Our (meagre) 2007 tally

2007 wasn’t a good year for Swiss football.
Blame it on the injuries, blame it on the friendlies (qualifiers would do us good!), look at everyone else’s hardships etc. but come on! We’re ambitious, we want to win this Euro 2008!
The physical condition of our players is troubling: too many injuries, too many players who can’t hold 90 minutes of relatively light games.
The goalkeeper issue above all others:
1. We haven’t won one game with Benaglio who suffers a goal every 45 minutes!
2. Zuberbuehler is NOT our choice despite the better rate, one goal every 64 minutes.
3. My choice is Coltorti, one goal every 202 minutes! And of the three probably the one I trust most.

But then again my dear Kobi, why don’t you give Vailati a chance? The young FC Sion goalkeeper has proven himself to be the best goalkeeper we have, why not give HIM a chance?

We need Frei and Vonlanthen back and I think we need Vogel too. He was a real captain, the best one we’ve had these past years. He could give the team confidence and he was wise enough on the pitch. The team has lost its leader, Barnetta is the star, yes, but is he the leader?

And we’re number 45 in the Fifa rankings. I think we deserve to be higher than that (without the injuries).

Switzerland’s 2007 tally:
4 wins (2-1 Netherlands, 2-0 Jamaica, 2-1 Chili, 3-1 Austria), 1 draw (1-1 Argentina), 5 defeats (1-3 Colombia, 1-3 Germany, 3-4 Japan, 0-1 US, 0-1 Nigeria). We should have had a 8-1-1 tally when you look at the teams we played against.

Only four friendlies left until Euro 2008 and they will be against strong sides!