Relegated

I’m not able to make a summary of the match, I just can’t. There were two irregular goals of Bellinzona, no goal of SG. We lost the stadium, we lost the Super League and when the game was out every fan just stayed where he was, couldn’t believe it, was shocked. I’m still.

I’m angry because of the commentator saying SG is relegated, although everyone knew it.

The fans were sweet, showing with a bond “Ob NLA oder NLB, üs wirds immer geh!” meaning it didn’t matter if they would relegate or not, the fans would stay behind them.

After the game everyone wanted a bit of the stadium to be theirs so people were taking seats to be their own. After going out of the stadium I saw a man standing beside the ticket selling house. Five minutes afterwards he was proud holding the sign where there was written how much a ticket costs. Of course after the match there were riots, but the security people – ways too many! – were making them aggressive, for sure!

I walked home with a 45 minutes loop way. I think I needed to understand. I was at home at 11, couldn’t sleep till midnight. Today I didn’t smile just once. I still can’t imagine. I’m sad and angry to the same time, I don’t know what got wrong from the last season to this one. When I discussed with a Balkan – after hearing some mean remarks about SG – I realised that the mood slowly changed. While I was saying SG can’t never get it to be promoted the next season, he wanted to bet they would. He said when the young people came, their motivation would push the team and everything could get fine. But motivation alone isn’t the promotion.   

 

I’m sorry I can’t say more at the moment.

 

Bellinzona: I’m sorry for everything I said to you. I was angry. You are a good team and if you go on like this you will stay in the Super League next season. To goalie Bucci: You are like Buffon. No compliment, I hate him.

Good luck in the highest Swiss football league. The Green will be missing there.

…I hope I get happier during the Champions League final, but I can’t imagine I will.

Rain- and Painful

It rained. It rained cats and dogs the whole game through. Soon my only hope was that the game was cancelled because of the rain, but the fate didn’t want to release me. Although some shoots were stopped because of a rain puddle and although everything was wet and muddy the game was played through 90 minutes. I could watch the whole spectacle on TV on a Ticino channel where everything was in Italian:P

I’ve never seen a stadium like this one of Bellinzona before. The stands for the SG-fans was just the asphalt. There weren’t any steps or something like it. And the football pitch reminded to a school football ground with mud in front of the goal. The penalty point didn’t exist. There was just a hole of mud. It made me angry because this point was important during the match. And I’m not sure if the mud there was exactly eleven metres away from the goal.

Those are the reasons Bellinzona’s stadium hasn’t a licence for the Axpo Super League. If Bellinzona comes into the highest Swiss league they have to play in Basel for the first time.

But back to the game.

SG started weak. Their play remembered to the whole season. They were insecure and cramped. After four minutes Christian Pouga was ready for the 1:0 for Bellinzona. Every hope left was gone. SG had so many goals against them in the first 10 minutes this season, we all were fed up with it. But of course a game lasts 90 minutes – even in this case although we were hoping it wouldn’t. SG seemed helpless and discouraged.

But the horrible thing came in the 60^th minute: Gelabert caused a foul penalty in the own box. Nevertheless he was the man on the field who I had the feeling he wants to do everything. He caught my eyes the game through. His hair was “flat”, down because of the rain and it reflected his desperation. He was “charged”, even too much and he had luck that he didn’t get the yellow-red card for the foul in the box.

Ifet Taljevic set the ball onto the penalty point that didn’t exist. Our keeper Dani Lopar had obviously his problems with Taljevics setting. It seemed he had the feeling the man of Bellinzona set the ball too near. But finally he had no choice but to hold or not hold the ball. Taljevic shot and scored. 2:0 Bellinzona. I couldn’t believe it and I started to rail about the ground and the weather conditions.

The second goal was too much for Marc Zellweger, who was – like Gelabert – the man pushing the team forward. We became better and in the 71th minute Zellweger arranged the goal for Murat Ural (I call him Mural because once a commentator did it all the time). 2:1.

My brother was out of control because he felt he was right with his statement “Now the Basel Minutes begin!” To this state I have to say that Bellinzona was in the Swiss Cup final against Basel. They were as strong as Basel, sometimes Bellinzona was even better. But then Basel scored three goals in ten minutes and the cup was theirs.

My brother hoped now – and through him I did it as well – and who had thought it? Just five minutes later, there was Aguirre in front of the goal. He shot…but the keeper was there to the right time. He couldn’t hold the ball fix and Gelabert stood right there to shoot again. But the keeper again refused. The ball came to Gelabert again and after the third shoot of SG the ball was in the goal of Bellinzona. 2:2. Suddenly everything was open again, nobody could believe it! The fans of SG were outraged in a good way and pictures show the wanted to “attack the castle”. But eventually they didn’t because there were too many security men. You see: the stadium isn’t fit for the Super League so I recommend them to keep down:P You could actually here the SG fans screaming for their team now. And you could see that SG had physical advantages because they are used to hard matches.

But, however, before the game ended, there was a “Sonntagsschuss” (they don’t have a declaration for this word in English-.- by the way: that would be an interesting topic, there are a lot of football words missing in English), what means a shoot you would never expect to achieve a goal with. Senad Lulic scored to the end result of 2:3.

But the hope is here now. In my eyes SG can’t get it, but you never know. We just need a 1:0 or a 2:1 to win. The confidence is high now. SG achieved not to get lost in a “lost game”. They kept cool; they wanted the draw or at least the important away goal. Now they have two of them.

Nevertheless: SG loses the first leg in the Stadio Comunale against Bellinzona 2:3.

 

 

…it gets harder and harder to breathe…

 

 

http://www.bluewin.ch/de/index.php/501,17799/?asset_id=4536

 

Here you can watch a video with all goals and the most important facts ( I can’t download the video because of the site). Well…It’s more to see the mud and the rain =)

 

Tomorrow is the return game and the last game in the Espenmoos. And there is a little chance I can go watching it live.

Green-white is sinking like the Titanic in the Ocean

While you – my dear blog-sharer – are glowing for football right now, I have a little depth.

Last week I wasn’t here and I had even forgotten that SG was playing on Tuesday.

It was Wednesday evening as I noticed that they lost against Zurich 0:1. Until today I didn’t look at the facts. Now I see: 85^th minute Eudis of Zurich shoots the deciding goal.

During that game you could early see that they would be placed on the 9^th place at the end of the season. Not just because Zurich played better. No, it was Xamax, the 8^th of the establishment, who was winning 2:0 against Basel.

 

So the last game in the old stadium Espenmoos wasn’t the last game anymore: We have to play in the Barrage what means first leg on outer pitch and return game at home. One more game. A game we supporters didn’t want to have.

 

The last game of the general season was against Aarau on Saturday and because it was certain that FCSG had to play in the Barrage, they played with a B-team to recover the players and don’t risk a yellow card ban. The result was a 0:0.

I’m not sure if SG had just one goal chance in the whole 90 minutes.

The coach wanted to give our old keeper a testimonial match. Stefano Razzetti, who was changed to Number 2 this very season, could hold the box clean. But also he couldn’t avoid that SG didn’t win again.

 

I wasn’t really here for football the last two weeks, I had other things to do and I hadn’t the necessary confidence in SG to support them anymore. I was fed up with no goals, no chances and no victories. Perhaps I’m a bad supporter, I really must be, but there were other problems taking place in my life while football is just decorating it.

 

I’m sure I will be present when the Barrage begins. And that’s the reason I talk about the Challenge League – one league underneath the Super League – now.

 

The first team of the Challenge League comes into the Super League the next season. The second best team will play against SG in the Barrage. If you until now didn’t understand the word – I don’t know how to explain it with another word – you do it now.

 

The establishment is written like this:

 

Vaduz – 69 points

Bellinzona – 66 points   + 32 goals

Wil – 65 points  + 24 goals

 

Of course I’m the supporter of Wil because it’s a regional club. They are playing against Cham, a team that is with 16 points definitely out of the league. It’s difficult for me to say now if that is positive or negative because they could be exhausted and the match doesn’t matter to them, but on the other hand they could be desperate to show their supporters a good last game to say sorry for the whole season.

Bellinzona is playing against AC Lugano which is in the middle of the establishment somewhere in nowhere.

 

Wil has to be on the second place at the end so I wouldn’t be so sad when SG loses the relegation as I would be when Bellinzona was the opponent.

 

I’m not sure if I’m the winner at the end concerning Bellinzona and Wil.

What I’m definitely sure is that I’m the loser at the very end. If SG wins the Barrage I’m sorry for Wil, if SG loses the Barrage they break my heart.

Boca is smiling to the future :D

Boca Juniors successfully passed a heavy week! They played an intelligent match versus River Plate. You had to see Riquelme. He was not the man of the match. He wasnt even playing at 100%. But Riquelme in his 60% is more than enough to be decisive. You had to watch him placing Boca players in River box before kicking a corner. He arranged them the way he wanted. He shouted some to go outside the box, so some River players would follow them and leave enough space free so good head scorers can connect the ball. And that was it! Riquelme placed a nicely shot ball right to Battaglia’s head and GOAL! Battaglia is well known for marking and scoring vs. River! Now once again he made it!

Those who ended losing this match would have been seriously hurt for facing the following Libertadores match. Boca’s fist to the jaw left River groggy for a fatal defeat against San Lorenzo last Thursday! River was winning 2-0 and San Lorenzo was left with 9 men only!!! If you dont know why River Plate are called the chickens now you can clearly see why: THEY ENDED TYING THE MATCH 2-2, which left them OUT of the CUP!!! (first match ended 2-1 for San Lorenzo). River started playing really rough. San Lorenzo was fooled and followed the rough game. But suffered the consequences. Two men were showed the red card. River had the match in their pockets. But incredibly San Lorenzo grabbed strength from nowhere to put the match 2-2 in just ten minutes with 9 men only! Amazing! Important facts: San Lorenzo have in their squad many ex River players. River managment is awful this last years. They did not manage to make grown up players come back to River (as Boca did with many of their stars, including Palermo and Riquelme). Instead, San Lorenzo prepared well for this Cup, bringing formerly River Plate number 10 D’Alessandro from Zaragoza. And San Lorenzo’s coach is the most successful River coach at this time. You have to see him shouting goal!! It was incredible to see how River past players and coach were sending them off!!
What a week for River! If Boca left them shocked then this was the final Knock-Out! River still is on top of local tournament. But there are NO EXCUSES. They LOST LIKE GALLINAS!!

Meanwhile, BOCA did a superb job in Brazil. Winning 2-1 over a difficult rival in a stadium none Argentinian team have won since 35 years ago. Boca played smart. Palacio finally aimed well and scored the fisrt goal. Then Palermo (best header in the whole world) smashed it with the head to score the second one. Boca not only beat a Brazilian team out of the cup. Boca beat the ghost of a possible difficult week.

Boca smiles to the future
Boca is just one point away of being top of tournament. Next match vs one of the three teams on top Estudiantes is important to climb up. Will Boca save players for Libertadores Quaterfinals being played next Wednesday?? It is uncertain. Boca is facing ATLAS once again. The Mexican team that let Boca pass to the Cup playoffs.
The certain thing is while River cries, Boca smiles

Header to GOAL!

GOAL!

Riquelme controling the game

Boca is in a doubtful moment…

The smoke curtain comes and goes in and out of Buenos Aires, covering and unveiling La Bombonera field and ambience. Boca’s moment is doubtful for more than a thing.

First: How Boca entered the Libertadores Cup playoff.
Boca had a strange last “group match” that decided it all. It was as weird as you can thought. There were multiple possibilities for Boca successfully passing by to next round or unexpectedly failing and being out of the Cup. Boca winning against poor venezuelan Maracaibo team was not enough if mexican team Atlas didn’t win visiting chilean Colo Colo team. It was improbable a victory of Atlas in foreign lands, because Colo Colo’s luck was driven at the same time as Boca’s luck.
Summing it up the many chances: Boca had to win by a difference of 4 goals against Maracaibo to stand a chance of qualifying. Or expect a winning of Atlas in chilean lands to simply winning by the minimun difference to qualify. There was another possibility: A tie between Atlas and Colo Colo would let Boca score only 3 goals to send Colo Colo out of the Cup.
The dices were rolling and both matches playing at the same time. Boca managed to score the first goal at minute 10′ and the second goal on minute 20′!! What a scoring strike! So the third would have been scored at minute 30′.. right?? Wrong! It took another 60′ minutes to Boca score the third goal… By this time Boca was exasperating… Three goals were not enough because Colo Colo was winning 1-0… But suddenly La Bombonera screamed GOOAL! … Fourth Boca goal?? NO! Instead, Atlas tied the match on Chile! Now with the actual scoresheet Boca 3-0 Maracaibo was enough to pass to the next round!! And that was it! Boca qualified sweating the “big drop” (an expression for saying it was tight difficult!).

Second: What happened previous the first leg match against Cruzeiro
Boca had a “classic” match vs San Lorenzo. A “classic” is called when a match is played by two big teams. San Lorenzo are self named “Boca’s daddy” because they almost always win against Boca… sad but true. Not counting the 7-1 Boca won in San Lorenzo stadium in 2006… it was too humiliating!
A matter of Luck: It is a fact well known by Boca fans. Every time Boca wins against San Lorenzo, Boca ends loosing the tournament. And every time San Lorenzo wins over Boca, then Boca ends winning an importan tournament or Cup. Boca lost to San Lorenzo 1-0 playing awfully and with a “B team”, keeping Riquelme out. Was it on purpose to keep the matter of Luck?? What really matters is that Boca played awfully and the defense is doing worse and worse…

Third: First Leg match against Cruzeiro last Wednesday
First match played on La Bombonera. Boca wanted to score many goals to then go to Brasil safetly. But what happened? Boca created 18 goal plays… but scored only 2!!! Impermissible!! You have to see Palacio shooting badly once and over again.. Palermo shooting high, then shooting to the post.. then the Uruguayan Tata Gonzalez failing a kick with the goal WIDE OPEN!! The match was 2-0 and Boca was so close to score a third and even a fourth!!!! But.. no. Brazilians shoot from outside the box. The ball hit a Boca’s defenders back and fooled goalkeeper.. Now Boca was winning 2-1… A final score that let Boca with sad faces even thought they won…
Plus an unbelievable event: An ice cube was thrown from the VIP seats and hit the lineman’s head at minute 90′. WHY the HELL would any Boca fan would ever try to hurt the lineman??? It happened… Referee stopped the match and reported the event. Boca was afraid of a probably resolution: giving the match as lost 3-0. But luckily that didn’t happen. The punishment was a 50.000 fine and La Bombonera disqualified for Libertadores matches… Simply unbelievable. Boca Club is looking for the stupid man that threw the ice cube to ban him forever. But the damage has already been done.

Fourth: What is coming now
Boca’s future depends on the following TWO matches. Next match is against… RIVER PLATE! Held on Sunday. River Plate is leading the chart, four points away from Boca. So Boca winning will allow them to be at just one point away from them. This SUPER CLASICO match is in between important Copa Libertadores matches for both Boca and River. Because both River and Boca played the first leg last wednesday and will play the decisive match next wednesday. River lost against San Lorenzo for Liberadores Cup.
Press is speculating with a TIE between Boca and River, because they both don’t want to risk too much for upcoming matches. This TIE is implicit. Because the one that looses this SUPERCLASICO will be in extreme DANGER!

Boca’s future from now:
Boca is embedded in Buenos Aires smoke. Boca dreamt at the begining of the season with a fancy defense composed by expensive players as Caceres and Paletta joining the Boca icon Hugo Ibarra and Morel Rodriguez. But Paletta, Ibarra and Rodriguez are injured! What is “Plan B” for Boca’s defense??? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! There are quite good Boca boys for defense but they seem to not fit in the A team. Boca sold all defense trusting the Plan A would be always available.. This is not possible at the moment.

So Boca has the SUPER CLASICO against RIVER PLATE this very SUNDAY, and the second leg match in BRASIL versus CRUZEIRO next WEDNESDAY. Two FINAL matches that decide it ALL.