Senderos: Pressure on Switzerland is huge
Written by Jonathan Chong on Monday, June 7, 2010
Defender Philippe Senderos says that the pressure on his home country to do well at the World Cup whilst playing beautiful attacking football is tremendous.
The Swiss are expecting their side to attack like European champions Spain, or even like Catalan giants Barcelona, but coach Ottmar Hitzfeld has assembled a very defensive-minded group of players.
Senderos said: "Here in Switzerland they expect us to play like Spain or Barcelona. There's a lot of pressure behind us.
"The fans expect a lot of the Swiss team and sometimes it can be a bit wrong.
"We have to know who we are - we are a small country. We have players who play abroad in big teams, but we have to realize we have to play to our qualities.
"The manager is really experienced, so he takes these things really calmly and tries to give confidence to the players.
"We have been talking about this World Cup for a long time, so now we just want to get out there and start playing.
"We're very confident that we're going out there to take our chances."
Switzerland have not secured a win in five straight games, all played at home, although they went some way to appease fans with an improved display in their 1-1 draw against holders Italy on Saturday.
Four days before that result, the Swiss were booed from the pitch in Sion after a 1-0 defeat to Costa Rica.
And Senderos is hoping that travelling to South Africa and playing away from home will help ease the pressure in some respects on his countrymen.
The Swiss international spent most of last season on-loan to Everton but failed to secure a permanent move, and it's obvious that he's not part of manager Arsène Wenger's plans.
Switzerland open their World Cup campaign with a tough match against Spain on 16 June.
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We're very confident that we're going out there to take our chances.
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