Marked for Pascal Loretz
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Nov 2026
Luzern throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Winterthur the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Luzern will enjoy reviewing.
Match23 Nov 2026
Luzern are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 27 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Luzern
Tyron Owusu 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pascal Loretz, and the manager let it.
Match21 Nov 2026
The run at home goes on for Luzern
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
One of those days for Pius Dorn
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Adrian Grbić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match21 Nov 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Winterthur leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Nov 2026
Chastening afternoon for Luzern
A 1‑4 beating by Lugano was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match7 Nov 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Luzern
Leonardo Bertone and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefan Knežević, and the manager let it.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Luzern 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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I watch every Luzern game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sion runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Nobody could get near Pius Dorn
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Pius Dorn has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Luzern 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad26 Oct 2026
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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Luzern do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match24 Oct 2026
Three points for Luzern, 1‑0 the final word against Zurich in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market26 Oct 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sinan Karweina has his answer from Luzern; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match26 Oct 2026
The half-term report on Luzern
Position 2, 23 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
There were 9 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.
Match21 Sep 2026
Luzern are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 13 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Luzern
Leonardo Bertone and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Sep 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Matteo di Giusto’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Luzern.
Match20 Sep 2026
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Matteo di Giusto in the middle of it, and Young Boys unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Luzern and Basel meet at the summit
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Matteo di Giusto was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 Luzern, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
$2.0M was the most the club would pay and Winterthur were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 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.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Tyron Owusu
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Tyron Owusu at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Luzern.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
One of those days for Pius Dorn
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match12 Sep 2026
Luzern hit back inside 4 minutes
St. Gallen held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Luzern answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Oscar Kabwit had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sion have kept their man, and Luzern go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market31 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Luzern did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $96.6K — a club that wants Marvin Akahomen enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Luzern have gone to Basel with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Charalampos Makridis 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market17 Aug 2026
Luzern say no — this time
The offer from Lugano for Pius Dorn was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$13.5M was the most the club would pay and St. Louis CITY SC were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$3.8M on the table at LASK. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Rapperswil-Jona have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Oscar Kabwit. The answer from Luzern has not changed — yet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Luzern
Tyron Owusu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Luzern training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo di Giusto 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.