Last minute shock against Qatar
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Granit Xhaka was visibly annoyed after the shock in added time. “If you don’t have discipline on the pitch, you can’t win against Qatar,” said the Switzerland captain in the catacombs of the huge World Cup stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area. The long-time Bundesliga professional actually wants to achieve great things with his team at the XXL tournament. The 1-1 draw against the blatant outsiders at the start is much more than just a dampener in the mood. Because for Xhaka one thing is clear: a lot has to change.
“First we have to get our feet on the ground and see reality,” warned the 33-year-old. “Seeing that we’re not as far along as we might have talked about before the tournament.” There was talk of the best World Cup of all time. That would be called the semi-finals. However, after a good start with Breel Embolo’s early penalty goal, Xhaka and his teammates hardly followed up with anything promising. Further scoring chances in the first half remained unused – also because of the strong Mahmoud Abunada in Qatar’s goal, who was named player of the match.
In the second half, Switzerland lost ground rapidly. “In the second half we didn’t find the rhythm anymore, which made us strong in the first half – we didn’t have as much discipline in different positions,” explained Xhaka, clarifying his criticism. He was asked whether the heat of more than 30 degrees in the blazing Santa Clara sun had caused problems. “No,” the veteran answered briefly and succinctly. He didn’t look for excuses.
Switzerland lacks speed and wit
Coach Murat Yakin’s team often had the ball. However, Xhaka and his teammates often circulated the ball too slowly to seriously challenge the Qatari defense. Creativity and playfulness were missing. “We should have been more consistent, more precise and hungrier,” said goalkeeper Gregor Kobel on “ZDF”. Qatar equalized deep in stoppage time with an own goal from Miro Muheim.
“It was like that in the past and it won’t change in the future: If you don’t score the goals, you’ll get them,” said Xhaka soberly. The former Bundesliga star and double winner with Bayer Leverkusen is hoping for a quick learning effect. “I think the result is good for us as a team so that we can see where we stand,” he said and added: “So that we can also see that we have to do more than we might think.”
In Group B, in which both games on matchday 1 ended 1-1, Bosnia-Herzegovina is the next opponent on Thursday (9 p.m./MagentaTV). Finally it’s against co-hosts Canada. “We now have to show that we are learning the lessons from this and that we are becoming more efficient,” appealed Yakin. “And then I’m convinced that things will get better in the next two games.” Keeper Kobel demanded: “Now we have to get ourselves together quickly and then go full throttle in the next games.”