The Swiss confirm why the World Cup is great by defeating Spain
The Swiss confirm why the World Cup is great by defeating Spain
By Eric Beard
No one saw that coming. So while Spain, my personal tournament favourites, may have dominated the match, that’s not really what football is about now is it? Gelson Fernandes may have gotten just as lucky as the likes of Clint Dempsey, but who cares? Switzerland have defeated “La Furia Roja” for the first time. It’s now history. The Group H standings are now Switzerland - 3, Chile - 3, Honduras - 0, Spain - 0. Now while I am a huge supporter of Spanish football, I am not Spanish, which is probably why I can come to terms with this.
If you’re Spanish, then I’m truly sorry about this. I cannot imagine the disappointment. After the goal, the match slowly faded into the second leg of the Champions League semi-final between Jose Mourinho’s Inter and Barcelona at the Camp Nou. Just look at the statistics, Spain had 76% possession. Over three times as much! And the Spanish had 25 shots compared to Switzerland’s 9. So there’s really not much to analyze about Switzerland’s performance. It was quite simply a united group of eleven men who all did their job with hesitation. But where does this leave Spain? For me, in serious trouble.
