Switzerland national football team

Switzerland

Nickname(s)	Schweizer Nati
Association	Swiss Football Association
Head coach	Ottmar Hitzfeld
Captain	Alexander Frei
Most caps	Heinz Hermann (117)
Top scorer	Alexander Frei (40)
FIFA code	SUI
FIFA ranking	17
Highest FIFA ranking	3 (August 1993)
Lowest FIFA ranking	83 (December 1998)
Elo ranking	27
Highest Elo ranking	8 (June 1924)
Lowest Elo ranking	62 (October 1979)
Home colours Away colours
First international
France 1 – 0 Switzerland (Paris, France; 12 February 1905)
Biggest win
Switzerland 9 – 0 Lithuania  (Paris, France; 25 May 1924)
Biggest defeat
Hungary 9 – 0 Switzerland (Budapest, Hungary; 29 October 1911)
World Cup
Appearances	9 (First in 1934)
Best result	Quarterfinals, 1934, 1938 and 1954
European Championship
Appearances	3 (First in 1996)
Best result	Round 1, 1996, 2004 and 2008

The Swiss national football team (also known as the Schweizer Nati in German, La Nati in French, Squadra nazionale in Italian) is the national football team of Switzerland. The team is controlled by the Swiss Football Association.

The team's logo, ASF-SFV, represents the Swiss Football Association's initials in Switzerland's official languages: ASF represents both French (Association Suisse de Football) and Italian (Associazione Svizzera di Football), and SFV is German(Schweizerischer Fussballverband).

Its best performances in the World Cup have been reaching the quarter-finals three times, in 1934, 1938 and when the country hosted the event in 1954. Switzerland also won silver at the 1924 Olympics. The youth teams have been more successful, winning the 2002 U-17 European Championship and the 2009 U-17 World Cup.

In 2006, Switzerland set a FIFA World Cup record by being eliminated from the competition despite not conceding a goal, losing to Ukraine in a penalty shootout in the last 16, by failing to score a single penalty – becoming the first national team in Cup history to do this.^[1] They would not concede a goal until their second group stage game in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, giving up a goal in the 74th minute against Chile, setting a World Cup Finals record for consecutive minutes without conceding a goal.

Switzerland co-hosted Euro 2008 with Austria, making their third appearance in the competition. As with the two previous appearances, they did not clear the group stages.

Recent history

Euro 2004

Qualification: Switzerland qualified for the Euro 2004 in Portugal by finishing first in group 10 of the qualifying, ahead of Russia and Ireland.

Group stage: After a 0–0 draw against Croatia, they lost 0–3 against England and 1–3 against France, and thus ended on the last place in group B of the main tournament.

Trivia: Johann Vonlanthen became the youngest scorer ever in the Euro championships when he equalised against France, beating the record (set only four days earlier by Wayne Rooney) by three months.^[2]

World Cup 2006

The Swiss line-up against China, just before World Cup 2006

Qualification: The World Cup 2006 in Germany was the first World Cup for Switzerland since their participation at the World Cup 1994. After finishing second behind France in qualifying group 4, they defeated Turkey in the play-off round 2–0 and 4–2 to qualify for the main tournament.

Group stage: In the group stage, they played again against France. The game played in Stuttgart ended in a goalless draw. After defeating Togo 2–0 in Dortmund and South Korea also 2–0 in Hannover, they finished first in group G and qualified for the knockout stage.

Round of 16: In the second round of the tournament, they faced Ukraine in Cologne. The game had to be decided in a penalty shootout since no goal was scored after 120 minutes. Ukraine won the shootout 3–0.

Trivia: Switzerland was the only team in tournament not to have conceded a goal during regulation time in their matches. Switzerland's top scorer at the tournament was Alexander Frei with 2 goals.

Euro 2008

Qualification: Switzerland co-hosted the Euro 2008 together with Austria and was therefore automatically qualified.

Group stage: Switzerland played all matches of group A in Basel. After losing the opening game 0–1 to the Czech Republic and the second game 1–2 against Turkey, they were already eliminated from their home tournament after only two games. Consolation came from the 2–0 victory over Portugal in the final group stage game.

Trivia: All 3 goals by Switzerland were scored by Hakan Yakin.

World Cup 2010

Qualification: Switzerland played in group 2 of the UEFA qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Despite an embarrassing home loss against Luxembourg, they finished first in their group, ahead of Greece, Latvia and Israel.

Group stage: In their first game in group H, the team achieved a 1–0 win against Spain, whom were the eventual competition winners. Switzerland then lost their second game to Chile and thus needed a win by two goals in the last match against Honduras to advance to the next round. However, they managed only a scoreless draw and eventually placed third in their group.

Trivia: The goal by Mark González in the 75th minute of the game against Chile, ended a 559 minute streak without conceding a goal in World Cup matches, beating the record previously held by Italy by 9 minutes.^[3]

Euro 2012

Qualification

Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Montenegro 4 3 1 0 3 0 +3 10  England 3 2 1 0 7 1 +6 7  Switzerland 3 1 0 2 5 5 0 3  Bulgaria 3 1 0 2 1 5 −4 3  Wales 3 0 0 3 1 6 −5 0

Bulgaria  — 2 Sep '11 0–1 26 Mar '11 11 Oct '11 England  4–0 — 0–0 4 Jun '11 6 Sep '11 Montenegro  4 Jun '11 7 Oct '11 — 1–0 1–0 Switzerland  6 Sep '11 1–3 11 Oct '11 — 4–1 Wales  0–1 26 Mar '11 2 Sep '11 7 Oct '11 —

Competitive record

So far the Swiss have earned no major trophy. The closest they have come was the quarter finals of the World Cup on three occasions (1934, 1938 and 1954) and they won a silver medal in the 1924 Olympic games in Paris. The youth teams have been more successful, as the U-17-squad became European champions in 2002 and World champions in 2009 and the U-21 squad qualified for the semi-finals of the U-21-Euro 2002.

World Cup record Switzerland's record at FIFA World Cups.[4] Year Round Position GP W D* L GS GA 1930 Did Not Enter - - - - - - - 1934 Quarter-finals 7/16 2 1 0 1 5 5 1938 Quarter-finals 7/15 3 1 1 1 5 4 1950 Round 1 6/13 3 1 1 1 4 6 1954 Quarter-finals 8/16 4 2 0 2 11 11 1958 Did not Qualify - - - - - - - 1962 Round 1 16/16 3 0 0 3 2 8 1966 Round 1 16/16 3 0 0 3 1 9 1970 Did not Qualify - - - - - - - 1974 Did not Qualify - - - - - - - 1978 Did not Qualify - - - - - - - 1982 Did not Qualify - - - - - - - 1986 Did not Qualify - - - - - - - 1990 Did not Qualify - - - - - - - 1994 Round of 16 16/24 4 1 1 2 5 7 1998 Did not Qualify - - - - - - - 2002 Did not Qualify - - - - - - - 2006 Round of 16 10/32 4 2 2 0 4 0 2010 Round 1 19/32 3 1 1 1 1 1 2014 Total 9/20 26 8 5 13 38 51

European Championship record Year Round GP W D* L GS GA 1960 Did not qualify - - - - - - 1964 Did not qualify - - - - - - 1968 Did not qualify - - - - - - 1972 Did not qualify - - - - - - 1976 Did not qualify - - - - - - 1980 Did not qualify - - - - - - 1984 Did not qualify - - - - - - 1988 Did not qualify - - - - - - 1992 Did not qualify - - - - - - 1996 Round 1 3 0 1 2 1 4 2000 Did not qualify - - - - - - 2004 Round 1 3 0 1 2 1 6 2008 Round 1 3 1 0 2 3 3 2012 2016 Total 3/15 9 1 2 6 5 13

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Match kits

The Swiss kit consists of two different outfits. The red shirt and white shorts are for home play, and the white shirt and red shorts are for away. The jersey is manufactured by Puma.

Current squad

The following players have been nominated for the games vs. Australia and England . Caps and goals updated on 3 September 2010.

0#0 Pos. Player Date of Birth (Age) Caps Goals Club GK Diego Benaglio September 8, 1983 (1983-09-08) (age 27) 31 0 Wolfsburg GK Marco Wölfli August 22, 1982 (1982-08-22) (age 28) 6 0 Young Boys GK Germano Vailati August 30, 1980 (1980-08-30) (age 30) 0 0 St. Gallen DF Stephan Lichtsteiner January 16, 1984 (1984-01-16) (age 27) 32 0 Lazio DF Stéphane Grichting March 30, 1979 (1979-03-30) (age 31) 39 1 Auxerre DF Reto Ziegler January 16, 1986 (1986-01-16) (age 25) 16 1 Sampdoria DF François Affolter March 13, 1991 (1991-03-13) (age 19) 2 0 Young Boys DF Steve von Bergen June 10, 1983 (1983-06-10) (age 27) 15 0 Cesena DF Scott Sutter May 13, 1986 (1986-05-13) (age 24) 1 0 Young Boys MF Gökhan Inler (vice-captain) June 27, 1984 (1984-06-27) (age 26) 41 2 Udinese MF Tranquillo Barnetta May 22, 1985 (1985-05-22) (age 25) 55 6 Bayer Leverkusen MF Gelson Fernandes September 2, 1986 (1986-09-02) (age 24) 29 2 Chievo MF Pirmin Schwegler March 9, 1987 (1987-03-09) (age 23) 5 0 Eintracht Frankfurt MF Xherdan Shaqiri October 10, 1991 (1991-10-10) (age 19) 5 0 Basel MF Valentin Stocker April 12, 1989 (1989-04-12) (age 21) 4 1 Basel MF Moreno Costanzo February 20, 1988 (1988-02-20) (age 22) 2 1 Young Boys MF David Degen February 15, 1983 (1983-02-15) (age 27) 11 0 Young Boys MF Xavier Margairaz July 1, 1984 (1984-07-01) (age 26) 17 1 Zürich MF Marco Padalino December 8, 1983 (1983-12-08) (age 27) 8 1 Sampdoria FW Albert Bunjaku November 29, 1983 (1983-11-29) (age 27) 6 0 Nürnberg FW Eren Derdiyok June 12, 1988 (1988-06-12) (age 22) 26 2 Bayer Leverkusen FW Marco Streller June 18, 1981 (1981-06-18) (age 29) 32 11 Basel FW Alexander Frei (captain) July 15, 1979 (1979-07-15) (age 31) 78 40 Basel

Recent call ups

Pos. Player Date of Birth (Age) Caps Goals Club Latest Callup GK Johnny Leoni June 30, 1984 (1984-06-30) (age 26) 0 0 Zürich 2010 FIFA World Cup DF Mario Eggimann January 24, 1981 (1981-01-24) (age 30) 10 0 Hannover v  Austria, August 11, 2010 DF Philippe Senderos February 14, 1985 (1985-02-14) (age 26) 41 5 Fulham v  Austria, August 11, 2010INJ DF Ludovic Magnin April 20, 1979 (1979-04-20) (age 31) 63 3 Zürich 2010 FIFA World Cup DF Christoph Spycher March 30, 1978 (1978-03-30) (age 32) 47 0 Young Boys 2010 FIFA World Cup preliminary squadINJ DF Jonathan Rossini April 5, 1989 (1989-04-05) (age 21) 1 0 Sampdoria v  Uruguay, March 3, 2010 DF Heinz Barmettler July 21, 1987 (1987-07-21) (age 23) 1 0 Zürich v  Norway, November 14, 2009 DF Philipp Degen February 15, 1983 (1983-02-15) (age 27) 32 0 Stuttgart v  Norway, November 14, 2009 DF Alain Nef February 6, 1982 (1982-02-06) (age 29) 3 1 Young Boys v  Greece, September 5, 2009 DF Johan Djourou January 18, 1987 (1987-01-18) (age 24) 24 1 Arsenal v  Moldova, April 1, 2009 MF Hakan Yakin February 22, 1977 (1977-02-22) (age 33) 84 20 Luzern v  Australia, September 3, 2010INJ MF Valon Behrami April 19, 1985 (1985-04-19) (age 25) 28 2 West Ham United v  Austria, August 11, 2010 MF Blerim Džemaili April 12, 1986 (1986-04-12) (age 24) 10 0 Parma v  Austria, August 11, 2010INJ MF Benjamin Huggel July 7, 1977 (1977-07-07) (age 33) 41 2 Basel 2010 FIFA World Cup MF Davide Chiumento November 22, 1984 (1984-11-22) (age 26) 1 0 Vancouver Whitecaps v  Uruguay, March 3, 2010 MF Johan Vonlanthen February 1, 1986 (1986-02-01) (age 25) 40 7 Partizan v  Israel, October 14, 2009 MF Alberto Regazzoni April 5, 1983 (1983-04-05) (age 27) 3 0 Young Boys v  Moldova, April 1, 2009 MF Almen Abdi October 21, 1986 (1986-10-21) (age 24) 6 0 Udinese v  Bulgaria, February 11, 2009 FW Nassim Ben Khalifa January 13, 1992 (1992-01-13) (age 19) 1 0 Wolfsburg v  Austria, August 11, 2010 FW Blaise Nkufo May 25, 1975 (1975-05-25) (age 35) 34 7 Seattle Sounders 2010 FIFA World Cup

Notes ^INJ Player withdrew from the squad due to an injury.

Most appearances and goals

Most number of appearances and goals for the Swiss national team. Players in bold are still playing for the national team. Last updated after Switzerland vs. Australia, 3 September 2010.^[5]

Coaches

• Karl Rappan 1960 to November 11, 1963
• Alfredo Foni – July 1, 1964 to 3 May 1967
• Erwin Ballabio – May 24, 1967 to November 2, 1969
• Louis Maurer – October 17, 1970 to October 10, 1971
• René Hussy – June 22, 1973 to September 8, 1976
• Miroslav Blažević – September 8, 1976 to March 30, 1977
• Roger Vonlanthen – March 30, 1977 to March 28, 1979
• Leo Walker – May 5, 1979 to December 21, 1980
• Paul Wolfisberg – March 24, 1981 to November 10, 1985
• Daniel Jeandupeux – March 12, 1986 to 26 April 1989
• Uli Stielike – June 21, 1989 to November 13, 1991
• Roy Hodgson – January 26, 1992 to November 15, 1995
• Artur Jorge – March 13, 1996 to June 18, 1996
• Rolf Fringer – August 1, 1996 to October 11, 1997
• Gilbert Gress – March 25, 1998 to October 9, 1999
• Enzo Trossero – August 16, 2000 to June 6, 2001
• Jakob "Köbi" Kuhn – August 15, 2001 – June 30, 2008
• Ottmar Hitzfeld – July 1, 2008 –

Schedule and recent results

Recent results and future matches.^[6] Blue background colour indicates competitive matches.

Date	Competition	Opponent	Venue	Score	Swiss scorers (International goal)	Ref
10 October 2009	WC2010-Q	Luxembourg	Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg	3 – 0	Senderos (4th), Senderos (5th), Huggel (2nd)	[1]
14 October 2009	WC2010-Q	Israel	St. Jakob-Park, Basel	0 – 0		[2]
14 November 2009	Friendly	Norway	Stade de Genève, Geneva	0 – 1		[3]
3 March 2010	Friendly	Uruguay	AFG Arena, St. Gallen	1 – 3	Inler (1st)	[4]
1 June 2010	Friendly	Costa Rica	Stade Tourbillon, Sion	0 – 1		[5]
5 June 2010	Friendly	Italy	Stade de Genève, Geneva	1 – 1	Inler (2nd)	[6]
16 June 2010	WC2010	Spain	M. Mabhida, Durban	1 – 0	Fernandes (2nd)	[7]
21 June 2010	WC2010	Chile	N. Mandela Bay, Port Elizabeth	0 – 1		[8]
25 June 2010	WC2010	Honduras	Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein	0 – 0		[9]
11 August 2010	Friendly	Austria	Hypo-Arena, Klagenfurt	1 – 0	Costanzo (1st)	[10]
3 September 2010	Friendly	Australia	AFG Arena, St. Gallen	0 – 0		[11]
7 September 2010	EC2012-Q	England	St. Jakob-Park, Basel
8 October 2010	EC2012-Q	Montenegro	Podgorica City Stadium, Podgorica
12 October 2010	EC2012-Q	Wales	St. Jakob-Park, Basel
17 November 2010	Friendly	Ukraine	Stade de Genève, Geneva

References

External links

• Official website
• www.Hattrick.ch
• RSSSF archive of results 1905–
• RSSSF archive of coaches 1905–

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