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A to Z of WORLD CUP SOUTH AFRICA 2010 - Switzerland
SWITZERLAND:
In the film ‘The Third Man’ Orson Welles famously remarked that all Switzerland had to show for 500 years of brotherly love was “the cuckoo clock” – in contrast to Italy where the same 500 years of war, pestilence and murder gave us Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci etc! That said Switzerland will be attending their 9th World Cup Finals this June. Their previous appearances include 3 quarter-final spots (’34, ’38 and ’54) and 2 last sixteen showings (1994 and 2002).
Switzerland’s path to South Africa included a potentially morale-sapping 2-1 home defeat to the mighty Luxembourg. However this setback served as an alarm (cuckoo?) clock call to the team and they duly recorded 5 consecutive wins and a draw, scoring 12 goals and conceding only 4. The return leg in Luxembourg saw them gain a 3-0 revenge win, whilst a goalless draw with Israel clinched top spot in their qualifying group.
Ottmar Hitzfeld, the former Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich coach, took over the national helm following the host’s poor performance in EURO 2008. He will be leading the Schweizer Nati to their second consecutive World Cup Finals. The team he has at his disposal is, on paper, a healthy blend of talented young players and a few seasoned campaigners.
Chief amongst the latter is Alexander Frei of Basel, his country’s leading goal scorer with 40 goals from 73 appearances. The defence is built around goalkeeper Diego Benaglio of Wolfsburg and Arsenal’s Philippe Senderos. Frei’s bullets from midfield will be supplied by West Ham’s Valon Behrami and the superbly named Tranquillo Barnetta of Bayer Leverkusen.
Switzerland has been drawn in the same group as World Cup favourites, Spain, along with Chile and Honduras. You can get odds of 11/1 from VCBet on their topping this tough group. Paddy Power is offering 17/2 on a quarter-final place, whilst bwin see them making their way to the Final at 80/1. An opportunity to replace the cuckoo clock as their country’s legacy awaits the Schweizer Nati, should they lift the World Cup trophy, something you can gamble on at 200/1 with Sportingbet
Posted: Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 @ 10:06 pm by Mark
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