - it's about a 3 minute walk.

Friendliness.

8/10.  Nice people work at the club.  Exactly what we have come to expect from the small clubs.

Safety

3/10.  Yes - unfortunately the tiny clubs get caught out in this category and it is tough on them.  Once again the ground does everything the club need.   But there's no segregation and behind one of the goals there's a rather deep hole.  Were Bavois to get a big cup-tie, they'd struggle here or perhaps they'd need to borrow a stadium for the evening.  It would certainly be tough for them to get a license at the next level, but then again, Bavois are already punching over their weight.

View

3/10.  You've got to love that stand which proudly bears the name "Tribune principalé".  I guess if it's the only stand, it must be the main stand.  Anyway, that seats 74 people (I just counted) not including the press area at the back.  Other than that, we have a pitch with a barrier around it.  No raised areas so any sort of crowd could have spectators struggling to see.  Behind one of the goals is also not good due to high fences.  But again with Bavois' normal attendance good enough.

Atmosphere 

2/10.  Friendly enough but no atmosphere to speak of.  Really difficult though as I think the attendance would struggle to reach the 200 mark.

Refreshments

8/10.  The obligatory sausages grilled on a barbecue as usual and mine was very tasty.  As for drinks, well the ground has a very nice restaurant which has a full selection at the bar.  The food in the restaurant looked great although we didn't try any.  We tried their wine though.  We liked their wine!

Overall

33/60.  A proud club with every right to be proud.

The Match

After having the young Baslers hammering at their door for the opening 10 minutes, Bavois seemed to find their feet, and what followed was an entertaining 0:0.

In all honesty, we didn't do so much watching the match, a shame really, because what I did see was good.  Instead we were chatting with our Basel II friends, Schippi, Stanley and Sützi. While keeping our eye on the days cup ties.  The notable upsets were Schaffhausen - leaders of the challenge league being shown the cup exit door by Münsingen, a team two flights below them while Super League Sion were embarrassed by FC Lausanne Ouchy of the promotion league 2:1 after extra time.  We'd watched Ouchy get soundly beaten by Basel II just a month ago!  That's why fans love the cup.

So back to that restaurant for a few wines before moving on.  I'll not get too smug about Sion or Schaffhausen until after Winti's match.

Swiss 36 No. 36: Stadion Schützenmatte - BSC Old Boys

BSC Old Boys v SC YF Juventus Zurich 

3rd September 2017

International break so what do you do?  Well there was the Faroe Islands v Andorra to be considered but we decided on something much better than that. A visit to Basel to watch BSC Old Boys take on Juvé Zürich and chalk off No. 36 of the Swiss 36.

So this is it then?  The last of the Swiss 36?  Well....nahhh!  Like the "Doing the 92",  covering the Swiss football grounds in the top 3 leagues is a bit like painting the Forth railway bridge.  New teams come into the league, Old teams move to new grounds so you never really finish.  I bet everyone is pleased to hear that!

We've actually already visited the Schützenmatte but laziness stopped the blog from being updated.  So we've had to travel halfway across Switzerland ...again and watch a crap football match...again...just to complete this blog.  And I have a stiff back too.  I make my sacrifices.  But I did manage to grab a bottle of wine and head for the station.

Points time.

Getting There

8/10.  Swiss public transport is fabulous.  We had three connections with no longer than 6 minutes between any of them.  But train, train, train, tram - no problem at all.  A bit of confusion on which way to go when we got off the tram (I think we could have had a 5 minute walk in either direction).  So - easy.

Friendliness

5/10.  Not a soul from Old Boys said a word to us, apart from when tickets or refreshments were being bought.  Embarrassingly, we had to ask a Juvé fan who was playing in what colours as the match started and he was nice enough.  Oh, and one of the Basel II fans we'd met on our last outing said "hello" when we were on our way out.

Safety 

9/10.  As good as I've seen in the third flight of Swiss football.  That's a decent all- seater stand and other than that, there's terracing all the way around (and terracing with a sensible step height).  No stupid fences or nets but also no segregation.  That's the only thing that's missing to prevent this ground being up to standard for the next level up.  Should they improve enough to gain promotion, I can't see the SFA having any issue with allowing Old Boys to play at the Schützenmatte in the 2nd flight.

View

6/10.  OK - I'll admit it.  My dislike of multi-purpose stadia led me to looking for the worst view in the stadium.  That being behind the hammer/discus circle.  But really, decent terracing and that stand means the views are pretty good.  Just the matter of an 8-lane athletics track and all the field event paraphernalia.

Atmosphere 

1/10.   Very quiet, unfortunately.  Only 213 were at the match but apart from when goals were scored - nothing.

Refreshments

5/10.  Sausages.   The lady who served me my hot-dog managed to poke a hole right through my hot dog bun so the ketchup ran out and onto my shirt, so that didn't help!  Soft drinks, beer and ice cream also available.  We also saw chips but the source of the chips was a well kept secret.

Overall

 34/60 - a very decent stadium that could score very high if they ever got a crowd in it!

The Match

Bottom of the table Old Boys put 4 past Juvé without reply.  It was clear from the outset that Old Boys were up for this as they employed a shoot on sight policy.  After just 8 minutes a lob from the edge of centre circle beat the Juvé 'keeper before landing on top of the goal net.  The lead was taken after 22 minutes with an easy tap-in for Serkan Sahin after a long corner was headed back into the middle.  There followed a bit of controversy.  An Old Boys striker was bearing down on the Juvé 'keeper. He went down and the referee pointed to the spot.  The goalie wasn't happy and had run to the linesman who was waving his flag furiously.  After a brief conflab, Juvé were awarded a free kick and the OB striker had a yellow card for simulation.  Right or wrong?  - I couldn't say.

It didn't matter much though.  On 26 minutes it was 2:0 with Adrian Fleury smashing a ball into the bottom corner from about 30 yards.  Fabulous strike!  Shortly afterwards, it was three.  Merghim Ahmeti ran through the inside-left channel and decided to go it alone when there were perhaps better options to his right.  But he scored so what do I know?!

In the second half and there were a few incidents that could have led to bizarre goals.  A Juvé cross was missed by the Old Boys' 'keeper who was no doubt relieved to see it bounce off the top of the bar.  A few minutes later, a looping ball into the OB area was given up as a lost cause by everyone.  They soon took interest when it bounced off the post though.  Bizarre!  It was then Old Boys turn for a strange incident.  After a poor goal-kick from Juvé, there was a tackle and the ball flew out back towards the goal from where it had just come.  The 'keeper was beaten but as the ball bounced in front of the goal line, it had enough backspin to bounce back out and a relieved 'keeper dived on it.  You normally get a maximum of one weird incident per game.  Here we were with three in a half!

Serkan Sakin finished the scoring with his second.  4-0 probably flattered Old Boys but they certainly deserved this much-needed win.

Swiss 36 No. 35: Stade Juan Antonio Samaranch - FC Stade Lausanne Ouchy

FC Stade Lausanne Ouchy v FC Basel II

19 August 2017

After all the fun of sailing to a match for the last Blog post, we returned to more conventional trains and buses for a trip to Lausanne.  So after the normal Swiss 36 decisions (in ascending order of importance, where are we going? How am I going to make a 10 CHF donation to bet365 this week? And what are we going to drink on the train), we found ourselves coming out of Lausanne station looking for a no. 1 or 2 bus.

A guy came over to us and asked who we were playing, referring to the FC Winti shirts we were both wearing.

"We're not!" I replied.  "We're trying to find Ouchy".  I then noticed the Basel scarf he was wearing and decided we should follow him.  There were 7 or 8 Basel II fans and we had our normal conversations while on a Swiss 36 visit, mainly focused on why the hell were an English couple going to a Swiss 3rd flight match.

FC Stade Lausanne Ouchy have been around in their current form since 2001, but are the result of a merger between FC Stade Lausanne and FC Ouchy who are both much older.  

Their stadium was renovated in 1998 and renamed from Centre Sportif de Vidy to being named after the ex-IOC president.  You get a lot of Olympic references in Lausanne as it is the home of the IOC.

After purchasing some refreshments, we settled down to watch the first half.  It wasn't a classic by any means and the only atmosphere being created was from a huge, fat cigar being smoked by the bloke next to me.  The only noise was coming from the Basel II fans we had met earlier.

Football , especially lower league football needs atmosphere so we switched sides and went over to join the Basel II traveling faithful.

You may have noticed that I have always referred to these guys as Basel II fans.  That is exactly what they are.  Their T-Shirts, scarves, flags and even tattoos celebrate Basel II, not Basel.  Sure, they support Basel as well.  But these guys are hardcore football fans and travel Switzerland supporting U21 and younger teams all representing Basel.  Fans like these are priceless.

I'm always amazed by what great people we meet on our Swiss 36 visits.  The Basel II fans made us one of theirs presenting us with two Basel II scarves and  buying us beer and wine.  We traveled back with them, calling into a Supermarket at Lausanne station for some beer for the train.

As I went to take some beers from the fridge, an employee of the supermarket told me "No beer - beer finished".  

"Oh" I replied somewhat disappointed. 

"You can have wine, it's over there!" He added.

Can't buy beer but wine and spirits are fine.  Lausanne don't accept drunks.  Pissheads are ok though.  Who was I to argue?

Points Time.

Getting There 

6/10. Not too bad getting there.  You take a number 1 or 2 bus from Lausanne station to Maldière and end up with a 10 minute walk down to the stadium on the lake shore.  We briefly left our Basel II friends on the way home and promptly struggled to find the bus back.  We found a number 2 bus, but the driver, who spoke no German or English told us she wasn't going to the station.  We went to another bus stop and found a number 25 bus, that was also no use and the driver directed us back to the original bus stop.  A different bus driver of another number 2 bus going in the opposite direction from the first one we found, directed us to a third bus stop, which was actually a more substantial terminus.  There we found a no.1 bus going to Lausanne station and the Basel II fans.  So - a bit complicated.

Friendliness

8/10.  FCSLO seem a very sociable club, illustrated by the picnic tables you see as soon as you enter the ground.  Security was non-existent, nor was it necessary.  The guy who sold us the match ticket also tore the corner off it to indicate it had been checked (why?).  The club house is a little regimented for my taste though and none of the home fans spoke to us.

That said, the ladies working behind the counter in the clubhouse were lovely, patiently dealing with our awful French and even giving a few free sandwiches to us and the Basel II fans after the match.  

Safety

5/10.  Absolutely no problem for a Swiss "Erste Liga Promotion" fixture but FCSLO would have work to do for anything bigger.  There's no segregation and no horrible fences.  The ground boasts two smart stands but virtually no terracing.  The capacity is 3750 (3000 standing and 750 seated).  I'd say that standing capacity might be a challenge were it ever needed.

So perfectly adequate for 99.9% of the games played here but should FCSLO go further up in the world, they could face a few problems.

View

8/10.  Very good!  We had the opportunity to walk all the way around the ground and didn't see a bad view.  Much better than Rapperswil-Jona because of the lack of stupid fences and the fact that the ground has be landscaped with a bank all the way around.  This means you can stand or sit (with only 200 people in the ground) 

on these banks and get a good view of the game.  The banking is a great idea, and of course it is a start should their be a future need for a proper terrace.

Atmosphere

2/10.  I know, harsh.  But there were only 200 at the game and the only noise came from the visitors.

Overall

29/40.  Nice ground in a lovely setting

The Match

To be honest, I didn't see anything of the first 10 minutes, but when I did start to watch it was obvious within 2 minutes that the visitors were very much in charge.  Dominik Schmid gave them the lead, hammering in a long ball that was played back to him just outside the area after 14 minutes.  14 minutes later it was 0:2 with everyone missing a Basel II corner except Daniele Vasco, who had a tap in.  At this point, Lausanne Ouchy had their only minor encouraging spell, pulling a reasonable save from the Basel II keeper before winning a free kick on the edge of the area.

It was about 30 yards out and predictably it was blasted over the bar.  Why do lower league players always try to score such free kicks?  A chipped pass to the left of the penalty area would probably have caught the visitors by surprise and put in a striker - but I digress.  0:2 at half time.

Nothing changed in the second half.  Neftali Manzambi latched on to a through-ball to make it 0:3 after 72 minutes and finished the scoring in the 89th minute.  A deserved 4:0 win for the visitors and certainly an "Ouchy" for Lausanne!

Swiss 36 No. 34: Stadion Grünfeld - FC Rapperswil-Jona

FC Rapperswil-Jona v FC Winterthur

29th July 2017

It's been a while since I've wrote one of these reviews of Stadia, and high time I got back to doing so!  The reasons for a lack of writing? Various, some valid others not so much.  Sadly, the not so much reasons dominate, but here I am again, with my back-pack and my camera, wandering Switzerland in search of football!

"Alli mit em Schiff uf Rappi" read the invitation in Winti's season opening program.  Who can resist that?  Where else in the world can you sail to a football match?  In honesty, we've done this before, both in Lugano and Thun, but in those cases the sailing was more a case of arriving earlier for the match and having a sail on the beautiful lakes Thun and Lugano before making our way to the game.  This was actually traveling the majority of the way to the match by ship, with our FC Winti friends.

And there she was, the beautiful MS Limmat!  Well, fairly beautiful.  For our tastes a little too much blue on that boat and certainly no red to speak of.  Blue and white are the colours of the Canton of Zürich but every Winterthurer knows that really Züri isch Rot-Wiis!  With 200 Winti fans and a few pots of paint, I think we would have had that blue trim looking much nicer in 20 minutes or so, but the ZSG wouldn't have been too happy with that.  A compromise was needed, that flag would have to go!

Much better! OK, the flag was on its side, but the sentiment was there.  The ZSG (well, the Limmat at least) was sailing under a different flag today.

I must have made the two-hour trip between Zurich and Rapperswil over 20 times in the past.  Seona and I used to have a standard Sunday: a train into Zurich; pick up the Sunday Times; sail to Rapperswil on the boat while reading the paper.  We'd then have a wander around this gorgeous town and perhaps a bite to eat before going home on the train.  Switzerland.  It's a hard life at times!

But of the many trips I have made on this lake, none has been as pleasurable or as much fun as this one.  200 football fans, many of whom are friends happily drinking beer and giving the tourists who happened to be on the same boat something different for their holiday diaries.

Any boat that came within earshot got a song, as did each of the towns we pulled into along the way.  Wonderfully good-natured fun, which is what being a football fan is all about.  The only brief bit of dischord came when the ship's crew decided our mutiny had gone on long enough.  Choruses of boos as they replaced their flag then cheers when a compromise was reached and both flags were flown.

Once in Rappi, we formed up for the march to the ground.  It was the normal thing, Winti fans walking together, singing our songs, and then "Ssshhhhh!".  We were walking past the Knies Kinderzoo (Children's Zoo).  Football is not about upsetting animals so nice and quiet as you go as you pass the zoo.

So a lovely day, a lovely trip with lovely people.  All we needed was a lovely ground and a great game of football and it would have be great day.

Points time.

Getting there 

8/10.  We went on the boat then walked the 30 minutes or so to the ground.  There are plenty of trains to Rapperswil from all over Switzerland, so if you don't want the lovely if somewhat impractical boat ride, that's easy too.  Buses run from either Rapperswil or Jona stations to the Grünfeld. So not a problem at all, even if the stadium is a bit out of the way between Rapperswil and Jona.

Friendliness

4/10.  Oh dear Rapperswil-Jona!  I so wanted to like your ground.  I love Rapperswil, loved the boat trip but reception of visitors just isn't up to Swiss Challenge League standards.  To be clear, I am not talking about the FCRJ fans here.  I didn't meet any of the home fans on the day.    It's the facilities.

Having walked a 30 minutes after several cold beers, a visit to see a man about a dog was very necessary as soon as I got to the ground.  Three "Toi-Toi" toilets (the kind you get on building sites) for a good 200 visiting fans just isn't good enough.  The toilet facilities on the boat were far superior.  Complete segregation from home fans, perhaps done at police or SFA request(?) completed any feeling of friendliness being difficult.

On the plus side, the program is free and similar in standard to FC Winterthur's, which is not anywhere near English standards, but English programs aren't free.

Refreshments

3/10.  At the one refreshment stand, which was completely overwhelmed by the Winti fans on their arrival, there was sausage, sausage or sausage to eat, and beer or soft drinks.  Tea/coffee, sandwiches, chips, hot-dogs were all crossed out.  So waiting time and not much choice.

Fortunately, one of our friends had arranged a pizza delivery.  The pizzas were lovely and delivered by 10-Dieci, a local Ice-Cream and Pizzeria who ironically are the main sponsors of FC Rapperswil-Jona.  The owner of this company, a self-made man, is the president of FCRJ.  He could improve things by bringing his catering expertise into the ground.

Safety

5/10.  The advertised capacity of the ground is 2500.  I think if anything like that figure were there, safety could be a bit tricky.  The all seater stand in the photo is obviously no problem but otherwise there's no terracing terracing at all.  A bit of a crush in the away end should they have a lot of visitors, possibly.  

In this case, the fences that I loath but the SFA love could be ripped down by fans within a minute.  Happily, this would prevent a crush, but unhappily, if the wrong type of fans were there they would prove no obstacle to a pitch invasion.  Then you would have hooligans running around armed with sharp bits of fencing.  This defeats the object of the fences totally.  Just saying, SFA,

View

3/10.  Excepting the stand for home fans, its pitch-level viewing all the way around the ground, so little 'uns at the front and big 'uns at the back!.  At the away end, the crappy fences mean the leaning comfortably on a crush-barrier is a non-starter so it's unsupported standing I'm afraid.

Unsupported standing is tiring.  Seona certainly wasn't happy having walked for 30 minutes.  Her psoriatic arthritis, which precluded any away trips at all last season (the only good reason for the suspension of this Blog) requires her to have a nice long sit down after doing such things.  Standing for a whole game is now not possible for her.  So she sat on the grass for much of the match, unable to see a thing due to the advertising hoardings.  15 Francs for that!  In the winter, sitting on the ground would  be impossible, so we won't be visiting the Grünfeld in the winter months, unless they allow chairs to be taken into the away end!

Time for a rant.  The SFA, the Swiss Football Association, who's acronym appropriately sums up what they understand about football fans impose standards on all Challenge League and Super League clubs.  Not meeting such standards can result in the loss of a clubs license to play in a league.  Such a fate has been met by FC Le Mont.  

Le Mont already were playing their home games 30 minutes by road away from their true home due to their ground not being up to standard.  The stadium they were using, in Baulmes, was perfectly adequate for their fanbase and the challenge league.  Despite the obvious disadvantage of playing home games away in many senses, Le Mont had managed to hold their own in the second flight of Swiss Football.

Sadly, this was ended last season by them refusing to meet the Improvement wishes of the SFA electing to be relegated 3 leagues.  Why would they improve a stadium that was not their own?

Rapperswil-Jona were promoted to the Challenge League last season and gained a license with this ground.  They replaced a team using far better facilities, who did not finish at the bottom of the challenge league.  Some things just don't seem right in Swiss football.

Atmosphere

4/10.  All the atmosphere for this game was kindly and predictably provided by the FC Winterthur Fans.  One of their great choreos depicted our journey to Rapperswil complete with steam ship.  Very cool.

Mumours from home fans were heard when they scored.

Overall 27/40 - Pretty poor, I'm afraid.

The Match

As I may have indicated, I didn't see much of the game.  FC Rapperswil-Jona deservedly won 3:1, with a weak performance from the visitors.  I got a good view of Winti's goal, a well taken strike from Gazeta into the bottom left corner right on half-time.  That was in reply to Mychell and Kubli, giving the home team a two goal lead,

In the second half, Winti improved marginally but on 78 minutes Mychell's legs gave way under the pressure of three defenders near him and he got up to convert the penalty himself.

So in the end, the journey to Rapperswil was much better than both the stadium and the match.  It is very pretty though!

Highlights video here