I thought we could do more

I apologize for this long delay. I’ve been working 24/24 7/7 for the past months, starting a new life and leaving behind (temporarily) the hectic life of Uni.

In the meantime Switzerland played three friendlies: vs. Austria (bitter rivals, eternal enemies!), vs. US and vs. Nigeria.

The coach was expecting a lot from these games, being the last three in 2007.

The victory against Austria (at home, 13th October) was the least one could ask.
Barnetta, Yakin and Streller: these three men led us to an important victory. Barnetta is becoming more and more the soul and star of this team, after the excellent game vs. the Netherlands, he served the three winning assists to Streller and Yakin. Austria surrendered, 3-1. But Kuhn wasn’t pleased, the first 20 minutes brought upon a lot of pressure and Austria’s equaliser. There is an issue with the player’s psychological attitude and we have a shaky defence, something Austria didn’t seem able to make use of. Yet against a stronger team the danger could be more than manifest. Senderos was unrecognizable and Kuhn’s choice to take him out and put Grichting in didn’t sound flattering to the Arsenal defender. Inler-Fernandes didn’t play as well as they did against the Netherlands, was it just one lucky game they had played back in August?
What Kuhn knows is that he has a world-class player in Barnetta (watch the video) and that we need someone like Muller back in defence.

Switzerland - Austria 3-1 (2-1)
Zurich. Letzigrund. 22 500 spectators. Referee: Hamer (Lux).
Goals: 2e Streller 1-0. 11e Aufhauser 1-1. 36e Yakin 2-1. 55e Streller 3-1.
Switzerland: Coltorti; Lichtsteiner, Djourou, Senderos (46th Grichting), Magnin (86th Spycher); Vonlanthen (18th David Degen), Fernandes (82nd Celestini), Inler, Barnetta; Yakin (46th Margairaz); Streller (78th Nkufo).
Autriche: Manninger; Sandfest (65th Ertl), Prödl (40th Schiemer), Hiden, Fuchs; Garics, Sariyar, Aufhauser, Weissenberger (65th Mörz); Ivanschitz (82th Harnik); Kuljic (65th Kienast).

United States

The game against the United States was the chance to win two games within one week. Switzerland had never lost to the Americans. It was also Kuhn’s 65th game as Swiss coach. One he will want to forget quickly!
Bradley’s goal (the son of the American coach) showed all of our defensive weaknesses and Kuhn keeps on admitting our constant mistakes against weaker team (we seem to play the game of our life against Brazil, Holland and Germany and then struggle when it comes to Austria, Chili or Japan). Bradley’s goal showed us once and for all that Zuberbuehler cannot be our number 1 goalkeeper and that our defence (apart from Grichting) is very weak, too weak for a team with such ambitions!
The United States never really posed a threat yet they knew how to make the best of the chances the “Nati” gave them, while Switzerland failed to make any at all!
The whistles and buuuuhhsss at the end of the game are depressing for a Swiss fan like myself. Seldom have I heard Swiss fans jeering at a team: something must be done.
The problem is that most of these players have very few games on their legs in their foreign teams: take Margairaz, the one who was supposed to build up the gameplay for Streller or Fernandes who hardly ever plays in his team back in England.
The second half changes didn’t really change anything, Yakin’s magic or N’Kufo’s will to do so well with the National team weren’t enough to score; worse, Kuhn’s decisions brought upon the shameful defeat.

Switzerland - USA 0-1 (0-0)
Basel
Parc St-Jacques
16 500 spectators
Referee: De Bleeckere (Be)
Goals: 86e Bradley 0-1.
Switzerland: Zuberbühler; Lichtsteiner, Djourou (17th Von Bergen), Grichting, Magnin; David Degen, Celestini (46th Fernandes), Inler, Barnetta (75th Spycher); Margairaz (46th Yakin); Streller (46th Nkufo). - Coach: Kuhn
United States: Hahnemann (47th Guzan); Cherundolo, Onyewu (46th Califf), Bocanegra, Lewis (84th Szetela); Feilhaber, Edu, Bradley, Beasley (31th Pearce); Twellman (77th Adu), Dempsey (90th Findley). - Coach: Bradley

Nigeria
Like in the game vs. the US the “big names” were absent (Martins, Kanu, Mikel) and once again Switzerland managed to make a mess of their game and lose 1-0. Since that sad 0-0 against Ukraine in the World Cup the Swiss had always scored. Now this was 2 consecutive games without one single goal. I can understand that the absences of Frei and Vonlanthen are heavy ones in such a small footballing nation but there is something wrong with the physical condition of the players and, as I said before, with the psychological condition yet on the other hand Gygax played after a long injury and Barnetta wasn’t in his best physical condition. The team held for over one hour with the good Inler-Fernandes duo (perhaps the only positive aspect of the game) but once again failed to build up serious chances.
N’Kufo battled alone up front, and Yakin did what he could with the few chances that were granted by the rest of the team.

Switzerland - Nigeria 0-1 (0-0)
Zurich, Letzigrund 12700 spectators
Referee: Bebek (Cro).
Goal: 79th Taiwo 0-1.

Switzerland: Benaglio; Philipp Degen (9th Lichtsteiner), Djourou (82nd
Grichting), Eggimann, Magnin (76e Spycher); Gygax, Fernandes, Inler, Barnetta (46th David Degen); Yakin (76th Ziegler); Nkufo. - Coach: Kuhn

Nigeria: Ekide; Ifeyani, Nwaneri, Shittu, Taiwo (87th Afolabi);
Dickson, Ayila (71th Olofinjana), Tico; Odemwingie; Ikechukwu (78th Nsofor), Makinwa (68th Manasseh). - Coach: Vogts