FC Winterthur

2014–15 season
Chairman	Hannes W. Keller
Manager	Jürgen Seeberger
Ground	Schützenwiese, Winterthur, Switzerland
Super League	4th
Swiss Cup	2nd round
Top goalscorer	League: Patrick Bengondo (20) All: Patrick Bengondo (20)
Highest home attendance	3,400 on 30 May 2015 vs Servette
Lowest home attendance	1,600 on 25 February 2015 vs FC Le Mont
Average home league attendance	2,867
←  2013–14 2015–16 →

FC Winterthur are a Swiss football team based in Winterthur. The 2014–15 season was their 118th season since their foundation in 1896. In this campaign they competed in two competitions, the 2014–15 Swiss Challenge League and the 2014–15 Swiss Cup. The club played their home games in the Stadion Schützenwiese.

Overview

The club's chairman was Hannes W. Keller. It was his 14th and last season as club chairman and he was in office longer than any club president before him. ^[1]

The first team played their home games in the Stadion Schützenwiese, which has been their home ground since the club's foundation. To match the Swiss Football League's license requirements introduced in the 2012/13 season, the stadium was modernized in three stages. The first stage contained improvements to the lighting, security, and catering systems, completed by 2013. This was followed by a rebuild of the eastern standing terrace in the second half of 2014 and early 2015. The capacity of the stadium for the 2014–15 season was reduced to approximately 5,000 spectators, due to this renovation. On Monday evening, 2 March 2015, for the championship match against FC Schaffhausen, the new eastern standing terraces ware officially inaugurated and taken into operation. The final renovation of the main stands was to take place 2016. ^[2]

Pre-season

The most important issue in the preparation of the new season was only achieved two weeks before the start of the championship, although the change in the position of the head-coach had been announced some time in advance. After five years as boss, but because of the previous disappointing season, coach Boro Kuzmanovic had been dismissed. Jürgen Seeberger was hired a new coach. In his last job in Switzerland he led FC Schaffhausen from the third highest league to the Super League. His previous employer, SV Darmstadt 98, had separated themselves from him in December 2012.

On the transfer front it was soon clear that central defender Sead Hajrović, brother of Izet Hajrovic, would join the club coming from Grasshopper Club. Other important signings were João Paiva, who had been FC Wohlens' top scorer the previous season, center-back Dennis Iapichino, who had spent the previous two season in the Major League Soccer, by Montreal Impact and D.C. United and Marco Köfler from Kapfenberger SV. Furthermore Kristian Nushi joined from St. Gallen, Amin Tighazoui joined from Vaduz and Christian Fassnacht was signed from FC Tuggen. ^[3]

The three most prominent departures were that of 33-year-old Sawas Exouzidis, who could no longer find a place in the team that Jürgen Seeberger had massively rejuvenated, Kristian Kuzmanovic, who left the club to play for Vaduz after his father had been fired, and Marco Aratore who transferred to St. Gallen in the top level of Swiss football. ^[3]

First half of season

The first half of the season started for Winterthur on July 21, 2014 in the Schützenwiese with a home match against FC Wil. The 4–0 win against Wil was the beginning of a first good third of the championship for the club. By the end of September, six of ten games had been ended victorious and only three had ended in a defeat. Winterthur was in second position in the table at that time, five points behind the surprise leader FC Wohlen. Subsequently, however, the team slackened and only two more victories were achieved before the winter break in the remaining eight games. The gap to the top of the table grew to 9 points and the club over wintered in 4th position. The team were along way from being a promotion candidate. Despite everything, the preliminary round was stronger than the previous season and this left a good impression of the coach. In the individual criticism captain Patrick Bengondo emerged best, because he was involved in each second goal.

Second half of season

In the second half of the season, Winterthur did bot start as well as in the first half of the season. The first six games after the winter break were an up and down with three wins, two defeats and one draw. Then the team collapsed completely and managed just one single point in the following six games. This was the worst run of results that the club had achieved since the 2003–04 season. Although FCW was able to hold the fourth position in the table despite this victoryless phase, the gap to the leader increased from 11 to 33 points and they lost all contact to the extended top group. The 14 points achieved in the final six games didn't help to correct the effect of this slump either. ^[4]

Winterthur finally finished the season with 53 points in 4th place, 21 points behind the division champions and promotion winners Lugano. In the end, Der Landbote reported a "decent season" for the FCW, but once again missed the "necessary winner mentality". ^[5] What was remarkable about the 2014–15 season was the home strength and at the same time away weakness of the team. While they were the second-best team in the "home" table, four points behind newly promoted Lugano, on the other hand they were the second-worst team in the league "away" table, with just one point more than the bottom of the table Biel-Bienne. Servette did not obtain a license for the 2015-16 Challenge League season, due to the fact that they did not provide the necessary financial documents and guarantees. Servette was therefore relegated to the Promotion League. Because Servette had their license revoked Biel-Bienne escaped relegation. ^[6]

Swiss Cup

Winterthur entered into the 2014–15 Swiss Cup on 23 August 2014 in an away game in the first round against lower tier FC Eschenbach. A tenth minute goal from youngster Mario Budimir put the team on the right track. However, Eschenbach equalised in the 68th minute and Winterthur had to increase the pace. Which they did and Tunahan Cicek and Amin Tighazoui both scored, so that the team could continue to the next round.

In the second round Winterthur were drawn at home to reigning Swiss Champions Basel. The match was played on 21 September in the Schützenwiese in front of a full capacity 5,050 spectators. After a short period of testing, in which the hosts kept up well, FCB took over dictation of the game. Mohamed Elneny brought his colors into the lead after half an hour with a remarkable drop kick from outside the penalty area. This was the start of a final phase of the first half in which the Basel team won the game. Breel Embolo scored twice before the break. After the break, he crowned his performance with his third personal goal, a beautiful lifting ball from a tight angle. This 4–0 also meant the final result. Basel's victory was deserved, but FC Winterthur also played a courageous game and would have deserved a goal for the good performance. The defense in front of Basel's goalkeeper Germano Vailati held things tight and so after the first half hour, there was no longer any doubt as to which of the two teams would reach the next round. ^[7]

FC Basel continued as far as the final, but here they were beaten by FC Sion. This was the 13th cup win for FC Sion in their 13th final. ^[8]

Players

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK   SUI Matthias Minder — GK   SUI David Moser (from Thun) 18 GK   SUI Yannick Bünzli (from youth team) 3 DF   BRA Paulo Menezes 4 DF   SUI Sead Hajrović (from Grasshopper Club) 5 DF   SUI Stefan Iten 14 DF   SUI Patrik Schuler 15 DF   SUI Dennis Iapichino (from D.C. United) 17 DF   SUI Marco Köfler (from Kapfenberger SV) 21 DF   SUI Patrik Baumann 23 DF   SUI Jan Elvedi (from youth team) 25 DF   SUI Manuel Akanji (from youth team) 27 DF   SUI Tobias Schättin (from youth team)

No. Pos. Nation Player 7 MF   KOS Kristian Nushi (from St. Gallen) 8 MF   SUI Antonio Marchesano 10 MF   FRA Amin Tighazoui (from Vaduz) 13 MF   SUI Gianluca D'Angelo 19 MF   SUI Mario Budimir 20 MF   SUI Sandro Foschini (from Aarau) 22 MF   SUI Stefano Milani (from FC Wohlen) 29 MF   TUR Tunahan Cicek 9 FW   SUI Patrick Bengondo 11 FW   POR João Paiva (from FC Wohlen) 16 FW   SUI Christian Fassnacht (from FC Tuggen) 24 FW   SUI Genc Krasniqi (from Grasshopper Club) 31 FW   SUI Simon Mesonero

Results

Swiss Challenge League

Matches

Winterthur v Wil

21 July 2014 Match 1	Winterthur	4 - 0	Wil	Winterthur
19:45	Paiva 7' 36' 79' Bengondo 60'	Summary	Silvano Schäppi  65'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 2,500 Referee: Lukas Fähndrich

Lugano v Winterthur

26 July 2014 Match 2	Lugano	2 - 1	Winterthur	Lugano
17:45	Rafael da Silva 3' ( pen.) 17'  63'	Summary	D'Angelo  2'  34'  Bengondo 10' ( pen.) Tighazoui  79'	Stadium: Cornaredo Stadium Attendance: 3,225 Referee: Urs Schnyder

Winterthur v Chiasso

2 August 2014 Match 3	Winterthur	1 - 0	Chiasso	Winterthur
17:45	João Paiva 26' Bengondo  51' Cicek  65'	Summary	Michele Monighetti  16' Diarra  30' Emmanuele Sembroni  49'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 2,900 Referee: Sascha Amhof

Winterthur v Biel-Bienne

9 August 2014 Match 4	Winterthur	4 - 3	Biel-Bienne	Winterthur
17:45	Bengondo 20' Cicek 54' D'Angelo 83' Menezes 87' Minder  90+1'	Summary	Sheholli  20' Sejmenović 41' Norman Peyretti 44'  58' Kaua Safari 75' Kamber  83' Luís Pimenta  90+1'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 3,100 Referee: Lukas Fähndrich

Servette v Winterthur

13 August 2014 Match 5	Servette	0 - 0	Winterthur	Geneva
19:45	Mfuyi  51' Müller  70'	Summary	Patrik Schuler  80' Minder  81'	Stadium: Stade de Genève Attendance: 2,432 Referee: Pascal Erlachner

Winterthur v Wohlen

16 August 2014 Match 6	Winterthur	0 - 2	Wohlen	Winterthur
17:45	Marchesano  3' Patrik Schuler  11' Bengondo  88' Hajrović  90+2'	Summary	Brahimi 1' Pezzoni  8' Stadelmann  33' Ramizi 90'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 3,500 Referee: Luca Gut

Schaffhausen v Winterthur

1 September 2014 Match 7	Schaffhausen	1 - 4	Winterthur	Schaffhausen
19:45	Cristian Miani  19' 47' N'Dzomo  23'  Raphael Mollet  82'	Summary	Genc Krasniqi  36' Iten  43' D'Angelo  45+2' 53' 90+5' João Paiva 55' Menezes  72' Bengondo 78'	Stadium: Stadion Breite Attendance: 2,867 Referee: Tomasz Supercyznski

Winterthur v FC Le Mont

14 September 2014 Match 8	Winterthur	2 - 0	FC Le Mont	Winterthur
15:00 CET	João Paiva 16'  74' Foschini 41' Iten  56'	Summary	N'Diasse N'Diaye  57' Berisha  69' Tall  73' Reis  74' Ndiaye  75' Gétaz  90+2'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 3,100 Referee: Nicolas Jancevski

Lausanne-Sport v Winterthur

24 September 2014 Match 9	Lausanne-Sport	2 - 1	Winterthur	Lausanne
19:45 CET	Rippert  55' Marazzi 57' De Pierro 82'	Summary	Bengondo 15'  24' D'Angelo  49' Stefano Milani  77' João Paiva  85'	Stadium: Stade Olympique de la Pontaise Attendance: 1,450 Referee: Fedayi San

Winterthur v Servette

29 September 2014 Match 10	Winterthur	4 - 2	Servette	Winterthur
19:45 CET	Bengondo 27' João Paiva 37' D'Angelo 40' Cicek 47'	Summary	Avanzini 17' Vonlanthen 42' Pasche  84'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 3,000 Referee: Tomasz Superczynski

FC Chiasso v Winterthur

5 October 2014 Match 11	FC Chiasso	1 - 1	Winterthur	Chiasso
15:00 CET	Emmanuele Sembroni  37' Mirko Quaresima  61' Mihajlović 80' Regazzoni  90+2'	Summary	Akanji  59' 90'	Stadium: Stadio Comunale Attendance: 1,000 Referee: Nicolas Jancevski

FC Le Mont v Winterthur

18 October 2014 Match 12	FC Le Mont	3 - 2	Winterthur	Baulmes
17:45 CET	Mustafi 27' 58' 78' Berisha  63' Araz  88' Leoni  88'	Summary	Cicek 49' Hajrović  53' Tighazoui 70' D'Angelo  90'	Stadium: Stade Sous-Ville Attendance: 350 Referee: Luca Gut

Winterthur v Schaffhausen

27 October 2014 Match 13	Winterthur	3 - 2	Schaffhausen	Winterthur
19:45 CET	Bengondo  36' Paiva 38' Cicek  46' Schnorf 56' ( o.g.) Marchesano 72' Genc Krasniqi  83'	Summary	Tadić 9' Gül 45' Schnorf  51' Ivić  86'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 3,300 Referee: Nikolaj Hänni

FC Winterthur v Lugano

1 November 2014 Match 14	FC Winterthur	0 - 0	Lugano	Winterthur
17:45 CET	Krasniqi  28'	Summary	Urbano  56' Toretti  88'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 3,100 Referee: Urs Schnyder

Wil v FC Winterthur

8 November 2014 Match 15	Wil	0 - 3	FC Winterthur	Wil
17:45 CET		Summary	Bengondo 24' 30'  66' Marchesano 87'	Stadium: IGP Arena Attendance: 1,740 Referee: Esther Staubli

FC Winterthur v Lausanne-Sport

23 November 2014 Match 16	FC Winterthur	0 - 1	Lausanne-Sport	Winterthur
15:00 CET	Paulinho  18' D'Angelo  64'	Summary	Dupuis 19' ( pen.) Rippert  27'  69'  Savic  90'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 3,000 Referee: Tomasz Superczynski

Biel v Winterthur

30 November 2014 Match 17	Biel	2 - 2	Winterthur	Biel
15:00 CET	Manière  23' Siegrist 63' Safari 74' Salamand  90+2'	Summary	Bengondo 46'  88'  90+3'  Paiva 61' Krasniqi  90'	Stadium: Stadion Gurzelen Attendance: 868 Referee: Roland Huwiler

Wohlen v Winterthur

7 December 2014 Match 18	Wohlen	1 - 0	Winterthur	Wohlen
15:00 CET	Ramizi  33' 83' Minkwitz  61' Brahimi  84' Thaqi  89'	Summary	D'Angelo  40' Paiva  67'	Stadium: Stadion Niedermatten Attendance: 1,650 Referee: Nicolas Jancevski

Winterthur v FC Le Mont

25 February 2015 Match 19	Winterthur	2 - 1	FC Le Mont	Winterthur
19:45 CET	Foschini 36' D'Angelo  54'  56'  Krasniqi 88'	Summary	Reis  31' Sessolo 82'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 1,600 Referee: Pascal Erlachner

Biel v Winterthur

18 March 2015 Match 20	Biel	4 - 1	Winterthur	Biel
18:30 CET	Ukoh 30' Cidimar 45' 76' Peyretti 84'	Summary	Paiva 4'  32' Paulinho  28' Schuler  62'	Stadium: Gurzelen Attendance: 982 Referee: Stephan Studer

Wil v Winterthur

21 February 2015 Match 21	Wil	2 - 2	Winterthur	Wil
17:45 CET	Lekaj  14' Stillhart 49'  61' Koller 67' Sacirovic  88'	Summary	Krasniqi 57'  32' Paiva 65'	Stadium: IGP Arena Attendance: 1,450 Referee: Nicolas Jancevski

Winterthur v Schaffhausen

2 March 2015 Match 22	Winterthur	2 - 1	Schaffhausen	Winterthur
19:45 CET	Cicek 8'  8' Foschini 17' Schuler  27'	Summary	Gonçalves  45+1' Almerares 58' Mariani  80'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 3,200 Referee: Luca Gut

Servette v Winterthur

7 March 2015 Match 23	Servette	2 - 1	Winterthur	Geneva
16:00 CET	Dams  47' Gazzetta 58'  59' Vonlanthen 63' Doumbia  87'	Summary	Bengondo  18' Paiva 69' D'Angelo  85'	Stadium: Stade de Genève Attendance: 4,039 Referee: Vladimir Ovcharov

Winterthur v Lausanne-Sport

14 March 2015 Match 24	Winterthur	4 - 1	Lausanne-Sport	Winterthur
17:45 CET	Foschini 7' Bengondo 11' Paiva 50' Cicek  67' Nushi 90+3'	Summary	Malonga  42' Krasniqi  85' Dessarzin 90'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 3,000 Referee: Lionel Tschudi

Lugano v Winterthur

22 March 2015 Match 25	Lugano	3 - 0	Winterthur	Lugano
15:00 CET	Paçarizi  14' Rey  45+2' Tosetti  56' Rossini 66' 68' Cortelezzi 89'	Summary	Iapichino  13' Paulinho  45+2' Akanji  90+1'	Stadium: Stadio Cornaredo Attendance: 2,847 Referee: Sascha Amhof

Winterthur v Wohlen

2 April 2015 Match 26	Winterthur	1 - 2	Wohlen	Winterthur
19:45 CET	Cicek 22'	Summary	Pezzoni 7' Rapp 55' Buess  71'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 2,600 Referee: Luca Gut

Winterthur v Chiasso

11 April 2015 Match 27	Winterthur	0 - 0	Chiasso	Winterthur
17:45 CET	Iapichino  46' Hajrović  77'	Summary	Parfait  43'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 2,500 Referee: Vladimir Ovcharov

Schaffhausen v Winterthur

20 April 2015 Match 28	Schaffhausen	3 - 2	Winterthur	Schaffhausen
19:45	Tadic 29' Alioski  35' Bunjaku  41' Mariani  52' 57' Dos Santos 65'	Summary	Bengondo 78' Tighazoui 88'	Stadium: Stadion Breite Attendance: 2,559 Referee: Roland Huwiler

Winterthur v Lugano

25 April 2015 Match 29	Winterthur	0 - 1	Lugano	Winterthur
17:45 CET	Iten  87'	Summary	Basic 37' Lombardi  64' Malvino  66' Melazzi  74' Sabbatini  90+4'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 2,500 Referee: Tomasz Superczynski

Wohlen v Winterthur

29 April 2015 Match 30	Wohlen	2 - 1	Winterthur	Wohlen
19:45	Schultz 26' Ramizi  38' Giampà  42' Brahimi  60' Geissmann 87'	Summary	Iapichino  11' Fassnacht 82'	Stadium: Stadion Niedermatten Attendance: 1,240 Referee: Esther Staubli

Winterthur v Biel

3 May 2015 Match 31	Winterthur	5 - 2	Biel	Winterthur
15:00 CET	Foschini 11'  44' Schuler  13'  33'  Tighazoui 17' 40' Paiva 54' Bengondo 90+4'	Summary	Cidimar 69' ( pen.) Morello  71' Safari  77' Pimenta 84' Sabbatini  90+4'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 2,000 Referee: Fedayi San

FC Le Mont v Winterthur

10 May 2015 Match 32	FC Le Mont	1 - 3	Winterthur	Baulmes
15:00	Reis  12' Dubajic 34'  65' Chappuis  48' Tall  74'	Summary	Bengondo 14' ( pen.)  79' Iten  45+3' Tighazoui 77' Cicek 90+1'	Stadium: Stade Sous-Ville Attendance: 350 Referee: Lukas Fähndrich

Chiasso v Winterthur

17 May 2015 Match 33	Chiasso	0 - 0	Winterthur	Chiasso
15:00	Maccoppi  31' Regazzoni  45'	Summary	Köfler  32' Akanji  90+3'	Stadium: Stadio Comunale Attendance: 1,000 Referee: Lionel Tschudi

Winterthur v Wil

22 May 2015 Match 34	Winterthur	4 - 1	Wil	Winterthur
19:45 CET	Bengondo 5' ( pen.) 69' Paiva 25' D'Angelo 60' Akanji  90+3'	Summary	Cerrone 14' ( pen.) Matri  89'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 3,300 Referee: Urs Schnyder

Lausanne-Sport v Winterthur

25 May 2015 Match 35	Lausanne-Sport	1 - 1	Winterthur	Lausanne
18:00	Dessarzin 22'	Summary	D'Angelo 75'	Stadium: Stade Olympique de la Pontaise Attendance: 1,030 Referee: Khamis Mohammed Al Marri

Winterthur v Servette

30 May 2015 Match 36	Winterthur	4 - 0	Servette	Winterthur
19:45 CET	Tighazoui 26'  43' Bengondo 59' Trachsel 77' Fassnacht 90+2'	Summary		Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 3,400 Referee: Roland Huwiler

League standings

Swiss Cup

FC Eschenbach v FC Winterthur

23 August 2014 Round 1	FC Eschenbach	1 - 3	FC Winterthur	Eschenbach
17:00 CET	Silvan Sager  42' Raphael Felder 67'	Summary	Budimir 10' Cicek 74' Tighazoui 81' Krasniqi  90'	Stadium: Sportplatz Weiherhaus Attendance: 800 Referee: Tschudin

FC Winterthur v FC Basel

21 September 2014 Round 2	FC Winterthur	0 - 4	FC Basel	Winterthur
14:00 CET	Bengondo  14' Iapichino  71'	Summary (FCB Report)	Elneny 31'  45' Embolo 36' 43' 66' Díaz 64'	Stadium: Stadion Schützenwiese Attendance: 5,050 (sold out) Referee: Stephan Studer

References

Sources

• Swiss Challenge League 2014–15 at RSSSF

External links

• Official website (in German)
• "Bierkurve Winterthur" supporters club (in German)
• "Laufpass" - Fanzine (in German)
• Soccerway.com profile
• Football.ch profile (in German, French, and Italian)