WORLD CUP 2006
Switzerland
Introduction
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Switzerland, a land in love with Alpine sports and where the average attendance in the domestic league this season is less than 8,000, can, on the surface, seem to be inoculated against the so-called beautiful game. Not so. At the moment World Cup fever is endemic here.
Every branch of the media simply cannot talk enough about the national team, shops and manufacturers have been relentlessly plugging their World Cup-related goods, while all over the country youngsters and adults alike are enthusiastically collecting Panini Germany 2006 stickers. The Swiss market accounts for 10 per cent of the Italian company’s worldwide sales.
Whether in possession of a ticket or not, thousands of Swiss fans are likely to cross the border into Germany this summer, and for those who cannot make the trip, big screens will sprout up all over to provide live feeds of the action.
The passion is understandable. The World Cup is virtually on their doorstep and, after all, this is only Switzerland’s third World Cup in 40 years.
Swiss footballing culture has been transformed in the past 15 years. The national team, Nati, has been beset by linguistic difficulties for most of its 100-year history, with the country’s German-speaking region largely calling the shots and the French and Italian communities complaining of discrimination. That all ended in the late 1980s with the appointment of two foreign national
team coaches, first German Uli Stielike and then England’s Roy Hodgson. Ability rather than mother tongue became the only selection criterion.
These days the team is even more inclusive, featuring many examples of what the Swiss call Secondo, the sons of immigrant parents such as centre-back Philippe Senderos (of Spanish-Serb stock) and midfielders Ricardo Cabanas (Spanish), Tranquillo Barnetta (Italian) and Valon Behrami (Kosovan).
The other major sea-change stems from the federation’s decision in the mid-1980s to seriously invest in youth development. Fifteen years on, Swiss age-group sides have established themselves among the best in Europe, notably winning the Under-17 European Championship in 2002. Two of that side, Senderos and Barnetta, are now fully-fledged senior internationals.
To a large extent, today’s Nati reflects the ethnic diversity of its players. The team put together by coach Kobi Kuhn is a marriage of Germanic discipline, an Italian-style tactical awareness and ability to strike on the counter-attack, and a
French/Mediterranean short-passing game.
Switzerland, a compact, well-drilled side of indomitable spirit, will not win any prizes for artistic impression this summer. But they will be hard to beat and have good reason to believe they will qualify from a less-than-onerous group, which also includes France, South Korea and Togo.
That would probably satisfy the majority of fans and media, many of whom see this World Cup as the appetiser for the Euro 2008 main course, which the Swiss and Austrians will jointly host.
Anything better than a last-16 place will be a bonus. The Swiss are too dependent on striker Alex Frei for goals, their full-backs and goalkeeper are not of the highest calibre, and they are rather one-dimensional in midfield, high on graft, low on craft.
Whatever transpires, Kuhn is most unlikely to have the Swiss public baying for his blood. Modest, homely and jovial, he is one of the country’s own. In these parts, you do not attack national treasures.
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