Geordie Al's Groundhopper Scrapbook: FC Zurich 2-1 St. Gallen, Wednesday 14th August 2019

Thursday, 15 August 2019

FC Zurich 2-1 St. Gallen, Wednesday 14th August 2019

FC Zurich 2-1 St. Gallen, Swiss Super League, att. 9,112 (Stadion Letzigrund)

Welcome to ....

What a place Zurich is. Walking from the railway station, down bahnstrasse, towards the lake, it just reeked of money. No wonder they hold Diamond athletics meetings here. I’d come again, if only I could afford it. As it is, I’d timed it so’s I could hit Zurich early afternoon, have a nose around, go see a match (KO 7pm) and be on an overnite train to Vienna at 21:40. Everything went swimmingly.

Pre-match entertainment on Lake Zurich

After the peruse (I didn’t buy nuffink) I walked up to the stadium, which is maybe 20-30 minutes the other side of the railway station. Just follow the train tracks (ish). Alternatively, get a train one stop to Zurich Hardbrucke, but it’s still a fair walk. Tram 2 from the centre of town also went there, but nothing beats a walk in the Swiss alps. (Zurich is very tenuously in the Swiss Alps.)

Maybe you'll see the preferred carrier of Swiss police.

I arrived to find a decent-sized queue. But this was not why I missed kick-off: the lady in the ticket office pointed me in the right direction for the entrance, but I missed it and ended up doing a lap of the stadium. How was I to know ‘D’ was next to ‘A’? I saw ‘A’…marched on…and the next I saw was ‘C’. Thinking I was nearly at ‘D’ I carried on, only to find ‘B’, by which time I figured I was halfway around the stadium and might as well continue. What I didn’t realise was there were carparks and football pitches ahead, meaning an even longer walk. Oh well, no harm done and great view of the stadium. The Letzigrund is a beautiful (athletics) stadium. Outside, the surround has oxidised, giving it a classy finish in keeping with the area.

The ticket queue.

I missed the first 10 minutes, though I had managed to secure a beer. Both sides had connived to be scoreless when I waltzed in. Although I was meant to be in row 8, I ventured further up the stand, affording a better view from the ‘sud kurve’. Further around this curve were Zurich’s ultras and, fair play, around 2,000 of them never sat down the whole game and made noise throughout. In fact, in a crowd of just over 9,000, I’d say more than half were at this end, perhaps reflecting the cheaper price.

The sud kurve.

Behind the other goal were the away fans. Who were Zurich playing? I had no idea. I didn’t recognise the badge on the screen or the colours either. ‘SG’? Whothehell are ‘SG’? St. Gallen. Of course. And for them, coming from the far east (of Switzerland) it was as close to a derby as they get, about 50 miles away. I was impressed with their fans’ pre-match orchestration. They’d squeezed their lot together and flanked each side with green and white ribbon. Now, if only their flares were green rather than red. I don’t think they’d thought that one through.

St. Gallen fans

Zurich went one up before the break, a sweet volley in off the bar from about 10 yards. Now Zurich’s flares were out (in their blue). Gone was the whistling at St. Gallen’s flares, while there was no stadium announcement regards Zurich’s pyrotechnics, as there was for the visitors. Funny that.

But while Zurich partied, St. Gallen had a free kick, 25 yards out, a little wide of the goal. Still probably too far out to score but I wasn’t banking on the poor position of the goalkeeper who had little chance of making the save, even though he got a hand to it. One of those ‘this is in’ before it even hits the net.

Green power!

Half-time, I grabbed another beer and a ‘Letziburger’ (see what they did there?) Problies average, but I liked that you could help yourself to tomatoes, onion, gherkins and coleslaw. The beer, however, had shrunk in size – shoulda got it from the other stand, as I did earlier.

Second half, I moved a little more towards the corner, front row above a gangway. Still well populated, though a bit more laidback, if the bloke smoking a joint two seats along was anything to go by. The match progressed in its earlier vein; misplaced pass after misplaced pass. It looked like a lower division English game, which it probably would be. A St. Gallen midfielder was given his marching orders for a second yellow, a foul preventing the break. Easy life for Zurich, you’d think.

The ref gets his red card out (for the player in black on the left).

St. Gallen sacrifice a forward, throw on the sub…and a minute later Zurich have a man sent off for virtually the same offence. 10 v 10, now we’d see a battle. Zurich threw on the proverbial ‘big man up front’ and won it when a convoluted one-two ended up sidefooted in from 10 yards. Thereafter, the visitors threw everything at Zurich and could have scored 3 or 4, but for great goalkeeping, poor finishing and bad luck (one shot deflected narrowly wide with the keeper stranded). The spoils were Zurich’s.

And that was it. The end of another summer groundhop/interrail trip. I jumped on a tram and was back at the station half an hour before my train, en route to meet the other half in Krakow. I love it when a plan comes together!

Zurich fans celebrate the winner.

The Damage:
CHF 25 ent
CHF 7 beer (Carlsberg, 500ml)
CHF 6 beer (Carlsberg, 400ml)
CHF 8.5 ‘Letziburger’
= CHF 46.50 (£40)

The Tunes:
Hi Scores (Boards of Canada)
Geogaddi (Boards of Canada)
BBC Sessions (Cocteau Twins)

Stayed at:
overnight train to Vienna