Switzerland's Road to South Africa 2010 - [R]

This is a turgid display against Costa Rica.

 

Wow, 0-1 at home to Costa Rica. Not to say anything bad about Costa Rica, but this match did not give me tons of hope for the World Cup.

 

Sad news for Chile Suazo will miss the first match against Honduras due to injury...might play against the Swiss but he will more than likely be rested in the bench.

 

Horrible display in a friendly, the third one in a row now. There simply has to be more from Inler and Huggel going forward. We severly lack creativity in midfield when Yakin is not on the field. I think Hakan's Nati career has to be extended for Euro 2012 qualifying because there is no one to replace him.

 

Well there might be a replacement but Hitzfeld keeps on calling up Schwegler and Gelson in favour of Abdi and Dzemaili so we might never know. Really horrible, although this is a friendly, I'm starting to miss Köbi (never thought I'd say that).

 

The result is no surprise to me. But like Hitzfeld, I'm not particularly bothered.

I think we all know that Switzerland rarely win friendlies, but more importantly they rarely lose qualifying/competitive matches.

That said, Huggel is just a 'donkey' and offers nothing to the squad/team other than his ability to foul and give away free-kicks in dangerous areas.

GCZ and myself are perhaps alone in thinking that the only flair and creativity will come via Yakin, but Barnetta and Lichtsteiner (esp the latter) offer hope down the flanks - even though Lichtsteiner is the RB!

I suppose Magnin might do something 'down the left' but I would have preferred Spycher at LB. It's just a shame he's injured.

Ah well, look on the bright side; At least there were no further injuries?

Posteador: A few hours ago I heard about Suazo's injury on the BBC World Service from their excellent 'South American' football correspondent, Tim Vickery.

That's probably the best news Swiss fans have received over the past 24 hours.

 

The Suazo injury is a blow...but I wouldn't count him out against the Swiss just yet...its a minor injury and could still play against the Swiss should Bielsa find it necesary.

Personally I don't think he will be as key to Chile as Alexis Sanchez for example. Our second striker Paredes has been able to reeplace Suazo before against Euro opponents and performed very well...he scored in Chile's victories against Denmark and Slovakia. In fact, his hight and superior aerial game might also prove usefull in offense and defense for Chile...hopefully this will result in a happy accident for Chile.

 

True, but we used to beat teams like Norway and Costa Rica not too long ago

Well, his headers could be useful but I'm no big fan either. He doesn't complement Inler in an effective way in central midfield. Someone with more offensive skills and vision would immediately upgrade our team.

 

I am still holding out hope, but the last three matches have sort of put me in a sour mood. I would love for the Swiss to flip the switch and play liek we know they are able to play this weekend against Italy. It would be a good conficence boost. I think that Yakin is the most creative, but not for 90 min at the world cup. He is a super sub now. Who replaces Huggel?

 

Behrami ftw instead of Huggel.

Derdiyok instead of N'Kufo (And maybe Frei could go back to bench and change the 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1 with Yakin being the "10").

Or even Bunjaku...

 

My thoughts exactly. Hitzfeld just got to see that these oldies are way past their prime (on international level) and that there are better alternatives, and if experience is so important, Derdiyok was behind all of our goals in the 08 EC. Is it just me or do you guys get The feeling Köbi would've experimented much more these past games?

 

I haven't really watched you at all in qualifying, but from what I saw in the Costa Rica your problem was definitely in midfield. Inler is a great midfield player but you need somebody more attacking alongside him, Huggell looked immobile and genuinely lacking of any quality from what I saw. Half the time Frei was dropping really deep to try and create something...

Maybe draft Yakin in? He's the only natural CAM I can see in your squad. Infact, what about Behrami in the centre, atleast he's got an engine on him to drive you forward even if he lacks a real cutting edge attack wise.

Another thing, the defense looked rusty, especially Senderos. The way that Parks just marched through all of the defence was pathetic.

How do you think Barnetta will do in this tournament? I've got him in my fantasy team, so I'm hoping he does something.

 

Suazo non sarà in grado di giocare contro la Svizzera.
Lui sarà fuori al meno 3 settimane.
In ogni caso abbiamo altre alternative per fare gol, in attaco e in mezzocampo.

(just practicing my italian).

 

You beat me to the "My thoughts exactly" quote.

Oh for Heinz Hermann and the Swiss squad of the mid 80's which grossly underperformed in what their *natural talent* should have produced by way of results.

I blame dodgy GK's of that era for poor outcomes.

Heinz Hermann, Lucien Favre, Marcel Koller, Jean-Paul Brigger, Georges Bregy.

Bring 'em back now in their mid/late 20's!

Anyway, to get real: Just cross our fingers and hope...but I still say that Gygax should have been in the squad (assuming he wasn't injured again)



Jaime: Hitzfeld is still practising his selections.

 

The words 'Behrami' and 'injured' go together like the words 'strawberries and cream'

Same also applies to Gygax I suppose.

Sorry to mention Danny again, but when Bunjaku was on his scoring spree for Nurnberg a few months ago, 'Danny Boy' Gygax was supplying him.

Bunjaku's goals dried up when DG wasn't around.

I'll make that my *final* post about the most underrated Swiss player of the current generation.

Moving on, I understand that our 'Great Illustrious Leader' (Sepp Blatter) has decreed that all participating nations in the WC have to play a 'local' side pre-tournament.

Hmmmm?

Another chance for players to pick up an injury then?

 

Lets hope that this local side match goes off without a hitch. I agree about Gygax.

 

I don't think that was what really happened, if I remember correctly, Gygax played one or two games and had something like 2 assists.

About his talent there's no doubt though. He should've returned home long a go, really wasted some good years

 

Oh man, that's an absolute sickener.

 

AGAIN!? WTF...sometimes I think this sort of thing is psicological... will he be fit for the match against Chile?

 

History repeating itself - Again?!

At least Nkufo seems to be less injury-prone, but the ol' boy looked absolutely drained after FC Twente's Campionship win. He could barely hold the Shield above his head for the post-match celebrations.

I suppose it's too late for a fit youngster like Ben Khalifa to be called up?

Rhetorical question of course.

Oh well, EC2012/WC2014 here we come!

On the other hand, 'events' might give Bunjaku, Derdiyok and Shaqiri a chance to shine.

 

Wow!!! Not again. It looks like there will be a lot of change from the anticipated starting line-up to the one that is put out on the field against Spain.

 

I'd like to see something like this in a post-wc friendly:
Sommer, S Frei; Lichtsteiner, Djourou, Affolter, Senderos, Grichting, Ziegler; Behrami, Inler, Dzemaili, Abdi, Lustenberger, Gelson, Stocker, Shaqiri, David Degen; Chiumiento, Ben Khalifa, Derdiyok, Bunjaku, Streller

Coltorti, Rossini (if he's in Serie A), Costanzo, Salatic, Hochstrasser, Daprela and Regazzoni are also alternatives

rested: Benaglio, Wölfli, Barnetta, Frei
left out: Leoni, Eggimann, Von Bergen, Magnin, Schwegler, Padalino
retired: Huggel, Yakin, Nkufo