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. 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!