Servette has to be the favorite here. Winterthur should contend as well. ACB is gone. The league is for Servette to loose. By the way, the official name is Barak.ch Challenge League. http://www.sfl.ch/de/Portaldata/2/Resources/downloads/Spielplan_BrackchChallengeLeague.pdf
13 July Lugano - Wil Wohlen - Servette 14 July Vaduz - Chiasso Locarno - Biel 15 July Schaffhausen - Winterthur
Agreeded. It was nice to see Servette start with a win, and an away win at that. 13 July Lugano vs Wil 2 to 1. Wohlen vs Servette 1 to 2. 14 July Vaduz vs Chiasso 3 to 1 Locarno vs Biel 1 to 0. 15 July Schaffhausen vs Winterthur Todays match should show if Schaffhausen can continue their good form that earned them a promotion. It whould be a fun one. Fun fact, you need to go back to the 2009/2010 season to see the last time that Servette started the season with a win. 1. Vaduz 3 2. Lugano 3 3. Servette 3 4. Locarno 3 5. Schaffhausen 0 5. Winterthur 0 7. Wil 0 7. Wohlen 0 9. Biel 0 10 Chiasso 0
20 July Biel - Winterthur Locarno - Wohlen 21 July Chiasso - Wil Schaffhausen - Lugano 22 July Servette - Vaduz
20 July Biel - Winterthur 2-1 Not a good start for Winterthur who was one of the strongest teams last season. Locarno - Wohlen 0-0 Great start for Locarno who only still is in the Challenge League due to ACB bankrupcy. 21 July Chiasso - Wil 0-3 5 goals allowed in two matches while scoring none, not the best way to start a season. Schaffhausen - Lugano 2-4 Lugnao looking strong in their first two matches, they are the provisional leaders depending on tonights Servette - FC Vaduz match. The Servette - Vaduz match should be a very good one. Both squads revamped themselves for a push at promotion.
Vaduz defeated Servette today 0-1. I was not able to watch the match, but from reports it was not very exciting affair. Lugano 6 +3 Vaduz 6 +3 Locarno 4 +1 Wil 3 +2 Biel 3 0 Servette 3 0 Schaffhausen 3 -1 Wohlen 1 -1 Wintherthur 0 -2 Chiasso 0 -5
I started to watch the game as over the last few seasons the CL has served up some cracking games on a Monday night. Now, I'm not saying yesterday's game wasn't exciting, but I actually switched over and watched the Denmark v France women's match instead! Sorry Rob. LL
I agree that some of the monday evening matches in the past few season have been really good. Lets hope that Servette comes back this weekend.
Highlights are up: http://www.sfl.ch/fr/multimedia/ It is bad when there are no highlights of the first half! Such is the case for the Servette - Vaduz match.
I was at the match and it was not great. No real offensive threats, no real gameplay, no creativity etc.. It looks like last season's matches. Vaduz was just solid and tactically, they won the midfiled battle. But not a great team. We wonder what the coach thinks with an approach that seems to favor a draw, while the defence is not so reliable and always leak a goal: like last year I told you. We hope that with some more seasoned players coming back from injuries and with the still pending new recruits (one midfielder and one forward), there will be more options to build a bolder team. To be noted that some young players started, and two entered at the end of the match: however they still need to grow a lot to possibly bring more impact. The coach and the players have still a lot to do! Only satisfaction, the new central back, Dams, from German league 2, who impressed everybody. Too many players (no need to give the names) were either off-colours or poor. Solid performance from the GK Barocca, as usual we could say. Otherwise 3'500 crowd, not bad for the vacation period, good ambiance, the Section Grenat supported well the team. PS: I also watched the end of the France-Dannmark Euro women. Disgusted. Same issues as in 2009, 2011 and 2012: fourth failure. At least two too many. Bini, the coach, must go. He has wasted a great generation of footballers. The issue with the French Federation is that it is too political: they choose friends, not the best ones (remember Domenech).
27 July: Winterthur - Chiasso The potential debut of Zambrotta makes this match a little more interesting. Both teams really need a win. 28 July:Vaduz - Schaffhausen Vaduz looks to keep their good start going, while Schaffhausen tries to forget two missed Pk's and loosing 2-4 while up a man for 82 min of the match.Servette - Locarno Servette must very quickly forget the horrible match against Vaduz, and regroup against Locarno. Locarno must be the suprise of the first two rounds. They have more points now then after 6 matches last season. 29 July:Lugano - Biel The co-leaders recieve Biel into town. Let's hope for a more entertaining match than last monday evening.
Servette draw against Locarno. 0-0. Again pretty toothless. Better than against Vaduz but Locarno are less good. The team dominated but was not able to create sufficient clear opportunities. The team lacks a real offensive game. Also it is relatively slow to get the ball forward allowing the opponents to keep a solid defensive structure. The forwards look short of confidence, and also maybe the coach instructions are about not to take risks. The fans are already moaning about a game that looks without ambitions. They are hoping the new Sport Director, Loïc Favre who comes from the Wasserman Media Group, will find the longly awaited class forward. And a midfielder able to play vertically and to accelerate the game forward is keenly desired. Already five points lost at home against solid but not great teams. PS: to be noted the first match of Markovic who recently played in the MLS. Solid left back, reasonable technic... to be reviewed.
Thanks for the report, as an aside, will you go to the GCZ-OL match? In addition to the lack of offensive production for Servette, they missed a PK!!! When you do not have a lot of offensive chances, you have to convert the pks. 28 July Vaduz - Schaffhausen 1-1 Servette - Locarno 0-0 29 July Lugano - Biel I am not sure why Wohlen and Wil are not playing this weekend. Vaduz 7 +3 Lugano* 6 +3 Locarno 5 +1 Servette 4 0 Schaffhausen 4 -1 Wil* 3 +2 Biel* 3 0 Winterthur 3 -1 Wohlen* 1 -1 Chiasso 0 -6
You are welcome Rob. A pleasure to share my feelings of an SFC fan across the big pond(abonné Tribune nord). Unfortunately not, as I will fly Wednesday to the US with my son, from the SFC Academy -U18 captain-, who is going to join an ACC team benefiting of a football scholarship. So we have to prepare all his gear for his exciting journey (college soccer, studies and still wanting to become pro, instead of signing pro now here in Europe). And to confirm what I said in another topic, I will not disclose yet where, in this forum (one of the best forums I read), as until "formal" announcement by the coach or the college, I do prefer to be sure it is not against their policy (anyway his profile is already visible on the roster in their web site). And a question if I dare: are you a Genevois in the US, or an American fan of Servette?
I am an American who lived in Geneva for about 2 years. I also am an History professor who focuses on Switzerland, and Swiss-American History. I get to take students to Switzerland every two years and always catch as many matches as possible.
Lugano - Biel 1-1 Good match, both teams were trying to score and both really pushed for the victory. The Lugano coach had a nice volley that he almost was tossed from the match for. Lugano had two players that really stood out, their center midfielder #10 and the left forward, despite him missing a great chance. Biel's goalie played very well. He took a very hard tackle and stayed in the match. Vaduz 7 +3 Lugano7 +3 Locarno 5 +1 Biel 4 0 Servette 4 0 Schaffhausen 4 -1 Wil* 3 +2 Winterthur 3 -1 Wohlen* 1 -1 Chiasso 0 -6
Cool. Next time you plan a trip to the mighty Switzerland, drop me a private message, maybe we can share un petit fendant!
3 Aug Chiasso - Schffhausen 1-2 Winterthur - Locarno 3-2 4 Aug Biel - Servette Wil - Vaduz 5 Aug Wohlen - Lugano Good away win for Schffhausen and home win for Winterthur. FCS seems to have a strong enough team this season that they should not need to worry about relegation. Chiasso on the other hand seems to be destined for a relegation battle this season. The Biel-Servette and Wil-Vaduz matches should be good ones tomorrow.
4 Aug Biel - Servette 1-1 Servette's goal was an own-goal. Biel and Servette from reports played about equally as good or bad as each other. Both are still missing quite a few players. Wil - Vaduz In the first game at the Bergholtz in over a year Wil upset Vaduz 2-1. Monday's match should be a good one. Two teams near the bottom of the table, both looking to turn around the early part of the season. Wohlen-Lugano 19h45.
Wohlen - Lugano ended up 1-1 Lugano 8 +3 Vaduz 7 +2 Schaffhausen 7 0 Wil* 6 +3 Winterthur 6 0 Biel 5 0 Locarno 5 0 Servette 5 0 Wohlen* 2 -1 Chiasso 0 -7
10 Aug Biel - Wohlen Locarno - Wil 11 Aug Vaduz - Winterthur Lugano - Chiasso 12 Aug Schaffhausen - Servette This could be the week where there starts to be some seperation, or the week where things come together even more. It is possible to have 8 teams all within 1 point of each other at the end of this weekend. Servette has the chance to make amends for their last Monday Night Football showing.