While the world finds itself in its calmest and coldest state in the next 50 years, where Yakin’s Nati managed to score fewer points than Gibraltar, Malta, Andorra and the Faroe Islands during the international break which ended on Tuesday past and where the Kiki of Real boycotted a cape against Israel to take scuds without his consent on his return from Stockholm, Swedish capital where Stanimal Wawrinka finally won two matches in a row – the first in 13 months – our Credit Suisse Super League à offered us – after the first 108 matches of the championship – the unrivaled summit of Swiss football: the Rhône derby, the first of its name this season. Acme of acmes. #Swoon
Little useless pre-match stats
Over these last 20 matches, Servette had finished 9 times victorious for 6 defeats, with 5 shutouts to boot. For Zion, it was 11 wins, 5 losses and 8 shutouts.
Servette had made 12 matches with more than 2.5 goals, 11 for Sion.
The match in two words
I wouldn’t be surprised if the people of Valais saw, on a Vaud motorway rest area, a tag that said: “Don’t let anyone ruin your day. It’s your day. Destroy it yourself.” Servette did not win this match, it was the Sédunois who, all alone, let it slip away.
We’re not going to hide it from you, if you’re going to swoon, you’ll have to come back. #boredom
Man of the match
Mića Stevanovic. The incredible Mića Stevanovic. The man knows how to do everything. Forward, backward, left, right, verticality too. Overflow, center. Come back, defend, tackle, get up, restart. Look up, scan the game, feel the best option every time. Haeberli can even put it on goal, he would pull out all the stops there too.
An audience of connoisseurs would have directly given him the Migros trophy for Best Player on the pitch. An audience of connoisseurs, I said.
The sausages of the match
The ultras who boycott the first half, giving us the feeling of being lying in an operating room, staring at the ceiling, already under the effect of anesthesia. Then who enter timidly from the 46th and more generally from the 2-0, especially on the Geneva side. We really prefer a stadium that vibrates, putting pressure on from a burning stand, rather than a stadium that causes depression.
If you think that ultras are just fuckers, don’t forget that even if some of them are, they are first and foremost essential to a good football match.
The turning point of the match
When I watch a football match and there is a goal, I always wonder where the goal starts. Is it recovery? On relaunch? The moment one of the players receives a good pass?
Since this Servette – Sion, I can answer this question: it’s every time Stevanonic touches the ball. 3 goals, 2 assists and taking the free kick which makes it 3-0.
This man shoots a match all by himself.
The esthete of the match
Crivelli who, following his goal, offers a little comfort to the Valais supporters worthy of a Carlos Varela never forgotten, neither on the Servetti side, nor on the Sedun side. An icon. #Revival
The 2 stupid figures
First of all, 12,987.
Always easy, when you’re looking for a stupid figure, to hit on the crowds at the Bouveret end of lake stadium. So we add another layer.
12,987 spectators, or less than one in two places occupied. The Rhône derby is much better in Sion, in a stadium full as an egg, singing and vibrating from start to finish. But there you go, G’nève is not a football city. We only fill this damn Praille stadium with the help of tourists, curious people who take advantage of the passage of a “big” European (Genk, Rangers, etc.) to treat themselves to a little thrill one evening summer. Or for Johnny Hallyday.
Then, 13, the number of corners from which the Valaisans benefited. 13 “occasions” properly harvested. That’s good, it’s in season.
L’anecdote
CC did not arrive by helicopter at the stadium. Perhaps because no place is provided for this purpose in La Praille, unlike La Blancherie in Delémont. Or that the Lancy-Bachet station is so close to the stadium that any other choice of means of transport is a bit stupid.
L’anecdote 2
Given that in Sion, we change presidents less often than coaches, all of footballing Switzerland knows it, the CC. And even beyond. On the other hand, getting the name out of the name of Servette is more complicated. I’ll help you: since July 2024, it’s Hervé Broch.
However, a joke among jokes, Hervé Broch is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the ARSA Group, a large construction company which is bringing out of the ground the projects of the architectural office of Porte d’Octodure (CC offices, for those who do not follow) and incidentally jersey sponsor of… FC Sion.
The football world is so small.
L’anecdote 3
At Charmilles, it was always full for the derby.
L’anecdote 4
Didier Tholot had never led his FC Sion against Servette, despite his 183 matches on the Valais bench. Well, at the same time, Didier Tholot has only been a coach since 2002 and over the last 22 years, Servette has spent more time in the lower leagues than at the top.
L’anecdote 5
Servette now has a positive goal difference. Harry “Kutesa” Potter has nothing to do with it.
The non-anecdote
Enzo Crivelli finally scored in the game this season in the Super League. His contract at the end of Lake Geneva ends on June 30, 2025.
If the match was a beer
Let those who manage to get served at La Praille tell us.
The minute Hélène Segara
“We try, we believe we can, to forget over time. We never forget anything, we live with it”
The 5-0 on May 13, 2023 was all the pre-match comments. And that Clichy, and that 3-0 after 9 minutes of play, and that humiliation, and that Servette keeps a bright memory of the derby, etc… No journalist has ignored the waltz offered by the Grenat to a team in distress, losing at half-time and his service pikachu and his coach, eminent relegation specialist (six, in his playing career, in six different clubs), ex-assistant to Zidane at Real.
No, the Valais deculottée of May 13, 2023 is not forgotten, will never be forgotten.
At Red Card either, we never forget anything. For example, we do not forget the 8-2, at Tourbillon, on June 5, 1985, nor the 4-3, still at Tourbillon, on March 8, 1992 (0-3 at half-time, Pino Manfreda in charge in 2nd, to the great pleasure of our esteemed colleague Laurent Ducret And let’s not forget the 0-0, at Charmilles, on May 23, 1992. Nor the 0-4 at Tourbillon on August 28, 2011 or the 4-. 0 at La Praille on May 25, 2013.
This derby must be written in capital letters everywhere, always.
We would of course have wanted to add anthology lines between these dates. But now, both clubs have had to live with bankruptcies, relegations, promotions, new relegations and covid (3-5 on April 22, 2021). They had to live with it to be able to relive this Rhône derby, 121st of the name.
Summary of the last 30 matches: 9 victories for Servette – 12 draws – 9 victories for Sion.
And then this October 19th. This 3-0. Which we will not forget either.
Thank you Helene.
The retrospective of the next match
We will have to play another 108 championship matches before the next Rhône derby, 122nd of the name, this time in Valais.
The rest is just garnish.
