Janne Palomäki
Even Switzerland’s crushing victory does not cover the weak level of the match, writes Janne Palomäki from Los Angeles.
Switzerland’s Johan Manzambi celebrated his great opening goal. EPA / AOP
Switzerland and Bosnia-Herzegovina had both drawn their opening round matches.
In practice, it meant that a win in the mutual match at the Sofi stadium would almost ensure a further place in the playoffs.
Against that background, both teams went into the match with the handbrake on. The shots on goal in the opening period were equal 1–1.
With a total of 104 matches in the tournament, not every one of them can be a football classic. You can’t call this match like that, even with a good will.
You don’t often experience similar surprises when two European teams meetwhich the more exotic opponents in the World Cup offer.
As the stakes increased with the minutes of the game, there was a danger that Dan Ndoye’s Saxon performance at just under an hour would have remained the highlight of the entire match.
Of course, it didn’t hit the goal, but as an individual performance it was worthy of the World Cup.
Here in the suburbs of Los Angeles far more Bosnians than Swiss had arrivedwhich – the gross national product of the countries combined with Fifa’s dynamic ticket pricing – was admittedly a surprise.
In their calculations, even a draw point might have been enough, because the team will face Qatar in the last match of the initial group.
Switzerland’s head coach Murat Yakin also used the same mathwho replaced both Rubén Vargas and Johan Manzambi on the field in the 72nd minute to bring more attacking power.
Just three minutes later, Switzerland was in the lead: Vargas got the ball into the box with the second attempt and the 20-year-old Manzambi cannoned directly into the net from the air.
of Bosnia and Herzegovina Tarik Muharemović pressed the suicide button knocking down Manzambi’s worthy straight red, and all the compatriots in the stands buried their faces in their hands.
Vargas and Manzambi secured their place in the opener of the next match by scoring another goal before Ermin Mahmić’s consolation goal.
It wasn’t the last perfect match either, because the Swiss general Granit Xhaka completed the 4-1 final numbers from the penalty spot.
However, nothing classic came out of the match. Switzerland already has a very strong second leg in the playoffs.