Top of the League!

Scott Chipperfield bags a hat-trick as FC Basel demolish an out-of-their-depth FC Vaduz at St Jakob Park on Saturday evening.  Marco Streller and Eren Derdiyok also on the scoresheet in the 5-0 win.

How Vaduz had managed to overcome Young Boys the week before is a mystery.  It was the Liechtensteiners second visit to Joggeli – the first was a 4-0 FCB win – and the side are real cannon fodder.  How FC Luzern sit adrift from them at the bottom of the table only they can know.

I said that FC Aarau had showed little attacking desire two weeks ago, but that was nothing compared to Vaduz who rarely got out of the own half.  And a problem for them is don’t try and park a bus if you’ve only just learnt how to ride a bike.  Defensively at sixes and sevens although Chippie was in imperious form on the left side.  Their misery was compounded as they finished the game with only nine men and coach Pierre Littbarski - a World Cup winner in 1990 – has much work to do with a team a non-World beaters.

The win propelled FC Basel to the top of the Swiss Super League and they knew FC Zürich had a difficult trip to Bern. on the Sunday  A near capacity crowd at the Wankdorf saw a six-goal thriller which went the way of the hosts – bringing them back into the title hunt – as two penalties saw them win by four goals to two.  Züri had complaints about the penalties and coach Bernard Challandes is cutting a frustrating figure in press conferences.  A complete contrast to the ice cool Christian Gross.  A mini Alex Ferguson against Kevin Keegan happening in Swiss football?  That maybe the case, but even if Mr Gross is playing the ice man I can assure you that the Basel fans would absolutely love it if they could stay top for the rest of the season!

Bishop’s Stortford FC – Bognor Regis Town 2:0

Ein einfach Sieg gegen Bognor Regis Town und Bishop’s Stortford sind in 13te Platz in die Tabelle.   Mark Wright und Danny Harris in die erste Hälfte.

BSFC hat ein bisschen Glück gehabt.  Die zuerste Tor war ein schönes Freitoss, aber war möglich kein Foul.  Die zweite Tor war vielleicht Abseits.  Dass ist Fussball, sorry Bognor!

Die Blauen haben zwei Speilen in Süd-Ost London gegen Bromley (Dienstag Abend) und Fisher Athletic (Samstag Nachmittag).  Mehr Siegen und die “Top 10″ ist möglich…

Klassiker is no classic…

… but it was fun nonetheless!  FC Zürich-FC Basel 0-1.

FCB are through to the semi-finals of the Swiss Cup after a narrow victory over their old adversaries last night.  A single goal was all that separated two closely matched sides in a poor encounter.

Beni Huggel fired home from the penalty spot to send FCB through to face BSC Young Boys for a place in the final.  But the goal came from a highly questionable penalty decision.  It was almost certainly a foul by Florian Stahel on Marco Steller.  It was in the penalty area, I think, just.  But Streller was coming back from an offside position.  Assistant referees have a thankless task here and they are going to get these decisions wrong from time-to-time.

Züri were the better side in the first half and Adrian Nikci hit the post as Basel could only pump the ball forward.  The second half was a better affair as they started to play the ball on the ground and caused FCZ more problems.  That said it was a game neither side edged convincingly.

So current holders Basel will meet 2006 runners-up Young Boys and 2006 winners FC Sion will travel to 2007 runners-up FC Luzern to see who will contest the final for 2009.

FCB are back in action on Saturday evening when FC Vaduz make the journey from Liechtenstein to St Jakob Park, whilst Züri have a difficult trip to the Wankdorf to play Young Boys.

Code cracked with win at (the Priory of) Sion!

FC Basel’s trips to the Valais are normally fruitless endeavours, almost ironic given it’s Switzerland most productive wine producing region, but this changed with Saturday’s trip to FC Sion as the Rotblau came home with three points after a crushing 4-0 win.

Young Orhan Mustafi, playing the lone striker role in the absence of Marco Steller and Eren Derdiyok, grabbed a brace with Scott Chipperfield and Marko Perovic also on the scoresheet.

The game was notable for the amusing site of Sion President (Chairman at an English club), Christian Constantin on the bench barking instructions to his team.  Chairmen that interfere with team affairs nearly always try and keep themselves away from doing this downright obviously, but not Monsieur Constantin.  Could anything undermine the coach more?  Football coaches will be happy to see his side lose when this is going on.  FC Sion are one of them clubs where the President is more (in)famous than the coach or any of the players!

Nevertheless, he would have been happier as FC Sion came from a goal behind to win their Swiss Cup quarter-final at FC St Gallen last night and they will now join BSC Young Boys in the semi-finals.  Will FC Basel be joining them?  That is the big question as they travel to arch rivals FC Zürich this evening.  Their hosts are in good form and continue to top the Swiss Super League so FCB will really have to be on their game if they have hopes of retaining the Cup for a third season running.  The win in Sion should put them in good spirits and they have convincingly beaten Züri on their own patch already this season.  Let’s see how they do tonight.  I am looking forward to the game, albeit with a certain level of apprehension.

The final last 8 game sees Basel’s second team, Concordia Basel host FC Luzern.  It would be nice to see some city dominance with two teams in the last four.

Mit einem doppelsieg…

… gehts BSFC in die 14te Platz in die Conference Süd Tabelle.

Einfach zu gut für Worcester City mit ein 3-0 Sieg.  Roy Essandoh, Lewis Smith und Marlon Patterson war der Torschützen.  Die Blauen fortsetzt aufwärts!

Am Samstag Bognor Regis Town besuchst Woodside Park.  Normales BSFC gegen BRTFC ist ein kurzweiliges Spiel.

Parking the bus

What’s worse than a team that parks their bus in front of their goal?

Answer: a team that parks their bus in front of their goal and then has the audacity to score at the other end.  A liberty.

This is what FC Aarau did in yesterday’s game against FC Basel at St Jakob Park.  An effective game plan that saw the team from the Argovian capital frustrate and stifle an uninspired FCB side.

Unfortunately for them, someone towed their bus away after 80 minutes and FC Basel scraped a 3-1 win to keep their championship hopes alive.  To be fair, we could have been more jammier (more to come).

Basel were injury hit and Yann Sommer continued in goal.  Beg Ferati partnered David Abraham in defence in the absence of François Marque (injured, but also getting himself ready for a visit to a Japanese restaurant that evening, but I digress!).  Reto Zanni played on the right wing so with Serkan Sahin deputising at right back, FCB’s back four and goalkeeper had an average age of 21.

Orhan Mustafi played the lone striker role due to Marco Streller’s illness, but it was in midfield, with the notable exception of the exceptional Valentin Stocker that lacked the ideas and guile and speed to unlock the Aarau defence.  Christian Gross even changed the formation to 3-5-2 as early as the 15th minute such was the obviousness of the visitors’ tactics.  Aarau even left star players Sandro Burki and Cristian Ianu on the bench.

However, on a rare foray forward the ball fell nicely for Patrick Bengondo to slam home and awake the meagre away following from their slumber.

Basel went into the break with boos ringing in their ears from the season low 17,526 crowd.  Fabian Frei and Scott Chipperfield replaced Sahin and Ferati as FCB looked to be more effective offensively.  They were; the second half was all Basel, but without playing with any convicition.

But with 13 minutes to go, Luxembourg international Mario Mutsch handled in the area and Beni Huggel tucked his penalty in the far corner just out of reach of the impressive Ivan Benito.

Then the major breakthrough came as Guiseppe Rapisarda diverted a Jürgen Gjasula cross into his own net.  A deflected free kick from Stocker completed a remarkable turnaround for FC Basel.  Somewhat cruelly a FC Aarau player had a hand in all four goals.

But we could have been jammier… I’ve just followed the last few minutes of the FC Luzern-FC Zürich game on the internet.  With five minutes remaining Luzern were leading 1:0, but FCZ have ended up winning 1:3.  I hate “watching” football on internet score update websites sometimes!

The third championship contenders, Young Boys, host their coach’s ex-club AC Bellinzona later this afternoon.  Bellinzona have been in good form since the end of the winter break, but away from home they struggle and I expect Bern to keep the pressure on the top two with another victory.

Dorchester Town – Bishop’s Stortford 0:2

Wieder einen guten Resultat.  Die langes Fahrt nach Dorset war erfolgreich für Bishop’s Stortford.

Capitan Paul Goodacre mit ein Flugball für die zuerst Tor und “Man of the Match” Reece Prestedge mit die zweite Tor in ein einfach Sieg.

BSFC bleiben in 15te Platz in die Tabelle, aber haben ein Spiel am Montag Abend gegen Havant & Waterlooville.  Wenn wir winnen dann wir springen 2 Platzen in die Tabelle.  Allez les Bleues!

Swiss update

It’s been too long and I haven’t been gloating about FC Basel’s win over FC Zürich.  I was back in England and missed the game, as did many other people judging by the low crowd of 21,000, but Basel kept their stutterring title hopes alive as they came from behind to win 2-1.  Jürgen Gjasula with the equaliser before Scott Chipperfield popped up with the winner in a game that saw Züri’s Florian Stahel and Basel’s Reto Zanni dismissed.

The result leaves a championship race of three horses as since the end of the winter break, FCZ have picked up just two points and FCB four whilst Young Boys picked up a maximum nine points to put themselves firmly in the shake-up.

This status quo remained over last weekend; FCZ demolised hapless FC Vaduz, YB defeated FC Sion and FCB had to be reliant on the Gjasula and Chipperfield show again to win at FC Luzern.  Chippie’s winner coming in the 92nd minute.

Disappointment for Neûchatel Xamax on their travels as they crashed at AC Bellinzona and judging from the Xamax fans I saw at a motorway service station it surely must have been the most inept performance of all time – either that of they were just attitude ridden teenagers!  Probably the latter, this is Swiss football…

YB kept their sights on the Double as they dispatched Grasshoppers in the Swiss Cup last night 3-0 to move into the semi-finals.  The three other quarter-finals, including the Klassiker FC Züri-FC Basel are in two weeks’ time.

FCB will hope to make it three wins out of three as they host out of sorts FC Aarau on Saturday and hope their two championship rivals slip up.

BSFC bekommst besser

Ich war in England für Bishop’s Stortfords Spiel gegen Eastleigh (21. Februar).  Das Resultat ein 1-1 Remis gegen die 3te Platz Mannschaft.  Roy Essandoh mit die Gool - ja, der Roy Essandoh, der FA Cup Hero für Wycombe Wanderers in 2001.

Eine Niederlage in Hampton (1-2) war nicht so schlimm weil bist Hampton in 2te Platz in der Tabelle.  Aber am Samstag die Blauen war in super Form in die Herts & Essex derby gegen Chelmsford City.  Trotz spielen mit nur 10 männer für 85 minuten Stortford hast die Spiel 2-1 gewonnen.

Unser nächste Spiel ist am Samstag und ein langes Fahrt nach Dorchester Town.

1-1 gegen Sankt Albans, nicht schlimm

Mit viel Schnee in England am Freitag diese Spiel war in Zweifel.  Aber die grosses Bemühungen aus Stortford fans und die Fussballplatz war gut.

BSFC haben viel gut gespielen.  In die erste Hälfte ein Tor für die Blauen: Lewis Smith.  Ein Stortford fan heisst “S.C.K.” magst Der Lu Lu-Lukas Söng so vielleicht wir haben bald, “Lew Lew Lew-Lewis Smithy” am Woodside Park und anderen Stadions in Conference Süd.

Trotzdem in die zweite Hälfte Sankt Albans haben ein Tor geschiesst.  Paul Hakim – ein ex-Stortford spieler mit ein schrechlich Lied – mit das Tor.

Aber nicht ein schlimm Resultat.  Die Blauen liegen noch in 17te Platz in die Tabelle.