Group A continued It took Switzerland nine attempts before finally making it to the European Championships finals. That was back in 1996 and they followed with another appearance in Portugal four years ago.
How they qualified As a co-host the Swiss were spared the trauma of qualification.
The Coach Kobi Kuhn succeeded a raft of foreign coaches (Uli Stielike, Roy Hodgson, Gilbert Gress and Enzo Trossero) when he took over the Swiss national team duties seven years ago and when he retires after this tournament he will be replaced by German Ottmar Hitzfeld. Kuhn controversially installed Alexander Frei as captain in the spring of 2007 after a very public falling out with Johann Vogel.
Key Players Alexander Frei has spent a good part of this season injured and only recently returned to play for his club side Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga. If he can regain his sharpness for the summer tournament the Swiss may benefit from the enforced rest of their top striker.
Arsenal’s Philippe Senderos’ frailties have been on show at the club level but he still has the confidence of his international coach. Tranquillo Barnetta of Bayer Leverkusen enjoyed an excellent 2006 World Cup in Germany although he did miss a penalty in the shoot-out loss to Ukraine.
Great Euro Memory Their European Championship finals debut came in 1996 when they held host country England to a 1-1 draw. England led from an Alan Shearer goal early in the game but with seven minutes left Stuart Pearce was called for a handball in the penalty box and Kubilay Turkyilmaz equalized from the spot.
Synopsis Switzerland comes into the tournament with all the advantages and disadvantages of co-hosting. No worries over qualifying but unrealistic expectations and few opportunities over the last two years for the team to be tested in competitive games.
The Swiss were knocked out of the 2006 World Cup without conceding a goal although how they achieved such a feat with Pascal Zuberbuhler in net can be considered as a modern-day miracle.
The team has mix of youth and experience although a number of players (Patrick Muller, Tranquillo Barnetta, and Frei) have struggled with injuries lately. Of the two host nations the Swiss have by far the better chance to move on to the last eight.
Coming Up in World Cup Qualifying Drawn in Group 2 with Greece, Israel, Moldova, Latvia and Luxembourg.
Turkey made their European Championship Finals debut in 1996 but lost all three games. Four years later they lost in the last eight to Portugal by a score of 2-0.
How they qualified It was topsy-turvy qualifying campaign for Turkey. Against all odds (including a ban on playing at home for part of the group stage) they started very well in Group C then hit a torrid streak at the midway point.
Just as they looked as if they had again blown their chance they recovered their nerve and finished seven points behind Greece and a point ahead of Norway. Hakan Sukur who has been left out of the squad for the finals was Turkey’s leading scorer with five goals. Tuncay Sanli and Nihat Kahveci each had three.
The Coach Fatih Terim is in charge at the Euros for a second time having helped Turkey to England in 1996. After the ’96 tournament and for the next four years Terim held a Midas-touch with league titles and a UEFA Cup coming his way while in charge of Galatasaray.
A move to Serie A with Fiorentina and then AC Milan did not prove to be nearly as successful and a return to Galatasaray failed to rekindle past glories. After failing to make it to the 2006 World Cup finals a place in the last eight is probably the minimum he needs to keep his job.
Key Players Nihat Kahveci has enjoyed a fantastic season with Villarreal in the Spanish league and looks to have put his injury woes behind. Small, mobile and with the instinct that only very good goal scorers have, Nihat could again become one of the most sought after strikers in Europe after this tournament.
Great Euro Memory At Euro 2000 the final group B match found co host Belgium needing only a draw against Turkey to move on to the knock out stage. Despite going into the match winless in five finals games Turkey shocked the home side with a goal on the stroke of half time from Hakan Sukur and with twenty minutes left the talismanic striker repeated the feat and Turkey moved on with Italy to the quarter final stage.
Synopsis Turkey and host nation Switzerland have “history” from a 2006 World Cup qualifying play-off game so when they face each other there might be fireworks. A hit-or-miss qualifying campaign makes it very difficult to assess Turkey’s chances. On top form they could be a great dark horse; on other days they may struggle to win a game.
Coming Up in World Cup Qualifying Drawn in Group 5 along with Spain, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Armenia and Estonia.
TH-
England had all the chances in the world to qualify.
You float the canard that having two co-hosts may have prevented England's qualification. That's quite silly and it's a disservice to those in England's group that did qualify.
England on the number of days, simply were not good enough, full stop.
End of story.
Enjoy Euro '08.
TH-I think the Swiss will be very competitive in this tournament and wouldn't be surprised to see a shock or two from them!
As for Austria, wouldn't it be great to see England have their place and in the same group as Germany?
By the way, don't know how your comment takes anything away from Croatia or Russia. It does take away from the Swiss and Austrians but I can see your point. Only 16 countries qualify, why should 2 countries get automatic passage through?
What' with the England fixation, TH? They were never top contenders in the first place!!! :)
An English expat over here summed up their disqualification nicely:
'It's great to ENJOY Euro footy without the media hyping up England as favorites. None of the usual #### about how they're going to deliver THIS TIME from the USUAL players...'
yeah, I agree with most have said, but you have to remember ROONEY missed most of the England qualification campaign. it would have been different if he played.
Do you guys think Austria has a better team than England?
Having said that, England has more than 1 chance to qualify... and they blew their chances, I have to conceed that.
A euro moment: 92, Danes, the underdog. Never qualified, filling in for the team that missed because of war, Yougoslavs. never the less, the made the most of the opportunity!
I have no preference for Euro, except for, hmm, Suisse, but only because the husband was born over there. I'm not holding my breath though. Too small of a country to develop a quality team, unfortunately!
I do hope for a clinic when Argentina play US on the 8th! I'm not sure if I'm right on this assessment, but it seems as though the quality of the USMNT has decreased over the years. If England can slot home two, then surely Los Albicelestes can put on a solid performance. It's all about building confidence ahead of the WC qualifiers.
This is the first Euro I'ver followed. so, I will end my Euro moments here.
France having been the Inventor of the World Cup and Euro tournaments, deserved more... but no, they had to wait until 84 to win any of those trophies. But the 84 team was one of the best...
Last edited by Thierry_Henry on May 30th at 3:34 PM.
Atleti-How is England's media different than any other country? I have friends in Holland, Portugal, Spain and France. They all tell me the media is the same with their countries and I'm guessing Argentina is no different.
Overhyped? Maybe. But what "big" footballing country isn't?
Gongatore-Haha yeah the nuance was lost...because TH didn't attack Russia's or Croatia's credentials. In fact saying England should be in there makes those countries sound even better but please keep it going, it is quite humorous.
True, true! I guess it's because we're in an English-speaking nation that we hear a lot about England. Spain's media circus is just as bad as England's- if not worse!!!
Now, Argentina's media can get a little bit philosophical at times. "We lost...at the hands of anti-football"
...unless it's obvious that certain players and/or a tactical decision is to blame.
If there's one team that deserves to take the place of Austria/Switzerland and play in Euro 2008, it's certainly Scotland, not England. They play in the group with the World Cup winner and runner-up (plus a WC quarter-finalist), and beat France TWICE.
TH-You don't think Patty is great? Really? I'd say he meant more to Arsenal than Henry did and I would say that he has meant more to France than Henry has.
Last edited by LetsGoBuffalo on May 30th at 3:42 PM.
The U.S. may be getting worse or Bradley has done all he can.
I'll tell you who is getting better. England. They finally looked like they should have years ago. Defoe and Rooney look like they could be great together. They were showing skill and composure. I was impressed.
Finally other players besides Beckham have touch and technical ability.
Find some logic in what's presented here. Would help home fans to better identify with the team's they support.
Unless, of course, you're a supporter of a club so desperate for Euro success at any price, they'll aid and abet the long-term neglect of their domestic national team.
The whole french team is foreign, even Ribery in foreign in some kind of way since he converted to Islam. If Le Pen ever won the elections in France, we would have see an average team with a lot of white players.
TH-You don't think Patty is great? Really? I'd say he meant more to Arsenal than Henry did and I would say that he has meant more to France than Henry has.
Henry surpased platini as the greatest goal scorer for france. Henry surpased Ian Wright as the greatest goal scorer for Arsenal. :) But of course he needed Pat's help. it's a team game.
The whole french team is foreign, even Ribery in foreign in some kind of way since he converted to Islam. If Le Pen ever won the elections in France, we would have see an average team with a lot of white players.
Ah, I never realized that. Would the Ch'tis be allowed to represent France even though they are white?
One more reason to keep Le Pen out of the Champs Elysee
Last edited by Thierry_Henry on May 30th at 6:56 PM.
It will be more difficult for Croatia to take out England during the WC qualifiers. This is not due to Rooney or any other player. Mind you, England got hammered by the Croats in Zagreb when Rooney played. I think bringing in a well-respected coach who has high ambitions, who will push the team to the limit will at least make the team mentally stronger. In terms of quality and talent on the other had, it's pretty much the same team....
Still, this type of change will do England some good.
I won't make any comments on Croatia's chances, until I see what Bobby has to say tomorrow.
Great news that Eduardo is recovering so fast.....
What's this BS about Modric and whether he can make it in a tough, physical league such as the Premiership? It's always the same #### when a highly gifted foreign player goes to the Premiership. Oh can he make it? He came from the Croatian league...Come on. Modric is an athlete and as such can perform at higher levels of the game on a consistent basis. Now if you are refering to the "breathless", leg-breaking tackles (see Eduardo) that are too difficult for a foreigner to handle, well then maybe you do have a point...
The bottom line is, the Croatian league like it or not has produced a lot of talent that's playing in the highest level. I'll even go as far as saying that Croatia's biggest club, in recent years Dinamo Zagreb has been the biggest producer and exporter of talent in all of Europe: Davor ####, Boban, Prosinecki (yes he began his career with them), Mark Viduka, Luka Modric, Niko Kranjcar, Goran Vlaovic, Vedran Corluka, Eduardo, Mario Stanic and many, many more.
TH- Switzerland had a pretty good showing in Germany in '06, and are at least definitely capable of qualifying for this tournament. Not saying they would have, but they would have at least made a run at it. I agree though, Austria is terrible... I'll be surprised if they manage to gain more than a point all tournament... (I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt as playing at home, that they'll find a way to manage a draw with SOMEONE)...
Oh, and Euro 04 saw a below average Latvia team, that qualified the right way, so I'm not sure why you're complaining about this one... Although I am all against co-hosted tournaments, UNLESS they only get 1 auto bid, and force the rest to qualify normally. This could have easily been addressed by having Switzerland play Austria over 2 legs to see who earns the auto-bid, and have the loser thrown into the qualifying pools like everyone else. Which would all but undoubtably have Switzerland in as hosts, and Austria out replaced by: England, Norway, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Scotland... One of those
Absolutely UNBELIEVABLE that FIFA passed Blatter's complete #### "6+5" rule. Especially since Europe said that it's against their laws, so it will be interesting to see how this gets carried out.
To hell with Blatter and Beckenbauer saying that he wants a "national identity" to be restored. That's a buch of garbage. Any true fan of the game wants to see it played at it's absolute highest level, not watered down to make all the teams more competitive.
I'm sorry, I know this sounds cruel, but I really really wish Sepp Blatter would die tonight in a fire.
The only solution for Phillip Senderos? More cowbell.
Deloitte financial report just out says Spurs are best run team in Prem., based on wages paid to total business turnover. And only London side to win a trophy this year.
leche-Fifa is so corrupt they need to do investigations into this organization.
Leche and TH-Although a Super League is a nice idea, I think it would be bad for the game.
But I do agree that if Blatter and his cronies keep trying to push their "xenephobic" agenda there really is no other road to turn to.
Honestly they are just like any other guy in power, they see that clubs are getting more and more powerful and more and more money is being poured into select clubs and they want a bigger slice.
It has nothing to do with growing the game. England has four divisions of professional football not to mention countless other part time leagues. How does the game need to be grown there?
Oh and as these big clubs continue to grow they realize they will soon be just as, if not more, powerful than FIFA. Thats what the big problem is. Of course I don't want these clubs to be bigger than when International tourneys roll around they won't release their players.
Flash-I GOTTA HAVE MORE COWBELL!
Last edited by LetsGoBuffalo on May 31st at 6:07 AM.
The FIFA Congress did not approve 6+5 - they voted in favour of further exploration of the six plus five plan. There is a massive difference between the two. The 6+5 is only part of a much larger game and at some point in the future a compromise will be reached with Blatter getting something that he can live with and the opposition will then congratulate themselves on managing to avoid the imposition of 6+5.
Last edited by BobbyMcMahon on May 31st at 8:01 AM.
I woke up this morning in a bad mood but then I went onto the net and did a little surfing and came across a english news article that made my day alot better.
2 liverpool natives who r pool contracters were remodelling Gary Nevilles pool and while finishing up they cleverly decided to place a liverpool time capsule filled with game programs shirts and other memorobilia under the pool and seal it up. so now the Manchester united captain has a liverpool shrine at his house. Absolute Quality
Gary neville is totally livid about it, and I am now in a very good mood.
thierry henry... I AGREE with you 150% we cant have a big tournament without ENG thats just not right but we could do without the swiss or the austrians
I was wanting to get your opinion on this. I've been wondering why coah Donadoni has only scheduled 1 friendly prior to the tournament....
Reasons could be: Much of his team have played a long season and he would like them to rest a little prior to the tournament, another could be to do with the age of much of his team and needing to rest some of the seniors (excuse the pun) and lastly it could also be to avoid injuries by playing too many friendlies (see the Dutch)and so on.
Taking into consideration that as coach you have many different individuals needing to jell together and although lots can be done on the training field, ultimately you want to see your ideas come through during match play, so you schedule friendlies...
But is it not best to maybe limit the number 1-2 max for the previously mentioned reasons?
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