On a rainy Thursday evening in British Columbia, Switzerland wrote a new chapter in their nation’s football history. The last time the Nati won a knockout match at the came before not only anyone in the current squad was born, but before most of their grandparents were.
Even that match wasn’t a straight knockout round fixture, but rather a play-off at the global finals they hosted in 1954, to determine which nation would advance from the group stage after the Swiss had finished level with Italy.
In the intervening 72 years, Switzerland has won the Eurovision Song Contest – three times – as well Olympic Gold in fencing, judo and rowing and had four physicists scoop Nobel Prize honours.
The one field they just couldn’t seem to crack was a knockout win at the global finals. Goals from Breel Embolo and Dan Ndoye, as Switzerland in Vancouver has now changed all that.
Speaking exclusively to FIFA after the breakthrough win, Ndoye knew just what this moment meant for his nation.
“It feels great, really great,“ he said. “It was really important for us to win today. We wrote one page of history for our nation and we hope we will continue like that because this is what we have dreamt about that.
“Not just the players, but the country has been dreaming about this and we want to continue to make them dream.
“We know that what we did today is special but we want more. We are happy today and tomorrow we will think about the next step and the next game, the next opponent.
Powered by the superb showings of starlet Johan Manzambi, the Swiss attack has been clicking in North America, with Ndoye now the fifth different goalscorer in their first four matches.
The team had, however, conceded in each of their previous three outings. Having now collected their first clean sheet, to go with a drought-breaking win was, as Manuel Akanji said, another real positive.
“We defended well and I think we scored the goals in the right moment,“ the defender said. “To keep a clean sheet for the first time, that’s something as a defender that you always want to do. It didn't happen in the other games and in the end, it’s the win that counts, but when you get a clean sheet as something extra, it feels really good.
“Finally [we could win a knockout stage match] too but hopefully we're not done yet. I think it was a good performance and it wasn't easy. Algeria played really well, but I think we played with a lot of experience.”
The numbers bear that argument out, with 25-year-old Ndoye the second youngest member of the starting XI. Along with that vast well of experience is the fact that the Nati are now something of a familiar presence in western Canada.
Having stayed here for the week after they in their final group outing, the team now gets to stay in Vancouver for a Round of 16 showdown against either Colombia or Ghana.
That will give Ndoye a bit of extra time to respond to all those who sent him messages of congratulations; a task he admits could take quite a while.
“Oh, there were a lot of messages! A lot,“ he said. “I saw my agent got the first one but I couldn’t respond. I have so many at the moment, there are more than one hundred for sure so now I have to take the time after to respond.
“For me though this is living a dream. Since I was a child, I saw the biggest teams in the world playing in the biggest tournament in the world. To be able to represent my country and to be able to play a knockout stage match, it's incredible. We want this dream to continue and to be able to make the country continue to dream.
“Now we will see who we are going to face in the next game, Colombia or Ghana and we will take things step-by-step but we want to continue. We are ready for anyone and we want to show our quality and to do it on the biggest stage in the world.”
Sources: FIFA Official
