Soccer Made in Scandinavia

 

 

My seat on the Oslo-Zurich flight today was 2A. If I had 1C, I would have to sit next to a famous English referee from England.

He was the referee for the Norway-Suisse match last night and he is on the way to Zurich for a business meeting. He said the meeting was arranged long ago and then when he found out that he was assigned to the match last night, he said to himself 'oh no, I will have to fly to Zurich in a plane full of Swiss fans'

He told me after Zurich, he will return to England to work on a certain Premier League match. I cannot tell you which match but the kick-off time will be 17.30 on Saturday and both teams wear blue shirts at home.

When we left the plane, I congratulated him on a good match. Hopp Suisse!

It was Scandinavian week for the Swiss team as they played Iceland and Norway in their quest to qualify for the World Cup in Brasil.

The Swiss was hoping to get 4 points from these 2 games, a win at home against Iceland and a draw in Oslo.

Before the first game in Bern against Iceland, the Swiss newspapers BLICK wrote that we have the best defense in the world in 2013. And in the 6 WC qualification games so far, our defense had given up only 1 goal.

Last Friday I went to the Swiss team hotel before the match to wish the players good luck. I made photos with some of the players but I did not want to bother all of them.

Now I have to confess that I am not always a fan of Stephan Lichtsteiner, the right back from Juventus. I think he is a great player but I do not like that he often argues with the referee.

But I decided on Friday to make a photo with him as he boarded the team bus going to the stadium.

Now if you asked 100 soccer fans to bet on the result of this match, all 100 would put money on a Swiss victory.

After 60 minutes, it looked really good. Suisse was winning 4-1 and Lichsteiner scored 2 cracking goals. I felt that I am a lucky mascot. By allowing Lichtsteiner to pose for a photo with me, he had scored 2 goals. And he is a defender!

 

But then something happened. Iceland scored 3 goals in the last 30 minutes for an incredible draw 4-4.

The last goal came at the end of the game and it was a superb shot.

So much for the best defense in the world!!!

As a Swiss fan, I was heartbroken. How could my Swiss team fall part like this? We had just beat Brasil a few weeks ago and against Iceland, a team ranked somewhere around 70^th in the world ranking, we could not beat them despite scoring 4 goals.

As a football fan, I had to be happy that some of the truisms about the sport have come true.

Football is a game for 90 minutes – you cannot stop playing after 60 minutes.

You may have a team of stars but your stars have 2 legs just like the opponents.

The post-game analysis was that the coach needed to replace some of the defenders. The 21 year old centre back Schär (in only his second cap) and the left back Rodriguez came under heavy criticisms for their mistakes.

Luckily, the team had another game 3 days later, against Norway in Oslo. I followed the team to Oslo and went to the team hotel again before the game. Some of the players seemed to recognize me.

 

 

Since I was the lucky mascot for Lichtsteiner last Friday, I tested my theory again by going up to Fabian Schär and let him posed for a photo with me.

Then I headed to the Ullevaal stadium, one metro stop away. The stadium was built on top of some shops. You could walk down a pedestrian area with shops on both sides and as you passed a flower shop, there was a door leading you right into your seats.

I had a seat in the Swiss fan section behind the goal and they were really noisy so I moved to the main tribune. I had a good view of the Norwegian goal in the first half.

 

 

Minute 12. Swiss free kick. Inler crossed the ball into the box. Schär scored. 0-1 

Minute 26. Schär fell asleep and let a Norwegian player passed him with only our goalie Benaglio to beat. Benaglio saved!

Minute 51. Swiss free kick. Inler crossed the ball into the box. Schär scored again. 0-2

This is unbelievable! I am the lucky mascot.

Suisse won 2-0 and leads their group with 2 games left.

 



 

 

 

 

in October, the Swiss team will travel to Albania and then they will host Slovenia at home. One win in the last 2 games is enough for the World Cup qualification.

But this is a very unpredictable group of team. The only thing certain is that Cyprus is out and that so far the Swiss has not lost a game. But anything can happen. Look at the form of the teams after 8 games

1. Switzerland 18 points - WWDWDWDW
2. Iceland 13 points - WLWLWLDW
3. Slovenia 12 points - LLWLLWWW
4. Norway 11 points - LWDWLDWL
5. Albania 10 points - WLLWWDLL
6. Cyprus 4 points - LWLLDLLL

do you see a pattern?

see you back here in October