BACK-RROCA for real?

Servette FC beat 5th division team Sirnach FC this weekend with the astonishing score of 8-0. Even if it is surely one of the biggest wins in an official game, in recent club history, the big news of the day was elsewhere. Joao Barroca was back between the posts.

For people to understand how big this is, we need to go back to the mid-season break of 2013-2014 (Swiss football leagues traditionally take a 2 month winter break from December to February). At the time, the club was not doing too bad and even had a chance at 1st division promotion, being only a few points behind leaders FC Vaduz. During the time off, president Hugh Quennec must have been terribly bored (he lives in Geneva after all) and decided to sign a new and unnecessary goalkeeping coach. This is when retired Swiss international goalie Pascal Zuberbuhler arrived at the club despite his terrible reputation from previous coaching experiences. 

First introduced as a simple goalkeeping coach, "Zubi" quickly took over additional responsibilities at the club. Despite the clubs delicate financial situation, he convinced president Quennec to sign his old friends and teammate Mario Cantaluppi as a first team coach staff member. On top of that, Zuberbuhler requested the signing of new unknown 160cm high Philippine international goalkeeper Roland Muller (according to wikipedia he's 180cm high but there is no way that could be true).  

From that moment, it is very difficult for a simple supporter to understand exactly what happened next. All we know is that the atmosphere in the changing room changed and the team results at the start of the 2nd round were no less than a disaster. It didn't take long before promotion dreams were over and first team manager Jean-Michel Aeby was sacked. Suddenly and out of nowhere, Zuberbuhler was named first team manager and his friend Cantaluppi his assistant. This, according to the official version, was to give management the time to find the perfect coach.(note that JM Aeby was already introduced as interim manager in August 2013 for the same reasons).    

As soon as Zubi got into power, he placed his new signing Roland Muller between the posts and sidelined not only the great Joao Barroca but also some of the first team best players such as Alexandre Pasche and Didier Crettenand. It was only then, that supporters started to realize how toxic the new coaching duo was going to be. Nr 2 keeper David Gonzalez was asked to find a new club and nr 1 Joao Barroca quickly understood that there was not a chance he was going to be nr1 again and eventually went on loan to Servette FC rivals Lausanne Sports. No matter how badly he played and how obvious his lack of potential was, Roland Müller had to be the number one Servette FC keeper. Zuberbuhler had intelligently cleared all possible competition out of the way. 

So this summer, when Kevin Cooper was finally introduced as the new manager and sports director, every supporter was praying for his first move to be sacking the “Zuberluppi” duo. That never happened. And even worse, Cooper seem to trust these two idiots, so supporters have been forced to watch their team already lose precious points due to Roland Müllers extremely limited skills. Well respected supporter legend “Migou”, even claimed on the club forum that Müller might be the worst keeper in club history.   

So, (finally) seeing Barroca as Servette FC goaltender was not only a relief but has also given supporters hope, despite that it was only a first round cup game. 

Cooper, open your eyes and bring us Back-rroca for good!