Frei is back!

His last game with the Nati dates back to the 25th of March 2007 in a 3-1 defeat to Colombia (awful game, I had gladly forgotten about it) but a series of injuries (most serious being a hip injury) kept him off the pitches until last February and has played 5 games since providing 4 assists yet failing to score.
On Wednesday the 26th Switzerland is facing Germany in one of the three final tests before Euro 2008 (the others being Slovakia and Liechtenstein).

The Switzerland line-up will be:
Goalkeepers: Benaglio, Coltorti, Zuberbuehler
Defenders: Behrami, Eggimann, Lichtsteiner, Magnin, Senderos, Spycher, von Bergen
Midfielders: Barnetta, Fernandes, Gygax, Huggel, Inler, Yakin, Ziegler
Forwards: Derdiyok, Frei, N’Kufo, Vonlanthen

In other news, Mario Eggimann, who will play against Germany and has been a solid defender ever since being called to defend his nation’s colours, will move from Karlsruhe to Hannover for 1 mill. euros.

His Karlsruhe coach said: “Mario has made real strides this season. He has really improved in building moves, avoiding unnecessary fouls and his defensive headers.” He has scored 4 goals for Kalsruhe this year.
Borussia Dortmund, Eintracht Frankfurt and Bolton Wanderers were allegedly interested in the promising defender.

Johann Vogel, a rather forgotten player (I will never understand why he left PSV for Milan, in the Netherlands he was an amazing player, one of the Team’s best and was particularly impressive in the PSV – Milan Champions’ League fixtures), has signed for Blackburn Rovers. He was without a team since quitting Betis (after all the controversy that had arisen from that transfer) and joins the English team on a 2-year contract.
He will certainly miss out on the Euro 2008 event but perhaps his career might need such a fresh start with a small team – no Swiss can possibly forget what a good captain he was!

On a final note, the Swiss championship is drawing to an end with a stunning finale: Basel and Young Boys are on the top sharing 52 points with Zurich considerably behind. The struggle to avoid relegation concerns some high-ranked teams like FC Sion, St. Gallen and Grasshopers.
A prediction of what will occur is hard to draw!