December 30, 2021
These diaries dipped it’s toes into
the Swiss Second Division last season to review a match between FC Thun and FC
Stade Lausanne Orchy with both sides battling for promotion to the Swiss Super
League. Whilst Orchy were victorious that evening, in the end Thun finished in
second place and lost the promotion/relegation play-off tie with Sion, whilst
FC Stade Lausanne Orchy finished third. FC Grasshoppers finished one point
ahead of Thun to earn automatic promotion, and Chiasso were relegated.
Coming into the division were
Liechtenstein side FC Vaduz, who finished bottom in the Super League, whilst
Yverdon Sport were promoted from the third level Swiss Promotion League.
In 2020/21 four of the five weekly
matches each round were streamed on the Swiss Football League website ( www.sfl.ch ) with the
other match shown on Swiss TV. With the return of crowds to football in
Switzerland, two matches are now free to watch, one directly on the Swiss FA
website, and the other via a link to the blue Zoom website from the Swiss FA
website. Highlights of all games can be viewed on the Swiss FA website, which
also contains a vast array of statistics for the division.
Round 18
December 17-19, 2021
FC Aarau 1-0 Neuchatel Xamax ( att
: 3,024 )
FC Thun 2-2 FC Schaffhausen ( att :
2,195 )
Yverdon Sport 2-0 SC Kriens ( att :
715 )
FC Stade Lausanne Orchy 2-0 FC Wil
1900 ( att : 415 )
FC Winterthur 2-3 FC Vaduz ( att :
5,100 )
The division has met the definition
of highly competitive, with the top 9 sides of the 10 team division separated
by only 9 points after 18 matches, all of whom would still retain aspirations
of promotion. Only Chiasso appear to be out of it, having gathered just 6
points from 18 games and seemingly destined to relegation. The season is
scheduled to recommence from its winter break on January 28th, 2022.
Winterthur’s Roman Buess was the
league’s top scorer at the break with 10 goals, followed by Ivorian Koro Kone
from Yverdon Sport, Simone Rapp from Vaduz, Aarau’s Kevin Spadanuda and
Schaffhausen’s Croatian Ivan Prtajin, all with 9 each. Brighton Labeau, ex Union St Gilloise has
found the net 8 times for Stade Lausanne Orchy whilst Saleh Chihadeh has the
same number for Thun.
FC Winterthur have been the best
supported side with an average of 4,067, followed by Neuchatel Xamax with 3,351
and FC Aarau with 3,113. FC Stade Lausanne Orchy had the lowest average with
438, and the overall league average was 1,721. The 5,100 for the Winterthur vs
Vaduz match in round 19 was the highest of the season so far.
FC Vaduz led the league table at the half way stage. Despite coming
from Liechtenstein, Vaduz have only one player who is a regular for their
national side, keeper Benjamin Buchel, who has 42 caps. The majority of their
squad are Swiss, although veteran midfielder ex Young Boys, Grasshopper &
Zurich centre-back Milan Gajic is Serbian.
Vaduz started with 4 defeats from
their first 9 matches, but a run of one loss in their last 9 games saw them lead
the table at half-way, with the important 3-2 victory at Winterthur securing a
top of the table position at the winter break. Their strength has been their
away form, with a 5-2-2 record.
Being the Liechtenstein
representative in the Europa Conference, by virtue of winning the Liechtenstein
Cup, Vaduz were eliminated at the first hurdle by Ujpest of Hungary 2-5 on
aggregate. Since 1995 they have played in Europe every year except for 1997/98
and 2012/13, most famously eliminating Swiss side FC Basel in 2006/07 and
losing to FC Thun on away goals in 2015/16.
Other victories have been registered against Falkirk, Ujpest, Vojvodina,
Levski Sofia & MOL Fehervar.
FC Aarau sat in second place. Their third and last Swiss Championship
was won in 1992/93 when their side included a young Roberto di Matteo. After a
poor 8th place finish in 2020/21 they have made a much better bid to
return to the Swiss Super League which they last graced in 2014/15. Their last
appearance in European competition was in 1996.
After being mid-table for most of
last season, FC Winterthur could have led the table at half-way had they
beaten FC Vaduz in round 18, but a 2-3 loss saw them finish 4 points off the
lead. After falling 0-3 behind, they squandered a chance to draw the match, but
Roman Buess’ penalty four minutes from time struck the post. Winterthur have
the consolation of being the best supported team in the division and have the
league’s top scorer in Buess.
FC Schaffhausen led the 2020/21 table for most of the season before fading
away in the closing stages. After a slow start, where they only won one of
their first 6 matches, their form has picked up so that they won 14 points from
their last 7 matches as they steadily moved up the table.
FC Thun were relegated after the 2019/20 season and were playing in
European competition as recently as that season, when they were eliminated from
the Europa League by Spartak Moscow. After failing to immediately bounce back
after last season’s play-off loss, being in 5th place would
undoubtedly be a disappointment, but the gap is small and there are still 18
games to play………….
After coming close to the promotion
play-off last season, FC Stade Lausanne Orchy have had an indifferent
season so far this season, although they are only 6 points adrift of the
play-off position. They started the season strongly with 10 points from their
opening 5 matches, but an indifferent run of two wins in their last 8 matches
saw them slide down the table.
Newly promoted Yverdon Sport
started the season with three straight losses and picked up just 2 points from
their opening 6 matches. However, they soon stabilised at this level with 7
wins and two draws in their most recent 12 games, which indicates they should at
least be at this level next season, especially if Kone continues to bang in the
goals.
FC Wil 1900 were a mediocre 7th in 2020/21 and looked to be
repeating this form until an unbeaten run of 6 matches took them to the fringes
of the play-off contenders. Losses to Winterthur and FC Stade Lausanne Orchy in
their last two matches saw them fall back down to 8th though when two
wins would have seen them in third place.
Neuchatel Xamax are another famous name languishing in the second level,
with a string of notable victories in Europa Competition in the past, such as
Glasgow Celtic, Sporting Lisbon, Dundee United, Dynamo Kiev, Red Star Belgrade,
Sparta Prague and Malmo, as well as individual match victories over Real Madrid
( twice ) and Bayern Munich. They have been inconsistent so far, starting with 5
wins and two draws in their opening 7 matches before a run of 7 losses in the
next 11 games. Despite that they remain just 7 points of the play-off place
with half the season remaining despite being second from bottom !
FC Kriens look doomed. Starting with 11 games without a win which
yielded just three draws, they recorded their first win of the season over FC
Stade Lausanne Orchy ( 1-0 ), but the next six matches were lost. To-date they
have conceded 45 goals in 18 matches.
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