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A Bridge Too Far For The Swiss
June 25, 2010
Switzerland’s lack of fire-power up front came back to haunt them as they failed to score against Honduras in Bloemfontein on Friday night.
In the end a 0-0 draw meant both sides go home; the Swiss managing to beat tournament favourites Spain earlier in the competition, but in the end only managing one goal in three games.
There wasn’t too much action in the first half of tonight’s game, but the second stanza evolved into a wonderfully open and exciting game of football and it was actually amazing that no goals were scored.
Switzerland just about shaded the game on overall play, although when they pushed forward desperately in search of a goal huge gaps opened at the back and it was actually the Hondurans who enjoyed the better of the chances as opportunities materialised regularly on the counter-attack in a thrilling last 20 minutes.
Honduras though had a frustrating evening up front – on so many occasions they broke with incredible power, pace and purpose, but lacked the finishing touch up front.
It was either a case of poor finishing or an inability to pick out the final pass with any degree of accuracy.
David Suazo missed a couple of good chances, as did Jerry Palacios and George Welcome – this was really a game which could have ended 3-3 rather than 0-0.
Switzerland also spent their fair share of time in attack, although their build-ups were more measured and predicable – for the most part Honduras were able to defend without too many problems.
Hakan Yakin made a huge difference for the Swiss attack after coming on at half time, but still the European side just lacked the final touch in and around the box as the likes of Alexander Frei, Eren Derdiyok and Blaise Nkufo missed some guilt-edge chances.
At the end of the day though it was the two teams with more powerful, and more effective strike-forces – Spain and Chile, which qualified from Group H.
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