Barcelona wins Long-ears Cup

Or does it look more like Bent-spoons-stuck-to-a-tin-Cup? Surprising lack of creativity and spirit from Manchester. Barcelona cruising keeping the ball for long spells but very few chances.

Sad to see the game played in the Rome athletics stadium, even if you put plastic turf on the tracks they still suck. At least Silvio looked happy kissing Ronaldo, maybe AC next for him?

Also, Platini looks like he lives in a restaurant. He has definetely been enjoing a few meals and some red sauce with them.

rc strasbourg - reims

Ligue 2. Strasbourg won 3-2 in a good game, at least as good as Freiburg and better than most Swiss first division game I have seen. Stadium was probably 3/4 full, a little bit disappointing as Strasbourg could have been promoted had the other results gone their way.

One big downside of french football is the catering in general and the drinks in particular. Who in their right mind thinks an alcohol 'free' Amstel is worth 3 Euros?

The 'ultras' of strasbourg sits in in one corner behind a goal and they kept on during the whole game, though the rest of the stadium would only join in when they were winning. There were also maybe about 50 fred perry and burberry hooligan types behind one goal, making abig point of not chanting it seemed. They looked pretty uninterested in the game and more keen to look like they were dangerous and liked ot push each other around. Next to them a couple of old types in their 50's that seemed to be in control, kept saying it 'ca va chauffee ce soir'. The police were standing by outside. Very sad. I have no idea if it did, left straight after the game.

Swiss Hooligans

Continued denial about the hooligan problem in CH. From what I saw on tv and have read in the press there police presence inside the stadium was nonexistent.

Players were interviewed on TV while there were clear signs of trouble behind them and this was just ignored.

http://www.20min.ch/ro/sports/football/story/Des-emeutes-font-15-blesses-apres-Zurich-B-le-19750498

On the good news side, Hammarby beat Malmo 1-0 at home and have now moved above the relegation spots. Something tells me we may not stay there...

sc freiburg - guenther furth

2. bundesliga

basel - fcl 2-0

welcome to basel

riot police ready to do their job. is that shovel for snow or people?

Smile, youre on camera.

I guess this guy is a spotter. Basel had very heavy policing - could be the outcome of what happened in the Sion game or maybe they just bought some policeman's toys and wanted to try them out.

sverige-usa hokki vm

forsta gangen jag nansin ser tre kronor. har ingen aning om vem som spelar. dessutom en meningslos grupp match. iallafall finns det staplats som ar otroligt brant utan skydd. klar majoritet av schweizarna verkar halla pa sverige. cheerleaders. dessutom verkar det som om hockey forbundet andrat reglerna under pagaende turnering for att undvika att tyskarna, som ar pa vag att aka ur inte gor det eftersom att dom arrangerar nasta ar. World Wrestling Federation.

Auswärtssieg!

Lucerne leaves the 'rote Lanterne' in Vaduz after a first(!) away win of the season. I had to miss this game (and the Hammarby - dif/ ifk double that was planned) due to a work trip.

austrian second division

What kind of entertainment could possible beat a friday night game in the Austrian Second division? Wacker Innsbruck, playing infront of 3700 in a stadion for 30000 beat FC Pax Gratkorn 4-1.

Austrian football is something else, just look at what happened in Salzburg when Red Bull bought the local team as if it was a MLS franchise. Austrian League officials didnt mind. Lennart Johansson would be proud. When will they abolish releagtion? Time out, anyone?

Swiss Cup Semifinal

Great atmosphere tonight. Going to football a warm spring evening feels like the reward for freezing at various stadiums through winter. Entertaining game where Sion dominated slightly and scored a fantastic goal in 85 minute. Luzern fought back bravely and scored the equaliser in probably 95th minute, incredible scenes in the staduim ensued. Extratime was goal less so it had to be settled through the dreaded penalty shootout. Luzern choked big time and Sion went through. This is when the mayhem started...

watercannons

swiss riot

after the game, outside the stadium swiss riot police fights back
the sion fans with watercannon, this lasts at least 15 minutes. some luzern hotheads tries to get into it as well but from what I saw the fight was between sion fnas and riot police with shields and batons.

Pitch invation Luzern

FCL - Sion Hooligans

Sion beat Luzern on penalties in swiss cup semi. After the game about 50 Sion fans invades the pitch with flags and approaches the Luzern fans. After about 5 minutes of provocation, with no action from police or stewards the Luzern fans finally enters the pitch and chases the sion guys back towards their end. The fighting lasts for maybe five minutes, from what I saw no one was seriously injured, though some were clearly hurt. Disgraceful, i thought this type of hooliganism ended in the 90's but obviously not in Switzerland. Can only hope they identifies the hooligans, most had no cover over their face and TV was every where as the game was on live.

day trip to leitzigrund

gc and yb played an entertaining 3-3 draw with six good goals

lozarn - vaduz 3-1

great victory for luzern. scored
the third in an empty goal after vaduz keeper went to other end of
pitch. playing vaduz is a rare international game in a domestic
league. also surprising that ref lets game play on after linesman has
recieved at least ten plastic cups of beer in the back. in anycase
luzern is back, only a point after vaduz. monday is cup semi at home
looks like it will be sold out.

luzern finally holds on to a lead

and beats bellinzona. may still have a chance to stay up!

hapoel tel aviv - bnei sakhnin

This was an interesting game. Very strong wind and heavy rain. The pitch looked fantastic. Stadium maybe a quarter full and only one stand had a roof. No beer for sale, tea and pretzel had to do. Hapoel had very nice short passing play, especially in the first half hour. Hapoel got a penalty after a beautiful and expressive dive (I was impressed with the extremely high quality dives throughout the game). Their goalkeeper went up and smashed the penalty into the net.

Rain got worse in the second half and so did the quality of the game. Bnei Sakhnin comes from an arab village and has a mixed team which is nice. The game ended 1-0 with Hapoel pressing for a second after the Bnei Sakhnin goalkeeper was sent off after handling the ball outside the area. In all a friendly atmosphere in a ground not far from the sea, this would be great on a sunny day.

taxi driver has a gun...

he also had a deep purple cd he plays on full volume the whole way from the airport to the hotel.

cant complain like the dude though, telling the driver what he thinks about the f-in eagles. would risk entering a world of pain