Swiss train to cope with vuvuzelas and Spain

Published Jun. 15, 2010 7:03 p.m. ET

foxsports

Switzerland hasn't just been honing its football skills before its World Cup opener against Spain. Coach Ottmar Hitzfeld has also trained his team to cope with the deafening din of vuvuzelas.

The German coach said Tuesday he scheduled an extra public training session at the team's base in South Africa and invited local fans, knowing they would bring their plastic horns.

Hitzfeld said Tuesday it was good practice for his players to get used to communicating on the pitch when their voices are drowned out by the constant monotone buzz of the vuvuzelas.

``It is good for the players to be prepared for what they will hear on the pitch,'' he said, a day before his team meets European champion Spain in their Group H opener at Durban's Moses Mabhida Stadium.

However, it may not give Switzerland that much of an edge - Spanish players are no strangers to vuvuzelas after playing in the Confederations Cup in South Africa last year.

Defender Philippe Senderos said he was used to noisy stadiums from playing in England's Premier League with Arsenal and he dismissed a journalist's suggestion the Swiss might be more used to vuvuzelas than other teams because they grew up with the noise of alpine horns.

``I don't think you can compare the two, but it is a very noisy instrument, that's right,'' he said of the vuvuzela.

``I think we've got to learn to live with it and adjust to it,'' he added. ``That's the way it is and the way it's going to be until the very end.''