Winless Bern now targets Galatasaray

In central defence, the return of Mohamed Ali Kamara will be in focus ahead of the Youth team’s game against Yverdon. Possible stabilising factor, experience. Ali Kamara clashed with Yverdon striker Kevin Carlos, leading to him making it 0-1 early and being sent off after an hour. Carlos lay on the ground, the video referee carefully observing the image. A heavy foul. Ali Kamara – barely appeared and disappeared again. YB was outnumbered. Further instability for YB.

Matteo Vanetta on the sidelines at Yverdon. The Ticino native is a well-known YB face, having previously worked as an assistant coach and became head coach in 2022 after David Wagner was fired – but the result was that the Bern team had even less return on Vanetta than they had on Wagner before. A mistake. Vanetta left YB. He would join Lausanne Sport in 2023 through the Swiss Football Association as head of training, but he would leave the club a year later.

YB now has three assistant coaches

Now Vanetta is back at YB as third assistant alongside Zoltan Kadar and Enrico Schirinzi, who were brought in by new YB coach Patrick Frame. Frame’s preferred candidate, Ognjen Zaric, was promoted as head coach at Winterthur as his successor. Vanetta should help strengthen YB’s defense. In Yverdon, this support did not help much at first.

Other impressions from YB: Left-back Jaouen Hadjam, brought in from Ligue 1 Nantes for more than 1 million francs at the start of 2024, showed in the second half at Yverdon how expertly he can hold the ball. But instead of playing, he keeps dribbling until he loses the ball. What’s wrong with him? Pure desperation.

Or this scenario: YB’s second goal was a gift. Yverdon goalkeeper Paul Bernardoni passed the ball to Boris Céspedes, who was in trouble in front of the penalty area. He hit it directly to the feet of YB player Ebrima Colley, whose pass was deflected into his own goal by running back Céspedes himself. 1:2.

Or these personal details: Striker Meschack Elia apparently willing to leave It was a poor performance in this match, and he was only replaced in the 76th minute by Darian Males. But Males, the million-dollar player transferred in 2023 and who was supposed to be the best performer, was nowhere to be seen again. It was as if Elijah was getting worse and worse. It was as if Males was collapsing under the pressure.

After five games, YB still has no win. It’s been an unprecedentedly bad start to the season. The team has no axis, has lost its hierarchy. “Everything is being punished at the moment,” head coach Fremond said after the game on Swiss television. YB must be “smart” – “this is not the football I imagined”.

Now Galatasaray Istanbul is waiting

The cup game will be played next Saturday at second-tier side Prinz Nanda, which is surrounded by the Valais Mountains. Two Champions League play-offs will follow, against Turkish champions Galatasaray Istanbul.

In the Champions League, UEFA increased the starting bonus to 18.62 million euros.

The advantage of the Bernese was unthinkable a few weeks ago: the Swiss champions, lying on the ground, have nothing to lose against the Turks. If he loses in the play-offs, the consolation is 4.3 million. For the Europa League group stage, there is more to come just as a starting fee.

There are better prospects than against Galatasaray.