Hooray!! The Scramble is back!! With the Scramble returning, we're going to see a much more competitive Challenge League. Truth be told, there isn't a clear cut favorite this year. Lausanne has made some decent moves while Servette looks to be a very strong Challenge League side. Vaduz will be looking to throw a wrench into things, as will Aarau. Also, Kriens is moving into a brand new stadium which was crowdsourced by the Kriens supporters! The schedule changes a bit this year, too. No more Montag Nacht Fussball. Only Freitag Nacht Fussball. In addition to this, all Challenge League games not on Friday can start at any time, so no more rigid scheduling against Super League games. This is good for people like me who had to pick between some good Challenge League games and their Super League counterparts. It's going to be a fun year!! Let the season commence!!
Runde 1 20 July Lausanne - Kriens (Teleclub Zoom) 21 July Wil - Winterthur Rapperswi-Jona - Schaffhausen Aarau - Servette 22 July Chiasso - Vaduz
My Predictions 1 - Lausanne-Sport 2 - Servette 3 - Vaduz 4 - Aarau 5 - Schaffhausen 6 - Wil 7 - Rapperswil-Jona 8 - Kriens 9 - Chiasso 10 - Winterthur
My predictions 1 - Servette 2 - LS 3 - Vaduz 4 - Aarau 5 - Schaffhausen 6 - Rapperswil-Jona 7 - Wil 8 - Kriens 9 - Chiasso - But Chiasso will not get a license and will be releagated 10 - Winterthur
I recall reading somewhere that Chiasso keeps getting licensed because the SFL wants at least one Ticino club in the Challenge League. I can't remember why, though. I think if Lugano went down, they'd probably lose their license.
My predictions 1 - LS 2 - Aarau 3 - Wil 4 - Servette 5 - Schaffhausen 6 - Kriens 7 - Rapperswil-Jona 8 - Winterthur 9 - Vaduz 10 - Chiasso Despite themselves LS will go up. Aarau sadly will lose the play-off with the RSL team.
Honestly other than Vaduz and Chiasso I like the other 8 BCL teams and would be happy to see any of them go up. I have always said I am big supporter of most Swiss clubs. Have never liked Basel, Luzern, Vaduz or Chiasso but am cool with the rest.
What? They have, basically, the same squad as last year. There's no way they're worse than Winterthur. Winti drew a team of amateur players in the 6th tier in England on Saturday. At home, no less! With only a week to go before the season! I can't even...
Why do hate Vaduz and Chiasso? Vaduz I can see because they're not Swiss, but Chiasso? Even people from Lugano don't hate Chiasso. They're just about the most harmless club you can find. Poor Chiasso.
Aarau knocked off Basel 4-1... maybe I should change them to automatic promotion? Pre-season means little...I stick by Winterthur staying up.
20 July LS - Kriens 1-1 Kriens looked good in this one. Now is that because LS is bad, or is Kriens good. Ir it might simply be all the rain that they had. 21 July Wil - Winterthur 2-0 Rapperswil-Jona - Schaffhausen 3-0 Nice win for RJ Aarau - Servette 0-2 Two early goals helped Servette, Aarau looked dangerous though. 22 July Chiasso - Vaduz 1-3 RJ 3 Vaduz 3 Servette 3 Wil 3 Kriens 1 LS 1 Chiasso 0 Aarau 0 Winterthur 0 Schaffhausen 0
Goalscoring leaders: 2 - Carlos Silvio - Wil 1 - 11 players Assist Leaders: 2- Sergio Cortelezzi - Wil 1 - 7 players Attendance: Aarau (1) 3,481 LS (1) 1,454 RJ (1) 1,422 Wil (1) 1,100 Chiasso (1) 550 Kriens Vaduz Winterthur Schaffhausen Servette The Chiasso number is worrying, again. Usually there is a good crowd on opening day.
LS is hosting Valencia in Crans-Montana today. It is on ESPN3 for anyone who gets it. Odd to see this match streamed.
27 July Winterthur - Aarau Will Aarau bounce back from last weeks defeat to Servette? 28 Jul Kriens - RJ Better test for both teams this week. Is RJ that good, was LS that bad? Schaffhausen - Will, these two could be near the bottom all season. Chiasso - Servette - Can Servette start the season with two away wins? 29 Jul Vaduz - LS - Important match for LS, they need to come out strong.
July 27 Winterthur 3 - 1 Aarau July 28 Kriens 1 - 4 FC Rapperswil-Jona Schaffhausen 2 - 0 Wil Chiasso 0 - 3 Servette July 29 FC Vaduz 1 - 2 Lausanne
Aarau 0 points from the first two matches is understandable, but Winterthur? That is a surprise. RJ looked strong at Kriens, LS with a good win at Vaduz. Rapperswil-Jona 6 Servette 6 LS 4 Vaduz 3 Winterthur 3 Wil 3 Schaffhausen 3 Kriens 1 Aarau 0 Chiasso 0 Servette has done well in their first two matches of the 4 match away swing to start the season.
Goalscoring leaders: 3 - Aldn Turkes - RJ 2 - Davide Calla - Winterthur 2 - Carlos Silvio - Wil 2 - Milan Gajic - Vaduz 2 - Mychell Chagas - Servette 2 - Sebastien Wuthrich - Servette Assist Leaders: 2 - Alex Schalk - Servette 2- Diego Ciccone - RJ 2 - Sergio Cortelezzi - Wil Attendance: Aarau (1) 3,481 Winterthur (1) 3,400 Vaduz (1) 1,466 LS (1) 1,454 RJ (1) 1,422 Kriens (1) 1,300 Wil (1) 1,100 Schaffhausen (1) 857 - That is not a good number, good team, nice stadium. Chiasso (2) 560 They actually had 20 more people for the 2nd week, than the first. If they keep that trend they could end up around 900 for the final match of the season! Servette
3 Aug Wil - Servette Can Servette make it 3 in a row on the road? 4 Aug RJ - Winterthur LS - Chiasso Aarau - Kriens Can Aarau get their first point? 5 Aug Schaffhausen - Vaduz
3 Aug Wil - Servette 2-1 It seems that Servette can not win in Wil. 4 Aug RJ - Winterthur 0-4 LS - Chiasso 5-1 Aarau - Kriens 0-2 5 Aug Schaffhausen - Vaduz 4-1 Kind of a crazy weekend. Poor Chiasso, they look terrible. If you would have told me that after 3 matches Aarau would have 0 points and two home losses I would have been very surprised. There are 6 teams with 6 or more points. LS 7 Winterthur 6 Servette 6 RJ 6 Schaffhausen 6 Wil 6 Kriens 4 Vaduz 3 Aarau 0 Chiasso 0
Goalscoring leaders: 3 - Miguel Castroman - Schaffhausen 3 - Aldn Turkes - RJ 2 -9 players with 2 goals Assist Leaders: 3 - Karim Barry - Schaffhausen 3 - Sergio Cortelezzi - Wil 2 - Six players with 2 assists Attendance: Winterthur (1) 3,400 Aarau (2) 3,300 LS (2) 1,705 RJ (2) 1,540 Vaduz (1) 1,466 Kriens (1) 1,300 Wil (2) 1,120 Schaffhausen (2) 908 Chiasso (2) 560 Servette (0) ---
10 Aug Chiasso - Schaffahusen - This could be another sad result for Chiasso. 11 Aug Wil - Aarau Aarau needs to get a point here Winterthur - Kriens LS - RJ 12 Aug Vaduz - Servette - 4 away game in a row to start the season for Servette
Poor Chiasso is right. They just look overmatched right now, and the defense looks non-existent. Give credit to Kriens for their performance against Aarau. They never looked like they were going to lose. Aarau needs to do better if they're going to make a push this year. I know it's only 3 games, but you don't want to fall too far behind. Can you play center back? If you do, Vaduz is looking for you!! Seriously, the backline consists of Wieser and Muntwiler. They're center mids. They're not center backs. The lack of true depth is going to hamper this team. They look like they want to try to simply outscore their opposition, but they're not creating enough quality chances to do that right now. All 4 goals were conceded because of poor defending on Vaduz's part. It's not going to get any easier against Servette, so they really need to get their act together on the backline. At the end of the day, this is still one of the most unpredictable leagues in Europe.
I think that will make it a very interesting season because of that. With potentially two promotion spots, but with the majority of teams not being able to be promoted, it should be a really fun season.