The suspension of the championship gave at least those players who were not traveling with the national team the opportunity to catch their breath after the strict program in February and March. And those who traveled with their national teams were mostly able to take away positive experiences, as Heiko Vogel explained at the preview on Friday afternoon: “There is a physical and a mental tank. After the YB game both were pretty much empty. Now I took a consistently positive impression of the team from the training sessions.»
It should also be important that the tanks are now full, as there are nine competitive games in April alone. “I did the math, we have two days off next month,” Vogel said. The fact that there is a duel with a promoted team on the first and last day of the month only makes the task easier on paper and apparently. Because FC Winterthur is the third-strongest team in the second half of the season, has only lost three times this year and has always scored exactly one goal in the last 15 league games.
“One of the most unpleasant opponents in the league”
Most recently, that was enough for a 1-0 win against FC St.Gallen 1879, with which the Winterthur team gave up the red lantern to FC Sion. With regard to the duel on Saturday, Heiko Vogel spoke of “one of the most unpleasant opponents in the league”. “If you look at the last results, it quickly becomes clear that it will be a very difficult task against FC Winterthur. We will have to give exactly 100 percent to survive against this opponent.”
Vogel will pay particular attention to the division of forces in the coming period: “We also have to show the highest degree of professionalism off the field, with this strict program. Otherwise we shouldn’t be surprised if we get punished on the pitch.” But he certainly doesn’t want to complain, because it’s a privilege and also a pleasure to be able to play a game about every three days. In addition to a good division of strength, experience has shown that success also helps significantly in regeneration and when refilling the tanks. Such a start to the severe April would be important for several reasons.
