Just a short trip from my Swiss home in Winterthur, St. Gallen was an obvious choice for my first taste of Swiss away football.
Our trip started at Winterthur station sitting on a platform, getting drunk while waiting for the arrival of the train. The train's arrival was preceded by familiar singing of "FC Winti - FCW" to the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" theme. (English readers should realize 'W' in German is pronounced 'Vay'" so it does fit). There was also a hell of a lot of smoke as a flare was thrown to herald the arrival of the "Winti Fanatics".
After a brief panic (lost my wallet and had it returned by a fellow Winti fan), we boarded what was to be a noisy trip Gossau. It was crowded and I seated myself next to a young lady who was apparently studying Russian and cracked open a beer.
Her face was a picture of disgust. A football hooligan was sitting next to her. I was obviously a hooligan. I was wearing a scarf, a shirt and was drinking beer. I felt the animosity and so sang along with the noisy fans on the upper deck.
Now, I did say we were going to Gossau, not St. Gallen and that, for me,is my major issue with the AFG Arena. It simply isn't in St. Gallen. It's in the suburb of Winkeln, between Gossau and St. Gallen. So how at home are the St. Gallen fans?
The Winti fans didn't care. Escorted by a reasonably subtle police-force from Winkeln station. They were loud and boisterouse. Never really confrontational though with "Scheiss St. Galler" being the most aggressive chant during the 20 minute march from the station. It would normally take 10 -if that. But with stopping for a good old chant and a sing it took longer.
The stadium actually has a shopping centre underneath it. Quite a big one too, but on this occasion we were escorted up the stairs and into our cage for the evening. The away fans are literally caged off from the rest of St. Gallen as soon as they climb the stairs of the footbridge crossing the road outside. Even the refreshment stand has a very sturdy grill and your beer and burgers are passed through a hole in front of the Staff. Strange really, I didn't think the staff there looked so scary.
Out into the Gast Sektor in one of the corners and, its modern clean, great view, although from behind heavy duty netting (no fences though).
In fact security was the overwhelming theme of the away-end. There was actually no need for fences. A kind of moat, and then those nets removed any threat that there could have been to the pitch,
Anyway, here's my scores out of 10 for the AFG Arena.
Getting there:
8/10 - Mainline train link to Gossau followed by a single stop on an urban train line to Winkeln. About 10 minutes walk to the stadium
Friendliness:
3/10 - OK we were the away fans and it was a Derby but still, the police made absolutely sure we went in our cage. Absolutely no chances are taken with away fans, particularly if there is any kind of rivalry. "Caged" would be my buzzword of the day. Staff in the Gast-Sektor were friendly enough though.
Kept back 30 minutes at the end of the match by a line of RoboCops (Body armour, tear-gas canons, mace, night-stick). Very pointless as by the time we arrived at Winkeln station ST. Gallen Fans were drinking at open-air bars - and many Winti Fans joined them.
Safety:
5/10 - Loads of security but how much safety? It is an all-seater stadium so the chances of a crush are small. Were there a crush, it was quite a drop to pitch level although the safety netting would have cushioned the first few. There was also an incident at the end where a Winterthur fan required medical attention. It took a good 10 minutes before a first-aider was there. Not acceptable!
View:
7/10 - Excellent for a corner
Price:
26 SFr for me and, bargain of the day, the wife got a "lady's day" treat at just 5 Sfr. No program though. These were for standing places, but exactly where we were supposed to stand was not clear. That said, we managed it (can a Winti fan really allow his butt to touch the Green of Gallen?)
Atmosphere:
7/10. Probably lifted from a 5 due to the fact that we were with Winterthur fans.
Refreshments:
5/10 - Schützengarten is the local brew. It's not the worst in Switzerland, but being the best isn't that good! Typical stadium food.
Redeeming Feature:
Seats in the dug-outs that look like urinals. The stadium stylists should take a look at that.
Overall - 35/60
The Match
A good one as you could expect with a local Derby. Winterthur were the better side in the first half and fully deserved their 1: 0 lead at the break with an own goal. After the break, St.Gallen came right back and grabbed an equalizer through Manuel Sutter. Winti's Patrick Bengondo's honesty in not going down when clearly pulled back made it difficult for the referee to give a penalty but on the day, 1 :1 was fair enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment