The new season is just a few weeks away! My early projections. Basel YB FCSG Sion Luzern FCZ Lugano GCZ Thun LS
SCHEDULE RELEASE TODAY!! The dates and times for the first 9 rounds have been announced. Super League is now only playing matches at two times during the round: Saturday at 19.00 and Sunday at 16.00. Season kicks off July 22. Round 1 SAT 19.00 - Lausanne - St Gallen SAT 19.00 - Young Boys - Basel SUN 16.00 - Grasshoppers - FC Zurich (SRG) SUN 16.00 - Luzern - Lugano SUN 16.00 - Thun - Sion Last round of the first half is December 16/17, and second half begins on February 3/4. Season ends on May 19.
My Predictions Basel Young Boys Sion FC Zurich St. Gallen Grasshopper Club Zurich Luzern Lugano Lausanne Thun I think Thun is in serious financial trouble and may not make it through the season. I think FCZ will be better than advertised. If Thun somehow finds money to survive, I think relegation will be between Lugano and Lausanne. Lugano is about to go through a very hard fall when they sell Alioski.
I noticed that BEIN Sports had a couple of pre-season friendlies involving Basel and 1 involving Sion... I don't recall the opponents though. It would be nice if they picked up RSL league games after GOL TV dropped the ball.
Round 1 22 July LS - FCSG YB - Basel 23 July GCZ - FCZ Luzern - Lugano Thun- Sion Starting the season with the YB-Basel match makes for a large gamble. If YB were to win, that would set a great season, but if Basel were to win, that would make everyone the chaser again.
BeIn will broadcast on their streaming feature the YB-Basel and GCZ vs FCZ matches. I hope that this will be something they do every week!
Round 1 22 July LS - FCSG 3-3 Crazy match that showed that LS has some massive defensive issues. If they do not address them, they will have a very long season. YB - Basel 2-0 The big winners here are everyone that wanted to see an exciting and compelling season. If Basel had won, at YB on the first day of the season, it would have seemed like season over. Now Basel is in last place! I have no idea how long it has been since that happened. Also, for what it is worth, Basel looked very un-Basel. If someone is going to catch them, this is going to be the season. Great match by YB! 23 July GCZ - FCZ 0-2 Newly promoted FCZ, who seemed the stronger side last season, despite playing in the BCL, showed that yesterday. Luzern - Lugano 1-0 Luzern bounces back from their Europa League exit. Thun- Sion 0-1 Good away victory for Sion to start the season. Konate to the rescue. FCZ 3 YB 3 Luzern 3 Sion 3 LS 1 FCSG 1 Lugano 0 Thun 0 Basel 0 GCZ 0
Leading goalscorers 2 - Raphael Dwamena FCZ 1 - 10 with 1 goal Leaders in assists 1 - 8 with 1 assist Attendance 31,120 (1) - YB 20,000 (1) - GCZ 8,553 (1) - Luzern 5,617 (1)- Thun 3,415(1) - LS 0 (0) - FCSG 0 (0) - Sion 0 (0) - Basel 0 (0) - FCZ 0 (0) - Lugano
29 July GCZ - YB Can YB play like they did against Basel or will they play like they did against Kyiv? Lugano - FCSG 30 July Basel - Luzern It will be interesting to see how this Basel squad responds to chasing instead of leading. FCZ - Thun FCZ looked good last week, Thun did not. LS - Sion Will Sion take out its frustrations from Thursday against the questionable defense of LS? BeIn Sports Connect will stream the Basel - Luzern match on Sunday.
YB needs two next week, and I don't see that happening, so I think we'll see a pretty normal squad on Saturday. GCZ did not look good last week. They still need some help in the transfer window otherwise they could be fighting relegation. Sion are in trouble. They have talent, but they have no defense. I would not be shocked to see Lausanne beat them this weekend. That could be another 5-4 game. Also, what's the deal with Lausanne and high-scoring early games? It's great! FCZ are going to be good under Forte. I think they could finish top 4 if they can keep their squad together through the next window. Dwamena is looking like he might be a stud. Great pickup last year by FCZ.
On a side note, I hate the new time slots. I miss the 7:45 am games on Sunday mornings. I saw exactly one RSL game this week and it was the YB-Basel match. Vaduz was playing during the 10 am Sunday window, so I didn't see any other RSL matches during that time. I hope the sponsors are happy because I'm miserable and hate these slots.
29 July GCZ - YB 0-4 Nsame opens his YB account. Fassnacht scores twice to make it three for the week. Lugano - FCSG This match was abandonned at the half, it has been announced that the 1-0 scoreline will be erased and the match will be replayed in its entirety. 30 July Basel - Luzern 3-1 Basel wins but loses their captain to retirement as Delgado announced that he will not play anymore. Big blow to the team. LS - Sion 0-1 FCZ - Thun 2-1 YB 6 FCZ 6 Sion 6 Basel 3 Luzern 3 FCSG 1* LS 1 Lugano 0* Thun 0 GCZ 0
]Leading goalscorers 2 - Christian Fassncaht YB 2 - Raphael Dwamena FCZ 1 - 18 with 1 goal Leaders in assists 1 - 20 with 1 assist Attendance 31,120 (1) - YB 27,416 (1) - Basel 13,000 (2) - GCZ 10,191 (1) - FCZ 8,553 (1) - Luzern 5,617 (1)- Thun 3,415(1) - LS 0 (0) - FCSG 0 (0) - Sion 0 (0) - Lugano[/QUOTE]
5 Aug Lugano - FCZ 0-0 Lugano gets their first point. Thun - Basel 0-3 Thun, still without a point. 6 Aug Luzern - GCZ 2-2 GCZ gets their first point of the season. FCSG - Sion 2-0 Sion's very poor start begins. YB - LS 3-0 YB continues to march forward. YB 9 FCZ 7 Basel 6 Sion 6 FCSG 4 Luzern 4 Lugano 1 LS 1 FCZ 1 Thun 0
Leading goalscorers 2 - Marco Aratore FCSG 2 - Leonardo Bertorne YB 2 - Kevin Bua Basel 2 - Christian Fassncaht YB 2 - Raphael Dwamena FCZ 2 - Ricky van Wolfswinkel Basel Leaders in assists 3 - Mohamed Elyounoussi Basel 3 - Yoric Ravet YB 2 - Renato Steffen Basel Attendance 27,416 (1) - Basel 24,242 (2) - YB 13,000 (2) - GCZ 11,765 (1) - FCSG 10,191 (1) - FCZ 9,361 (2) - Luzern 6,422 (2)- Thun 4,510 (1) - Lugano 4,495 (2) - LS 0 (0) - Sion
Thoughts from this round: YB are the real deal. They look so much more dangerous in attack and they're playing smartly. As long as they don't find a way to mess this up, we could have ourselves a real title race. Thun are awful so far. Basel sat back for most of the game, and Thun couldn't even generate anything. They're in a world of trouble. Good job, GCZ. Blew a 2-goal lead with less than 15 minutes to play. Good job, Luzern, on the comeback, though. Lugano-FCZ should be written off as an anomaly. It was nearly 95 degrees when the match kicked off, and it never dropped below 88 at any point. All of the players were clearly exhausted from the unbearable heat, as very little was generated. Lugano did play like the better team throughout, but Forte has FCZ playing really well.
My thoughts are similar to all of these. I think GCZ and Thun will be at the bottom of the table, with Thun being relegated.
Well my heart almost stopped today! I was looking through my TV schedule through my local TV provider (I subscribe to BEIN Sports because of Ligue 1 coverage as my club Strasbourg-Alsace is back in the top flight) and I couldn't believe my eyes to see Swiss Super League this Thursday Basel v Grasshopper! On my TV in HD not some streaming service on my lap top! Could this actually be or an error? After-all the Lyon v Strasbourg match which was to be televised this past Saturday as my guide said was not shown instead BEIN decided to show a replay of the PSG v Amiens match instead..... so fingers crossed to see some Swiss league football on TV here in Canada....this is a big deal...for me at least!
I didn't realize it would be on television! That is great news! They do stream at least one match every round on beinconnect, but having it on TV is huge!