Game report : NE Xamax - Grasshopper  :  1 - 1 (1-0)   Attendance : 5'700
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30'Isabella 1:0, 57'De Napoli 1:1

Finally I made it, sending you again kind of a report. But now-americanized
Matthias probably wouldn't have excused me not to do it, though I'm sure
he's already read many more-accurate ones on the numerous online version of
Swiss papers.

Well it has not been much of a valuable show for the -pityfuly small-
attendance and the TV-watching crowd. Please notice that somehow the real
pityful people are those -such as I- who did _not_ come to the stadium, not
the other fellow fans.

The first half an hour has been a middlefield monologue. GC mainly
dominated but has not been able to bring any real danger to the -by then
quite unsecure- Pascal Setzmann. A long distance shot from Sermeter,
another around the 20th by Tararache, and that's it. Period. At the 23rd
Isabella ended a nice solo slalom with an interesting shot right next the
upper left corner of Zuberbühler's goal. Who would've caught it anyway.
Both Grasshopper and (especially) Xamax produced an incredible amount of
bad, unusable passes. It was indeed a surprise and undeserved when
Isabella, after Njanka made a real nice back pass for Molist who made the
assist, scored at the 30th. With a helpful rebound on the unlucky Haas, for
the ball would've gone way out of the goal otherwise. 42' Simo (Neuchâtel's
new (and 3rd) World Cup Camerooner) made a nice free kick that could've
well been going into the right high top corner of Zubi's cage, if Zubi
couldn't deviate it at the very last moment into a corner. Those last 15
minutes of the halftime were merely in Xamax's control.

The second half looked better, really. I didn't say it was great, for it
truly wasn't, but it could've hardly been worse than the first half anyway.
Here's a short script of what happened :

 (X) 53' Zambaz quite alone around the penalty spot, sent a weaaak shot
         toward Zubi, after a very nice cross pass from N'do.
(GC) 57' De Napoli (who has not been seen until then) gets a 20m pass from
         Mazzarelli, controls it in the way that seemed a bit lucky, and
         made a technically very interesting shot, right between Setzmann
         and his post. 1-1. Until then Xamax was in control. From then on
         the play became somehow equal.
 (X) 62' Zambaz made a 30m shot going right into Zubi's right high top
         corner, but it was amazingly saved.
(GC) 64' Tararache made a surprise shot from 30m, going right on Setzmann.
 (X) 67' Isabella gets a chance to come quite alone facing Zuberbühler, but
         he choosed to control the ball, waits, and finally his shot get
         deviated into a corner.
(GC) 72' De Napoli gets a chance, around 8m away from Setzmann, but sent
         the ball out of the cage.
 (X) 79' N'Diaye gets a cross pass from Zambaz, and gets a nice possibility
         from 5m, from an outcentered position, and shots out of the goal.
(GC) 83' De Napoli almost could prolonge Cabana's pass with his head.
(GC) 93' Magnin alone at 11m, heads to high.

Both teams definitely need to practice more the way they play. But hey, it
was a season's first game, and you usually don't expect much of such games.
(Though Servette-Lausanne was really something good...) Both Roger Hegi and
Alain Geiger (who though get both my deep respect for the job they've done
so far) need to improve much things in their teams. On GC's side I believe
that the absence of Kawelaschwili and Kubi had a great influence on what
happened. De Napoli, Sermeter and Magnin just aren't enough. But let's face
it, the passes were bad as well, though better than their opponent's, the
defense made too many mistakes, and the team just hardly managed to get
through the wings to attack. By Xamax I can only remember a very good
Quentin, a valuable Rueda, a limited Jeanneret, a discreet but effective
Rothenbühler, and three Camerooners who showed again their _huge_ technical
potential, and this whatever which make them want to do the dribble too
much, leading to a ball loss so many times.

Overall result is just correct. Though I had this feeling that Xamax was a
bit nearer to make it, in those last 30 minutes. But you know what a fan's
opinion is worth...

That evening's ref, Mr Leuba, did a quite fair job, though I thought his
yellow card on Quentin was a bit hard, and that he surely could've given
one or two for some odd faults from Neuchâtel's Camerooners in the 2nd
half.

Watch football.

Laurent.

Laurent Weber
Zurich, Switzerland.
lweber@worldcom.ch