Switzerland - Turkey, the day after

This will be my only post today, I need to recover from yesterday’s emotional shock. My post yesterday evening was full of anger, sadness and disappointment although I still believe (and most football websites across Europe) that yesterday’s game was a mere matter of luck and inexperience.

If one looks at the statistics of the game Switzerland enjoyed most of the goalscoring opportunities: in at least three opportunities Volkan prevented Switzerland from celebrating much-deserved goals. The excellence of the Turkish goalkeeper (and perhaps the lack of a finishing quality in the Swiss attack) would have proven to be sufficient to ensure yesterday’s insult added to injury. And after Sverkos, once again we’re punished by a sub.

Yet Terim is an old fox while Kuhn is only old and no fox at all, the Turkish coach had Senturk come in at the start of the second half and this change reflected the change in tactics (and weather) between the first and second half.

During the first half Switzerland had largely dominated the game with Terim’s men failing to adapt to the averse conditions of the weather (an unexpected monsoon hovering over the stadium for 30 minutes) where Inler and Fernandes were serving the much dedicated Derdiyok. The latter served the assist for Yakin’s opening goal, intelligently avoiding Volkan and passing the ball amid three Turkish defenders where it comfortably stopped in front of the goal, greedy for Yakin’s feet to slot it in.

Not much later a similar thing happened but this time Yakin (hopefully not out of respect for his Turkish origins) incredibly miscalculated the pass and failed to become the second player (after Podolski) to punish his original homeland while playing for his country of adoption.

I have to admit I felt this miss as a harbinger of doom. In the second half Terim brought on Senturk for Karadeniz. It was evident that Turkey had found its focal point, its striker upfront that would trouble the solid Swiss defence. Turkey started the second half with much brilliant work in midfield and some dangerous moves towards Benaglio and this was something Kuhn should have foreseen, the Turks had nothing to lose. Senturk soared above the Swiss defence in the middle of nowhere and headed a ball where a helpless Benaglio couldn’t reach enough. I think everyone thought Benaglio had saved that but the young goalkeeper perhaps made his first mistake as Switzerland’s first choice. A real shame he had to make such a mistake (following a tremendously encouraging season with Wolfsburg AND Switzerland) in such a significant game.
After that, with a sort of half-wet field ideally more suited to the Turkish play then the Swiss one, the Swiss players attacked through counterattacks, corners and free kicks and despite battling against a referee who did not concede two obvious corners, a possible penalty and called an offside on Senderos when even a 3 year old child would have clearly seen the Swiss defender onside, a goalkeeper like Volkan who was everything but a certainty before this Euro (his uncertainties in the Champions’ League Seville game with his team Fenerbahce had actually given me hope that he would do the same) the Swiss just couldn’t capitalise against a Turkish team that certainly wanted to win but looked very shaky in the back under Yakin and Derdiyok’s pressure.
The end of the game looked as if Switzerland would be fairly rewarded for its efforts when an excellent counterattack saw Volkan make two excellent consecutive saves, one on Yakin’s low shot and the other on Cabanas’ effort to lob it over the keeper.
Yet at the 92nd minute when a draw appeared to be a satisfactory result for both teams (with a 1-0 against Portugal and a Turkish 1-0 win over Czech Republic, Switzerland WOULD HAVE qualified for the quarter-finals) that restless Arda attempted a shot (that would have certainly not been irresistible) that was deflected off that hero of ours, that same Muller, who with such dedication had forsaken his club to be part of this Swiss dream and cruelly settled under the crossbar to shatter the hearts of millions of Swiss fans and condemn them to another limbo of oblivion.

With a little more experience and intelligence Switzerland could have easily wrapped up this game. The chances were countless, the Turkish defence was everything but tough, under the pouring rain the quality of the Swiss midfield and wingers was crystal-clear and at half-time a 1-0 result certainly did not reflect the game up until then.
Who knows, maybe Zuberbuehler would have parried Senturk’s header (not a real piece of magic) even though my trust and confidence are with Diego Benaglio. And last but not least, how about fouling Arda and getting a yellow card rather than giving him one last dangerous chance at the 92nd minute?

Kuhn had taken the risk of inexperience and it looks as if we payed for it. Once thing’s for sure, Switzerland can be proud of its players. They stood up to the challenge and only because of inexperience, questionable referee calls and an incredible lack of luck (I’ve read commentaries on various websites and that’s the general idea, for some it could win the prize of unluckiest team at Euro 2008) does Switzerland miserably stand (or fall?) with 0 points.

Football is beautiful, tragic and unfair simply because for what Switzerland showed that 0 could have easily been 1, 2, 4 or even 6. And now we would be talking about 11 Epic Heroes and a Swiss Dream that goes on. But here we are wondering what can be done about this team.

The talent is there, the will to play and do well is there, the quality, the experience of some players (Muller, Yakin, Frei) is there. Perhaps we need a coach who actually stands up and encourages his players (though Kuhn cannot be blamed these days, we all know about his personal drama), fans who wreak havoc on the stands (even though I was satisfied with yesterday’s attitude), an experienced striker who actually scores (Haeberli).

But we have a world-class defender (Senderos, what a game he played yesterday), talented young midfielders (Gelson Fernandes, Inler and Barnetta) and the teamspirit. Perhaps we’re already paving the road to future trophies and memorable performances but we desperately, desperately need luck.

We can’t cope with opponents who score two goals on two shots, or one goal on one shot, and we need some respect from referees. Small teams (see Austria and Poland) need more respect. It can’t go on this way.

Then again Kuhn’s choices were hard to understand. Why Cabanas and Gygax? Why not Vonlanthen earlier on? In both cames the Swiss-Colombian player proved to be very dangerous, he even dribbled 4 Turkish players yesterday!

The Turks celebrate, the Swiss cry. We’re getting closer to winning something but we’re still far from it. Let’s just hope that the players tears will be washed away by a majestic performance against Portugal on Sunday. Let’s hope Inler will impress more than Cristiano Ronaldo and that Ricardo will have to pick up the ball from his net more than once!

We have to bid farewell to this Euro of ours with dignity and no shame, because Switzerland IS a team and can defeat anyone.

Overall judgement:
Switzerland: 7, the team played well and was intelligent to make use of the awful condition of the pitch in first half. A lack of pragmatism and experience was enough to give them such a harsh punishment.
Kuhn: 5.5, it’s true he didn’t have many choices but how can Turkey possibly score a goal like that? At the 92nd minute one should try defending the score.
Benaglio: 5.5, one uncertainty on Nihat’s free kick, excellent timing as usual when it comes to high crosses in the area, but he is partially responsible for Turkey’s first goal.
Lichtsteiner: 6, handles Arda very well … up until the 92nd minute.
Senderos: 7, a warrior. A true warrior. Our MVP. Playing with Muller has given them confidence. Wenger will be glad to have him back.
Muller: 5,5. No real trouble in the back since Turkey’s attack were quite sterile. Very unlucky to deflect an unimpressive shot.
Magnin: 6,5. Played like a real captain. Perhaps a bit too aggressive. His only mistake is on Turkey’s first goal.
Behrami: 6,5. What a player. Runs like a madman and dribbles everyone on his path. Would have deserved a goal.
Gelson Fernandes: 5. Very disappointing in both games. What happened to Gelson? (30th Second Half Cabanas)
Inler: 6. Very useful in the first half. Unlucky when it comes to shooting.
Barnetta: 6. Does his best, plays better than with the Czechs (21st Second Half, Vonlanthen 6 - adds quality to the Swiss game, almost ended up in front of Volkan after dribbling 4 players).
Yakin 5 - first goal is entirely thanks to Derdiyok. Unbelievable miss a couple minutes later. It would have guaranteed Switzerland’s win. Misses and incredible chance at the end of the second half (40th second half Gygax)
Derdiyok 6,5 - great enthusiasm and a great assist for Yakin. Unstoppable. Frei-Derdiyok will be a deadly attack in the near future.

Turkey: Volkan 7,5 - Altintop 6,5 Servet 5 Emre A. 5,5 Balta 5,5 - Gokdeniz 5 (Senturk 7), Mehmet Aurelio 5,5 Arda 7 Tumer 4,5 (M. Topal 5) - Tuncay 5,5 Nihat 5,5 (Kazim)

Some commentaries:
Kuhn:The disappointment is huge, of course. But I can’t really criticise anyone, neither the players nor anyone else. The team played as well as they could, and lost two matches in a rather unfortunate way. Today I’m not saying we were better but we had a chance to score on the counterattack, three against one, to make it 2-1, so this was unsatisfactory. But as far as commitment and the will to perform well, it was all there and there is nothing I can criticise. It is painful, yes, I thought about trying to hold on for a draw and replace players from a tactical perspective. But we didn’t have much time to make up our minds and I do not regret any decision I have made. The probability of going through after a draw tonight was not very high, so I wanted to win.

Those who played up front today cannot be criticised. Eren Derdiyok is a young player and I think he did well and Hakan Yakin too. Having said that there were some options in attack that we didn’t have, but what can I do? I have my hands tied, it is a matter of fact. We did have many injured players in the run-up to the tournament, four with ruptured cruciate ligaments, and we don’t have that many players who can perform at this high level. So these setbacks didn’t make things easy. But we prepared well, the team made every effort, kept on evolving and developing their physical strength and I have to congratulate them on what they have achieved.”

Gelson Fernandes: We’re very disappointed. We dominated the game and we had many chances. But you’re never safe from conceding a goal. The great teams are the ones that kill the game scoring a goal to make themselves safe. We’re a young team and we shouldn’t be ashamed of our performance. I believe we deserved to qualify. We still have one game against Portugal and I don’t see why we shouldn’t win it. There is no reason to think that it will be a mock game. It will be a game for the honour.

Derdiyok: We conceded two goals on two small chances. It’s terrible. We should have wrapped it up during the first half. With a draw we would have still had hope.

Hakan Yakin: We played well in both games. But it’s already over. I can’t find the words to express my sadness. We should have scored two more goals after the first one.

Behrami: The disappointment is great. It’s not easy to analyse the game. We played well and had many opportunities. The Turks proved to be realistic. We can’t blame ourselves for much, perhaps our lack of experience. On their second goal we should have made a foul to stop them.

But Kuhn is real fair-play and reflects the thoughts of all Swiss when he says:
“The party will go on, no doubt about it, Switzerland is a multicultural country, there are enough Germans, Portuguese, French, Italians living here. It will remain a wonderful party and I’m sure the Swiss will not hold back and celebrate as best they can. And they deserve to celebrate. I am very disappointed but life goes on.”