Game report : FC Basel - NE Xamax   1 - 1   (1 - 0)    Attendance : 8679
---------------------------------
Goals : 35' Tholot, 92' Bieli


Line-up :

FC Basel : Zuberbühler, Ceccaroni, Knez, Cravero, Barberis, Kehrli(84' 
Tschopp), Huggel(57' Sahn) Savic, Cantaluppi(74' Perez), Tholot, 
Koumantarakis.
NE Xamax : Delay, Boughanem, Sène, Keller, Zambaz, Koch, Simo, Wittl(82' 
Caracciolo), Sansoni, N'Diaye(84' Gigon), Perret(60' Bieli).


I usually travel quite confidently to Basel. I can't recall whether I've 
seen two or three games there before, but what I'm pretty much sure of, is 
that Xamax won each of those games. That was a hell of a reason to attend 
this away game.

The whole game was quite well balanced, in the meaning that both teams did 
their part of the show, though the show wasn't that great. Basel might've 
done somewhat better than Xamax in the first half, the other way around for 
the second one. Overall 2 or 3 really big opportunities on each side. The 
first thing to be reminded of is the penalty quite generously given to 
Tholot (16'), which he missed, shooting straight in the middle of the goal, 
in Delay's feet. Then, Basel's goal (35'), Tholot's shoot deviated by Sène, 
slowly rolling next to Delay straight toward the goal. Tholot and 
Koumantarakis arrived as well each once more or less alone in front of 
Delay, all missed. On Xamax's side, not-so-convincing N'Diaye had 2 clear 
opportunities, one of them he shouldn't have missed, alone in front of Zubi 
about 8 meters away from the goal. Xamax's goal, (92'), has quite dumbly 
happened : Barberis, last man before Zubi, shot on Knez's back, the rebound 
made a splendid pass for the surprisingly good young Rainer Bieli who didn't 
miss the lob he had to do. The lapse of time that preceeded and followed the 
entry of the ball within the cage beared and astonishing silence, which made 
me feeling I was the only Xamax-fan amongst those 8679 people as I yelled 
some kind of a YESSS!. Koumantarakis and Tholot did a good job, but weren't 
really helped by that creativeless middlefield. Kreuzer really missed for 
some defensive tasks. By Xamax I must mention once again that Simo impressed 
me much with his technical qualities. Wittl, despite the numerous fouls he 
committed was good as well. Except on the corner-kicks. For some reasons, 
one of them two always do the corners, and Simo ALWAYS shots too far, Wittl 
almost always too weak. Awfully pityful all those wasted goodies (8 
corners-kicks in the game for Xamax).  Sène and Boughanem did an outstanding 
job while defending. Sansoni did show a some interesting things. According 
to most people I talked with, on both sides, the final result is deserved.

I really appreciate to be able to mention it when the referree does a good 
job, but I'm afraid I'll have to say that Mr. Busacca and his two linemen 
did a somewhat lousy job that evening.

Now, to all the readers, please take my advice : don't try this at home. 
Er... I meant, don't go see Basel at the Schützenmatten until the new 
StJakob will be finished. I was extremely lucky to be able to drive through 
Basel with a Basel Fan who works with me for a couple of monthes, _but_, 
without this helpful guide, I probably wouldn't have found my way to the 
stadium. I mean... there is not A single pannel indicating the right way, 
and the place is kind of lost in the -very nice looking, though- 'suburb' of 
Bachletten. Well, it's not a suburb, alright. But it's definitively lost for 
someone who doesn't know the city. And their hotdogs suck. Note that the 
Schützenmatte looks actually better than, let's say, the Brugglifeld, which 
is not really hard. And is probably bigger as well. I've heard that last 
season's regular season tickets, were 30.--, just for a standing spot. 
Euhh... Hello !? By chance, they had this 'season beginning' offer, so all 
standing tickets were 10.--.

BTW, while waiting in the way too slow-moving queue to get my ticket, I 
heard a joke I'll have to reuse in Neuchâtel some time : "Hey, is that 
Ceccaroni up the cashier ?". Too bad, first choice victim Rothenbühler is 
now gone.

I actually saw that Xamax-Vasas Budapest game, just didn't find the strength 
to make a report out of it. But I kept some notes, so if ever it happens, 
Steevie might be able to update the history of the club's games.

I found out basler pedestrians were quite nice people, really. In Zurich, 
when I stop to let people walk across the street on those yellow stripes 
(stripes on which pedestrians have now in Switzerland the absolute priority 
on the traffic), which I usually gladly do, well in Zurich people barely 
look at you. In Basel I received many hand signs and thank yous, despite my 
NE licence plate. And the result. Must be a city thing, I guess, nice 
attitude anyway.

Think about going to a football game. And send in a report. ;-)

Laurent.