Marked for Simon Schär
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Nov 2040
Tempers go at Vaduz
Enes Yazici was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Nov 2040
Dimitri Lucea falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad26 Nov 2040
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Nov 2040
The wait goes on for Vaduz
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings19 Nov 2040
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Nov 2040
Tempers go at Vaduz
Jhonier Salas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Nov 2040
Enes Yazici gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad19 Nov 2040
Words at Vaduz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christoforos Lazaridis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad19 Nov 2040
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Nov 2040
There were 12 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match10 Nov 2040
Sion punish Vaduz for switching off
4 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Simon Schär will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Vaduz escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad12 Nov 2040
Ivo Embolo breaks a bone — 19 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings12 Nov 2040
Two goals and a mark of 8.05 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match10 Nov 2040
The wait goes on for Vaduz
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad12 Nov 2040
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Nov 2040
Simon Schär scored, and precious little else went right: 4‑5 to Sion, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Player ratings12 Nov 2040
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.76, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Squad12 Nov 2040
The manager makes an example of Justin Hammel
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
In brief
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Adam Ilic
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Boardroom
Vaduz keep producing them
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces5 Nov 2040
The mood at Vaduz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom5 Nov 2040
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Vaduz can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom5 Nov 2040
Crisis meeting at Vaduz
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad5 Nov 2040
Ivo Embolo breaks a bone — 26 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 Nov 2040
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings5 Nov 2040
Age has not caught Dimitri Lucea yet — 8.00
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match3 Nov 2040
No end in sight to Vaduz's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vaduz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad5 Nov 2040
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Justin Hammel commits to Vaduz for another 2 years.
Squad5 Nov 2040
Tempers go at Vaduz
Justin Hammel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Simon Schär
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Match
Vaduz share the spoils with Zurich
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Boardroom
$380.0K a year onto the Vaduz books
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Oct 2040
A 2-goal lead gone for Vaduz
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Thun kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Vaduz will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Squad29 Oct 2040
Ivo Embolo breaks a bone — 33 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad29 Oct 2040
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Oct 2040
No end in sight to Vaduz's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vaduz has to find a result from somewhere.
Match27 Oct 2040
Isaack Ahamadi scored, and precious little else went right: 3‑5 to Thun, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad29 Oct 2040
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Oct 2040
Ivo Embolo breaks a bone — 40 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Oct 2040
Tempers go at Vaduz
Jhonier Salas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad22 Oct 2040
Words at Vaduz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitri Lucea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Oct 2040
There were 12 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad1 Oct 2040
Ivo Embolo breaks a bone — 61 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings1 Oct 2040
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.01, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Sep 2040
Ivo Embolo breaks a bone — 75 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 Sep 2040
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad17 Sep 2040
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Sep 2040
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 Sep 2040
Lugano made Vaduz work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad17 Sep 2040
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces10 Sep 2040
The mood at Vaduz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad10 Sep 2040
Ivo Embolo breaks a bone — 82 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match10 Sep 2040
Vaduz sink to position 8
8 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad10 Sep 2040
Tempers go at Vaduz
Justin Hammel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Sep 2040
“The easiest signature of my career.” Simon Schär and Vaduz agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings10 Sep 2040
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match8 Sep 2040
Vaduz come up short against Sion
Sion left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 Sep 2040
Words at Vaduz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitri Lucea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings10 Sep 2040
Off the bench and decisive: Kelefa Camara
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Vaduz were going nowhere until he came on.
In brief
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Player ratings
The pass was always on for Jovan Popović
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Boardroom
The Vaduz production line keeps running
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Market
The shop window has Breel Okafor in it
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Sep 2040
Ivo Embolo breaks a bone — 89 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad3 Sep 2040
169 appearances across 13 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Vaduz know what they have.
Market3 Sep 2040
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Vaduz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Sep 2040
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dimitri Lucea and Vaduz agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Sep 2040
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings3 Sep 2040
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match1 Sep 2040
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Zurich will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings3 Sep 2040
Defensive actions: 12. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings3 Sep 2040
11 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Aug 2040
Vaduz taken apart
2‑5 to Basel, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad20 Aug 2040
Ivo Embolo breaks a bone — 103 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match18 Aug 2040
No clean sheets in sight for Vaduz
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Match18 Aug 2040
7 goals as Vaduz and Basel go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Vaduz and Basel, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad20 Aug 2040
Tempers go at Vaduz
Enes Yazici was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Aug 2040
Dimitri Lucea falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad20 Aug 2040
The manager makes an example of Niklas Lang
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings20 Aug 2040
Jhonier Salas ran the middle of the pitch — 6.79
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.79, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Boardroom20 Aug 2040
Nobody left the Vaduz dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom6 Aug 2040
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom6 Aug 2040
Crisis meeting at Vaduz
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Player ratings6 Aug 2040
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.13, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market6 Aug 2040
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings6 Aug 2040
Dimitri Lucea, 33, rolls back the years — 8.21
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.21 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad6 Aug 2040
Tempers go at Vaduz
Justin Hammel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad6 Aug 2040
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Niklas Lang commits to Vaduz for another 2 years.
Match4 Aug 2040
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Vaduz and St. Gallen, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match4 Aug 2040
A 4‑2 win over St. Gallen, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Jul 2040
Isaack Ahamadi damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad23 Jul 2040
Tempers go at Vaduz
Justin Hammel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom23 Jul 2040
Graduation day at Vaduz
8 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad23 Jul 2040
The manager makes an example of Justin Hammel
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad23 Jul 2040
Words at Vaduz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitri Lucea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match21 Jul 2040
1‑2 to Young Boys, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market23 Jul 2040
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Edimilson Sommer has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market23 Jul 2040
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Loris Freuler has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market23 Jul 2040
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nico Elvedi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 May 2040
Anger at Vaduz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom21 May 2040
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Vaduz
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad21 May 2040
Tempers go at Vaduz
Enes Yazici was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces23 Apr 2040
Anger at Vaduz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom23 Apr 2040
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Vaduz
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad23 Apr 2040
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market5 Mar 2040
Gonzalo Diaz has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vaduz they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Mar 2040
Tempers go at Vaduz
Justin Hammel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Mar 2040
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jhonier Salas and Vaduz agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Vaduz training over how hard people work
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Squad
Simon Schär has become a man the manager trusts
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Market
Renato Benito leaves for nothing
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Jan 2040
Every point is an argument now for Vaduz
Position 8 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad16 Jan 2040
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jan 2040
Jhonier Salas falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad16 Jan 2040
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Albian Kobel, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Jan 2040
When it matters, Simon Schär plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market16 Jan 2040
The shop window has Albian Kobel in it
Vaduz have let the market know Albian Kobel can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces5 Dec 2039
The mood at Vaduz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom5 Dec 2039
Pressure builds in the Vaduz boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market5 Dec 2039
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vaduz is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Dec 2039
Tempers go at Vaduz
Justin Hammel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Dec 2039
Words at Vaduz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhonier Salas is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad5 Dec 2039
Simon Schär named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Simon Schär is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
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Squad
Simon Schär has become a man the manager trusts
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Boardroom
$389.6K a year onto the Vaduz books
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Nov 2039
Kelefa Camara breaks a bone — 24 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match21 Nov 2039
Vaduz sink to position 8
19 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings21 Nov 2039
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.16, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad21 Nov 2039
Tempers go at Vaduz
Justin Hammel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Nov 2039
Words at Vaduz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitri Lucea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match19 Nov 2039
Lugano made Vaduz work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings21 Nov 2039
Adam Ilic runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Nov 2039
Kelefa Camara has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Vaduz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Player ratings21 Nov 2039
12 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces7 Nov 2039
The mood at Vaduz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad7 Nov 2039
A knee injury of the worst kind for Isaack Ahamadi
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vaduz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Nov 2039
Kelefa Camara breaks a bone — 38 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom7 Nov 2039
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom7 Nov 2039
Crisis meeting at Vaduz
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Boardroom7 Nov 2039
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Vaduz
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match5 Nov 2039
The wait goes on for Vaduz
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market7 Nov 2039
Only the photograph left for Jesús González
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesús González will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vaduz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Nov 2039
Tempers go at Vaduz
Jhonier Salas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Vaduz training over how hard people work
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Match
Vaduz come up short against Zurich
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Player ratings
The afternoon belonged to Simon Schär
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Oct 2039
A knee injury of the worst kind for Isaack Ahamadi
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vaduz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 Oct 2039
Kelefa Camara breaks a bone — 52 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match24 Oct 2039
Every point is an argument now for Vaduz
Position 8 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings24 Oct 2039
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.30 for the rest of it.
Match22 Oct 2039
Vaduz come up short against Basel
Basel left with the points after a 3‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match22 Oct 2039
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Vaduz and Basel in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad24 Oct 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Oct 2039
Words at Vaduz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhonier Salas is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings24 Oct 2039
Chances created: 6. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
In brief
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Player ratings
Jovan Popović runs at them all day
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Boardroom
The Vaduz production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Oct 2039
A knee injury of the worst kind for Isaack Ahamadi
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vaduz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 Oct 2039
Kelefa Camara breaks a bone — 59 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 Oct 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Oct 2039
Dimitri Lucea falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match15 Oct 2039
Vaduz and Luzern take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings17 Oct 2039
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces10 Oct 2039
The mood at Vaduz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad10 Oct 2039
A knee injury of the worst kind for Isaack Ahamadi
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vaduz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 Oct 2039
Kelefa Camara breaks a bone — 66 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match8 Oct 2039
Vaduz are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Market10 Oct 2039
Jesús González has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vaduz they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Oct 2039
Tempers go at Vaduz
Justin Hammel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match8 Oct 2039
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Vaduz and St. Gallen, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match8 Oct 2039
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad10 Oct 2039
Niklas Lang gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Oct 2039
A knee injury of the worst kind for Isaack Ahamadi
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vaduz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 Oct 2039
Kelefa Camara breaks a bone — 73 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match1 Oct 2039
Simon Schär wins it after the whistle should have gone
95 minutes played. Simon Schär found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Grasshopper went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Squad3 Oct 2039
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market3 Oct 2039
Beer Bouvy has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vaduz they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Oct 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Oct 2039
Three points for Vaduz, 5‑4 the final word against Grasshopper in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Match1 Oct 2039
No clean sheets in sight for Vaduz
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Player ratings3 Oct 2039
A masterclass from Adam Ilic
Marked 8.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Sep 2039
A knee injury of the worst kind for Isaack Ahamadi
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vaduz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Sep 2039
Kelefa Camara breaks a bone — 87 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings19 Sep 2039
A brace, and Adam Ilic takes the afternoon — 8.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adam Ilic provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings19 Sep 2039
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.21, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad19 Sep 2039
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match17 Sep 2039
Vaduz get the job done against Lugano
A 4‑3 win over Lugano, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces12 Sep 2039
The mood at Vaduz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad12 Sep 2039
A knee injury of the worst kind for Isaack Ahamadi
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vaduz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Sep 2039
Kelefa Camara breaks a bone — 94 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 Sep 2039
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market12 Sep 2039
Only the photograph left for Jesús González
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesús González will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vaduz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match10 Sep 2039
It finished 3‑2, and it was Adam Ilic’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Vaduz.
Squad12 Sep 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings12 Sep 2039
Adam Ilic runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market12 Sep 2039
The market said no: Jesús González stays put
Vaduz opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Jesús González stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Aug 2039
A knee injury of the worst kind for Isaack Ahamadi
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vaduz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match17 Aug 2039
The cup run ends for Vaduz
1‑4 against Grasshopper, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad22 Aug 2039
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match20 Aug 2039
7 matches without a win for Vaduz
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Vaduz are no longer polite ones.
The terraces22 Aug 2039
A cup hiding at Grasshopper leaves Vaduz explaining themselves
1-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Match20 Aug 2039
Vaduz leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad22 Aug 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Aug 2039
Jhonier Salas falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom22 Aug 2039
Doors closed at Vaduz
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Aug 2039
A knee injury of the worst kind for Isaack Ahamadi
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vaduz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom8 Aug 2039
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Vaduz can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom8 Aug 2039
The Vaduz board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad8 Aug 2039
Adam Ilic has been here 12 seasons
147 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad8 Aug 2039
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match6 Aug 2039
The wait goes on for Vaduz
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match6 Aug 2039
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Vaduz and St. Gallen in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad8 Aug 2039
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jhonier Salas and Vaduz agree another 2 years.
Match6 Aug 2039
It finished 3‑3, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Jun 2039
A knee injury of the worst kind for Isaack Ahamadi
150 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vaduz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad27 Jun 2039
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad27 Jun 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 May 2039
Kelefa Camara has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vaduz they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 May 2039
Jhonier Salas falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad30 May 2039
“The easiest signature of my career.” Albian Kobel and Vaduz agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad30 May 2039
Tempers go at Vaduz
Lukas Williams was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market30 May 2039
Experience through the door at Vaduz
Kuba Wiśniewski arrives at 35 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Squad30 May 2039
Simon Schär gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces23 May 2039
The mood at Vaduz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match23 May 2039
Every point is an argument now for Vaduz
Position 8 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad23 May 2039
Tempers go at Vaduz
Justin Hammel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Apr 2039
Tempers go at Vaduz
Jhonier Salas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad11 Apr 2039
Words at Vaduz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitri Lucea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad11 Apr 2039
Simon Schär has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Vaduz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
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Squad
A wage question at Vaduz
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom21 Feb 2039
The scrutiny sharpens at Vaduz
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Vaduz is running low.
Squad21 Feb 2039
Words at Vaduz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhonier Salas is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad21 Feb 2039
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Feb 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2039
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad14 Feb 2039
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Simon Schär, and the manager let it.