Ahead of a crucial game, Switzerland-Latvia FT SCORE 2-1

FULL TIME SCORE 1-0 FREI 63rd 1-1 IVANOVS 71st (LATVIA WITH ONE MAN SENT OFF) 73rd 2-1 N’KUFO.

Having lost 2 positions in the FIFA Ranking following a humiliating loss to Luxembourg, Hitzfeld’s men are already looking towards the upcoming and crucial home game against Latvia (SATURDAY 11th - 17.45). Logically if we lost to Luxembourg we must not underestimate Latvia who are currently 64th in the rankings.
The Latvians have defeated Moldova 2-1 in their opening game and lost their home game to Greece with a 2-0 score.
After their extraordinary and historical qualification for the final round of Euro 2004, the Latvians haven’t obtained any memorable results and even lost to Liechtenstein in a qualifier for Euro 2008.
Their most dangerous players are certainly Celta de Vigo’s Maris Verpakovskis, Vitalijs Astafjevs and Juris Laizans.
This is going to be a crucial game - a game that Switzerland is going to have to win, if they fail to win this they might as well give up any hopes they have to qualify for World Cup 2010.

(Someone’s having fun)

Hitzfeld had called upon two new players: Marco Woelfli (Goalkeeper, Young Boys) and Fabian Lustenberger (Midfielder, Hertha Berlin), the latter would have had to take the place of injured Abdi, but Hitzfeld has decided to give him the opportunity to help Switzerland’s U-21 in the game against Spain.
He has also called back Young Boys forward Alberto Regazzoni who had not played with the Swiss national team since March 2007 saying that he was impressed by the forward’s performance in Young Boys’ away win at Basel. Instead Dzemaili and Stocker haven’t been called so that they will be available for Switzerland’s U-21 qualifier against Spain.

(Bucolic scenes)

The recent injuries of Marco Streller and Steve von Bergen mean more woes and tough decisions for our coach who has decided to keep a small number of 3 central defenders (Grichting, Djourou and Eggimann) and call Derdiyok to strengthen the attack.
Furthermore, despite being partly responsible for the defeat to Luxembourg, keeper Diego Benaglio is still Ottmar’s first choice.
Diego has told the Swiss media: “I never felt my Number 1 place would be in danger. I’m very critical of the Luxembourg game. I should have saved that free-kick. (…) I look forward to my games with Switzerland as if I were playing a Bundesliga game (with Wolfsburg).

Another disappointing performance was that of Tranquillo Barnetta - the Bayer Leverkusen midfielder, who has played very well in the latest matchdays of the Bundesliga, has been strangely absent from the two opening games of the qualifiers. His leadership in the team is endangered and he knows it: today is his opportunity to get his prestige back.

This will also be a crucial game for Hitzfeld’s prestige - hailed as a Messiah two months ago, he certainly hasn’t convinced the Swiss public. A win today and a good result in Greece on Wednesday would certainly change the overall picture.

Concerning the line-up it is clear now that Magnin and Yakin will be on the bench - the former has had some shaky performances recently and will have to give up his place to Spycher, the latter instead is seen as a forward by Hitzfeld and will not fit into the initial 4-4-2 where N’kufo and Frei are Hitzfeld’s preferences.

Columnist and former Swiss football player Brégy believes that the two can learn to play together upfront and create a very dangerous attacking parntership. As a consequence, the central midfield will be in the hands of Inler and Huggel.
Hitzfeld knows that it will be a physical battle and has asked his players to give everything and to be brave.

However, there was one very special fan in Freienbach the other day: Roger Federer. Roger spoke to the Swiss players and talked about his way of handling pressure after defeats. The players were excited at the prospect of meeting “the greatest Swiss athlete of all time” (Diego Benaglio) and we can only hope that this has had a positive psychological effect on the team ahead of a must-win game.

The game will be played in St. Gallen, the referee will be the Portuguese Cardoso and below you’ll find the possible starting line-ups:

Switzerland: Benaglio; Lichtsteiner, Djourou, Grichting, Spycher; Behrami, Inler, Huggel, Barnetta; Frei, Nkufo.
Latvia: Vanins; Kazanov, Stepanovs, Gorks, Zirnis; Solonicins, Laizans, Astafjevs, Rubins; Karlsons, Verpakovskis.

HOPP SCHWIIZ