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Marcel Koller wants to say goodbye to Basel with a second drink. Image: keystone
Despite the circus: how FC Basel wants to win the cup
FC Basel falls into chaos shortly before the cup final. Rising anger could be the key to success.
“But only questions about the cup final, I don’t say anything about the other circus.” These are the words Marcel Koller utters at the end of the FC Basel press conference ahead of Sunday’s final. And if you hadn’t realized by then: the Basel coach is upset. Irritated. Yes, perhaps the word “bitter” is more appropriate.
After all, it’s understandable that protocol forces you to sit on the podium one last time before a match. He didn’t feel like doing it after his successor had been introduced at the same venue the day before. Something Koller acknowledges with a juicy “I was wondering why it had to be.” “You could have waited until this important game was over.” Because this match is ultimately Sunday’s cup final, against none other than Bern’s great rival, Maestro YB.
Difficult task: FCB have to face Maestro YB in the cup final. Image: keystone
But somehow you get the feeling that hardly anyone is interested in this game in Basel. Too much has happened in the last few weeks. The association shows signs of dissolution. The sporting director has resigned. The U21 coach is gone. Ricky van Wolfswinkel will also be leaving. All of them announced their farewell through social or traditional networks, and took the club by surprise.
More on the case of Ricky van Wolfswinkel:
Sforza already in Basel – Koller dissatisfied
That was also done by whoever announced himself through an exclusive interview on the boulevard: neo-coach Ciriaco Sforza. FCB has more facets than FC Bayern, known as FC Hollywood. Not just because Sforza once played there. And not in a positive sense either.
This Sforza was unveiled on Thursday and he diligently said that “I would like to congratulate the team, and also Marcel Koller, who used a lot of energy.” Sforza added that the title should be won on Sunday. Until then, he says he doesn’t want to bother you. But in Koller’s eyes it was doing just that: unsettling. After all, it’s his farewell match, 101, and that one in a final. It could have been a nice story. Would have.
This was the first press conference with Sforza:
The fact that the 59-year-old is venting his disgust so strongly does not suit him. Koller always kept his composure and calm, at least in public. Of the highest employees, he shone the most with professionalism and sovereignty. Now that your engagement is coming to an end, you seem tired of trying to maintain the perfect image. There is no other way to understand their expressions. And his unusually clear self-praise.
Koller would be given a medal
On Friday, Koller said: “I don’t want to be arrogant. But we should be awarded a medal for everything we had to endure and endure. “It refers to the sports outings, the trials in the Joggeliturm and the animosities between everything and everyone at the club. Only” the team from the basement, us down there. ” they still stick together and try to get the most out of it.
Before his last game as FCB coach, Marcel Koller encountered unusually critical words. Image: keystone
You have the feeling that this is the only positive side effect that the team and staff, whose cooperation was not always characterized by harmony, have come together. Then you can hear from the players. That you not only want to win this cup final, but you also want to create it for the coach. Or for Ricky van Wolfswinkel. For those people who were treated disrespectfully and deserved a better ending.
The players themselves do not want to comment on the interference. As a representative, Captain Valentin Stocker says: “For the team, this is the cup final. I don’t want to bring everything else to the team, the decorations are not our business.
That the team is not distracted by such things and can deliver in a single decisive game has impressively shown multiple times this season. It seems much more as if the players and staff are drawing additional strength from the circus, as Koller calls it. As paradoxical as it sounds. The will and the challenge were not so great. There are fire accelerators for the fire, which you need to succeed as an underdog and crown a good sports season.
If all this anger acts as a catalyst, Stocker’s words on Friday almost sound like a threat: “I think we can win. It would be a satisfaction. “For everyone. Especially for Marcel Koller.
