FIFA World Cup 2010: Chile vs Switzerland – Swiss Claim Record but Mark Gonzales Scores Winner for Chile
Chile vs. Switzerland. When you read those names in the daily list of matches, you would have prior to this World Cup assumed that this would be a boring match, one not worth viewing. But so far the teams that are lower down on the official FIFA rankings have produced more thrilling and enticing matches than the juggernauts that people assumed would have a walk in the park on their way to the knockout stages.
Chile turned to Suazo to lead their attack up front, who was the top scorer in the American qualifiers for Chile, with ten goals to his name. Switzerland, on the other hand, have Swiss record goal scorer Alexander Frei, who was given the go ahead along with midfielder Behrami. Both of the players had missed Switzerland’s opening match in which they shockingly beat Spain one nil. Injured defender Phillipe Senderos was replaced by Steve von Bergen.
This was the third meeting between the two sides: the Swiss had previously beaten the Chileans on 1960 and 2007 during friendlies, and Chile had beaten the Swiss in their only prior World Cup encounter in 1962 by three goals to one. Both of the teams had won their opening World Cup matches without conceding a goal, and Switzerland were on the verge of keeping an all time clean sheet record going into the match, and beating Italy’s record set way back in 1990.
The match started in dramatic fashion with Suazo picking up the fastest booking of the tournament so far by committing a studs up challenge on Grichting within the first seventy seconds of the match. But that just showed the intensity that both teams were brining to the table. The Chileans tested the Swiss number one Benaglio for the first time ten minutes into the match, but he was up to the test and passed with flying colours. Nkufo was booked for a tug on the shirt of Chile’s Carmona, but on closer viewing it hardly looked like he was pulling him back. Soon after, two cards were shown, one to Carmona for an audacious tackle on Behrami that automatically ruled him out of the next match against Spain, the second to Waldo for flicking the ball away, although that was something the referee could have let go.
Switzerland had their first effort on goal at the twenty sixth minute when a Ziegler whipped in free kick was met by Grichting, but his header was well wide. Behrami, who plays in midfield for West Ham United in the English Premier League, was shown a straight red card for flailing his arm into the face of Vidal. It was a harsh decision, but you can’t blame the referee there since his sight was obstructed, but the linesman could have surely pointed out how it was unintentional. The first half came to a close with two more shots on target by Chile that were saved by ease by the Swiss keeper. So at half time, we were left with four yellow cards, one red, and no goals.
The second half squared off with Valdivia and Gonzalez coming on for Vidal and Suazo. Chile had a goal chalked for being off side, but the build up to that goal was pretty entertaining to watch. Sanchez capitalized on some poor defending by Grichting and was in a one on one with the Swiss keeper, but he kept his cool and showed why he was setting a new all-time high clean sheet record. The game soon got a little ugly and three players were booked in three minutes with Inler, Fernandez and Medel all seeing the yellow between the sixty and sixty second minute.
At the seventy-first minute, Switzerland set the world record; it had been a long time coming for the Swiss but they did it with some solid performances at the back, and most importantly, their keeper Benaglio, who had picked up form, was the main man responsible for this immense achievement.
However, all the excitement was soon cut down by Mark Gonzalez, who leapt at the far post to meet Paredes’ expertly swung in cross to give them the lead. Paredes’ chance on the eighty-third minute mark was a sitter, but he managed to sky rocket his shot somehow; a simple tap would have done the trick but he had other things on his mind. On the eighty-ninth minute, Chile could have scored another in a four on two situation, but von Bergen managed to fire wide from point blank range.
The match ended with ten-man Switzerland being outplayed in the last fifteen minutes of the match by the ravenous Chileans. However, the Swiss can at least take home with them the new record of the longest spell without conceding a goal, so it’s not a total loss for them. However, Group H is still wide open, and any of the four teams, Chile, Switzerland, Honduras or Spain can go through.
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