Wohlen, Swiss football away days 3.

Wohlen is a small town of about 15,000 residents, to the west of Zurich, and in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. Mostly a farming area it really only got going as a town after the 1800’s when it developed into a key industrial town with important rail and road links. In particular, for the straw braid industry, where Wohlen became well known all over the fashion world for its straw hats and garments. Sadly that industry is long gone in the town but the affects of that legacy is a small town that is thriving, (or not doing too badly I guess!)

Getting to Wohlen is easy enough as the area has its own train station with good links to nearby towns Aarau and Zurich (via connections).

Overall Wohlen looked like a quiet enough place, a country town, even seen a few tractors on my way to the game, which tells you how close it is to the countryside.

Pub watch

The Kebapistan

Address: Zentralstrasse 12
5610 Wohlen AG

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First pub of the day, wasn’t a pub at all. But I was hungry, having skipped breakfast and after a nice walk around the town this place looked perfect to sit down outside, have a quick bite to eat and a beer. Was very busy for a Saturday morning, which is always a good sign. Went simple just got some chips with ketchup, and two beers. Simple but fantastic with the peppers and salt, lovely. Good friendly service and a nice place to sit outside and watch the traffic of Wohlen go by. Had two small cans of Feldschlösschen Hopfenperle, a decent enough lager. Perfect start.

Zanzibar Cafe

Address: Zentralstrasse 36
5610 Wohlen

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Ventured in and ordered a bottle of Birra Moretti, which is always nice to sip. Zanzibar looks like a very trendy lounge bar and club, impeccably clean and modern, the place looks really snazzy and cool. For the time of the day, early afternoon, naturally there were only a handful of customers, who looked like they were Italian Swiss chatting away to the very friendly barman, guess that’s why I guess was in the mood for a Moretti, which went down fine. So good I had another beer, this time a nice cold Eichhof Lager

Zanzibar is the place to be once it gets dark, as it is a club venue that promotes a lot of up and coming DJ’s and invites international dance acts to the club every month.

They do have a nice terrace for people watching outside, but I decided to stay inside. The bar was nice and I enjoyed myself here, relaxing on a high stool at the bar, pints were fine and the club was well aired and had nice lighting that made the mood very mellow.

Piccadilly Pub

Address: Bünzstrasse 6
5610 Wohlen/AG

http://piccadilly-wohlen.ch/

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Door was closed and didn’t look very inviting, but then I was early. It opened at 4 and I was there bang on time! Restaurant with terrace was doing a cracking trade next door on a lovely hot day, while I was the only customer in this, truth be told, rather tired looking bar with an old fashioned British style decor. I went for a Feldschlösschen braufrisch on tap, a Wheat Ale beer, which was fine, not as good as their lagers I think. Bar lady was friendly, but this seems like a bar that could do with a makeover. Drank and left.

Rock and Burger Bar

Address: Aargauerstrasse 4, 5610 Wohlen

On the way back to the train station, from the game, I accidentally stumbled onto the path of this bar. Looked good so ventured in. A small crowd in, with some friendly service. Had a Brooklyn Brewery lager, which was fine with the complimentary nuts that I scoffed down. Place was quiet for a rock bar, but had a chilled out atmosphere, or perhaps that was just me.

El Hale Shisha Bar

Address: Inh. Islek
Bahnhofplatz 1
5610 Wohlen

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Just before I got my train home, popped into a hookah bar right at the station. Not my usual type of place to go for a beer, but it was cool enough. Lovely decor which was very relaxing and in an Arabic style, the service was friendly. Place was quiet, but it was still relatively early. Just ordered a regular beer, a Feldschlösschen lager. Nice place to wind down for the day, lovely ambiance and a nice pint in the dimmed lights. Would have liked to stay for another beer but had to catch my train.

FC Wohlen

Arena/Stadium: Stadion Niedermatten, Wohlen

Location: 5610 Wohlen

Capacity: 3,734 (634 seated)

Manager: Francesco Gabriele

Founded: 1904

Leagues: Swiss Challenge League

Club home page

info@fcwohlen.ch

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Founded in May, 1904, FC Wohlen play in the Challenge League, the second highest league in the country. They say the best things come to those that wait, well the highlight of over 100 years of football came late, in June 2002 when the team got promoted to then National League B, today’s Challenge League , the second tier of Swiss football.

With the club moving in the right direction, they moved into their new stadium, Stadion Niedermatten, in 2004. The stadium holds about 3,700 people and is owned by the local council and is part of a sports complex which includes an athletics track, an inline skating space, two all-weather football pitches and nine tennis courts.

Without doubt their most famous son is Ciriaco Sforza, the ex Wholen player and coach who had an illustrious career with stints in Germany with Bayern Munich, FC Kaiserslautern (when they were half decent) and in Italy with Inter Milan, a long way from tiny Wohlen.

Nice enough little ground, a not too far from the town centre. Ticket cost me 20 Swiss Francs, and manged to get a scarf as well which was great. But even better was I somehow ended up in the VIP room, where there was complimentary wine and titbits to bite. I know it was a little bit cheeky but why not as I do consider myself at least a little bit important. The two girls behind the bar were very friendly, and were more than kind enough to fill my glass on the many occasions they got empty!

Nice club with a lot of friendly staff, from the ticket sellers at the gate, the grounds staff directing people to their seats, the ladies in the office who sold me the scarf, to the girls in the VIP room.

Decent enough crowd too, friendly type and was a decent atmosphere in the ground. Also have to say that Le Mont had a small support, which considering how far they would have to travel is understandable, but they did have one young fella with a megaphone who was chanting, mostly on his own, all throughout the game, hats off to him for that.

To the game

FC Wohlen 0 – 0 FC Le Mont LS

01.04.2017 Stadium Niedermatten, Wohlen

Attendance: 578

For a nil niler it wasn’t the worst game I have ever seen. Some good build up play from both teams, especially from FC Wohlen while Le Mont were more concentrated on attacking from the break down. I would say though that Wohlen need to practice shooting from distance as on many occasions they were in good positions to take a shot but their players passed instead. Is that a confidence thing, perhaps but it did really irk the crowd on a few times looking at good shooting opportunities go amiss.

Thought Wohlen midfielder Sandro Foschini was pretty decent and set up a lot of play and opportunities for his teammates, but I noticed he also grew increasingly frustrated as he seemed to be at a different level to the rest of his team, one step ahead and he was constantly creating chances that were spurned again and again. I’d build a team around him, I say!

For Le Mont, Luís Pimenta was a pretty good target man, held the ball up well when he could and was always lively and causing the Wohlen defenders problems.

Overall it wasn’t a bad game, just a pity that with all the play the home team couldn’t get a goal.

Overall

Wohlen was a sleepy enough town, but I did enjoy my day out here. Was well nourished with alcohol and did have a good time at the ground watching Wohlen FC play. All in all a good enjoyable day in little old Wohlen (the good weather helped too, it was a scorcher!)