Switzerland are a side that qualified for many major tournaments way back in time, experienced something of a drought but have now come back and have been a fixture in six of the last nine major championships, including three of the last five World Cups. They are not a side opponents fear, but they are well organised and can be very hard to break down as evidenced by their last World Cup in 2006 when they were eliminated without conceding a single goal.
Switzerland have made the quarter finals of the World Cup on three occasions, in 1934, 1938 and 1954. Their 1954 quarter final match against Austria was an extraordinary affair with the Swiss eventually losing out 7-5. Two dismal first round exits followed in 1962 and 1966 when they lost all six matches and they did not qualify against until 1994. This tournaments was notable because the Swiss played the United States indoors in the opening match, which was the first time this had ever happened in international football history. They made the last 16 where Spain easily dispatched them 3-0. The 2006 World Cup saw them convincingly make the knockout stages after 2-0 wins against South Korea and Togo had followed a dire 0-0 draw with France. Dull football was taken to a new level in the second round clash with Ukraine. In what was possibly one of the worst matches in recent memory, the sides played out 120 minutes with barely a shot in anger being produced during the whole tepid affair. Switzerland couldn’t even score in the ensuing penalty shootout which they lost 3-0.
They qualified from the European section after they had landed a relatively easy group with Greece deemed to be their only real rivals. However, their campaign started off in disastrous fashion. After a respectable draw away to Israel where they let a 2-0 lead slip, they were amazingly beaten at home by minnows Luxembourg in what was one of the most embarrassing results in their history. They quickly recovered however and rattled off five consecutive wins, ending up as group winners by a single point from Greece.
Some might say that the fates have been kind to them again as they have been drawn with Spain, Honduras and Chile. Spain will be clear favorites to progress but Switzerland will fancy their chances against the other teams in the group. The unpredictable Chilean side are likely to cause them trouble whilst Honduras are an unknown quantity at this point but are not expected to progress. Of their squad, Everton’s Philippe Senderos is one of the better known names with the talented but volatile Hakin Yakin of local side Luzern always capable of magic. All eyes however, will be firmly placed on Alexander Frei of Basel who is the nation’s all time leading scorer with a superb tally of 40 goals to his credit.