Neuchâtel Xamax - FC Shelbourne   2 - 0  (0 - 0)  Attendance : 2'500
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Goals : 71' N'Diaye, 79' Perret.

Xamax's line up :
Delay ; 2 Zambaz, 3 Quentin, 4 Keller, 5 Boughanem ; 7 Koch (84' Bieli), 8 
Sansoni, 9 Molist (69' Gigon), 10 Simo ; 11 N'Diaye, 15 Perret (91' 
Carraciolo)

Waw, finally I made it again to la Maladière. I computed quickly my 
statistics and saw that this was actually the 17th time I saw Xamax in an 
official European competition, the 1st Intertoto on the record.
But I know you just can't wait for those life-depending informations to be 
delivered such as Zambaz's new haircut, can you ?. So here it goes :



X 28' Nice shot right over the cross bar from Zambaz
S 37' Boughanem estimated somewhat too roughly a cross pass, got lobed, and 
Haylock had plenty of time
alone in front of Delay, and miss the cage.
S 39' Haylock running from the corner up to the goal made a delicious pass 
through the whole Xamax
defence, for Powell, who missed a quite nice opportunity about 5 meters away 
from the goal.
X 43' Pool-billiard scene in front of the Irish goalie, N'Diaye then Koch 
shot from quite close, each
time on an opponent, then Koch again from 20m, right on the crossbar

S 48' Some neuchatelois deviated Vanderevelden's shot right over the 
crossbar
X 53' Perret, after a nice preparation from N'Diaye, runs alone toward the 
goalie, goes around him, shots, and... a some Shelbourne player could kick 
it out at the very last second.
X 56' Quite violent shot from Simo (25 meters), goalie couldn't control it; 
Molist missed about half a second to be able to shot it in.
S 58' Offside head goal from Shelbourne. Heavy rainshowers by then. I 
_loved_ that, really.
S 65' Bowling game with Xamax's defence, Powell gets a chance for a kick, 
takes it, misses.
X 67' Keller gets a stupid yellow card for holding shirt. Which he did.
X 71' Nice combination between Perret and N'Diaye, who ran around the 
goalie, 1-0.
S 29' Collision between Simo and Gifford, the last one falls and does not 
seem to move any more, Scully said a few words he probably shouldn't have 
done to the ref., gets a yellow card. As soon as guys
entered the field in order to get Gifford out of the field, he quickly gets 
up. And receveives a yellow card as well.
X 79' On Simo's cross pass, Perret scores. Or was it an own goal by Heary ? 
2-0
X 81' Perret runs alone towards the goalie, both competing to be the first 
to get on that ball. None wins, the balls get bounced high, rolling toward 
the goalie's cage. Got saved anyway.
X 87' Perret all alone about 20m away from the goalie, shots too far to the 
right.

If the amount of opportunities I mentionned by Shelbourne might be somewhat 
impressive, be reminded that there was still a clear difference between both 
team's technical, and possibly tactical as well, levels. Shelbourne would 
probably belong to our LNB, I'd say. But those things are never so easy to 
judge, especially at the beginning of the season.

Amazingly, as there were 2 or 3 periods of 5 minutes with very heavy rain, 
one of those saw the public sing more than in any, say, Xamax-Lugano game 
that's ever been since the club exist. So to say. Quite entertaining that 
singing in the rain.

Amongst the newcomers, GC-lended ex-2ndteam Keller impressed me much. 
Actually he physically just looks like departing Rueda, less 15 years. He 
was a good libero during that game, not hesitating going forward
when a tall guy would be needed up front. Richard Perret, whose name is not 
to be mixed up with Philippe Perret, assistant of Geiger since mid-1998, a 
tall and thin guy, was quite interesting. Besides he
scored the 2-0, he brought much danger in front the opponent's cage. I did 
not expect that many good things from a guy coming from 3rd division. But 
hey, he scored 29 times last season, hu ? He couldn't
have been _that_ bad anyway, and seems to be way over that, even clearly 
good. Still got to be proven against better teams, though. Wait and see. The 
new french young middlefield player, Masoni, kind of
Lonfat-look alike, had this typical healthy aggressivity you find in France. 
Did many good things, some less, still, the real test will happen against a 
LNA team. The same comment goes as well to Koch, coming from Luzern.

The referree, whose name and nationality I ignore, did a good job, a couple 
of mistakes once or twice, but the performance was way over average.

Pityful attendance, though. But there are different grounds for the fact : 
First the afternoon sounded way too sunnier to be spent at the stadium. 
Though about 20 minutes after the kick-off, rain began, and
that doesn't bring much crowd either. Say, what does then ? Oh yeah, nice 
football, almost forgot about that... The second reason is that InterToto 
was completely new to Xamax, and therefore far from being
considered as much as any other C3 game they have played until yet. It might 
change in the future, for they'll have the experience of it, and then they 
might possibly reach more often the 4th to 6th rank in
the table than the 2nd or 3rd as until today. The long-term financial aspect 
- you know, that 'budget' thing - seeming to somewhat raise more and more 
amongst some other Swiss clubs, not to mention
Grasshopper, Servette, possibly Zurich or Lausanne, the task aiming at 
grasping that needed green-backed substance might seemlessly require a 
longer arm every year. Which I doubt to be happening by Xamax as
long as they do not find a president with possibly a less family-minded and 
generous heart (and it would be too bad, really), but longer arms and 
fore-arms, and a thicker wallet. Or whose friends have such wallets. And 
first of all, before that money stuff, the club needs a vision, on the rocks 
with a few drops of glasnost, please. Oooh boy, they badly need that 
glasnost for their image. Anyway.

Keep watching football.

Laurent.

Laurent Weber
Zurich, Switzerland.
lweber@worldcom.ch