Swiss 36 No. 41: Sportplatz Liebefeld - FC Köniz

FC Köniz v FC Breitenrain

14th April 2018

Another gorgeous spring morning on what promises to be a great weekend.  Imagine Dragons last night at the Hallenstadion in Zürich were excellent and today (Saturday) a 3rd class local derby.  What could be better?  Sportplatz Liebefeld is a place where we’ve been before, twice actually and I’m surprised that I haven’t covered it before now on this blog.  Nevermind, so we’ll cover it now.

My previous visits involved a cup tie when FC Winti visited, and lost after a penalty shoot out and a match where we saw Köniz play FC Locarno.  Again Köniz won so it seems I’m a bit of a lucky charm for them.

Well, today, I hope we aren’t.  We’re going to see a Bern-Derby between Köniz and our good friends FC Breitenrain.  We have our Breitsch scarves and are definitely for the visitors in this one.

So what else shall I waffle on about on our way to Bern?  Well, I’ve been looking back over the blog to see if there are any egregious injustices in what I have written before now and there are!  I scored Lausanne Sport a meagre 2/10 for friendliness.  Very unfair on reflection as I have met Lausanne Sport fans on many occasions since.  They have bought me beers so they are good!  My problem at the time was the security, not the fans but in any case, I now feel I’ve set the record straight.  

I’ve also sampled Fucking Hell, a lager from Austria, on which I promised to provide an opinion.  It’s OK but nothing spectacular.  Not great, but better than “Arrogant Bastard” ale, which is fucking awful.

Back to our trip and while walking to find our bus, we were asked who Winti were playing by some guys doing some filming.  They had noticed our Winti shirts.   One of them turned out to be the brother of Winti striker Kwando Duah.  

Points time.

Getting there: 7 / 10. 

Simple enough getting a train to Bern, but then we had to find a bus to Köniz.  Our phone app said we needed Perron  I.  We wandered to the front of the station and then down the side of the station where we found perrons G and H but no sign of I.  It seemed the labelling system of the Perrons followed the same logic as the labelling of gates at Lausanne Sport’s stadium.  

So, time to give up and ask someone and who better than tourist information at Bern station?  There’s no one better of course, when you actually find their office.  You see signs on both the escalator and the lift say the information office is downstairs in the station.  There may be an office downstairs but the one we found was upstairs, right next to Perron G, where we had been 10 minutes earlier.  We were directed to the front of the station where Perron I was found, and our bus was waiting.

Friendliness: 7 / 10

We spent most of our time with the Breitenrain fans who of course we already knew, but I did speak to some Köniz fans.  While taking photos, I met a gorgeous pup who had been tied to the railings around the pitch.  She was happy to see me, and get a little fussing as most dogs are. 

 Seeing my scarf, her owner joked “She normally bites Breitenrain fans!” 

“Well, I’m not a real Breitenrain fan”. I replied.  “She seems to like Winti fans”

“She should bite them too!”

“Well, I’m actually not even Swiss so I think her bite instincts are faulty!” I smiled while petting the dog a little more.

We also enjoyed a drink in the bar with both sets of fans.

Safety: 5 / 10

As good as it needs to be for promotion league but you can imagine difficulties should Köniz get a big-name tie in the cup.  The ground would also clearly hinder any chance of Köniz being promoted.

View: 3 / 10

As it’s name suggests the Liebefeld is a multi-sport facility so has one of those lovely running tracks that I like so much.  FC Köniz have however been sensible in allowing fans behind the goal to be at the edge of the pitch and not at the edge of the athletics track with a 4-lane track, high-jump, shot-putt circles and lord knows what else between them and the action.  Still, there is only terracing/seats at one side of the ground and only three sides are open.  Behind the goal there is a safety net that is unfortunately right in your face and so is annoying.  The view is OK with the normal promotion league size of crowd, but would be limited with many more.

Atmosphere: 5 / 10

Breitsch were making the most of being able to make some noise.  They are not allowed their megaphones, drums or bells at home because some idiot neighbour complained about the noise.  If you read the blog about FC Breitenrain, (its no. 25) you’ll find that the Spitalacker has been a football ground since at least the 1920’s, but people can still move into a flat next to a football ground and then complain about the noise!? 

Köniz also had a singing section so all in all, a small crowd did what they could for the players.

Refreshments:  7 / 10

There’s a full bar in the Köniz clubhouse next to the main stand and there’s a decent selection of food.  We went for the “Steak in Brot” which I was quite surprised to find out was a turkey steak.  Either way it was tasty and came with a chunky salsa.

Overall:  34 / 60.  A fairly typical Swiss third flight ground.

The Match

To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to the game.  Köniz won 1:0 wth a decent goal curled in directly from a free kick.  The home team were the better side throughout and had the majority of possession.  Breitenrain kept trying but struggled to get a clear chance.  There were a few balls that flew dangerously across the Köniz area without anyone really looking like getting on the end of them.

Swiss 36 No. 39: Sportanlage Buchlern - FC United Zürich

FC United Zürich v SC Cham

7^th October 2017

Whoopee! The international break.  The chance of a break from watching your team struggle on in a woeful season up until now, and instead you get to watch the stellar might of England toiling to beat Slovenia with a last minute goal at Wembley.  England are, of course the underachievers of International football.  In Euro 96, we sung of 30 years of hurt since our only international tournament success.  Who would have thought then that victory in Russia 2018 will break a 52 year drought of success.  Victory in Russia is of course about as likely as the simultaneous promotion of Donny Rovers and Winti this season (Donny are 17^th in league 1 while Winti are propping up the Swiss challenge league as I write).

Thankfully, I spared myself the second half of the England match, but that left me without my weekly infusion of football.  So a Swiss 36 trip was needed.

Conveniently, FC United Zürich have got themselves promoted and vying for the position of being Zürich’s third club with Juventus, meaning just a short trip was needed to tick off another stadium. So after filling up at our favorite restaurant in Winterthur (La Pergola, if you visit), we were off to enjoy football on a beautiful autumn afternoon.

Points Time.

Getting There.

7/10.  Step one was the S12 train to Zürich Altstetten.  Now I’ve been commuting on this train two stations down the line from Altstetten for over nine years but still nearly managed to miss the stop due to marveling at the Zürich Oberland mountains, which were as clearly visible as I’d ever seen them.  But we did get off the train to take a short bus trip on the No. 78 bus followed by a 10 minute walk to the ground.  Not too bad to find.  A train, a bus and a walk.

Friendliness.

5/10.  As usual, nice people on the ground staff but no fans said anything to us, apart from laughing at my “Fuck me!” exclamation on hearing people were being charged £9 for chips and gravy at the Super League grand final in Manchester.  

Safety.

2/10.  Ok for all normal purposes, but a big cup tie would be difficult to hold at Buchlern.  For a start it’s only possible to watch the match from one side of the pitch.  Segregation would be extremely difficult.  Players are separated from fans by temporary fencing as they make their way to the pitch, so United have a problem should they ever attain the next level of Swiss football.

View.

3/10.  Although the two goal ends of the pitch are hard up against the fences leaving nowhere for fans to stand, and only one of the “long” sides of the pitch is available for fans to watch the game, at least viewing at that side is reasonable.  The terraces are comfortable enough to sit on and the stand would probably provide United’s normal attendance with covered viewing were it to rain.  Sure, it’s small but reasonable.

Atomosphere.

2/10. As ever, really difficult for these small clubs.  No kop, no banners just some cheering and encouragement when anything reasonable happened on the pitch.

Refreshments.

5/10.  I had a feeling that United could do a lot more with these facilities.  Not a lot of choice available.  Even the sausage selection was limited to hot-dogs.  But it was very reasonably priced and there were two saving graces.  Firstly, little packets of popping candy with a lollipop inside.  Come on, we’re all big kids.  Popping candy and a lolly.  What else is needed to put a smile on your face?  The answer to that is slush puppies!  Could it get any better?  Of course!  Put a shot of vodka in the slush puppy.  In the end we were quite happy with the refreshments.

Overall

24 / 60.  A great community facility but a long way from being a proper home football ground.

The Match

Worth the 10 Franc entry price.  After just four minutes a good run down the right and a great through-ball from Jesy Nimi found Reto Scherer who made no mistake with just the ‘keeper to beat.  Rather embarrassingly, I thought United had scored, in fact it was Cham.  It was just everyone around me seemed so happy!  Lesson learned - trust your original judgement that a Zürich team will more likely play in blue and white as these are the colours of the canton.

Cham looked the better team but United did equalize with what proved to be the goal of the game.  From all of 40 yards, Lewis Tavares placed a free kick into the top left hand corner.  Cham hadn’t even bothered with a wall!  Fabulous - worth 10 francs on its own!

But Cham were quickly back in the lead.  Just 7 minutes later and Scherer had his second with a clever flick on a shot that sent the ‘keeper the wrong way.  Cham were back in control.

The second half saw the visitors extend their lead further.  An attack through the inside right channel, a square ball that took the advancing ‘keeper out of the game and an easy tap in for Cyril Gasser.  That was “game over” but on 90, Cham finished with ex-Winterthur midfielder Marco Trachsel heading home.  United kept the game entertaining but Cham were much the better team on the day.

Full Time: FC United Zürich 1 : 4 SC Cham.

Swiss 36 No. 40: Stade de la Charrière, FC La Chaux de Fonds

 FC La Chaux de Fonds v BSC Old Boys, 7 April 2018

A beautiful spring morning that followed a lovely spring evening.  An evening that indeed had brought all that is lackluster out of FC Winterthur as they lost 2:1 to local rivals Schaffhausen.  That wasn’t the best start to our weekend.  Then again, Kofi Schulz had given the missus his shirt, which made her happy and we had enjoyed a few beers in the bar after the game.

With the gorgeous weather we had definitely decided on doing something with the day and after a productive morning plumped for a Swiss 36 trip to Chaux de Fonds.  So the customary bottles of wine went in the bags and off we set.

Swiss public transport being what it is, we walked into the stadium 15 minutes before kickoff after an uneventful journey just as our itinerary said we would. 

 

Points time.

Getting there: 6/10.  By public transport, La Chaux de Fonds is just one of those places that is awkward to get to.  So from Kollbrunn it was the normal S26 train to Winti.  Then the intercity to Bern where we changed for an S-Bahn train to Neuchâtel.  Another S-Bahn took us to la Chaux de Fonds before 8 stops on a 302 bus and we were dropped literally on the stadium doorstep.  So a bit of a palaver but they did win a point back for having a bus stop at the ground. 

Friendliness: 6/10.  The nice lady on the gate switched to speaking German when she saw us struggling with French.  Walking into the ground and we were looking for a toilet.  We had gone the wrong way and, following others I had wandered somewhere I shouldn’t.  A grumpy git moaned at Seona and she called me back.  Nice people in the clubhouse (which sadly is a portakabin) though, they came out to us thinking they had made an error in our change.  They hadn’t, we’re from Yorkshire.  We notice that sort of thing!

Safety: 8/10.  The only thing I could criticize was fences all around the pitch and some uneven steps in the main stand that nearly caught me out.  I’ve normally been harder with my scoring when it comes to fences but not here.  The stadium has plenty of space where people could go/flow were there to be an incident so it’s not so bad that the pitch is fenced off.

View: 8/10.  Amazing!  The stadium is huge considering it’s a Swiss third flight stadium.  Fewer than 400 fans watched the match we attended and yet there are two high, seated stands at either side of the ground.  These are of course vestiges of happier times at FC La Chaux de Fonds.  As the program (well, the folded piece of A4 paper) reminds us in the front cover, the club were Swiss champions three times,the last being 1964.

But view-wise, it remains amazing.  The only discomforts being open terraces behind the goals.

Atmosphere: 2/10.  What do you do? 400 fans in a big stadium.  The far terrace behind the goal was closed but La Chaux de Fonds could close 3 of 4 sides of the ground and still have plenty of space.  Should they do this?  I really can’t decide.  On the plus side it would bring fans more together to increase the risk of an atmosphere.  But on the other hand some fans would be annoyed at not being able to sit where they like.  

Refreshments: 3/10.  There was nothing wrong with my sausage, or my wine when I eventually got them.  Choice in the clubhouse seemed limited although you could get a cup of tea (how civilized).  The problem is that the clubhouse is right down there.  You can see it in the distance from our seat in the main stand.  If you want a drink or something to eat everyone has to traipse over there, queue up (for us about 10 minutes waiting) and go back to your seat.  Needless to say, the second half was 10 minutes old by the time I had myself settled down to watch again.  This was probably a blessing as it happened.

The Match.  Yaaaawwwwwn! I don’t think I’ve ever seen footballers kick the ball at each other from point-blank range quite so often!  Not understanding these tactics, I turned my attention to the program.  Georges Weah Jnr.  Could he be related to the ex- AC Milan, Ballon d’or  winning striker who is now the president of Liberia?  He certainly could!  The son of a European footballing great was actually on the bench.  He came on in the second half.  Hopefully politics genes are more dominant than football genes!  Back to the program and could Adjei Luther-King be related to Nobel prize winning, black rites activist, Martin?  No he isn’t.  I was pushing the reality envelope a little on that one.

Loud smacks of footballs hitting various body-parts continued to punctuate the relative silence until some entertainment on 32 minutes.  A bit of over-vigorous waving broke the linesman’s flag.  The guy still had something he could wave and I’m sure he could have got himself heard by the ref above the hullabaloo but we still had a 3 minute delay while he legged it to the changing rooms in search of a new flag (or some duck tape).  Flag waving continued with gusto.

After a long trip to get refreshments, we settled down for part 2 and it was a little better.  Old Boys came close when Mushkolaj dribbled into the middle of the area before bringing a great save out of the home ‘keeper Massari.  But an Old Boys goal was coming and it did straight from a corner.  Pascal Rietmann heading in from inside the 6-yard area. La Chaux de Fonds should have equalised.  Puemi broke free and was bearing down on the Old Boys ‘keeper, but inexplicably he decided to square it to his left.  The pass was harmlessly intercepted and the chance had gone.  Before the end, the home side did come close.  A free kick played into the area was volleyed goal wards with great technique by Kasai but Fioux in the Old Boys’ goal saved well.

Full time: FC La Chaux de Fonds 0 : 1 BSC Old Boys.