Ernest Loertscher

Ernest Lörtscher (born March 15, 1913 ; † April 8, 1994 in Lens ) was a Swiss football player who won the Swiss championship three times with Servette FC Genève in 1933, 1934 and 1940, as well as 21 international matches in the national football team from 1934 to 1938 has completed.

career

society

Lörtscher, who was mostly used as a left wing runner or defender, experienced his first championship successes in the rounds of 1932/33 and 1933/34 under coach Karl Rappan . It was not until the playoff on July 2, 1933 in Bern that the "Grenats" from the Stade des Charmilles prevailed against the champion of group one, Grasshopper Club Zurich , and won the championship in 1933 with a 3-2 win In 1933/34 the championship was held in the single-track National League A. The “Servettiens” defended their title with a three point lead over GCZ. In 30 league games, the defense around Frank Séchehaye , Albert Guinchard and Lörtscher received only 29 goals. The attack scored 100 hits and striker Leopold Kielholz won the title of top scorer with 40 goals . GC retaliated in the cup final and won the 1934 cup with a 2-0 win over the champions . In the 1934/35 round, Lörtscher and his teammates came in one point behind Lausanne-Sports for the runner-up. In the next few years - 1935/36 to 1938/39 - the "garnet reds" played no role in the awarding of the championship in the National League A. In the cup competition, however, Lörtscher and his team reached the finals in 1936 and 1938, but had to both times leaving the place as a loser against Young Fellows Zurich or GCZ. After finishing fourth in 1938/39, Lörtscher won his third championship with Servette in 1939/40 with player-trainer André "Trello" Abegglen and fellow players Roger Feutz , Numa Monnard , Eugène Walaschek , Albert Guinchard, Willy von Känel , Andre Belli and Lucien Pasteur . With 13 points ahead of FC Grenchen , this championship was won in the first year of the war. Georges Aeby took the top scorer's crown with 22 goals. In the Cup, however, Lörtscher also lost his fourth final on April 14, 1941 and ended his career with Servette in the summer of 1943.

National team, 1934 to 1938

When Servette won the championship again in the 1933/34 round, the two Geneva outsiders Albert Guinchard and Ernest Lörtscher made their debut in Paris on March 11, 1934 in the international match against France. The game was won 1-0 by a goal from teammate Leopold Kielholz. But there were also the other Servette players Frank Sechehaye, Alexander Laube and Raymond Passello in the victorious Swiss team. Between his third and fourth international match - January 27, 1935 and February 21, 1937 - two years passed without being appointed to the "Nati". With the game on February 21, 1937 in Prague against Czechoslovakia, Lörtscher celebrated his comeback in the national selection and formed the runner row with Albert Guinchard and Sirio Vernati . With the game on September 19, 1937 in Vienna against Austria, coach Karl Rappan took over the sporting management of the Swiss national team. The Servette debutant Eugene Walaschek formed the left wing with club mate Georges Aeby. Hermann Springer , Sirio Vernati and Ernest Lörtscher were called up by Rappan in the runner row. With the complete later World Cup defense - Willy Huber , Severino Minelli , August Lehmann , Hermann Springer, Sirio Vernati, Ernest Lörtscher - Switzerland defied hosts Germany in a 1-1 draw on February 6, 1938 in Cologne in front of 78,000 spectators. On May 1, Lörtscher was a member of the team that won the World Cup qualifying game in Milan with 2-1 goals against Portugal and thus qualified for the 1938 World Cup in France. The man from Geneva played a particularly important part in the historic 2-1 victory against England on May 21, 1938 in Zurich, thanks to his excellent game against the English star right winger Stanley Matthews .

At the football world championship in France, Lörtscher played all three tournament games. The game on June 4th in Paris against Greater Germany ended 1: 1 after extra time. In the replay on June 9, he slipped an own goal to 2-0 deficit, the first in World Cup history. But Switzerland still won 4-2 against the German team made up of Austrians and Germans. On June 12, Switzerland lost to Hungary in Lille. With his 21st international match on September 18, 1938 in Dublin against Ireland, his career in the Swiss national team ended.

literature

• Beat Jung (Ed.): The Nati. The history of the Swiss national football team. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-89533-532-0 .
• Swiss Football League (Philippe Guggisberg): 75 years of the Swiss Football League, 2009, ISBN 978-3-9523556-0-2
• International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS): Switzerland (1905–1940), international matches

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Le Nouvelliste , number 83, April 11, 1994, p. 28