Switzerland World Cup Team Profile

May 26th, 2010 | by: chris | Comments Off

Switzerland just finished up co-hosting a lovely European Championships, one won by Spain, and they were rewarded for their efforts with…Spain.

Certain teams were going to get the luck of the draw, and Switzerland wasn’t on that list. They’ll open up their World Cup festivities with the tournament favorites, a game where even a close loss will have to be considered a success, before meeting the high-flying Chileans, their biggest competition for that second spot and a team generating an awful lot of hype at the tournament.

The Swiss nabbed adopted citizen Ottmar Hitzfeld because he can work miracles – those abilities might be called upon.

Nickname: Nati

FIFA World Ranking as of May 26th 2010: 24th

Group H Matches:

Spain v Switzerland, June 16th, 4p, Durban
Chile v Switzerland, June 21st, 4p, Port Elizabeth
Switzerland v Honduras, June 25th, 8:30p, Bloemfontein

Buy your Swiss World Cup tickets here.

Kit: Red polo with collar and strange looking white mechanism near the throat, plus picture book across the torso.

More on the Switzerland jerseys here.

Coach: Ottmar Hitzfeld The man they call The General is as Swiss as a German can get. Born on the border of Germany and Switzerland, much of his career was spent in the country south and his accent is famed because it’s far more Swiss-German than German. On the sidelines he’s a phenomenal coach, one of the best in the world, who’s prone to doing wonders with big and small teams alike, and makes Switzerland incredibly dangerous all by his lonesome.

Key Players: Hitzfeld has favored an old fashioned 4-4-2 in qualifying, starting with national team scoring record holder Alexander Frei and Blaise Nkufo, older than Switzerland itself and on his international swansong. This means lurking in the shadows will be young talent Eren Derdiyok, big and skillful in the air.

In addition to fine chocolates and timepieces, Switzerland exports more tweeners in the world, which is pretty fitting. In other words: Is he a defender or is he a midfielder? Valon Behrami, who runs all over the right flank and used to be a defender, will start at right mid and will have Stephan Lichtsteiner’s feet running up behind him quite often. On the left hand flank it’ll be perhaps their most skilled player, winger Tranquillo Barnetta, waiting for the footsteps of Ludovic Mangin. (Then there’s also tweeners Reto Ziegler and Marco Padalino.) Getting dizzy in central midfield will be Gokhan Inler (and his huge left foot) and Beni Huggel, Swiss Footballer of the Year, two players who don’t exactly fall in line with Swiss “neutrality”.

(Whether Ottmar allows them to play to their natural tendencies is another matter.)

In central defense making sure the whole thing doesn’t fall apart will be Stephane Grighting and Philippe Senderos; and Diego Benaglio, one of the more underrated keepers in Europe, will be there just in case it does.

Player with best YouTube video: Diego Benaglio. Every keeper should have his own YouTuber.

Player with best name: Tranquillo Barnetta. He’s so calm.

Player with best nickname: One of the hundred or so wingback-types on the roster, Stephan Lichtsteiner has earned Forrest Gump for running like him. Or maybe being slow. One or the other.

Qualification: It was rather humiliating at one point, a loss at home to powerhouse Luxembourg, but ultimately they finished atop a rather weak group, one point ahead of Greece. Certainly not the best team in all of qualifying, but good enough.

Interesting: Straight from good ol’ Wikipedia: Trivia: Switzerland was the only team in tournament not to have conceded a goal during regulation time in their matches.

And we thought the Italian defense was good.

National Anthem: Swiss Psalm

World Cup History:

Expectations: Defensively, they do not have the quality to beat Spain and might be exposed by Chile. However, you can never discount The General, and this might make the tussle for second in Group H the one to watch.

Squad: Switzerland World Cup squad.

Blog: Adrian works his own miracles at the Switzerland World Cup Blog.

- More World Cup 2010 Team Profiles.