Germany’s national team put on a disgraceful performance and lost 3-5 against Switzerland, the first defeat against the sneaky bankers and cuckoo clock-makers in 56 years! Even more, it replicates the result of Germany’s very first international (against Switzerland) in 1908, 856 matches ago. Of course, it was a friendly, and no Bayern players were used (e.g. Neuer, Badstuber, Boateng, Schweinsteiger, Kroos, Müller or Gomez), but to get bitch-slapped by the Eidgenossen certainly will have Joachim Löw concerned.
Germany started out controlling things, but were without many ideas, and looked slow and disorganized in defense. The Swiss on the other hand were quick on the counter-attack, and had a good idea of what they wanted to do: get off shots against Gladbach GK Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who was making his national squad debut. Ironically, it was a Bundesliga combo, Leverkusen’s Eren Derdiyok and Tranquillo Barnetta that combined as a wrecking crew. Derdiyok nailed a hat-trick, and Barnetta provided the assists on all three. (The Aspirins must be shaking their heads, as Derdiyok has signed on with Hoffenheim, and Barnetta had already been shown the door.) The Swiss were running wild, and with some luck could have been up 4-0 after 30 minutes. As it was, Löw got his team motivated and attacking, and Hummels managed to cut the lead just before half.
In the 2nd period, the Bundestrainer was forced to rest Özil and Khedira, who had just ended the long Spanish season. Although Germany pressed in attack, they continued to leak goals at the back, and thus suffer a historic loss.
It’s hard to read too much into this, as Germany is known to lay eggs during friendlies. The absence of all the Bayern players certainly weaken the squad, and Löw was certainly improvising. But losing is one thing, giving up 5 goals to the Swiss is another. The DFB squad has another test match against Israel on Thursday, and then it’s off to Euro-2012 and hopefully better results.
Switzerland - Germany 5:3 (2:1) Attendance: 27,381 (St. Jakob-Park, Bern) 1:0 Derdiyok (21., Barnetta) 2:0 Derdiyok (23., Barnetta) 2:1 Hummels (45., Özil) 3:1 Derdiyok (50., Barnetta) 3:2 Schürrle (64.) 4:2 Lichtsteiner (67., Inler) 4:3 Reus (72., Draxler) 5:3 Mehmedi (76., Ziegler) SWITZERLAND: Benaglio - Lichtsteiner, von Bergen, Senderos, Ziegler - Mehmedi, Fernandes, Inler, Barnetta - G. Xhaka - Derdiyok Subs: 78. Stocker for Barnetta 90. Wiss for G. Xhaka 90. + 2 Djourou for Fernandes Trainer: Hitzfeld GERMANY: ter Stegen - Höwedes, Mertesacker, Hummels, Schmelzer - Khedira - M. Götze - Schürrle, Özil, Podolski - Klose Subs: 46. Reus for Özil 46. Gündogan for Khedira 62. Draxler for Podolski 78. S. Bender for Höwedes 78. Cacau for Klose 78. L. Bender for M. Götze Trainer: Löw