In the 2:3 draw in Yverdon, Zurich only played with ten men. This results in the seventh game in a row without a win.
Lots of artistry, little return: GC player Tsiy Ndenge tries to avert an attack from Yverdon.
Valentin Flauraud / Keystone
(sda) The Grasshoppers, who have often been so harmless this year, had a lot planned for the game against the newly promoted team in Yverdon. With a win you could have almost forgotten the weak past few weeks, you would have come within one point of Yverdon.
But nothing goes as planned for the Grasshoppers. At least the people of Zurich will be able to take some courage from the scenario in Yverdon. Ten of them scored to make it 1:1 (52nd) and 2:3 (63rd). Pascal Schürpf was successful twice, doubling his goal tally in the Hoppers jersey.
The fact that two goals were not enough for the Zurich team, who had been inadequate offensively this year, to be counted on was due to the mortgage negotiated in the first quarter of the game. In the 9th minute, a shot from Kevin Carlos flew over the crossbar and slightly deflected into the goal to make it 0-1. Less than fifteen minutes later, GC’s Australian Joshua Laws was shown a red card for an emergency stop on Carlos – a direct result of a catastrophic bad pass from Law’s defender colleague Dirk Abels.
Berner, who has received the support of his superiors in recent days, will be able to claim that his speech at halftime has brought about an improvement in his team’s game. But the pure numbers speak more than ever against GC. After seven games without a win, the gap to Basel, who is immediately ahead of the record champions, has grown to six points.
Results. Saturday: Stade Lausanne-Ouchy – Basel 0:2 (0:1). Winterthur – Lugano 2:2 (0:0). Servette – Zurich 0:1 (0:1). – Sunday: Lucerne – Lausanne-Sport 0-0. St. Gallen – Young Boys 2:2 (1:0). Yverdon – Grasshoppers 3:2 (1:0).
Ranking: 1. Young Boys 59. 2. Servette 54. 3. Lugano 53. 4. Zürich 48. 5. Winterthur 46. 6. St. Gallen 44. 7. Luzern 43. 8. Lausanne-Sport 37. 9. Yverdon 37. 10. Basel 36. 11. Grasshoppers 30. 12. Stade Lausanne-Ouchy 23.