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. 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.