Switzerland in the World Cup Finals

Switzerland qualified for the 2006 World Cup Finals on November 16th, 2005.

World Cup Appearances:
Germany 2006 is Switzerland's 8th appearance in the World Cup Finals.

Best World Cup Performance:
Quarter-finals (Italy 1934, France 1938 and Switzerland 1954).

Switzerland World Cup Preparations

Switzerland, co-hosts with Austria for Euro 2008, are celebrating something of a World Cup coup at home.

Brazil (Weggis), Germany (Geneva), Holland (Lausanne), Poland (Bad Ragaz), Ukraine (Abtwil), Iran (Spiez) and Tunisia (Chaumont) have all set up training camps in Switzerland.

Italy, Spain, Croatia and Côte d'Ivoire will also be flying in for friendly matches, while the Swiss players will be doing their own pre-World Cup Finals training in Freienbach, SZ (from 23rd May to 7th June).

Switzerland Team Hotel
Kurhotel Fürstenhof:
Kurfürstenstraße 36, Bad Bertrich.
The Häcker family's hotel lies in a nice part of the Mossel region, just 30km from Hahn Airport. The decision for Switzerland to stay here was probably helped by the Mayor of Bad Bertrich, Günter Eichberg; who as a former President of Schalke 04 personally knew Swiss trainer, Köbi Kuhn.

Switzerland will train at the newly built Ußbachtal-Stadion.

Bad Bertrich:
Bad Bertrich has been graced through the ages by a wealth of patrons, supporters and sponsors such as the prince of the spa regions, Clemens Wenzeslaus of Trier, whose splendid, princely palace and picturesque spa gardens dating from the 18th century still today make up the heart of the health resort.

Switzerland Friendly Matches
Beat Scotland (3-1), Wednesday 1st March. (Glasgow)
Goals from: Tranquillo Barnetta (21), Daniel Gygax (41) and Ricardo Cabanas (69).

Côte d'Ivoire, Saturday 27th May. (Basle)

Italy, Wednesday 31st May. (Geneva)

China, Saturday 3rd June. (Hardturm, Zurich)

Switzerland in the 2006 World Cup
Group G
Tuesday, 13th June
France vs Switzerland
Stuttgart -- (18:00)

Monday, 19th June
Togo vs Switzerland
Dortmund -- (15:00)

Friday, 23rd June
Switzerland vs South Korea
Hannover -- (21:00)

Knockout Stage
Group G winner travels to Cologne and the runner-up goes to Hannover.

If Switzerland are runners-up, they will stay in Hannover for another 4 days.

Switzerland World Cup Squad 2006
Nati

Goalkeepers:
1 Pascal Zuberbuehler (FC Basle)
12 Diego Benaglio (CD Nacional, Portugal)
21 Fabio Coltorti (Grasshoppers Zurich)

Defenders:
2 Johan Djourou (Arsenal, England)
3 Ludovic Magnin (VfB Stuttgart, Germany)

4 Philippe Senderos (Arsenal, England)

13 Stephane Grichting (Auxerre, France)
17 Christoph Spycher (Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany)
19 Valon Behrami (Lazio, Italy)
20 Patrick Müller (Olympique Lyon, France)
23 Philipp Degen (Borussia Dortmund, Germany)

Midfielders:
5 Xavier Margairaz (FC Zurich)
6 Johann Vogel (AC Milan, Italy)
7 Ricardo Cabanas (Cologne, Germany)
8 Raphael Wicky (Hamburg SV, Germany)
10 Daniel Gygax (Lille, France)
14 David Degen (FC Basle)
15 Blerim Dzemaili (FC Zurich)
16 Tranquillo Barnetta (Bayer Leverkusen, Germany)

Forwards:
9 Alex Frei (Rennes, France)
11 Marco Streller (FC Köln, Germany)
18 Mauro Lustrinelli (Sparta Prague, Czech Republic)
22 Johan Vonlanthen (NAC Breda, Holland)

Trainer:
Köbi Kuhn.

Players to watch:
9 Alex Frei (Rennes, France)
22 Johan Vonlanthen (NAC Breda, Holland)

Destination Switzerland

Switzerland Travel Notes:
Find out more about Switzerland @ Travel Notes.