Yverdon Sport FC - Grasshopper Club Zürich (01-07-2022)

 

After a day in Lausanne, I drive up to Yverdon-les-Bains, a small touristic town at the big Lac du Neuchatel. The local team, Yverdon Sport FC, is playing a midday friendly against Grasshopper Club Zürich, once the biggest club in Switzerland, which has recently come back from hard times.

 

Yverdon Sport is a modest team that usually plays in the third or second tier of Swiss professional football. Currently they play in the Swiss Challenger League, the second tier. This preseason friendly is played on a mild Friday afternoon at 3 PM.

 

Although the generic entrance costs a mere CHF 5 ($5), there are only some 150 people — some 50 come in during the game. They are mostly men, and there is some ethnic diversity.

 

The Stade Municipal is in the center of Yverdon-les-Bains, just behind the railway station. It is a cute, small, old ground with two small, relatively new stands on both long sides. The total capacity is 6,600 of which 1,000 are seats. It also has a restaurant with terrace that provides free WIFI! It is the perfect weather for a friendly: sunny with light breeze (20C).

 

The pitch looks great, and is real grass, while both teams play well but create few chances. The first real shot at goal is after almost half an hour, when a Grasshopper attacker is fouled just outside of the box and the free kick is shot low and not too hard at goal; an easy pick up for the goalie.

 

Unsurprisingly, given the lack of chances, it is 0-0 at half time. Still, the first half was actually quite entertaining, although the perfect weather and the excellent free WIFI definitely helped too.

 

The second half starts even more pedestrian and the many player changes don’t help either. There is barely any shot, let alone on goal. In the 67th minute, out of nowhere, a through ball gets behind the Grasshopper defense and a striker puts his toe to it and extends it into the far corner: 1-0.

 

 

In the 85the minute, after terrible defending, Grasshopper loses the ball at 30 meters from their goal and with three passes a striker goes at the goal and finishes hard and high: 2-0. After that Yverdon has one good counter and corner but the score remains 2-0.

 

Undoubtedly, my experience was influenced by the gorgeous weather, but I really enjoyed Yverdon Sport. A small but authentic ground with a bit of luxury (restaurant and WiFi) in the city. Better than all these fancy arenas in the periphery.

 

BSC Young Boys - FC Luzern (21-05-2015)

A belated departure at the rental company plus roadwork in and around Paris means that I am outside of Paris 1.5 hour later than planned. This means I have to drive virtually all the time to still make it to Bern for this odd Thursday evening game. I arrive ten min early at the stadium... where I get stuck in traffic.

After having finally parked at my hotel, next to the stadium, I make my way over to the Stade de Suisse, the national stadium, which opened in 2005. As in St. Gallen the new stadium is built on top of a shopping mall – somehow fitting for a cold capitalist country. On the agenda is a game in the top flight of Swiss football, the Raiffeisen Super League, between home team Berner Sport Club Young Boys 1898, or BSC Young Boys for short, and FC Luzern.

  

After having been sent to another ticket office, as all others close exactly at kick-off (?!), I pay a hefty CHF 35 (roughly $40), and can finally get into the stadium. While in line for my ticket I had already heard that I missed the first goal. I assumed it was for the home team.

As I take my seat, 15 minutes after kick-off, I see that the visitors of FC Luzern have scored the first goal in the 13th min. As they brought some 500 fans, who (only) had to drive some 1.5 hours, it sounded as if Bern had scored.

It is a cold May evening and the stadium is roughly one-third filled – the official attendance is 14,430. Most have some yellow-black gear; around me there are mostly older men. The young 'ultras' are in the stand opposite me and have nice banners.

 

In terms of both quality of both atmosphere and football the game is not much different from a second division game. Just the setting is different. Not that many chances, but both team try to attack without taking too much risk. Unsurprising half time score is 0-1.

  

The second half is not much different. In the 48^th minute a blocked Young Boys shot leads to a Luzern counter. The next attack leads to a good safe on the line by the Luzern goalie.

Overall the game is characterized by good but predictable passes in midfield and poor final passes. There are many small and bigger fouls that the referee lets go, which means it gets worse and he looses more and more control. In the 68^th minute a Luzern striker takes the ball from a Bern defender (who appeals in vain for a foul) and shoots from outside of the box just wide.

In the 75^th minute a long ball puts a Bern striker alone in front of the keeper, but he decides to head from 15 meter (very wide) rather than control and shoot. Two minutes later a Luzern player grabs a Bern player by the neck, but gets only a yellow card from the wheezily referee. In the 81th minute a Bern free kick was headed in from 7 meter, but the goalie stops the ball on the line.

In the 88^th minute a too short Bern back pass leads to the goalie fouls the Luzern striker, but the referee gives the striker a yellow card for diving. Absolutely terrible referee! In the 90^th minute a Bern surprise shot from 20 meter goes just over the goal. In the first minute of extra time the Luzern goalkeeper and a Bern striker clash in the 5 meter box, the rebound is saved by a defender with his hand, but the referee doesn't punish either foul. Final score: 0-1.

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Modern Swiss football is a bit like the Champions League without the good football. A completely sanitized football experience. A stadium built above a shopping mall, high prices for everything (football and food) to keep it middle class, and too big stadiums for the moderate number of fans. The only thing that gives it some authenticity, are the tifosi, who sing and drum and create at least some atmosphere.

FC St Gallen – BSC Young Boys (15-03-2014)

It takes us around 2.5 hours to drive the 250 km from Stuttgart to St. Gallen, in part because we are not stopped at the German-Swiss border – the last time T and I tried this, the Swiss border guard inspected our car for almost 30 minutes! We arrive well in time for the game, despite getting lost in St. Gallen.

To be honest, I had never heard of FC St. Gallen before planning this trip. They have never really been a major team in Swiss football, for a long time yo-yo-ing between the first and second divisions. This not withstanding, they were founded in 1879, which makes them the oldest existing team in Switzerland and, according to Wikipedia, continental Europe!

Today FC St. Gallen plays in the Swiss Super League, the country’s First Division. Its home is the AFG Arena, a beautiful modern stadium, completed in 2008. It has a capacity of 19,694 and currently doubles as home for FC Wil, a team from the Swiss Challenge League (Second Division), which is building a new stadium to meet the Swiss Football League’s standards.

The stadium is situated above a shopping mall. We park in the parking garage under the mall and walk through the largely closed but clean shopping mall to the stadium. Welcome to football in the 21^st century! At the surprisingly makeshift ticket office we buy tickets for the standing-only home section behind the goal. The tickets cost 25 CHF (€ 20.50) a piece, which isn’t too bad for a top division game in a comfortable stadium in a very expensive country.

We walk past the ‘ultras’ of the home team as we make our way up the stairs. The stadium is quite full and had a good, organized, atmosphere for a Swiss game. While I estimate that there are some 6,000 people in the stadium – almost exclusively white and (upper) middle class – they later announce that the official attendance is 13,157, which seems a wild exaggeration. A quite decent number of fans, some 300, have made the 200 km trip from Berne to support their Young Boys (YB), one of the most successful clubs in Swiss football.

The game is not overly exciting even though the quality is pretty decent. The plays are technically competent and the teams play tactically quite well. The pace isn’t too high though and creativity is rare. The first chance is only in the 20^th minute: a header for FC St. Gallen. Two minutes later a home player is lucky to get the ball and shoots at the YB goalie.

In the 24^th minute YB gets a corner. The goalie saves the shot but the rebound header finds the net: 0-1. Just two minutes later a FC St. Gallen player breaks through, gets around the goalie, and scores: 1-1. Looks like we are having a game now!

YB responds by creating two good chances, but both shots are saved by the FC St. Gallen goalie. Over all the football is pretty decent: YB is better, but FSG works harder. Half time score is 1-1.

The second half is much less impressive. The quality of the game drops dramatically. YB defends very deep, hardly tries to play, while FSG dominates but doesn’t create any real chances. This notwithstanding, the home fans continue their singing of largely unoriginal songs.

When a YB forward makes two nasty fouls within 5 minutes he gets two yellows (and therefore red) and has to leave. This gives the fans some hope, but the game doesn't really change much. FSG just doesn't have enough quality to score. Final score: 1-1.

In many ways this was a very modern football experience. A modern stadium integrated in a shopping mall with significant comfort and well-behaved affluent fans. At the same time, the atmosphere was surprisingly good for a small Swiss team.

FC Wil – FC Sankt Gallen (12-01-2011)

No Ticket

As the students and my wife left for Prague, I took my rental to drive 800 km/500 miles south to Wil, Switzerland, to see a friendly afternoon game. I had chosen the game as it was close to where an old friend of mine lives now, so I picked him up at work on my way to Wil. We arrived about 15 minutes late, avoiding motorways so that I didn’t have to buy an expensive vignette for the Swiss motorways.

FC Wil 1900 was founded as FC Stella, by two English workers, in 1900. It plays in the Swiss Challenge League (Second Division). The club plays its home games at the Sportpark Bergholz, which has a capacity of a mere 4.800. Then again, the town of Wil only counts 17.000 inhabitants. When we arrived, the old and unimpressive stadium was being renovated.

To our surprise the game was not played on the main pitch, but at a practice pitch, in front of some 150, increasingly soaked, supporters. While this didn’t really give us the normal FC Wil experience, at least we didn’t have to pay to get in (as we didn’t have Swiss money on us).

By the time we join the few supporters on the side of the training pitch, the first half was already half played. It was cold and wet, which was probably the reason why both teams played at a pretty high pace. Still, most people were mainly trying to not get absolutely soaked. Among the few vocal fans were a small group of away fans (probably local youth, who supported the ‘big’ team from the area).

At the end of the first half FC Wil was pushing for a goal. In the 42^nd minute an attack of the host team seems to have broken up, but then the player turns and shoots it in the upper corner of the goal: 1-0! A couple minutes later a Wil free kick is saved in last instance, so 1-0 is the half time score.

[ Video should have been here, but shitty Blogger doesn't upload it ]

The second half is even colder and wetter. Most of the 150 spectators stayed for the whole game, but only two groups of ca. 5 fans each made some noise. There also wasn’t too much to get excited about. The first fifteen minutes there was little to report.

In the 60^th minute a Wil attack finished with a great sliding-shot: 2-0. The five Wil ‘ultras’ next to us went crazy, shouting insults to the away ‘ultras’ on the other side of the pitch. While both teams pushed for more, 2-0 was also the final score (obviously, there was no scoreboard). Although we didn’t have the real FC Wil experience, I doubt regular games present much more excitement than we experienced that day.

Groundhopweekend October 2004

On a Friday afternoon my brother picked me up in Antwerp for another epic groundhopweekend. The first stage of our tour was going to be a game at 20.00 of the famous and faded (what is more beautiful) French club Stade de Reims. Unfortunately the traffic between Brussels and Charleroi was hellish and soon it became clear that we were not going to make Reims in time. Fortunately T.M. has a much better memory than me and remembered that there was also a game in Amiens that evening, so we changed our plans and route.

Amiens SC – Niort (29-10-2004)

After a significant detour and search expedition we finally made it at 20.25 to the remarkable Stade de la Licorne. This remarkable stadium has been the home of the local Amiens SC since 1999 and can hold 11.900 spectators. On the program for tonight was a game in the French Ligue 2 (Second Division) between Amiens SC and Niort.

We bought a ticket for the stand behind the goal for 7 euro, and found out at arrival that the home team were already 1-0 up. Having seen that all was well, I headed downstairs and rushed on the Merguez sausages, a compulsory snack at any French stadium, although this time it would not sit well on my tormented stomach.

In the second half we and the circa 3.000 other spectators (minus the ca. 25 away supporters) were very well entertained. Amiens was by far the better team (they were also 4^th) and passed the ball around well. Up front was a (French?) Yugoslav player who ran after truly every ball, what often led to throw-ins and corner kicks for Amiens. His work was also rewarded with one of the four goals Amiens would score that evening. Niort, which was also brought back to 10 men, saved their honor with a goal. They remained, however, last in the league.

Five goals for 7 euro, now that is good value for your money! Moreover, we saw an absolutely unique stadium too. Only the sausages were a disappointment. In short, also the French Ligue 2 is worth visiting!

FC Wohlen – FC Baulmes (30-10-2004)

After the pleasing French game we had to drive several hours to make sure that we would be back on schedule for our next game. Indeed, after only a couple of hours sleep we continued driving on Saturday morning to make sure we would make the ‘top match’ in the Swiss Challenge League (Second Division) between FC Wohlen and FC Baulmes.

Around 17.00, a half hour before kick-off, we parked in front of the brand-new Stadion Niedermatten, comparable to an (brand-new) accommodation of an average Third Division team in the Netherlands. We bought a ticket for CHF 7.50 (ca. 5 euro), which gave us access to the whole ground except of the one covered seating stand. According to the website that one stand can hold 624 spectators, and 10 journalists!, while the whole stadium takes up to 3.034 people. For this game, however, only some 550 diehard had made it to the Niedermatten.

Despite the amateurish setting, the biting wind, and the fact that it was a game between the numbers 12 and 15 in the Swiss Second Division, we were well amused by the game. The ball technique of most players – mainly French and Italian speaking Swiss – was very good and both teams liked to pass the ball around.

While there were not many clear-cut chances, both teams had chances to win the game. In the end, it would be the visitors who would take the three points home. Against the run of play FC Baulmes score the 0-1, which was also the final score.

1. FC Kaiserslautern – Arminia Bielefeld (31-10-2004)

After another late night, visiting a concert of football rock bands at the Swiss-Italian border, we were back in the car at 10.00 to take route to Kaiserslautern. Although I had visited die Rote Teufel (Red Devils) already years ago, I was happy to go back and help my brother to another groundhop-point. Moreover, Der Betze is a true football temple and I was curious to see how the renovations for the WC 2006 were coming along. (If you ask me, it hasn’t improved.)

Well in time we parked our car near the stadium and started the traditional climbing of the Betzenberg, the steep hill in the middle of town on which the stadium is built (and after which it is named, at least among football fans). Have reached the top, it was time to get us a ticket. As the game was on Sunday, and the opponent was Arminia Bielefeld, the stadium was far from sold out (in fact, only some 32.000 people would turn up). This notwithstanding, it cost me quite some time to get us tickets for the long side of the pitch – 29 euro for a seat pretty high up the stand. After having sampled the stadium snacks and bough a shawl for a friend (a Kaisi fan) we took our places and started to enjoy the fanatic fans at the Westribune.

Before the game the 1.FCK was at the bottom of the 1. Bundesliga (First Division), while Arminia Bielefeld was sixth and, together with Mainz 05 and VFL Wolfsburg, responsible for a very surprising start of the season. All in all there were few known players on the pitch, let alone many particularly talented ones. Not surprising then that the game was of a rather poor level, in particular from the home team’s side. What a staggering lack of talent! Die Arminen created various chances, but because the number 11 was adamant about not finishing them, it remained 0-0 for a long time. Only deep in the second half Bielefeld scored the deserved 0-1, to the great dissatisfaction of the people around us. Although none really believed in a home victory, they kept supporting their team with great energy. And not without result, as a minute later it was 1-1 and in the 90^th minute 1. FCK even scored the 2-1: both goals by substitute Teber. And so everyone (except for a few hundred Arminen) went home happy, although they must have realized that the season was going to be long and hard with Kaiserslautern being a top candidate for relegation.

Again, I really regret the renovation of the Fritz Walter Stadion, as again one of the classic football temples in the world has disappeared. Still, the club needs money, etc. We can only hope that when the renovation is complete, and the Westtribune has also become an all-seater stand, the atmosphere will still be as good as in the past, and the Betzenberg will stay a football temple.