Barcelona rediscover their origins in Basel

Tonight’s game between FC Basel and Barcelona is more than a Champions’ League clash - it is a way for Barcelona to rediscover some sweet memories from the past.

According to legend, the Swiss founder of Barcelona, Joan Gamper, a former player of FC Zurich and FC Basel, was inspired by Basel’s colours when he created the Catalan team. Other than that, Barcelona won their first major trophy in 1979 by lifting the UEFA Cup Winner’s Cup beating Fortuna Dusseldorf in Basel.
“We’re happy to be here again,” said coach Josep Guardiola. “For the people of Barcelona, this is a city and a stadium with a lot of good memories.”

Guardiola will confirm his rotation and his dislike for fixed starting elevens with the following formation starting the game:
FC Barcelona: Valdes; Dani Alves, Marquez, Puyol, Abidal; Xavi, Touré, Busquets; Henry, Eto’o, Messi.

FC Basel instead has nothing to lose, following two defeats the Swiss have to draw or win this game. Therefore Gross will unfold a Derdiyok-Streller attacking line. Basel will play with the following team:

Basel: Costanzo; Zanni, Abraham, Marque, Safari; Rubio, Huggel, Ergic, Chipperfield; Derdiyok, Streller.

Gross is confident: “The fans will give us tremendous support and what more do you want as a player than to play against Barcelona?”

10 reasons why Switzerland could win it)

Oldies: Chapuisat vs Zagorakis

Less than 1 hour away from the Group 2 main fixture Greece-Switzerland there are several concerns surrounding the Swiss national team.

Like Saturday’s win against Latvia the game against Greece is a crucial fixture - a win would change the entire perspective, a draw would be an excellent result, a defeat would be a serious problem.
However, following Djourou’s injury, Hitzfeld might have to find an alternative to Tranquillo Barnetta who suffered a thigh contusion (a charley horse). Clearly a recovering Barnetta is not worth the risk (a reminder of his performance at Euro 2008). Thus it is quite probable that Gelson Fernandes will take the place of the Leverkusen player.

Hitzfeld knows that “The Greeks are favourites. They already have 5 points more than us and can count on experience deriving from their 2004 title. They can count on defensive solidity and a great coach, Otto Rehhagel.”

For our coach the win isn’t imperative, given that the campaign is a long one and Hitzfeld hopes to count on the return of several players in the near future. For Hitzfeld, this going to be a real test for the Swiss defence, since they’ll be under great pressure for the first time. The long-lasting injuries of Senderos and Muller, together with Djourou’s recent one means that Switzerland only has Grichting and Eggimann for tonight’s fixture.

Similarly, for Valon Behrami Greece-Switzerland appears as a decisive game. “We’ll find out which path we’re going to take (…) after two great disillusions: Euro 2008 and Luxembourg.” Valon thinks that Greeks will not struggle for the win, comfortable with their 9 points, while only a win will change the global picture for Switzerland.

Greece’s strength lies in a solid defence and three dangerous strikers: Charisteas, Gekas and Samaras. Switzerland is aware of the danger that can come from set-pieces (and that has punished them already in the last three games).

Possible starting-lineups:
Greece: Chalkias; Dellas, Papadopoulos, Kyrgiakos; Setaridis, Katsouranis, Basinas, Torosidis; Charisteas, Gekas, Samaras.
Switzerland: Benaglio; Lichtsteiner, Eggimann, Grichting, Spycher; Behrami, Inler, Huggel, Fernandes; Frei, Nkufo.

Ten Reasons Why Switzerland Could Win:
1. History of the Greece-Switzerland games: 10 played, 5 wins for Switzerland, 3 draws, 2 wins for Greece.
2. History of the “duels” between Hitzfeld and Rehhagel: 9 wins for Hitzfeld, 6 for Rehhagel (Bundesliga games)
3. Swiss Strikers score more: N’Kufo has scored in all three previous games, Frei has scored against Latvia.
4. Swiss Determination - the win against Latvia might have given Switzerland new confidence.
5. Cheese fame - while Greece only has feta, Switzerland has Gruyère, Appenzeller, Emmentaler etc.
6. Swiss Drinks - Ovomaltine and Rivella are more renowned than Ouzo.
7. Swiss Mountains are Higher.
8. Sports Associations HQ are located in Switzerland - FIFA, UEFA, IOC.
9. The recent earthquake reached a magnitudo 5,1 Richter. Switzerland will try to do better in Piraeus.
10. Switzerland will win, because no other result is acceptable.

Source: http://www.20min.ch/sport/fussball/story/22801555

Other than the serious and funny reasons listed above I would mention:
1. The quality provided by Hakan Yakin in midfield.
2. Benaglio’s desire to prove his worth.
3. Eggimann’s chance to shine while Senderos, Muller and Djorou are out.
4. Hitzfeld wants to prove what he’s worth.
5. Behrami is coming back!

Game can be watched live here

U-21 Playoffs: Mighty Spain bows to Switzerland

An extraordinary result that in many ways compensates for the disappointments Swiss football has had to experience these past two months: in the first leg of the playoffs for the Swedish 2009 Euro U-21 the young “Nati” came from behind to defeat a tough Spanish side 2-1 in Aarau.

Switzerland - Spain 2:1 (1:1)
Brügglifeld, Aarau. - 2500 Spectators. - Referee Gumienny (Bel).
Goals: 18. Busquets 0:1. 26. Vonlanthen 1:1. 51. Nikci 2:1.
Switzerland: Sommer; Thiesson, Barmettler, Ferati, Ziegler; Schwegler; Nikci (91. Frank Feltscher), Fabian Lustenberger (62. Stocker), Zambrella, Crettenand; Vonlanthen (89. Ural).
Spain: Asenjo; Torres, Javi Garcia, Piqué, Canella; Busquets (67. Suarez), Raul Garcia; Sisi, Jurado (72. Xisco), Mata; Bojan.

Following the impressive win over the holders, the Netherlands, in the group stage (which meant that Switzerland qualified for the playoffs in place of the Dutch) Switzerland U-21, despite the many injured and absent players, has triumphed once more.
The Spanish selection is among the most talented in the European competition: the likes of Bojan, Xisco, Piqué, Asenjo and Javi Garcia overshadow local stars Zambrella, Vonlanthen, Lustenberger and Ziegler.

Logically, then, it was the Spanish who took the early advantage on a corner through Busquets. Yet Switzerland kept on attacking, building pressure on the Spanish rearguard and drew level through Vonlanthen, with Zambrella’s assist. The first-half ended with a 1-1 score and the second half began with an embarrassing Swiss superiority that logically led to the winning goal scored by Nicki on a Crettenand free-kick. However, the Spaniards did not give up and tried to score the crucial second goal but FC Vaduz’s keeper Yann Sommer and the Swiss defence were up to the task. Now Switzerland will have to face a terrible second leg in Spain knowing that they have the means to qualify for the tournament and be a major surprise! Spain is the only team to have won every single game of their group stage and this is the first game where they’ll have to go home with no points at all!

A video of the game can be found here (in French)

Euro 2008, a different, original and comical perspective

A very funny and original book has just come out in Switzerland called “Football - Switzerland 1:1″. Essentially, it’s a picture book featuring shots from Euro 2008 with some very interesting graphic comparisons.
The authors are Nino Haslach and Alain Picard and the book is available here together with a preview of some of the hilarious pictures. To give you an idea, you’ll find some pictures below (including a PG-13 :p)

Ahead of a crucial game, Switzerland-Latvia FT SCORE 2-1

FULL TIME SCORE 1-0 FREI 63rd 1-1 IVANOVS 71st (LATVIA WITH ONE MAN SENT OFF) 73rd 2-1 N’KUFO.

Having lost 2 positions in the FIFA Ranking following a humiliating loss to Luxembourg, Hitzfeld’s men are already looking towards the upcoming and crucial home game against Latvia (SATURDAY 11th - 17.45). Logically if we lost to Luxembourg we must not underestimate Latvia who are currently 64th in the rankings.
The Latvians have defeated Moldova 2-1 in their opening game and lost their home game to Greece with a 2-0 score.
After their extraordinary and historical qualification for the final round of Euro 2004, the Latvians haven’t obtained any memorable results and even lost to Liechtenstein in a qualifier for Euro 2008.
Their most dangerous players are certainly Celta de Vigo’s Maris Verpakovskis, Vitalijs Astafjevs and Juris Laizans.
This is going to be a crucial game - a game that Switzerland is going to have to win, if they fail to win this they might as well give up any hopes they have to qualify for World Cup 2010.

(Someone’s having fun)

Hitzfeld had called upon two new players: Marco Woelfli (Goalkeeper, Young Boys) and Fabian Lustenberger (Midfielder, Hertha Berlin), the latter would have had to take the place of injured Abdi, but Hitzfeld has decided to give him the opportunity to help Switzerland’s U-21 in the game against Spain.
He has also called back Young Boys forward Alberto Regazzoni who had not played with the Swiss national team since March 2007 saying that he was impressed by the forward’s performance in Young Boys’ away win at Basel. Instead Dzemaili and Stocker haven’t been called so that they will be available for Switzerland’s U-21 qualifier against Spain.

(Bucolic scenes)

The recent injuries of Marco Streller and Steve von Bergen mean more woes and tough decisions for our coach who has decided to keep a small number of 3 central defenders (Grichting, Djourou and Eggimann) and call Derdiyok to strengthen the attack.
Furthermore, despite being partly responsible for the defeat to Luxembourg, keeper Diego Benaglio is still Ottmar’s first choice.
Diego has told the Swiss media: “I never felt my Number 1 place would be in danger. I’m very critical of the Luxembourg game. I should have saved that free-kick. (…) I look forward to my games with Switzerland as if I were playing a Bundesliga game (with Wolfsburg).

Another disappointing performance was that of Tranquillo Barnetta - the Bayer Leverkusen midfielder, who has played very well in the latest matchdays of the Bundesliga, has been strangely absent from the two opening games of the qualifiers. His leadership in the team is endangered and he knows it: today is his opportunity to get his prestige back.

This will also be a crucial game for Hitzfeld’s prestige - hailed as a Messiah two months ago, he certainly hasn’t convinced the Swiss public. A win today and a good result in Greece on Wednesday would certainly change the overall picture.

Concerning the line-up it is clear now that Magnin and Yakin will be on the bench - the former has had some shaky performances recently and will have to give up his place to Spycher, the latter instead is seen as a forward by Hitzfeld and will not fit into the initial 4-4-2 where N’kufo and Frei are Hitzfeld’s preferences.

Columnist and former Swiss football player Brégy believes that the two can learn to play together upfront and create a very dangerous attacking parntership. As a consequence, the central midfield will be in the hands of Inler and Huggel.
Hitzfeld knows that it will be a physical battle and has asked his players to give everything and to be brave.

However, there was one very special fan in Freienbach the other day: Roger Federer. Roger spoke to the Swiss players and talked about his way of handling pressure after defeats. The players were excited at the prospect of meeting “the greatest Swiss athlete of all time” (Diego Benaglio) and we can only hope that this has had a positive psychological effect on the team ahead of a must-win game.

The game will be played in St. Gallen, the referee will be the Portuguese Cardoso and below you’ll find the possible starting line-ups:

Switzerland: Benaglio; Lichtsteiner, Djourou, Grichting, Spycher; Behrami, Inler, Huggel, Barnetta; Frei, Nkufo.
Latvia: Vanins; Kazanov, Stepanovs, Gorks, Zirnis; Solonicins, Laizans, Astafjevs, Rubins; Karlsons, Verpakovskis.

HOPP SCHWIIZ

s new hero?

When Lazio fans found out that Lichtsteiner was going to play for their team, they expected him to be a back-up for young prodigy De Silvestri: the 1.8 Million Euro Transfer fee was seen as evidence that the Swiss player wasn’t worth too much, together with the general prejudice in Italy that Swiss players are not sufficiently good for the local Championship (there have many disappointments: Vogel, Pascolo, Keller, Vonlanthen, Vega etc.). However, Lazio’s coach Delio Rossi has made the Swiss defender play 7 official games out of 8 and Stephan’s popularity is rising every matchday. His solid performances in defense (especially, a remarkable last-gap save on Cassano in the first minutes of Lazio-Sampdoria) which remind Lazio fans of Oddo and Nesta and his tireless runs on the wings, providing assists (such as that for Zarate’s wonder goal in Lazio-Sampdoria) and putting pressure on the other teams are making of him one of the best transfers in the Italian Serie A. He has relegated De Silvestri to the bench already and many Lazio fans congratulate the often criticized team management for such an excellent discovery.
Playing regularly for a team that is now in the top-4 in one of the world’s most competitive championships is certainly wonderful news for Ottmar Hitzfeld who can now count upon a player who is becoming more and more mature. Lazio fans admire Lichtsteiner’s commitment and seriousness and some even confess that they’re looking forward to buying their team shirt with Licht’s name on the back!
Furthermore, his transfer value has gone up by 177% according to La Gazzetta dello Sport: he’s now worth 5 Million Euros.
Keep up the great work Stephan! It looks as if Lazio fans are already forgetting Behrami!

What is happening to Swiss Football?

2008 will not be remembered as a memorable year in Swiss football history, no doubts about that.
Swiss clubs have only totaled 2,700 points in 2008 (19th position), compared to Cyprus‘ 5,666 and their 13th place (which is paramount to calculate the number of teams that can participate in European competition and from which round they start) is endangered by countries such as Denmark, Belgium and Greece just below them.

Yesterday’s demolition - with all three Swiss teams abandoning the competition before the group stage (first time since 2004) - is but one of many failures in Swiss football this year. Following the extraordinary feats of Basel in 2002 ChL and Thun not much later, and the good results in the UEFA Cup, something is going wrong in our small country.
The ridiculous home loss to Luxembourg in the qualifiers, added to the overall failure at Euro 2008 is turning this year into a nightmare. Luckily, the Under-21 selection has performed admirably and will now face a tough test against Spain in the playoffs.

Only FC Basel are left in the competition but considering their first two losses, even the chances of qualifying for the UEFA Cup are close to nothing. If Switzerland fail to win at least one of the two games against Latvia and Greece in one week’s time we might as well go back to playing ice-hockey.

And watching yesterday’s games we can count ourselves unlucky for facing opponents such as Galatasaray and Milan at such early stages, or for missing crucial players (Rochat, Chikhaoui for Zurich, and all Bellinzona’s injuries before yesterday’s game) or simply for being unlucky (Zurich’s disallowed goal in Milan, a crystal-clear penalty claim yesterday etc.) but this amounts to nothing - something is wrong in Switzerland.
Hitzfeld is probably right when he says that it’s a bad thing that Swiss talents are transferred so early and aren’t given the opportunity to grow in their own country and provide quality for the Swiss championship.

Below you’ll find a quick overview of yesterday’s results:

Club Bruges - Young Boys 2-0 (2-0)
Jan Breydel, 17.230 spectators. Referee: Balaj (Rou)
17th Akpala, 29th Sonck.
FC Bruges: Stijnen; Ciman, Alcaraz, Evens, Klukowski; Vargas, Simaeys, Geraerts, Dirar; Sonck, Akpala.
YB: Wölfli; Portillo, Ghezal, Affolter; D.Degen (46′C.Schwegler), Yapi (57′M.Schneuwly), Baykal, Bastians; Varela, Häberli (66′Doumbia), Regazzoni.

A very disappointing result, I was expecting Young Boys to qualify but somehow they lacked the will and strength to trouble the Belgian keeper - the result was logical and a deserved win for the home team. Overall the Bernese side looked stronger and should have been able to contain Akpala and Sonck, yet the defeat seems to confirm that Swiss football is undergoing something terribly serious.

Galatasaray - AC Bellinzona 2-1 (1-0)
Ali Sami Yen, 23.000 spectators. Referee: Nikolaiev (RUS)
24th Baros (P) 1-0, 53rd Sermeter (P) 1-1, 85th Yaser 2-1.
Galatasaray: De Sanctis; Serkan Kurtulus, Meira, Servet, Volkan; Arda (31′Arif Erdem), Ayhan, Mehmet Topal, Hakan Balta; Lincoln; Baros.
Bellinzona: Gritti; Siqueira-Barras, Mangiarratti (65′Mehmeti), La Rocca, Raso; Wahab (67′Miccolis); Sermeter, Rivera, Diarra, Conti (72′Roux); Lustrinelli.

Well, nobody expected Bellinzona to qualify but boy, oh boy, at least they weren’t a disappointment. It took Galatasaray to master all of their skills to defeat the minnows from Ticino. After losing (rather unfairly) the home game Bellinzona almost grasped a well-deserved draw; unafraid of the likes of Baros, Lincoln and the Turkish army, the Swiss team fought determinedly and can only be proud of its achievements. Forza Bellinzona!

FC Zurich - AC Milan 0-1 (0-0)
Letzigrund, 24.100 spectators. Referee: Skomina (SLO)
70th Shevchenko.
Zurich: Leoni; Stahel, Tihinen, Barmettler, Stucki (78′Lampi); Tico, Aegerter; Alphonse (82′Tahirovic), Abdi, Djuric (79′Nikci); Hassli.
Milan: Dida; Zambrotta, Bonera, Kaladze (30′Maldini), Antonini; Flamini, Emerson, Ambrosini (61′Kaka), Seedorf (76′Gattuso); Shevtchenko, Ronaldinho.

Well, a shame that Zurich couldn’t hold Milan - the away side was clearly superior quality-wise but Zurich played with determination and had several chances (including a crystal-clear penalty that was not awarded, which adds to the unfairly disallowed goal in Milan) but couldn’t get a chance to score. Shevchenko instead, inaugurated his return to Milan with the killer, the goal that took away all hope from the Swiss team and Swiss football in general.

Yesterday’s results are very interesting for one main reason: Basel will be busy with European competition until Christmas while the rest of the championship teams can now focus on the home league alone. Will Basel be able to concentrate on both, or will they fail to maintain their leadership with too many matters to handle and too few players to spare?

In other UEFA CUP games: Alexander Frei could not help his team, Borussia Dortmund, add a third away at Udinese to eventually lose on penalties where fellow Swiss International Gokhan Inler scored one of the penalties for the home team.
Swiss forward N’Kufo scored the only goal that opened the group stage to Dutch side Twente in a tight clash with Ligue 1 contenders Rennes.
Von Bergen and Lustenberger played the UEFA Cup game that saw their team Hertha Berlin qualify against St. Patrick’s of Ireland while Magnin only played the last twenty minutes in Stuttgart’s home draw to Varna.
Diego Benaglio was on the pitch for Wolfsburg at Bucarest against Rapid and conceded one goal that in the overall aggregate was insignificant.
Coltorti (Racing Santander) and Gelson Fernandes (Manchester City) were on the bench.

Uefa Cup Preview (or, the termination of Swiss Football)

The title of my post isn’t much of an optimistic one and for good reasons too!
Following the one draw and two defeats (with two home games) in the first leg, hopes are high for Young Boys alone.
The Bernese side only drew 2-2 at home to Club Bruges but they do have the quality to overcome their opponents, following the impressive win in the last matchday of the Swiss championship away at leaders FC Basel.
Ever since the arrival of coach Petkovic Young Boys have only lost one game and will be encouraged by the fact that in last year’s tournament Norwegian side Brann Bergen won 2-1 at Bruges and the return of Carlos Varela.
FC Bruges haven’t lost one game in the Belgian Championship yet but cannot entirely count on Belgian International Wesley Sonck who has a slight injury.

AC Bellinzona, instead, have the least hope of all Swiss teams. Following the impressive home game where they only narrowly lost to Turkish giants Galatasaray grabbing the advantage twice with one man less and conceding the defeat only in extra-time, they would have to play the match of their history to win with a 2 goal advantage in Istanbul. Considering their risky position bottom of the table of the Swiss League, coach Schallibaum might not want to risk pushing his players too much for something which seems totally hopeless from the start.
The Turks have won two consecutive games in their own league and can count on the quality of players such as Kewell, Nonda, Lincoln and Baros and Bellinzona will have Siqueira-Barras, Kalu, Neri and Gashi out for this one.

FC Zurich could very well create the shock of the day thanks to that late goal by Djukic in Milan that gave Zurich some hope (Milan won the game 3-1). Many things have changed since, Milan seems to have profited from the win against the Swiss side to start making a series of wins, including an impressive one over Inter.
Zurich are aware that they have chances of scoring (one thinks of Stahel’s goal that was unjustly disallowed when the score was still 0-0) although Milan welcome back Kaka and Gattuso.
Milan will be missing Inzaghi, Senderos, Borriello, Pirlo and Nesta while Zurich will have to do without two important players like Chikhaoui and Rochat.
Zurich has scored the most goals in the Swiss Championship up until now, have had 4 consecutive wins and are only 2 points behind leaders Basel - will this positive run encourage them to make an exploit tonight, in the same stadium where Luxembourg shocked Switzerland?

My predictions:
Bruges - Young Boys 0-1
Galatasaray - Bellinzona 3-1
FC Zurich - AC Milan 2-1

10th Matchday of the Swiss Season

Below you’ll find the results of the 10th Matchday of the Swiss Season: Aarau grabs another impressive draw at Sion, leaders and holders Basel lose at home to past rivals Young Boys, Vaduz wins the bottom of the league game and Zurich are only 2 points behind Basel.

26.09.2008
AC Bellinzona - Grasshopper Club 1-1 (1-0)
Comunale, 3116 spectators. Referee: Laperrière
31st Drissa 1-0, 92nd Salatic 1-1

27.09.2008
FC Sion - FC Aarau 1-1 (0-1)
Tourbillon, 8500 spectators. Referee: Busacca
40th Bastida 0-1, 91st Dominguez 1-1

FC Basel - Young Boys 1-2 (0-1)
St. Jakob, 24246 spectators. Referee: Kever
32nd Bastians 0-1, 70th Haeberli 0-2, 79th Gelabert 1-2

28.09.2008
FC Vaduz - FC Luzern 1-0 (1-0)
Rheinpark, 2120 spectators. Referee: Studer
34th Gaspar 1-0

FC Zurich - Neuchatel Xamax 3-0 (2-0)
Letzigrund, 7600 spectators. Referee: Circhetta
2nd Hassli 1-0, 21st Alphonse 2-0, 90th Alphonse 3-0

STANDINGS
(Team, Games Played, Points, Wins, Draws, Defeats, Goals Scored, Goals Conceded)

1. FC BASEL 10 - 24 - 8 - 0 - 2 - 22 - 9
2. FC Zurich 10 - 22 - 7 - 1 - 2 - 25 - 12
3. Grasshopper 10 - 17 - 4 - 5 - 1 - 18 - 11
4. FC Aarau 10 - 17 - 4 - 5 - 1 - 13 - 9
5. Young Boys 10 - 14 - 4 - 2 - 4 - 16 - 15
6. FC Sion 10 - 12 - 3 - 3 - 4 - 14 - 18
7. Neuchatel Xamax 10 - 10 - 2 - 4 - 4 - 14 - 18
8. FC Vaduz 10 - 10 - 2 - 4 - 4 - 8 - 19
9. AC Bellinzona 10 - 7 - 1 - 4 - 5 - 9 - 16
10. FC Luzern 10 - 2 - 0 - 2 - 8 - 6 - 18