32 For 2010: Switzerland

Introducing a new series of features on national teams travelling to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. We start with Switzerland.

Stealth technologists would do well to examine the characteristics of the Swiss national team. It seems that despite their successful qualification for the World Cup, no-one seems to be paying any attention to them. This is not perhaps the biggest surprise given that Swiss football does not exactly set the pulses racing. When Fulham drew Basel out of the hat in the Europa League, their fans were unlikely to be rendered paralysed with the excitement.

Nope, Swiss football is not terribly exciting and the Swiss national team's record internationally is pretty nondescript. From 1966 to 2006, they have only qualified for the World Cup three times. Also, their reputation took a serious battering after that infamous World Cup 2006 0-0 draw with Ukraine in the Second Round, a match so turgid that pundits and spectators alike were begging for penalties after half an hour just to alleviate the soul crushing tedium.

Furthermore, despite co-hosting the European Championships in 2008, the Schweizer Nati still failed to produce any excitement and the only memorable moment of their dismal campaign remains the tears of their effervescent striker Alex Frei as he limped off during the first match knowing that his tournament was over only minutes after it had begun. For those of you who can't remember (and who could blame you), the Swiss failed to progress to the quarter finals and could only register a single win against a disinterested Portugal. Euro 2008 was a wasted opportunity. The only consolation was that things could not have got any worse... and they didn't because lined up to replace outgoing coach Jakob Kuhn in 2008 was the great Ottmar Hitzfeld.

Hitzfeld had just completed his second stint as Bayern Munich manager. His parting gift to them was another Bundesliga trophy to add to the six other titles he has won in Germany. Hitzfeld is one of only two managers to win the European Cup with two separate clubs, with Bayern and Dortmund (Ernst Happel is the other). He has won trophies in Switzerland, early in his coaching career at Grasshopper Zurich. It is perhaps surprising that he never took the German national team position, however, having been born so close to the Swiss border and coached there, it is fitting that he finally took the step up to international management with the Swiss national team.

Things didn't go exactly to plan at first. After two games the Squadra Nazionale had accumulated just a single point and embarrassingly lost 2-1 at home to Luxembourg. That, however, was to be the first and last defeat of their whole campaign as they only dropped points against Latvia and Israel before it ended. Their last game, a 0-0 draw with the Israelis which secured their qualification, was the only match in the whole campaign in which they failed to score.

Top scorer in the campaign is the Congolese-born striker Blaise Kufo who did not feature in La Nati's Euro 2008 campaign. The FC Twente striker scored six goals. Apart from him, the squad line-up is not drastically different to the one that so failed to impress last year. Strikers Hakan Yakin and Alex Frei are still on the scene, as is Arsenal's reserve centre back Phillipe Senderos and Wolfsburg first choice keeper Diego Benaglio. Gunners fans will be interested to learn that young Johan Djourou made 4 appearances earlier in the campaign.

In fairness, Switzerland could have been drawn in a tougher group. Greece may be the 2004 European champions but their star is waning somewhat. Also, while Israel are improving, they did not prove terribly formidable opposition. The same can also be said of the Latvians. Also, Switzerland only qualified with 21 points which in some groups may not have been enough to get second place. However, the Swiss are going to South Africa in 2010 and the achievement represents a triumph for Ottmar Hitzfeld in his first international qualification campaign.

Switzerland will not exactly be pulling up any trees and will be regarded as weaker European opposition but perhaps they can go some way towards removing those ghastly memories of 2006 and 2008.

Guide to Euro 2008: Group A

Surely now even the most disinterested of you must be warming a little bit towards the upcoming European Championships which begin on Saturday… aren't you? Yes, the start of the competition is no longer looming on the horizon - it's at the end of your street waiting for a bus and it'll be here before you know it, so let's get cracking with our guide to the four First Round groups.

As you'll know by now, we don't like to waffle on about stuff when there's no need to, and our First Round Group Guide is no exception. We think you want to be told the salient facts that are of most importance without all the unnecessary lecturing, so that's how we're going to go about our business.

To that end, we give you the essential 'need to know' on Euro 2008 Group A.

Group A

Czech Republic

Qualifying
The Czech Republic finished top of Group D with only one defeat in twelve which was against group runners-up Germany. Their top goalscorer was Jan Koller with 6 goals.

Star Talent
Much to choose from. There's Jan Koller (left), nearing the end of his career but still banging the goals in, Chelsea's star goalkeeper Petr Cech and Portsmouth's Milan Baros. And that's without mentioning the likes of David Rozehnal and Marek Jankulowski.

Players you won't be seeing
Arsenal's Tomas Rosicky's injured, so he'll be absent from the midfield. In case you've not noticed, Pavel Nedved, Vladimir Smicer and Karel Poborsky no longer play for the national team, so expect to see a team full of young and upcoming stars during Euro 2008.

Don't mention…
The scandal back in March 2007 which almost forced coach Karel Bruchner to resign. A tabloid journalist managed to sneak into the birthday party of Tomas Ujfalusi at the team hotel and discovered the birthday boy, Tomas Rosicky and three other players in a room with six alleged prostitutes. Bruchner took a deep breath, fined the squad and decided to lumber on as best he could.

Recent friendlies
March 26: Denmark 1 Czech Republic 1
May 27: Czech Republic 2 Lithuania 0
May 30: Czech Republic 3 Scotland 1

SPAOTP's Top Tip For Greatness
Petr Cech. If the Czechs end up in a penalty shoot-out, he could be the man to perform some heroics.

Portugal

Qualifying
Portugal ended Group A as runners-up only a point away from winners Poland, but only three ahead of chasing Serbia and Finland. For the slightly erratic nature of their form, they did at least have eight goals from Cristiano Ronaldo to fall back on.

Current Form
At best, erratic - at worst, poor. Defeats against Italy and Greece since the start of the year and a narrow victory over Georgia puts Portugal in one of their biggest slumps since the 2002 World Cup. Even in qualifying, they couldn't beat Poland, Serbia or Finland at home or away. They'll need to buck their ideas up in no uncertain terms.

Players you won't be seeing
Forget Figo, Costinha and Pauleta - they're all history now. As for Jorge Andrade, he's desperately trying to save his career due to a knee injury that's kept him out of a second successive major tournament.

Recent friendlies
February 2: Italy 3 Portugal 1
March 26: Portugal 1 Greece 2
May 31: Portugal 2 Georgia 1

Watch out for…
Jose Bosingwa, Chelsea's new right back, signed recently for £16 million (if the tabloids are anything to be believed) plus, of course Mr. C. Ronaldo of Manchester.

SPAOTP's Top Tip For Greatness
Ricardo Quaresma (left). A creative, skilful winger who has a touch of the loose cannon about him (hence his omission from Portugal's 2006 World Cup squad), he should now be given free reign to show the full range of his talent.

Turkey

Qualifying
Turkey, it has to be said, only just scraped into second place in qualifying Group C. They finished seven whole points behind group winners Greece and were only a point ahead of Norway in the end. Hakan Sukur pitched in with five goals as Turkey's top scorer during the qualifiers.

Recent friendlies
May 20: Turkey 1 Slovakia 0
May 25: Turkey 2 Uruguay 3
May 29: Finland 0 Turkey 2

Players you might have heard of
If you're not too well read on the Turkish squad, you should at least have heard of two of its number plying their trade in the Premier League. There's Newcastle United's midfielder Emre Belozoglu, a veteran of more than 50 caps, not to mention Middlesbrough's Tuncay Sanli, a striker who also has plenty of appearances to his name.

Kit check
It's nice to see Turkey return to that tried and trusted design of red shirts with a white band across the middle. It's stylish, it's different and more than anything else, it brings back memories of the two occasions when England beat Turkey 8-0 during the 1980's.

Nicknames
The Turks love 'em. Coach Faith Terim is known as 'The Emperor', Villareal's fans call Nihat Kahveci 'El Turco' and when Emre Belözoğlu was at Inter Milan he was known as 'The Maradona of the Bosphorus'. Such fun…

SPAOTP's Top Tip For Greatness
Nihat Kahveci, Villareal's 28 year-old striker. He's fast, technically gifted and easily capable of sharing the limelight with his strike partner, Tuncay.

Switzerland

Qualifying
As co-hosts, Switzerland didn't have to concern themselves with the qualifying procedure. They therefore had to contend with alternative opposition for their preparations, including Austria who, strangely, were also available.

Players you might have heard of
Apart from the aforementioned Arsenal pair, there's also Gelson Fernandes (right). He's the Manchester City midfielder who this season played 26 times in the Premier League and even managed to score in City's 3-1 defeat at home to Arsenal. He also picked up six yellow cards during the season, so discipline may be an issue in a competition where suspension needs to be avoided at all costs.

Recent friendlies
November 20: Switzerland 0 Nigeria 1
February 6: England 2 Switzerland 1
March 26: Switzerland 0 Germany 4

Good points, bad points
Thanks to Arsenal's contribution to the squad, Switzerland can be grateful for having a strong defence. Philippe Senderos and Johan Djourou provide the backbone of the back four along with Borussia Dortmund's Philipp Degen and Ludovic Magnin.

Sadly for the Swiss, consistency is a big problem. Over the last year or so, they've lost to Germany but drew against Argentina, they've beaten the Netherlands and lost to the United States. You never quite know which Swiss team will turn up…

Playing style
Don't expect Switzerland to attack at will. Due to their reliable defence, they're likely to sit back and absorb the pressure before counter-attacking… the only thing is, they have no strikers who have a useful turn of pace to rely on. Have they thought this through?

SPAOTP's Top Tip For Greatness
Bayer Leverkusen's Tranquillo Barnetta. Possibly Switzerland's most important player, he's quick, a great team player and a lynchpin for everything the team creates. And he can score goals too.

Euro 2008: 11 days to go...

The latest leg of our Euro 2008 build-up today focuses on the cities where the matches will be played.

The trouble is that Austria and Switzerland, the co-hosts, are... how can we put this... not all that interesting. Oh don't get us wrong, they're both beautiful countries in their own way, but when it comes to making them sound appealing for the purposes of an article like this, you've really got your work cut out.

We therefore present to you our guide to the venues of Euro 2008 featuring all the interesting facts you need to know about each one... or more to the point, the only interesting facts we could find on each one full stop.

Vienna

Vienna is twinned with, amongst others, Los Angeles, Moscow and Zagreb - ironic given that Croatia are in Austria's Euro 2008 group. If Croatia beat the Austrians, I wonder if they'll break all ties with them?

Vienna is also where you'll find the Tiergarten Schönbrunn - the world's oldest zoo.

Vienna is where Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Johann Strauss all lived.

It's also famous for those culinary delicacies, the Wiener schnitzel (fried veal in breadcrumbs) and apple strudel.

Innsbruck

Innsbruck hosted the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics.

It's also said to be where Douglas Adams got his inspiration for 'The Hitchhikers Gudie to the Galaxy' when visiting there in 1971.

The most successful local sportsman is Markus Prock, winner of silver medals in the luge at the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics. No, we haven't heard of him either.

Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt has an annual BeachVolleyball Grand Slam event that attracts competitors from all over the world. Not bad for a city 446 metres above sea level.

Klagenfurt was a contender for hosting the 2006 Winter Olympics, but missed out to Turin, Italy.

One of Klagenfurt's visitor attractions is the 'Minimundus', a park featuring miniature scale models of well-known buildings and landmarks from around the globe. Fabulous.

Salzburg

Salzburg is the birthplace of the great composer, Mozart.

Means 'salt castle' from the barges that travelled up the Salzach river centuries ago.

Much of the film 'The Sound of Music' was filmed in Salzburg.

Tourists are advised to visit any one of large number of salt mines in the city. Many have facilities available such as cafés, but you're best off not ordering their bacon sandwiches - they're a bit... oh, you're ahead of us on that one.

Basel

Basel is a major industrial centre for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry in Switzerland.

It's also the home town of renowned tennis player, Roger Federer.

One of the main music venues in the city is the 'Bird's Eye Jazz Club'. Great music, but we wouldn't recommend the food - it's mainly frozen stuff, apparently.

Zurich

Zurich is where you'll find the headquarters of FIFA. No bias towards giving Switzerland the co-hosting rights there, then.

Johanna Spyri, author of the well-known children's book 'Heidi' was born here. Though she lived to the ripe old age of 74, she didn't get to see the 26-part adaptation of the story that was made for TV in the late-1970's. Some people have all the luck...

Zurich also has some 1,200 free drinking fountains, making it one of the world's most fontainous cities. (You see - it's not every football blog site that uses words like 'fontainous', you know...)

Geneva

...is where the Geneva Conventions come from. They're made up of four treaties that outline the correct treatment of non-combatants and prisoners of war. So there.

Geneva's main football club is Servette. Their perennial boast was that they were the only club never to have been relegated from the top flight in Switzerland throughout their history. Sadly in 2005, Servette's parent company went bankrupt and the club were relegated to the third tier. You've gotta laugh, haven't you?

Geneva has featured heavily as a location in many movies and TV shows, including 'Goldfinger', 'Three Colours: Red', 'Babylon 5', and most importantly of all from a cultural perspective, 'Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'.

Berne

Berne is where Albert Einstein created his Theory of Relativity while working as a clerk in a patent office.

Berne is home to a number of interesting museums including a Natural History Museum, an Alpine Museum and a Psychiatry Museum, although of course no-one in their right mind ever visits the Psychiatry Museum.

Berne also has an annual fair every fourth Monday in November called the 'Zibelemärit' or 'onion market'. It's where the locals get together every year to celebrate the many wonders of the tear-inducing vegetable and it's here you can buy such delicacies as onion pie, onion sausages and onion soup. Oh, and apparently they sell onions as well.