Switzerland star Tranquillo Barnetta is steeling himself for a "hard-fought and aggressive" clash with Turkey as the two countries go head-to-head for the first time since their last match ended in a notorious brawl.
Today’s make-or-break clash at St-Jakob Park takes place against a backdrop of bitter memories of the ‘battle of Istanbul’ that erupted after Switzerland had edged out the Turks in a play-off to claim their place in the 2006 World Cup finals.
With both sides having lost their opening matches, neither can afford another defeat. But while anticipating a ferociously contested encounter, Barnetta believes the match will be played in the right spirit.
“Of course we haven’t forgotten that match and what happened there, but this is a different game, even if it is a sort of final again,” he said.
A similar message was being sent out from the Turkish camp.
“We have forgotten about what happened,” said the Fenerbahce midfielder Ugur Boral. “We are going to play a group game against the host nation — that’s all.”
The reality however is that both squads contain survivors of the melee that broke out at the end of the second leg of the play-off, which saw players and officials on both sides laying into each other after the Swiss clinched qualification on away goals.
The ensuing FIFA investigation held Turkey primarily responsible for the post-match violence with three of their players and an assistant coach receiving bans while the national team was obliged to play six home matches outside the country.
The Swiss had one player and their physiotherapist suspended but there is a lingering sense of resentment in Turkey that their opponents got off lightly thanks to the influence of their compatriot, FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
Both teams still have the same coaches with Jakob “Kobi” Kuhn in charge of the Euro 2008 co-hosts and Fatih Terim at the helm of Turkey.
Switzerland’s hopes have been hit by the loss of captain and leading goalscorer Alex Frei to a knee injury, which means that his place will be taken by experienced playmaker Hakan Yakin, who could have opted to play for Turkey, his parents’ homeland.
Barnetta admits Frei’s touch in front of goal will be missed, but believes the Swiss can compensate by getting more men forward from midfield.
“Turkey play an attacking game which is good for us,” he said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier