That was the preliminary round of 2023/24 – a slightly different half-year overview: from the loser bird to the aspen mystery

YB qualifies for the Champions League. YB winters European. YB is in the quarter finals of the cup. After 18 laps, YB already has a significant lead of 15 points. And yet there are always secret predictions of doom because of conservative football with clearly the best team in the competition. But coach Raphael Wicky makes these calls bounce off like water on Teflon. And the fact that YB did not extend his contract in the old year – unlike Adi Hütter and Gerry Seoane – does not even remotely worry the Upper Valais resident. The breed of people from the upper Rhone Valley can be extremely stubborn on the one hand, emotionally explosive on the other, and very zen, i.e. calm within themselves, third. Wicky combines all these character traits.

You have to give one thing to the controversial Palatinate. He has never lacked self-confidence. The current team was better than the one that reached the semi-finals of the Conference League, the then sports director said at the end of August. Four months later, that statement appears to have been a monumental error of judgment. The choice of Timo Schultz, the absolute dream coach, the ‘perfect match’, was also a mistake – and the beginning of Vogel’s end in Basel. FCB boss David Degen still gives him the chance to work with the team he had planned. After four games, four defeats and zero goals, the bosses pulled the cord. And Heiko Vogel can do what he loves again in the winter: watching biathlon.

What a masterpiece! Your jaw really dropped when you saw that thing in the stadium. It happened on September 30 in Letzigrund. Ulisses Garcia hits one of his inimitable crosses. The classification defenders give Cedric Itten some space in the penalty area. Which he uses to set up a Zlatan backheel goal. Wow! Click your tongue. Itten himself says: “That was one of the best goals of my career.” The goal was also voted the best of the first half of the season by SRF.

Kastriot Imeri was once one of the biggest promises in Swiss football. In November 2021, the Geneve will make its debut in A-Nati, Switzerland, and the following summer he will become YB’s record buyer. But since then, development has stagnated, mainly due to injuries. Premature low point: In September he tore his outer ligament. The injury was treated conservatively before the comeback suffered a setback and Imeri had to undergo surgery. He will not play again this season.

Due to the expansion of the competition and because the Challenge League club has the upper hand in the Barrage, three promoted teams will play in the Super League this season. All from French-speaking Switzerland. The football fans there are happy with it, but the trio is not yet an asset to the competition. Sportingly speaking, Yverdon, Stade-Lausanne-Ouchy and Lausanne-Sport spend the winter in the bottom half of the rankings, with the top two also at the bottom of the spectator rankings. In return, SLO and Yverdon surprise with bizarre personnel policy: both clubs have already replaced their coaches, although Marco Schällibaum and Anthony Braizat performed a small miracle with promotion.

Swiss craftsmanship (or footwork) is – thanks to FC Winterthur – still worth something in the Super League. The Eulachstädter regularly field a starting eleven, in which every player has a Swiss passport. This should not be a vote against foreign players. But the Super League is committed to training Swiss players – Winterthur implements this in an exemplary manner. With more than 80 percent of the Swiss minutes played, Winti is by far the leader, ahead of YB with 53 percent. At all other clubs, legionnaires play more often than Swiss.

There are things that cannot be explained. At least not rationally. Not even in high-tech football. Nine games, nine wins – that is FC St. Gallen’s fantastic home record. And abroad? When Zeidler’s team barely puts one foot in front of the other, they win only one out of nine games. Striker Julian von Moos cannot explain it: “We don’t go into matches any differently than at home.” As with so many things in football, expected goals formulas and other statistical bells and whistles don’t help at all. That’s part of the beauty of this sport.

Do you notice it – or not? The current season is the first without Christian Constantin in 17 years. Super League without its most dazzling figure? Go. But something is missing. In the Challenge League, CC is much calmer. Also because things are going quite well from a sporting point of view, he leaves coach Didier Tholot alone. Still enough to make headlines. Especially when he runs over the foot of his friend, the great art magnate Léonard Gianadda, with his SUV and takes him to the hospital. A few weeks later he comes out in a coffin. He dies of cancer.

Just like last season, Taulant Xhaka is also in the middle this year. It was the 18th minute of the match between FCB and GC (0-1) when he knocked down GC striker and Basel loanee Bradley Fink with a kung fu kick. The red card (his seventh in his career) is the logical consequence. Xhaka sees it differently and loudly calls on Fink to be honest. He answers succinctly that he is honest. After the final whistle, Xhaka’s teammates were equally annoyed with the broadcast. “We get a straight red,” captain Fabian Frei responds angrily. The league is not impressed and suspends Xhaka for two matches.