FC Luzern 3 St Gallen 1

Luzern ran out on the Gersag with two consecutive losses, albeit against top teams. Today it was a must-win against newly promoted St Gallen. There is a bit of a history of trouble between the two sets of fans, much larger police prescense then against YB or Xamax, though  today it was all quiet.

The huge green tarpaulin now replaced with sponsor flags. All to make sure that noone gets a free glimps of the game from the hill next to the ground.

First five to ten minutes are not really showing anything, both teams are struggling to keep control of the ball. St Gallen is gradually improving and after 15 minutes they are clearly in the driving seat. Seoane loses the ball as last defender, somehow the St Gallen attacker manages to miss. It is getting a more and more uncomfortable and a St Gallen goal feels more and more likely.

After 28 minutes it finally happens, Frick heads in a corner from Zellweger and Gersag goes quiet apart from the 400 in the cage for the visiting supporters. St Gallen is outplaying us.

At this point the supporters irrational faith in the coach and the magical half time speech sets in. ‘If we can only hold out and be a single goal down in halftime Rolf will surely sort it out’. Whatever genius plan he comes up with, ‘OK boys, play fast balls on the left side’, or ‘their number 6 is weak, kick him a few times and we will score’ will surely change the game and second half will be a breeze. Of course in reality this rarely happens. Today it did. And we saw the first signs as soon as Seoane was replaced by Alan Wiss in the 36th minute.

It started small, balls seemed to bounce our way, a few passes. Yakin taking initiative. Slowly the game feels more even, and then a few minutes before the break Ianu scores. At least thats what it looked like from the other side of the pitch. Instead of awarding the goal the referee gives him a yellow card for handball. The Zone 2 celebrations stops abrubtly.

Then a few minutes later just before the break Yakin scores his third goal of the season on a corner. This time the goal stands and we are back in the game.

At halftime the mood has changed, we are now even more confident that Rolf will fix it.

Luzern starts playing second half with more confidence, St Gallen starts playing more like a Challenge league team. Almost all chances are now infront of Zone 2 where the St Gallen goalkeeper stands.

In the 55th minute Zé Vitor is sent off for elbowing Lustemberger by the excellent Massimo Busacca who has previosly refereed in 2006 World Cup, 2007 Uefa Cup final, Euro 2008 Semi Final and 2009 Championsleague final. Not exactly lightweight.

After the sending off there was little doubt that Luzern would win this game. In the last home game against YB we were also one man up for a long period though at that time FCL created nowhere near as many chances as tonight.

In the 63rd minute Ianu scores on a cross from Veskovac. Not only have we come from behind but we are going to win this game there is no doubt about that anymore. The question is by how many goals. Yakin has a great freekick, Paiva misses alone with the SG keeper.  Kukeli then picks up a Yakin corner, dribbles through the penalty area and slots the ball into the goal. 3-1. In the final moments Lustenberger also hits the post with a header. Lior got his five minutes at the end as usual, though JCBT are sure that we will eventually see him from the start.

First game this season we win with two clear goals, as any supporter knows it is a special feeling walking away from the stadium knowing that this was not a lucky win – we could have put five behind them. Zurich  only drew so we are second again.

Next week there is a break for international games, then its Aarau away. All aboard the party train!