26 gladiators for Euro 2008

May 13th, 2008 | by: Jan | Comments Off

Fine, I know I should have called them 26 Wilhelm Tell’s. Let’s keep up with nationalism!

The list is as follows:
Goalkeepers: Diego Benaglio (Wolfsburg), Fabio Coltorti (Santander), Pascal Zuberbühler (NE Xamax).
Defenders: Valon Behrami (Lazio), Philipp Degen (Dortmund), Johan Djourou (Arsenal), Mario Eggimann (Karlsruhe), Stéphane Grichting (Auxerre), Stephan Lichtsteiner (Lille), Ludovic Magnin (VfB Stuttgart), Patrick Müller (Lyon), Philippe Senderos (Arsenal), Christoph Spycher (Eintracht Frankfurt), Steve von Bergen (Hertha Berlin).
Midfielders: Tranquillo Barnetta (Leverkusen), Ricardo Cabanas (GC), Gelson Fernandes (Manchester City), Daniel Gygax (Metz), Benjamin Huggel (Bâle), Gökhan Inler (Udinese), Hakan Yakin (YB), Johan Vonlanthen (Salzburg).
Strikers: Eren Derdiyok (Basel), Alex Frei (Dortmund), Blaise Nkufo (Twente Enschede), Marco Streller (Basel).

Three names will have to be removed ere the 30th of May, before the final friendly vs. Liechtenstein.

Zuberbuehler has been confirmed as second goalkeeper, after Benaglio, although I would have rather chosen a goalkeeper other than Coltorti, someone like Djukic (Grasshoppers) or Gonzales (FC Sion) to give them a taste of international football.

Some form of surprise can be found upon noticing Patrick Muller. The experienced defender is currently playing for Lyon’s reserve team following a serious injury. Some weeks ago he was told that his contract would not be renewed.
If Muller’s physical condition is appropriate for such an important event I wouldn’t dislike a Senderos-Muller central defence (or even an Eggimann-Muller defence). His experience could only do good in such a crucial stage in Swiss football.
Philipp Degen (Dortmund) is also recovering from an injury and his presence at Euro 2008 isn’t guaranteed.

Dzemaili, Ziegler and David Degen will train with the under-21 team and will be called only upon injury of one of the Team A players.

This list is not much of a surprise, however only having 4 strikers (including a very young one like Derdiyok) might be somewhat of a risk. I would have certainly called Young Boys’ Haeberli who has played a majestic season. Furthermore I praise his choice of adding Cabanas to this list; the Grasshoppers player has been one of the star-players of the end of the 2007-2008 Super League Championship. I’m sure he will come in useful.

A couple other names who might have been considered are: Kollar(Zurich), Schwegler (Leverkusen), Zambrella (Brescia) and Abdi (Zurich).