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Source: Getty
Switzerland remains below expectations against Ukraine, also because the absences are too great. The personal situation will not improve until Sunday’s game against Germany.
It was after midnight, and 2: 2 of the start of the Nations League against Ukraine in the empty arena of Lviv, with more than an hour to live, when the Swiss coach Vladimir Petkovic said what he usually says in an initial analysis. – either after victory or defeat: that is, you are satisfied with the performance. For the players to stay true to the principles and appear dominant.
So that’s what he said now after a match that Switzerland started well but ended badly. In which she had only obtained three dangerous degrees. In which he conceded the fourth defeat of the last nine games. Petkovic’s conclusion after tonight was: “The direction is correct!” He has been on the path of rejuvenation for the past two years. I had no choice because the generation around Stephan Lichtsteiner, Valon Behrami and Blerim Dzemaili had passed their zenith at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
The fundamental debates are probably pointing a bit nowhere after the first international game in almost ten months, after a game that was officially a competitive game but had a lot of testing due to special circumstances (Corona). And yet, even after such a night, the coaches and players must measure themselves against the goals they have set for themselves. In the Nations League, they also want to take first place in a group with Germany and Spain, because they did it two years ago against world number 1 Belgium. With the defeat in Lviv, this (close) goal has already drifted away a bit. If Switzerland is also beaten by Germany on Sunday in Basel, they have probably already lost sight of it.
The League of Nations is the present. The future is the final of the European Championship next summer. For the first time in more than 65 years, the Swiss want to advance to the quarter-finals of a tournament. Write the story, as they call it. To do this they got one more year of prep time last spring. That cannot harm them, however sad and uncomfortable the circumstances, which led to the postponement of the European Championship final until the summer of 2021.
Because there are just a lot of things emerging in the Swiss team. Petkovic is in the process of expanding his team base. He has made five to six changes in Ukraine since last fall’s games. However, despite the long international break, the team has not lost its basic structure and has not denied its philosophy. Seen that way, he played well. But it was just decent, and that won’t be enough to achieve the goals set for this fall and next June.
It has a lot to do with experience, which makes all the difference in games like this, even if it is just a match against a solid and persistent opponent like Ukraine. In Lviv, 9 out of 14 Swiss players played 25 international matches or less before the match. For comparison: at the World Cup in Russia, 8 out of 11 regular players had experience in 40 international matches or more.
Absence of players like Fabian Schär with his qualities to unleash an attack, Xherdan Shaqiri with his moments of surprise or Denis Zakaria with his dynamism, but also Remo Freuler with his versatility or Admir Mehmedi with his cunning, the SFV team cannot do this to long term power with. Governors like Djibril Sow, Ruben Vargas and Renato Steffen or new regulars like Nico Elvedi and Kevin Mbabu still don’t have enough experience, they don’t have the necessary charisma yet. “I hope we have more competition in the team again in October,” Petkovic said. He could have put it another way: that is, he hoped he would soon have the unmatched again.
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