When I read a headline on the interweb this week titled ‘Swiss shock’, I just assumed it was a typo and all I had to do was follow a link to get a free bar of toblerone. One of the big ones that you get at airport duty free shops (who does buy those by the way?). However, I was wrong.
On clicking it was indeed a 'Swiss Shock', rather than a choc, and it referred to Switzerland’s opening group game, the 1-0 win over much fancied Spain.
In terms of shocks, this was pretty significant as well. Spain entered the World Cup as reigning European Champions, have the best set of international players available, a tried and tested system, a respected coach in Vincente Del Bosque and have only lost once in around about 3000 matches, give or take a few. Heck, even IBWM backed them for glory and you can’t get a more glowing endorsement then that.
Sooooo; Switzerland 1 Spain 0........was it really a shock?
Ok, to be fair to Espana they looked for the most part as invincible as they always do. The ball looked as if it belonged to the Spanish and the Swiss were little more than traffic cones scattered across the pitch for Xavi et al's passes to avoid. But to write this result off as a total fluke does a great disservice to a decent Switzerland side.
Bike parking at Swiss FA headquarters
In qualifying for South Africa, Switzerland topped their group; admittedly this wasn’t the most difficult of groups to steer out of (they lost only once, at home to Luxembourg of all people in 2008), but there has been a growing feeling across Europe that this is a Switzerland side that has been developing at a rapid rate.
Talented players such as Gokhan Inler and Eren Derdiyok have made huge strides over the last two years and are already established in Serie A and the Bundesliga respectively. Inler with Udinese and Derdiyok with Bayer Leverkusen . Supplemented with a few old hands this is a Switzerland side with a clear sense of focus. And that focus has been provided by coach Ottmar Hitzfeld.
If there was one thing that stood out from the Spain game, it was the tactical approach of the Swiss, admittedly ‘stop Spain scoring’ is a fairly straightforward instruction, but the execution of the game plan was no fluke. Hitzfelds set up was fairly simple, he was more than happy for the Spaniards to play their neat little triangles and maintain a tippy tappy passing game with ole!’s a plenty coming from the crowd (if you could hear them) provided it was all done in front of his Switzerland team.
Stifling space for the Spaniards to make incisive runs down the flanks was also a feature, and anything that went straight down the middle was easy fodder for centre backs Phillipe Senderos and Stéphane Grichting, with the former sadly due to miss the rest of the tournament due to ankle ligament damage.
Hitz; providing focus
In fact the Swiss were so effective at executing their plan that the Spaniards almost swallowed their collective dentures when Switzerland broke forward. You just don’t do that to Spain. Fernandes scored after an excellent run from Derdiyok, and his team could have scored again with another incisive move resulting in a bit of woodwork worrying. Patience the key, the weight of expectancy looked to hang heavy on Spanish shoulders.
All this just demonstrates the value of a good coach. In the previous two World Cups we have seen the brilliant work of Guus Hiddink, teaching South Korea and then Australia to punch well above their weight.
Hitzfeld has already won the champions league twice with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, and so far looks to have the ability to ruffle feathers at South Africa 2010.
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