ABU DHABI // They’re ranked the sixth best team in the world by FIFA, but most people aren’t expecting Switzerland to make it beyond the round of 16 - not even their most loyal fans.
“We are Swiss, you know, our expectations are usually not too high,” said 27-year-old Swiss banker Ruedi Aepli, who lives in Abu Dhabi. “For example, a German team, they come and they say we want to win the World Cup. Our statement was, yeah, we want to play the group games, the matches and then we will see, we will take it from there. So, you know, we’re just happy to be there. Of course, the expectations are probably that we make it to the Round of 16 and if we lose this match, nobody is really sad.”
“You know, we are very soft, we don’t have a winner mentality,” Nico Tschui, a 30-year-old Swiss who also works as a banker in Abu Dhabi, said with a smile.
This will be Switzerland’s tenth appearance in the World Cup. The team has reached the quarterfinals three times, the last of which was in 1954, when they hosted the tournament.
The low – they say “realistic” – expectations of these two Swiss fans isn’t stopping them from travelling to Brazil and Switzerland to cheer on their Schweizer Nati, also known as La Nati or Squadra nazionale. For Swiss fans staying put in the UAE, the Swiss Business Council Abu Dhabi is sponsoring a number of events to help unite the 1,700 Swiss citizens here during matches. On Sunday night, the Swiss will gather at the Hilton Abu Dhabi and on June 25, they will meet at St. Regis Saadiyat Island to watch their team take on Honduras.
Mr Aepli and his friends have tickets in hand to attend their national team’s matches in Brasilia, Salvador and Manaus.
Mr Tschui, who recently broke both wrists in a football match in Abu Dhabi coaching young players, will return to his homeland for the World Cup.
“The first two weeks I will stay here and at the end of June I will go home, but maybe they will already be out,” Mr Tschui said with a laugh.
“You know what I mean? We don’t have the winner mentality,” says Mr Aepli. “A German never would say that.”
The Germans are the Swiss team’s greatest rival. If there’s one match fans would love to watch, it would be La Nati crushing the Nationalmannschaft. But for that to happen, they first have to break through the group stage, which has them facing off against Ecuador, Honduras and France.
“In my opinion, we can beat at least Ecuador and Honduras, if you look on the paper,” said Mr Aeplu. “And France hasn’t a really strong team this year, because they have internal problems, or it seems like from the outside. And against France in the past we used to play quite well against them.”
Although Switzerland has what Mr Tschui called “the best coach of the world right now” – the German Ottmar Hitzfeld – and a young team, many of its key players have suffered injuries.
“See, we have quite a good young team, a dynamic team, but we have got a lot of players who are injured and didn’t play the last few months in their clubs,” said Mr Tschui. “So that’s going to be an issue. We have quite a strong team, but our problem is the centre-back. Centre-back we have two players who are not that strong, so I’m a little bit worried.”
If Switzerland fails to advance beyond the group stage, Mr Tschui said he will root for Argentina. As for Mr Aepli, he wouldn’t dream of supporting any other team.
“No, of course not.” Mr Aepli said. “In my heart, there is only space for two teams: FC St Gallen and the Swiss national team.”
rpennington@thenational.ae