So, after all: GC can play top-class football. The women narrowly miss out on the championship title.

Over 10,000 people came to the Wankdorf Stadium for the YB vs. GC final second leg, some with their families. They created a colorful atmosphere on this Saturday evening, the likes of which women's football rarely sees. As a reminder: 680 people watched the GC semifinal first leg against FC Basel on the GC Campus. The final first leg at Letzigrund was watched by no less than 3,000.

But Bern and the Wankdorf Stadium are different places than Niederhasli and Letzigrund. So the championship culminates in some drama in front of a respectable crowd.

While the YB women celebrate their first championship title since 2011, the GC women's section gathers. Everyone stands together in a circle, close-knit in disappointment.

In the thick of it all is 77-year-old Heinz Spross. The president addresses the women who narrowly lost the final. First, their joyful celebrations are stifled in injury time when striker Kayla McKenna's goal is disallowed for offside. The 2-2 draw would have secured the GC title.

The score remains 1-2. Extra time, because GC won the first leg 1-0. Then a penalty shootout, a Zurich miss, and the dream is gone.

Spross hadn't expected GC to advance to the final. He booked a vacation in Spain and flew in from Valencia especially for the match in Bern. "I owe it to the women," he says. He'll return to Spain the next day.

Spross is a well-known name at GC. The long-time financial backer has long since turned his back on the men's division, which is under American control. Now he heads the women's division, which he also finances and which is completely separate from the men's division under the GC umbrella. This is surprising, because an American leadership team should actually have an affinity for women's football.

While the GC men's soccer team is worried about staying in the league and is preparing for the next season to be forgotten, the women's soccer team unexpectedly pulls off a coup. In the end, it's only narrowly denied them. Spross nevertheless feels satisfaction. Not because the GC men are suffering, "but because a lot has started to move in women's soccer."

Sitting in the Wankdorf grandstand is 86-year-old Erich Vogel. He previously held various positions at the GC headquarters. Now, as a consultant, he's been instrumental in the success that has brought GC to near-championship heights.

The solution? Last winter, there was a coaching change because Spross and Vogel felt that "a change was needed." Gabor Gallai was succeeded by 42-year-old Portuguese João Paiva, who previously played nearly 100 games in the Super League – primarily for FC Luzern and GC. 71-year-old Walter Grüter, who also worked for GC for many years, brought Paiva into the mix; he had previously coached FC Langenthal.

Old GC men's gang get involved in GC women's football. And almost become champions. And this in the very year after former national player Lara Dickenmann stepped down as general manager. In football, a lot can often happen in a short period of time, in one direction or the other. Upward. Or downward.

In addition to Paiva, the Americans Lauren Kozal and Kayla McKenna, as well as the French player Morgane Nicoli, were signed in the winter. The team grew together, improved from sixth in the league in the playoffs, first eliminating Servette FC Chênois Féminin, last season's champions, before also losing to Basel in the semifinals. The Zurich team was repeatedly fortunate in competition, but they demonstrated in their two final matches against YB that their progress was no accident.

Paiva, who overplays his role as Rumpelstiltskin on the sidelines, says: "We may have lost the title, but we won a team. GC wants to remain unconventional." Spross, who became known through GC and the gardening company, adds: "I'm a gardener. Those who sow want to reap something someday." When the championship dream is dashed, Spross hints at "opportunities for improvement" for the next season.

The GC women aren't standing still. The annual budget has risen to over 2 million Swiss francs. Christian Künzli was hired in the winter and soon became CEO of the department. Now Theo Karapetsas is joining as sporting director. He previously played for the GC youth team and managed the women's team at FC Basel.

Things are happening, both with the GC women and in the league. This includes the grateful crowd in Bern, the playoff formula, which doesn't seem to be the worst form of play for women's football at the moment. Or the German YB coach Imke Wübbenhorst.

At the press conference following the title, she spoke frankly about the "girls," about the courage she demands of herself and the girls, about breastfeeding her child, and thoughts about possible substitutions the night before the final. She also spoke about the talented, not-yet-20-year-old attackers Naomi Luyet and Iman Beney, whom YB is in danger of losing.

Luyet, a promising prospect for the Swiss national team, comes on as a substitute after a long injury layoff and is partly responsible for YB turning the match around. Unfortunately for the GC women, who are only caught just before the finish line. Hard to believe, given that GC is also worried about relegation to the American league.