Each day between May 10 and the day before the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup on June 11, FoxSoccer.com analyst Jamie Trecker will preview each of the 32 teams playing in South Africa and tell you everything you need to know about each nation represented at the world's greatest sporting event.
Country: Switzerland
Nickname: La Nati
Switzerland has three official languages and encompasses four cultures. It is the world's center for banking and, despite its official neutrality, has been known to sell arms to both sides of a conflict. Its guards protect the pope, its slopes on the Alps are known worldwide, and overall Switzerland is a small, grand, peaceful country that was allowed to stay that way by virtue of geography -- it was just too much of a pain in the you-know-what to overrun, what with the mountains and all.
Switzerland is rightly feted for winter sports; like neighboring Italy and Austria, it has fine skiing and impressive chalets. It is slowly becoming a decent soccer-playing nation, but it is better known for playing host to FIFA than it is for actually winning soccer games. It memorably hosted the European Championships in 2008 ... and stunk.
Business is still tricky for the Swiss clubs, which weathered the collapse of the club Servette after shady financial dealings mid-decade. The league is second-rate, and most of the best players have to ply their trade abroad.
PAST WORLD CUP SUCCESS: This will be Switzerland's ninth trip to the Cup (1934, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1962, 1966, 1994, 2006). Switzerland has reached the quarterfinals three times (1934, 1938, 1954) but never in the modern era. The Swiss also won silver at the 1924 Games. The best showing in recent years was their shocking first-place finish in 2006 Group G (above eventual runners-up France!) that saw them go out in the knockout round to Ukraine on penalties. Unfortunately, that was also one of the worst games played in the tournament.
REGIONAL SUCCESS: Hey, at least the Swiss won a game (a first) in the 2008 Euros. That was better than their co-hosts Austria, who were truly out of their depth.
LEAGUE OVERVIEW: Switzerland's league is split in two; the Super League is its de facto top league, while the Challenge League below it uses a different points system for wins and draws and also rewards goal-scoring. Top clubs are Young Boys Berne, Grasshopper, FC Basel and FC Zurich.
MANAGER: Ottmar Hitzfeld. Former manager of Bayern Munich, Hitzfeld also has a great deal of experience in Switzerland's league, having coached Grasshopper, Basel and Lugano (among others). Hitzfeld also is one of just three men to have won the Champions League with two different teams. Ernst Happel is one, the other will be determined May 22nd in Madrid; either Jose Mourinho or Louis van Gaal will win his second.
KEY PLAYERS: Valon Behrami (West Ham) is decent, but he's on such a lousy club, it's really hard to tell; he has been linked with a move to Palermo. The creaky Alexander Frei (Basel) is still about; and then there's Phillipe Senderos, a washout at two English clubs. Get the picture?
FIFA RANKINGS: 20th. Which is ridiculous. Highest ever was 3rd (1993) and lowest was 83rd (1998).
FIRST ROUND OPPONENTS: Honduras, Chile, Spain
HEAD TO HEAD AGAINST CHILE: Chile beat them in Santiago way back in the 1962 World Cup, 3-1. More recently, the Swiss won out 2-1 at Vienna in an exhibition.
HEAD TO HEAD AGAINST HONDURAS: Switzerland has never faced Honduras.
HEAD TO HEAD AGAINST SPAIN: Spain has played Switzerland 15 times over the years, and the Swiss haven't won once. Most recently in World Cup play, Spain knocked the Swiss out in 1994, 3-0. That was also the most recent meeting; the Swiss aren't exactly an attractive friendly opponent, so they stopped all that in 1989.
HOW THEY QUALIFIED: With relative ease. They were in an awful group, and won it, despite a humiliating 2-1 loss to Luxembourg. At home.
PERCENTAGE CHANCE TO PROGRESS: 30%. Spain and Chile are better, but Switzerland has a chance to slip through in a group with only one clear favorite.
TO WATCH: You know, you really shouldn't. It's a bad team.
ROSTER
Goalkeepers: Diego Benaglio (Wolfsburg), Johnny Leoni (Zurich), Marco Woelfli (Young Boys), Fabio Coltorti (Racing Santander)
Defenders: Stephan Lichtsteiner (Lazio), Stephane Grichting (Auxerre), Steve Von Bergen (Hertha Berlin), Philippe Senderos (Arsenal), Mario Eggimann (Hannover), Christoph Spycher (Eintracht Frankfurt), Reto Ziegler (Sampdoria), Francois Affolter (Young Boys), Ludovic Magnin (FC Zurich)
Midfielders: Valon Behrami (West Ham), Gokhan Inler (Udinese), Benjamin Huggel (FC Basel), Gelson Fernandes (Saint-Etienne), Xherdan Shaqiri (FC Basel), Pirmin Schwegler (Eintracht Frankfurt), Tranquillo Barnetta (Bayer Leverkusen), Marco Padalino (Sampdoria), Fabian Lustenberger (Hertha Berlin), Valentin Stocker (FC Basel)
Forwards: Alex Frei (FC Basel), Blaise Nkufo (FC Twente), Eren Derdiyok (Bayer Leverkusen), Hakan Yakin (Lucerne), Marco Streller (FC Basel), Nassim Ben Khalifa (Grasshoppers), Albert Bunjaku (FC Nuremburg)
TOMORROW'S TEAM: South Korea
