Because Lucerne lost against YB in Bern, FC Winterthur qualified early for the championship round of the best six Super League clubs thanks to the 1-0 away win against Lausanne-Ouchy. Will the underdog fairy tale continue?
Sayfallah Ltaief (center) is also one of the most noticeable players in FC Winterthur on the Pontaise in Lausanne.
Jean-Christophe Bott / Keystone
If you had predicted last summer that FC Winterthur would make it into the top six of the league one round before being separated into the Champions Group and Relegation Group, you would have been scolded for being ignorant. At the start of the season, the FCW announced that they wanted to develop more quality of play, play less like an underdog and focus the team forward and establish themselves in the long term in the league, which has been expanded to twelve teams.
A nice plan after the newly promoted team had just barely managed to stay a single point ahead of the desolate FC Sion in the Super League. Wouldn’t it have been more realistic to declare a 38-round relegation battle this season? No it was not. FC Winterthur is in the cup semi-final against Servette on the Sunday after next. It has almost always shown entertaining, courageous performances and boldly benefits when clubs like FC Basel or the Grasshoppers get in their own way.
Feeling for young players who make the second attempt
Final training before the away match against Lausanne-Ouchy. The sun is shining on the Schützenwiese, the juniors are on their way to the dressing room, the first team players are being rushed from one pole to the other for sprint exercises. Coach Patrick Frame exchanges a few words with Dario Zuffi, who has been an assistant at FC Winterthur for what feels like an eternity.
Oliver Kaiser, sports director and like many others at the club since childhood, stands with his son at the railing of the training field. “Everyone has to know their task,” says the 44-year-old, “and fulfill this task with the greatest possible freedom for the whole thing to function.” “The whole thing” is working extremely successfully at FC Winterthur. But no one in the club would say that.
In the championship round: The Winterthur players celebrate after the 1-0 win on the Pontaise against Lausanne-Ouchy.
Jean-Christophe Bott / Keystone
Neither does the coach Patrick Frame, at least not now after the final training. Frame pulls out a chair with a cup of espresso in his hand and sits down. For him, this is not the moment to talk about the near success of having made the almost impossible possible by reaching the championship round. His thoughts are on the possible tactics of the opponent, on his own team. Step by step is the way of thinking. At some point in the conversation, Frame says: “Individually, everyone has limits, but as a team you have almost none.”
It is a truism that Framework cites as one of the principles for his coaching work. But the 55-year-old has shown with the club and its players this season that you can go far as a team if those involved act accordingly in their daily interactions. “Almost the main part of my work is communication – with the staff, the sports director, the media, but above all with the players: They want to know what role is intended for them so that they can improve,” says Framework.
An example of “getting better” is defending: Winterthur scored a lot of goals in the first half of the championship, but at the same time conceded even more goals. The knowledge of how to improve defensive work did not require a doctorate in rocket science. But implementing this knowledge requires a feeling for the players’ possibilities and didactic skills if the offensive quality is not to suffer. It succeeded: in the first 18 games the goal difference was -7, in the 14 games after the winter break it was +7.
Another example of “getting better” are younger players like Nishan Burkart, Adrian Durrer, Randy Schneider, Alexandre Jankewitz or the now highly rated Sayfallah Ltaief and Matteo Di Giusto: They all came to FC Winterthur after using their talent to play in bigger leagues Clubs have reached their limits and are now making a second attempt.
Frame says: “You have to develop a clear plan with the sports director and the staff for players who have already shown their skills – and as a coach you have to have a sense of following this plan with the player.” The sale of ex-YB player Samuel Ballet to Como for around 2 million francs during the winter break shows that the FCW also works with the business model of training, developing and selling young players. Or let them move on. As with the trainers.
Framework is already planning the future – with FC Winterthur
At least that’s how it was with Alex Frei and Bruno Berner, Frame’s predecessors: After promotion, Frei couldn’t resist the call of his parent club FC Basel. After staying in the league last May, Berner also succumbed to the shawm of his parent club GC. What will happen next for Frame after he has developed the team so successfully? The Young Boys are looking for a coach, as are many other clubs.
Frame has already experienced a lot as a coach. He was an assistant at Hamburger SV, in Lucerne, head coach in Aarau, Biel, he was coach of the Swiss U21 at the last European Championships. And in his home club FC Basel, Framework has also experienced a lot as an assistant, interim and head coach with owners like Bernhard Burgener or David Degen, who later described the dismissal of Framework as “the biggest mistake as FCB president”.
The framework contract in Winterthur also applies to the next season. He feels comfortable in Winterthur and has been talking to the sports director for a long time about plans for next season.