St Gallen 1 – FC Luzern 1

White sneakers...

Dear FC St Gallen, yesterday we completely outplayed you for 45 minutes and outsang you for the full 90. I have to admit you have a nice new stadium, but cheerleaders? What were you thinking? Also, is it that hard to come up with a stadium design where you have more than a single turnstile for 600 people trying to get in at the same time? Maybe you can also pass the message to the local police force that pepper spray should not be used indiscriminatory on a crowd of people just trying to get home. Apart from that we had a great time and admittedly you kind of deserved the equaliser though it was very annoying to concede in the last second of the game. See you in two weeks at the Gersag when we knock you out of the Swiss cup.

... and white helmets.

Congratulations to all FCL fans who went yesterday, the away support was fantastic. We probably had more people at Aarau but then the atmosphere was nowhere near as good as this. Apart from the goal the real highlight of the night was the Christianu Ianu song to the tune of this classic 80’s anthem . Just can’t beat that.

FC Luzern had a great first half, the best away play I have seen all season. Even without the suspended Yakin we completely dominated and FC St Gallen looked just like the Challenge League team they were last season.

Lustenberger went on several of his trademarked runs forward, the best chance of the first 20 minutes was a counter  – Luzern players were three on one but somehow managed to be caught offside (Paiva).

In the 27th minute the excellent Frimpong gets hold of the ball on the FCL left after some good one-touch passing. He moves in towards the center of the field and sends a unstoppable rocket into the far corner of the St Gallen goal. This goal came as great relief as you kind of got the feeling that it could be one of those games where we have so much possession and creates chances but fails to score.  Soon after the goal Ianu gets the ball on the right and manages despite a very acute angle to hit the crossbar.

We are leading at half-time but still this uneasy feeling remains -  we should be two or three goals ahead and may live to regret all the missed chances.

Second half is very, very different. St Gallen are now clearly in command and we are struggling to string even a few passes together. Good news is that despite the green teams dominance they creates very few real chances. The Luzern midfield that was so dominant in the first half now completely fails to provide any useful balls to Ianu up front, we are defending quite well but as soon as we get possession we lose it again. In the 70th minute Chiumento goes on a good run forward and sets up Ianu who really should have scored but takes too much time and a St Gallen defender manages to clear.

During injury time Chiumento falls asleep in possession of the ball, and its stolen by a St Gallen forward. Almost inevitably the ball moves forward and the attack is finished by a great shot  to rival Frimpongs goal in first half. 1-1. At this point it is hard not to think about what happended at home to Basel.

P.S. To Mr Stierli, for the new ground, please do not hire a group of cheerleaders for half time entertainement, we want you to keep the drunken mascot Lions. When you renegotiate their contract make sure you have it in writing that they have to drink at least five Eichofs each prior to performing at half time. That would be truly world class entertainment.