BRASïLIA: Switzerland will look to justify their top seed tag which raised many eyebrows ahead of the draw for the World Cup finals when they take on South American side Ecuador in Brasilia tomorrow in their opening Group E clash.
While outside Switzerland there may have been snorts of derision at their seeding, there is a lot of expectation within the country that a team with a core of players from the side that won the Under-17 world title in 2009 in Nigeria can become the first Swiss team to reach the quarter-finals since 1954.
Ecuador will be treated with the respect that comes from having finished ahead of Copa America champions and 2010 World Cup semi-finalists Uruguay in South American qualifying.
Their players will be extra motivated to emulate their predecessors in 2006 and reach the last 16 as a tribute to their leading scorer Christian Benitez who collapsed and died last year playing for his Qatari club.
However, Switzerland’s highly-respected German coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, who is in his last tournament before retiring from the sport that has seen him lift the Champions League twice once with Borussia Dortmund and then with Bayern Munich, believes his side are capable of a big showing and he has a better squad than the one he took to the 2010 finals.
“We have had a very good preparation so far. We do have the potential to qualify for the round of the last 16. That is our goal. Then there are no limits.
“Being an optimist by nature I say we are better than 2010 and therefore yes we will reach the last 16.”
Hitzfeld, who said earlier in the week he thought it unlikely that there would be a first ever European victory in South America, will look to the wizardry of 22-year-old Xerdan Shaqiri for creativity and 21-year-old striker Josip Drmic.
Ecuador will principally look to Manchester United winger Antonio Valencia, whom coach Reinaldo Rueda appointed captain in the wake of his close friend Benitez dying.
However, while he remains from the side that reached the last 16 in 2006 his experience pales into insignificance compared to that of midfielder Edison Mendez who at 35 and with 111 caps is appearing at his and his country’s third World Cup finals.
AFP
