FC SOCHAUX-MONTBELIARD (Stade Auguste Bonal)

COUPE DE LA LIGUE, FC SOCHAUX-MONTBELIARD 1-1 FC STADE BRESTOIS*
ATTENDANCE: 5,887                                                          *Won 4-3 on penalties

The final leg of my journey took me across Switzerland to just over the border into France. I had spent the Monday night in Zurich where, although there was no football game involved, I took a tram up to FIFA headquarters to have a little nose around!

I was flying home from Basel on Wednesday so when the French league cup threw up a fixture 8 miles over the border, with FC Sochaux-Montbeliard playing at home, then it was an absolute no brainer and allowed me to complete four games in four countries in four days.

Sochaux is famous as the home of the Peugeot, with the family starting manufacturing in the town in 1810 with the production of bicycles. The company diversified into coffee, pepper and salt grinders in the mid-19th century before the manufacture of cars began in 1889. Peugeot's lion badge is derived from the town's coat-of-arms. The Peugeot museum is located in the town but time constraints meant I had no time to visit.

FC Sochaux-Montbeliard (FCSM) were founded in 1928, so are celebrating their 90th anniversary this year. The club was founded by Jean-Pierre Peugeot to create a football club for the leisure time of the company's workers.

The Stade Auguste Bonal has been home for (almost) the entire history of FCSM. After just three years of existence, FCSM were attracting large huge crowds to their matches so the directors of Peugeot decided to create a stadium specifically for the football club. This was constructed next to the forges section of the Peugeot car factory and on 11th November 1931, in the now named Stade de la Forge, the inaugural game took place with FCSM beating Stade Français in the Coupe de Peugeot.

 The capacity of the stadium was increased to 10,000 by the mid 1930's with the construction of new stands and the ground remained largely the same until the late 1990's when all four sides were completely rebuilt to create a modern 20,000 capacity stadium. The ground was renamed the Stade Auguste Bonal as a tribute to FCSM/Peugeot director Auguste Bonal who was deported to a concentration camp in Germany, where he died in April 1945.

FCSM's glory days were in their early years in the 1930's when they clinched the French League title twice in 1935 and 1938 and the French Cup in 1937. Their only recent honours have been a League Cup victory in 2004 and another French Cup win in 2007. FCSM did have a run to the semi-final of the UEFA Cup in 1981, where they lost to AZ Alkmaar.

The club are currently in Ligue 2 after relegation in 2014 but this evening was all about the League Cup. FCSM were hosting Stade Brestois, who embarked on a 2000km return journey from Brest for this cup tie (and would be making the same trip again on Friday for a league game).

Clearly there is the same level of appetite for the league cup in France as there is in England, so tickets were reduced to ‎€5 in order to tempt the punters in. It seemed to work as the crowd was just under 6,000 which is around the average for FCSM. There is also the fact that just 6 Brest fans (pictured above, left) were sat in the away end, so hats off to them for making the previously mentioned 2000km round trip.

Those hardy supporters From Brittany were rewarded with a victory for Stade Brestois, but it did need a penalty shoot out in order to secure their place in the next round.

In a game of few clear cut chances, Brest took the lead when Mathias Autret (25) side-footed home a cross from Valentin Henry. The home supporters were not happy as the boos and whistles rang out at half time.

The game was petering out to an away win but then a cross-shot from Ermedin Demirović (75) was turned into his own goal by Brendan Chardonnet who, to be fair to him, couldn't really do anything about it.

There is no extra time in the league cup in France and at 90 minutes the tie went straight to penalties. The shoot out swung one way and the other, courtesy of some poor spot kicks, but eventually it was left to Ibrahima Diallo to slot home the winner for Stade Brest (pictured below).

FC VADUZ (Rheinpark Stadion)

SWISS CHALLENGE LEAGUE, FC VADUZ 1-0 SERVETTE FC, ATTENDANCE: 1,532

Sunday afternoon was the highlight of the weekend for me as I finally made the trip to the Principality of Liechtenstein. After spending the morning watching Schwarz-Weiss Bregenz I made my way to the capital city, Vaduz. 

I took the train from Bregenz to Feldkirch station and from here I caught the number 11 bus, for a very scenic journey across the border, which took me into the heart of Vaduz.

From Vaduz Post bus stop it was 15 minute walk to the Rheinpark Stadion, the home of FC Vaduz. As you can probably guess from name, the ground is on the banks of the river Rheine which is also the border between Lichtenstein and Switzerland.

After the game, I took a stroll along the river and walked across the old wooden bridge "Die Alte Rheinbrücke" that links the two countries.

As well as being the home of FC Vaduz, the Rheinpark Stadion is also the national stadium of Liechtenstein. The ground was opened in 1998 in order to provide the country with a UEFA and FIFA compliant stadium in order to host international games (Liechtenstein has only played in qualifying tournaments since 1994). The ground was originally two-sided but in 2006 stands were built behind each goal taking the capacity up to just over 7,500.

I have to admit there are worse stadiums in the world to watch football. The location is great and the views from the stands are simply stunning, and I don't just mean of the pitch!

Founded in 1932, FC Vaduz are the oldest club in the principality and are the only full time professional club. Liechtenstein has no league of it's own, so all of the seven clubs based in the country all play in the Swiss League system. They do however have a cup competition and the winners, usually FC Vaduz, enter the Europa League each season. Vaduz exited Europe this year at the second qualifying round stage after losing to Lithuanian side FK Žalgiris.

FC Vaduz have spent most of their history outside the top flight apart from one season, in 2008/09 where they finished bottom, and another three season spell from 2014- 2017 where their highest finish was 8th place (in 2016).

Servette FC were the visitors to the Principality this afternoon and they can certainly consider themselves unlucky not to come away from the game with at least a point. The team from Geneva created the more clear cut chances in a decent game, played at a good tempo despite the heat.

They had the first chance after 8 minutes when Mychell Chagas bulleted a header towards the bottom corner but Andreas Hirzel in the Vaduz goal produced a fine one handed save. The game was end to end, with chances for both teams, but neither 'keeper was truly tested and it was goalless at the interval.

The second half continued in similar fashion before the deadlock was broken in the 70th minute. A hopeful cross from substitute Christopher Drazan eluded the Servette defenders and was allowed to bounce in the penalty area where the onrushing Igor Tadic headed home to secure the win for Vaduz.

Servette nearly equalised in the when Kastriot Imeri crashed an effort from 20 yards against the upright in stoppage time but the home side managed to see the game out.

What a vista! There are worse places...

The beautiful city of Vaduz is pretty compact so you can easily walk around the centre in about 15 minutes. The Prince of Liechtenstein resides in Vaduz Castle, high up in the mountains, which can be seen from almost anywhere in the city (pictured below).

There is a brewery in Liechtenstein but it is closed on a Sunday however I managed to find a pizza restaurant where they had two of their beers on draft. That made for a perfect night cap to end a great day.

Monday was to be a football free day but before I left Vaduz I had to pay a visit to another of the city's attractions, namely the Postal Stamp Museum where there was an exhibition of World Cup stamps. I am no philatelist but it would have been remiss of me not to go and have a peep!

If you have not been to the Rheinpark Stadion or Vaduz then I would certainly recommend putting a visit on your bucket list! 

SCHWARZ-WEISS BREGENZ (Casino Stadion)

VORARLBERGLIGA, SCHWARZ-WEISS BREGENZ 2-0 BLAU-WEISS FELDKIRCH, ATTENDANCE: 450 

Thanks in no small part to the Groundhopper app on my, Sunday morning began with a train journey from Winterthur, via St Gallen and St Margrethen, to Bregenz in Austria.

Bregenz is a city on the east of Lake Constance, so with the train arriving on time, despite the warnings of delays due to engineering works, there was plenty of time to have a stroll down by the lake. Considering it was 9.30 in the morning it was a hive of activity with people sailing, swimming and soaking up the early sunshine.

 

Schwarz-Weiss Bregenz play at the Casino Stadion, which is a brisk 5 minute stroll from the lake. The ground was originally constructed between 1950 and 1951 but was effectively rebuilt in the mid-nineties, with the addition of the athletics track and seated stand. The ground is also known as the Bodenseestadion, Bodensee being the German name for Lake Constance.

The original Schwarz-Weiss Bregenz was formed in 1919 and, after spending many years in lower leagues, the club reached the Austrian Bundesliga in 1999. The club even played in Europe, through the Intertoto Cup, but financial problems began to mount and, after finishing bottom of the Bundesliga in 2005 the relegated club failed to receive a licence to play in the first division. The club tried to fight for their future but were eventually liquidated in 2007.

With the problems that were ongoing off the field, a new club was formed in 2005 under the name SC Bregenz, in order to continue the youth set up of the stricken Schwarz-Weiss Bregenz. The club joined the Aufstieg Landesliga and were champions in 2006. That earned the club promotion to the Vorarlbergliga (the 4th level of Austrian football) where they are still playing to this day. They did win the title in 2007 and 2015.

In 2013 the SC Bregenz reverted back to the name Schwarz-Weiss Bregenz and continue to wear the traditional colours and badge of the former Bundesliga club.

The game kicked off in blazing hot sunshine but the action on the pitch never got above tepid. It was a pretty drab affair with little in the way of goalmouth action. The points were secured in favour of Bregenz thanks to two second half goals from Thomas Pineiro Dos Santos (69 & 88).

Blau-Weiss Feldkirch offered little as an attacking force though they did miss the best chance of the game when they broke two-against-one. Necip Bekleyen squared the ball to Jakob Lorenz, as the Bregenz 'keeper Florian Eres came rushing out, giving Lorenz the supposedly simple task of rolling the ball into the net. He missed.

Incidentally, the referee was a female official, Cindy Zeferino de Oliveira, and I must say she had a very good game and kept the action flowing. It was noticable that the players didn't seem to give the referee verbals either.

From the stadium it was an easy walk back to the train station, ensuring that the 1310 connenction to Feldkirch was easily reached. It was now time for the main attraction of this particular weekend...