The World Cup: Switzerland

ThisDrinkingLife and The World Cup: Switzerland

Switzerland have qualified for the last eight European and World Cup Competitions on the bounce. Not a bad stat that. But whats not so impressive is that they have done fuck all once they get to a major tournament. It looks like they do just enough to qualify and leave it at that.

The last World Cup, they were thoroughly shocking. Did the bare minimum to get out of an easy group that included a poor Ecuador, and an even worse Honduras, and lost 5-2 to an average French team. But the worst for me was when they had a piss poor Argentina on the ropes for a good twenty minutes. They basically were playing touch football and toying with them while the crowd were doing ole ole’s from the stands. But the obscene thing is that after getting the better of the Argentinian midfield, they gave up, totally. Was truly an awful sight to see. Compare a team like Iceland to a team like Switzerland and you can understand what I am talking about, men versus boys. Ok to be fair some of their players played well, Rodríguez, Shaqiri, Fernandes all having a decent tournament, but as for the rest of their prima donas, meh!

But nothing seems to have changed as we can see from the qualifying game against Northern Ireland. They scrapped through largely thanks to a dodgy referee. Stephan Lichtsteiner, their captain, spent so much time rolling on the floor that his shirt was completely brown by the end of the game, while a lot of the Norn Iron team must be wondering how they let this one slip through their fingers. For me they are a team that are lazy and not bothered too much, a team that is also leaderless and easy to put to the sword with the slightest bit of pressure.

Don’t get me wrong, they have some seriously good players. Xherdan Shaqiri is world class, without a doubt, but Jesus can someone have a good chat with him and tell him to get his finger out. One can see the attitude with his club choices, from Bayern to a relegation bound Stoke tells us all you need to know here, in it for the money. Johan Djourou, Michael Lang, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Ricardo Rodríguez are all excellent players that work well together, but getting from defence to midfield is always a problem when you have such muck in the centre, Granit Xhaka and Valon Behrami are simply woeful. Gelson Fernandes is a gem in the centre but he is definitely a confidence player and needs to be clicking with his teammates to hit form. Shaqiri plays as an inside forward, and he needs to because they struggle to score goals. Breel Embolo is a big lump of nothingness up front, I still laugh at how great a deal FC Basel did when they sold him off to Schalke, while Mehmedi, Derdiyok, Drmić and Seferović are all journeymen. So its a bit of hot and a lot of cold with this team. I find this disjointed team terribly frustrating to watch. And whats worse is that Vladimir Petković could have included a few of the Swiss champions Young Boys team in the squad. Kevin Mbabu for me should walk into that squad, even Christian Fassnacht or Steve von Bergen, but no not even one player makes the cut from the Swiss champs (as of going to press).

First up is Brazil and I see a hiding for Switzerland, then a dour game with an equally inept team Serbia, to finish with a game against the sprity Costa Ricans. I would be surprised if they have what it takes to make it out of the group. A quick exit for the Swiss.