Switzerland is the master of the missed knockout blow

Claudio Thoma/freshfocus

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The German Dominik Kahun cheers after his penalty sunk in front of the Swiss bank.

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imago images/ActionPictures

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Marcel Noebels sank the last penalty against Leonardo Genoni.

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Keystone

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Olympia 2018: The German Yannic Seidenberg celebrates the 2-1 overtime against Switzerland in the pre-quarter-finals in Pyeongchang.

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THIS MARTI

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2006 World Cup in Cologne: Marco Streller fails in the penalty shoot-out to Ukraine goalie Alexander Schowowski …

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Keystone

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The only thing left for the Swiss is disappointment.

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Now or never! Natis had often had this feeling in recent years. Like most recently at the Ice Hockey World Championship in Riga, when they showed a promising preliminary round with five wins from seven games and then lacked courage and nerves in the quarter-finals against Germany (2: 3 nP).

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In the event of a win penalty against Switzerland: German commentator freaks out completely(00:20)

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It was a déjà vu for Swiss sports fans. It was the same for the hockey national team at the 2018 Olympics – at that time they lost to arch rivals from Germany 1: 2 after extra time. Back then, as now, the feeling of remorse for a missed opportunity remained. The Germans won the medal in Pyoengchang that the Swiss had dreamed of.

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Now you can say that the national team won the World Cup silver a little later. At that time, however, you had a different mental starting point: As with the medal win in 2013 (quarter-finals in the Czech Republic, semi-finals in the USA) you could play in the knockout games against opponents (Finland and Canada) against whom you had little to lose and also raised in case of a defeat Hauptes could have returned home. But against Germany? The height of fall was far greater. And the nerves did not hold, you failed (as in 2010) because you tried to bring the narrow lead over time and fell into passivity.

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This is just unreal: Germany equalizes 44 seconds before the end(00:47)

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The path is right, but not over yet

The cross-comparison with football also fits into the picture. You have reached the round of 16 four times in the last 15 years. You always failed. Three times against teams that you couldn’t compete against as outsiders: 2006 at the World Cup against Ukraine (0: 0, 0: 3 nP), at the EM 2016 against Poland (1: 1, 4: 5 nP) and most recently at the 2018 World Cup against Sweden (0: 1). It is telling that the best performance in 2014 as an underdog was against Lionel Messi and his Argentines (0: 1 a.p.).

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The Swiss still lack the killer instinct against opponents on an equal footing, as embodied in Germany in ice hockey or Sweden in football. That is a question of your head and hopefully only one of the time before you take the decisive step forward in this area as well. The fact that Swiss teams enter major tournaments with the aim of being there to the end is still relatively new in both hockey and football. The path is right, but the development is not yet complete. And the next chance comes: In football, the European Championship starts next Friday.

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