Saturday, June 26, 2010

SWITZERLAND 0 - HONDURAS 0


The dream is over for Switzerland in the World Cup after they failed to build on their superb victory against European champions Spain in their opening game.

Coach Ottmar Hitzfeld knew if his side achieved a two-goal win in this Group H match then they would progress to the second round, but they were toothless and had to settle for a point against Honduras, who are also going home after failing to find the target in the tournament.

The Swiss shown they could soak up the pressure and sneak a goal against Spain, the pressure was on to show they could take the game to the opposition in this must-win game, but they were far too negative and lacked any sort of cutting edge. They improved slightly when Hakan Yakin was introduced to provide a decent ball into the box, but they lacked quality options to convert them.

Honduras were always going to be playing for pride but, playing on the counter-attack, they looked the better team for much of the night. Edgar Alvarez and Ramon Nunez threatened to cause problems and they attacked at pace, but a lack of belief and poor final balls meant they were unable to clinch a shock win.

No comments: