We really need Servette back in the top division... looks like it probably won't be this year though.
Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to go there - I have been to the new stadium a couple of times but I can imagine the atmosphere was very different in the old one.
Was the hospital anything to do with the stadium? As in how Tesco's get planning permission in the UK i.e. a sweetner. Either way it sounds madness.
I didn't realise it had been so many years! So how have FCZ managed to takeover Grasshoppers over the years when they are the club with the trophy past? Indeed tough qualifiers are almost expected for Swiss clubs to qualify for the Champions League groups. Who is FCZ's Shaquiri? Schoenbacher?
Sorry but I need to cheer Thun on here. LOVE them. 10-15min bus ride away from where my Swiss base is. Indeed the ground is dilapidated but it has that charm of a small proper old school ground. Admittedly the away fans are tucked away in hell but I LOVE the ground and backdrop + Rugenbrau!
By all means let's not keep the thread too narrow in scope. I'm happy for football to be discussed on a broader scope, as long as Swiss football remains a focus, even the national team and beyond. Even as off the track as the occasional big Premiership game is of course fine, I am not wanting to limit anyone of claim ownership etc. However, if it did turn into a non stop sickening top 5 of the Prem thread I'd be disappointed as there is Sky Sports News for that!
Chipperfield seems to have been about different clubs forever! Why the huge extreme fickleness from the Swiss in the example you gave? Not surprised the English would never cheer on the Germans. Surprised the true Swiss would though!
I'll be honest, I know nothing of S Kellar apart from what I just read on Wikipedia. Surprised he played for both Zurich clubs. Does this happen a lot? I know one was when he was a youth player. What are the main rivalries in Swiss football? Also does anyone know more detail about the decline of FC Bern?
As said above, I love the charm of the likes of Craven Cottage and non league grounds like Hayes Lane of Bromley. Charmilles sounds great! Didn't realise they were so successful in the past. Wonder what league Dusseldorf are in now. Surprised the German league doesn't pinch all the top Swiss players as they really do love their football and it is a much improved league with a lot right about it. As for Arsene Wenger, well he does make mistakes when it comes to selecting CB's and keepers!! I remember Senderos was seen as a real find as Real Madrid etc were after him (so not a find as such). Personally, he ALWAYS looked very shaky barring a 10 game spell once. He always seemed to play better for the national team though. Djourou has looked MUCH better and if he hadn't have had so many injuries I think he would be top class and established. He is getting there slowly this season though.
As for Petrov, I know he played in Switzerland. He looked IMMENSE when he first came to City. He has slowed down a tad since his injury and moving to Bolton. I imagine he tore up the Swiss league when in form? Beausejour has just started playing and scoring for Bham and obviously got a key cup final goal last weekend. Not seen enough of him to pass particular judgement though.
Any other English players in the Swiss leagues apart from Sutter?
No, not at all. The stadium complex actually includes a shopping centre and the town's main fire station, the hospital is completely separate.
The stadium was built about five years ago on the site of the existing ground. The land belonged to the local council, who basically sold it to the Co-op for a pittance and said that they could build a hypermarket there, on condition that they also included a football ground and fire station in the complex. It actually looks like a win-win situation: the Co-op got a prime location for its hypermarket close to both town centre and motorway, and the council got a new fire station and football ground "for free". Though I'm sure there was more to it than this very simple explanation !
Oh, and we have a synthetic pitch. Not nice, not nice at all...
Sounds a solid deal as long as the club aren't charged rent and would have possibilities to expand in the future if needed.
Why is a synthetic pitch a bad thing? Ive heard about how it is bad for knees etc but I thought the modern ones were better? English teams tend to use a fake pitch as an excuse despite saying they are passing teams. When I've seen the one at Bern it has been great! good for a true bounce and proper passing. Redknapp said it would help his team against YB then later used it as an excuse too.
Nice article in todays 20minuten paper about Swiss players overseas...
There is definitely something different to the game compared to a grass pitch, although the modern ones are infinitely better than that thing QPR had back in the eighties (which is when I last watched football in the UK). Hard to put a finger on exactly what is wrong... long through balls definitely tend to run away from players where on a natural pitch they would probably manage to get them. Maybe it's psychological as well... you know it's synthetic and it looks wrong, therefore it is wrong...
Admittedly, in a country with Switzerland's climate, it is a logical choice, and it means that local amateur clubs and schools can also use the pitch when Xamax aren't using it.
The silly thing at Neuchâtel is that they laid a nice natural pitch in 2008 for the Portuguese national side to train on (they were based here during the Euro), then tore it up immediately afterwards and put the plastic back !
This is the problem in the UK I think. There are older pundits and commentators around who can't get the QPR failed pitch out of their mind. Things have moved on a lot since then!! Sadly though they say it, then the stupid public latch on to anything they say and this stupid public includes the players etc. Coaches always love an excuse too! For some though I do think it is a psychological thing.
With the climate changing and clubs needing their ground to be used more often to bring in revenue, I'd like to see fake pitches as standard. Players would soon get the weighted passes sorted if they were everywhere and I'm sure their knees would get used to it too.
So this weekend's fixtures are: -
Saturday, 12 March 2011
FC Zurich v FC Sion, 16:45
Lucerne v Grasshoppers, 16:45
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Bellinzona v Basle, 15:00
FC Thun v Neuchatel Xamax, 15:00
St Gallen v Young Boys, 15:00
I'll be paying most attention to the games on Sunday personally. In particular the battle between Thun and Xamax and also the St Gallen v YB game. St Gallen must win to start to try to get out of trouble as time is very much running out for them.
I'm going to predict FCZ winning, Luzern winning, Basel winning, FCT winning and YB winning. Of course I could predict draws but that would be boring . Let me know if you find any online links to watch the games!
WOW. Sky Sports News are really arrogant, as are most English football fans. They have just been slating the ref for the Barca march and throwing in comments such as: -
- You can't ref in the Champions League when you only ref in the Swiss league
- You can but only the smaller games
- The ref gets to ref in the big World Cup games as his national team go out so early everytime
- Snide remark about how he is busy reffing in the Swiss league today
First of all although he made a bad decision he is a good ref. Everyone makes mistakes. He has a proven track record and players such as Rio Ferdinand think he is the best in the world.
Just because he doesn't ref in the top 3 countries doesn't mean he can't ref. The skills needed to ref in any decent league are the same as in the Prem etc. He has a lot of experience in big games and you only get the experience by getting the chances. Not to mention the Swiss league is no slouch of a league and English refs are terrible too despite reffing week in and week out in the Prem.
Finally, Arsenal hardly touched the ball. They lost because they were the worse team. I can't stand this constant critical approach of refs. I see it at Crystal Palace now too and it embarrasses me. Refs are only human and often they aren't the real reason why your team loses.
I agree, refereeing mistakes are part of the game. Most are only discovered during slow motion close up replays, a luxury of technology. (Goal/touch line monitors next).
Hard to accept, with so much at stake, but when you consider the game is all about mistakes, you have to run with it. Arguing with the ref is pointless (Football Mods ). They do their best, they do a good job. As a game of equal opportunity, every ref from every league should be given a chance to referee the big matches. How else did the best get to the top of the refereeing game ?? We all have to start somewhere, and Football is all about promotion.
Glad I'm not alone on this one. I have links for both games today. email me if interested
Got stream links for todays games if people want to PM me. Links for Swiss League have improved again yay!
So St Gallen win away from home 1-0 against Bellizona to give them hope. Still plenty to do for them!
And Zurich beat Xamax away 2-1. What was the game like Mr Xamax fan please? I was at Palace v. Derby when it was on. Although I missed the game I was delighted to see both games were on line again on live streams from the website I use (PM me for info), so it seems like the lull in Swiss links has stopped and they are becoming regular again .
Tomorrow's matches are: -
FC Sion v FC Thun, 15:00
Grasshoppers v Basle, 15:00
Young Boys v Lucerne, 15:00
Some good games there! YB against Lucerne is the battle for 3rd place at the moment and I'll be looking to cheer on Thun too. Basel will have no easy game away to GC
I have so much work to do tomorrow, but will try to watch some of them.
A much more entertaining match than the miserable one against Bellinzona two weeks ago, and a definite improvement by Xamax compared to the last few games; they actually looked like they were concerned and wanted to get something out of it.
Zurich were technically in a different class, lots of nice flowing passing movements, but the final pass never quite made it to the strikers. Xamax didn't show much in the first half but deserved a point really on the basis of the second half, where their determination could very easily have got the better of Zurich's style.
On the minus side: three years ago, the corresponding fixture was played in front of a full house of 12,000. Today there were 3,500...
Why do you think the crowd has dropped so much in three years? Has the supporter base dropped that much? Or are there other reasons why people don't spend their time (& money) on actually going to a match?
Thanks Stephen. Really interesting read . Glad your boys gave it a good crack!
Both Swiss games are up online today so PM me if interested.
SO...
YB edge in to 3rd over Luzern who they beat today and Basel further the gap at the top of the league. Grasshoppers still have plenty to do to stay out of trouble and FC Thun lost to ensure a decent gap of points above and below them.
Looks like there is a battle between 2-4th place as well as a real scrap between the bottom 3 clubs too. Pretty exciting even if the title looks fairly wrapped up already
Technically Basel just maintained their lead over FCZ, as both teams won with the same number of goals ...
Oh, and while a seven-point difference is pretty big, there are still eleven rounds left - plenty of time for FCZ to get through! Just need some other teams to beat FC Basel ... :/
It would be some turnaround though considering the strength of Basel this season. But you never know in football.
Indeed points difference stayed the same but 1 less round to catch them up. Then again YB messed up their points lead last season.
The average attendance at Xamax has been falling regularly for years now (last season's average was 5,500, this season so far it's barely 4,000). I think there is a combination of factors:
- Lack of success in all competitions for many years - every season is a struugle against relegation.
- Desperately poor entertainment value over the last three or four seasons, which is eating even into the regular support.
- Bad club policy: forcing season-ticket holders to go behind the goals so that the best seats along the sides could be reserved for VIPs who have paid for their seats but don't actually go to games - I think they lost a couple of hundred season ticket holders through this, which is a lot of people when your average gate is only 5,000.
- And finally, I don't think the Neuchâtel public is really that passionate about the club. Italian football seems to generate more interest than the Swiss league. Last season, as a one-off offer, the club let everyone in for 5 CHF for a game against St Gallen. The ground was packed, the atmosphere great, Xamax put on a brilliant display and won 4-1. You would have expected this to generate some interest but no... next home game, only 3,500 showed up.
Unfortunately, I think the club is dying slowly but surely and equally unfortunately, most people here probably don't really care.