Peter Zeidler (Lausanne, on the left) and Didier Tholot (Sion) both face the lower leagues teams this weekend. image: keystone/watson
The 32nd finals take place this weekend, with very unbalanced posters. These are always special to prepare for Super League coaches.
15.08.2025, 18:1715.08.2025, 18:17
The 32nd finals of the Swiss Cup offer very unbalanced posters each year. This weekend, for example, FC Sion moves to the lawn of FC Ajoie-Monterri (5th national division) and the current Super League leader, Saint-Gall, I will challenge Walenstadt (7th division).
More than the stake, often nonexistent because of the too large gap, these posters are above all the occasion for a big party in the village for these small teams which receive the large stables of the country. For these, these matches are also a trip to the unknown. Because they face adversaries that they do not know absolutely, due to the inexistence of previous confrontations and the lack of media coverage of these lower leagues.
Didier Tholot and FC Sion will challenge Ajoie-Monterri this Friday (8:00 p.m.). Image: KEYSTONE
Today, with extreme professionalization in the preparation of matches, this situation is unusual for pros clubs. But it is out of the question for them to neglect the preparation on the pretext that the opponent is much lower on paper. “You have to do almost the opposite by being even more rigorous than during the preparation of usual matches,” immediately crops Bernard Challands. The former coach of Sion, Xamax or even Zurich insists:
“You have to treat all the details. It is a way to send a message to the players. We must absolutely avoid giving the team the feeling that the match will be easy. ”
All the pros teams share the obsession of being the victim of the (bad) surprise of the cup, namely to be eliminated by a “small”. So they do everything, in their preparation, to avoid this camouflet.
Espionage and relocated training
The coaches send their assistants or video analysts to observe a match of their opponent, just to get an idea of the game, the tactics or the key players of it. “As soon as I could, I was going to see our future opponent play,” rewinds Bernard Challands. The technician took the opportunity to make a precise image of the team. But not only. “It is also an opportunity to discover the stadium, its atmosphere and the dimensions of the field,” explains the Neuchâtel.
Bernard Challands left nothing to chance in the preparation of the matches, even in front of the lower level teams. Image: KEYSTONE
His observations allowed him to adapt the training before the match.
“At FC Sion, we faced a second Ticino league which had a particularly small land. So, during the week, we relocated our training on Chamoson’s lawn to be able to adapt to these conditions. ”
Bernard Challandes
But sometimes it is very complicated, if not impossible, to go “to spy” his little opponent during a match. This is the case for these 32nd Swiss Cup finals, because some Amateur teams have not yet started their championship.
It also happens that certain trips require too much time and energy. “When I trained Lugano, for example, I had not gone to see Monthey in Valais play, because it was too far,” recalls Maurizio Jacobacci. But the current coach of FC Langenthal (1st league) had alternative solutions:
“For example, we can call a coach who played in the championship against this team, to collect information. It also happened to me to call knowledge that lived in the opponent’s region to ask them to go and see a match and report to me. ”
Maurizio Jacobacci
Maurizio Jacobacci, here in 2023 during his visit to Munich 1860, sometimes calls knowledge to obtain information on the opponent. Image: keystone
And then, thanks to technology, technicians now benefit from a means they did not have a few years ago. “Today, we can watch all the matches up to the 1st league included on streaming platforms,” said Maurizio Jacobacci. Enough to allow the pros teams to prepare full video analyzes of their amateur opponents.
Archives TV, psychology and training in training
For a coach, putting in condition his players also involves words. Communication and the psychological dimension have indeed become essential pillars of performance. And there too, coaches must adapt to the particular context of the cut.
“Again, I insisted on the need not to take this match lightly,” replayed Bernard Challands. For the same purpose, he also used an original means:
“It happened to me to show my players, on TV, archive images where there had been surprises in the Swiss Cup”
History to make them very attentive to the danger that small teams can represent and thus avoid the harmful effects of an excess of confidence.
When he trained Sion or Lugano, Maurizio Jacobacci also played the card of prudence in the locker room.
“My speech was brief, but I made players understand that we didn’t want to be the unpleasant surprise of the cup. Losing against amateurs gives a bad image. I asked them to try to mark as quickly as possible, just to take shelter. ”
The strategy is different at Marco Schällibaum. “Despite all the respect that they owe to them, in the face of 2nd league or lower training, I cannot tell super League players to pay attention or to be afraid,” clarifies the ex-coach of Yverdon and GC, among others. The Zurichois tries to touch another fiber in his protégés:
“In these kinds of matches, I tell them that the cup is a party and that they have to have fun. And it involves trying to score as much goals as possible ”
Marco Schällibaum
Confident as to the superiority of his team, Marco Schällibaum attaches less importance during the week to the analysis of this “little” opponent than he would do in front of an equal (or superior) team. He prefers to focus on his own team: “In training, we try new things, for example playing more offensively. We also modify the composition, to give playing time to replacements ”.
Faced with small teams, Marco Schällibaum (here on the GC bench, which he led until November 2024) prefers to focus on the forces of his players. Image: KEYSTONE
“In these unbalanced confrontations, the outcome depends mainly on the mentality of the best team. If it is good, there is in principle no problem to qualify, ”concludes Maurizio Jacobacci.
It remains to the Super League coaches to find the right springs this weekend to condition their players. History that these avoid camouflet and can also enjoy this beautiful popular celebration.
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