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.