Switzerland meet Honduras in their final World Cup Group E game today seeking to banish bad memories of 2010, when they scraped a goalless draw against the same opponents and crashed out early.
Switzerland manager Ottmar Hitzfeld, trying to repair his team’s spirit after their 5-2 thumping by France in the previous game, dismissed questions about the parallels with four years ago.
Just as in 2010, the two sides are meeting in their final group game. Four years ago a Switzerland win by a two-goal margin would have taken them into the round-of-16.
Photo: AFP
Hitzfeld said it was no use making comparisons “because we are going to win. It’s as simple as that. The team today has more offensive potential.”
The group is exceedingly tight and Switzerland could qualify with a draw if France beat Ecuador. They last made it out of the group stage in 2006, but lost in the round-of-16 to Ukraine.
Hitzfeld played down talk of a draw, saying Switzerland had to win “since that’s the only way to get through this round.”
Switzerland went into the France game in good spirits after a last-gasp 2-1 win over Ecuador in their first match, but then imploded after conceding two goals in a minute.
“The team is still very disappointed by what happened against France,” Hitzfeld told reporters.
The German coach’s main decision will be what to do about his central defense, which had a torrid time against France after Steve von Bergen came off in the ninth minute with a broken bone in his face. He has returned home.
Philippe Senderos came on for Von Bergen, but did not have a good game and Hitzfeld could turn instead to youngster Fabian Schaer.
Another challenge for Switzerland will be the tough conditions in Manaus, which is in the Amazon jungle.
The match kicks off at 4pm when the sun will still be shining on the pitch and the temperature is likely to be at least 30?C.
For Honduras, only a win will do if they are to have any chance of reaching the round-of-16.
They need to beat Switzerland and hope France defeat Ecuador, while also needing enough goals to be scored in both matches to turn around a minus-four goal-difference with Ecuador.
Honduras, known for their aggressive style, lost their first game 3-0 against France after being reduced to 10 men. They looked more polished in their second match, but lost 2-1 to Ecuador.
“We can give more, it will be difficult, but there is hope and that’s good,” said midfielder Wilson Palacios, who was sent off against France.
Teammate Emilio Izaguirre preferred to put his faith in a higher being, saying: “Now we have to have faith in God to get a great result against Switzerland.”
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