Not far from the “ideal” team to face the United States

The Swiss team enters St. Gallen (8:15 p.m.) on Sunday in the home stretch of its preparation for the Euro. She faces the United States with an idea behind her head.

The choice of the United States is, in fact, not innocent. Vladimir Petkovic believes that the Americans are playing in the same vein as Wales, Switzerland’s first opponent in this Euro. Led by Dortmund half-back Giovanni Reyna, the United States can be formidable because of the verve of their attackers.

We think of new French Champion Tim Weah, Schalke 04 player Matthew Hoppe and Young Boys striker Jordan Siebatcheu. The United States will however be deprived of its best asset, Christian Pulisic, who will play Saturday in Porto in the Champions League final with Chelsea against Manchester City.

“A compact team that can go very quickly”

“It is true, the United States evolve in a register similar to that of the Welsh, underlines Vladimir Petkovic. This is a compact team that can go really fast. She very often seeks depth ”. Like the Welsh who will mainly bet on Saturday 12 June in Baku on the speed of Gareth Bale and Daniel James to win this crucial first match.

As against Belgium in Geneva five years ago and Spain in Villarreal three years ago in meetings which were also the first of the preparation for Euro16 and the World Cup’18, Vladimir Petkovic should align a team that will be very close to that of June 12. “At 90%, I have it in my head,” he admits.

The national coach will however have to find the right chemistry between players who have given themselves a lot over the past three months – Nico Elvedi and Remo Freuler – and those who suffer from an obvious lack of playing time. Steven Zuber, Xherdan Shaqiri and Fabian Schär.

A difficult dilemma

The Swiss team will deliver their second preparation match on Thursday 3 June, still in St. Gallen, against Liechtenstein. The day before, Vladimir Petkovic will have separated from three players to reduce his list to twenty-six selected. The national coach said that a goalkeeper will be among the “sacrificed”. He will have to face a difficult choice insofar as the last named Gregor Kobel comes out of an extremely convincing season, unlike Yann Sommer, Jonas Omlin and Yvon Mvogo…

It is not known whether Vladimir Petkovic will give the future Dortmund goalkeeper playing time this Sunday. He could, on the other hand, throw Andi Zeqiri and Dan Ndoye into the bath to give them a chance to shake the table. The two former attackers of Lausanne-Sport should not, on paper at least, appear in this list of 26. “But I would like them to force me to review my plans”, slips Vladimir Petkovic as if to emphasize that nothing is set in stone.

This article was published automatically. Source: ats

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