A civil war: Granit Xhaka of the Swiss team will face his brother Taulant Xhaka of the Albanian team.
(Sorry I’m late with this.)
by Randinho| 10 Comments
This post is in: Sports
A civil war: Granit Xhaka of the Swiss team will face his brother Taulant Xhaka of the Albanian team.
(Sorry I’m late with this.)
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Berliner2
About half of the Albanian Team have Swiss citizenship. Switzerland is the only football federation to field two Teams under different flags in this tournament.
Randinho
@Berliner2: True.
piratedan
Swiss up 1-0 at halftime… not really a surprise is it? It’s not as if Albania is a soccer powerhouse, right?
BillCinSD
Albania has pretty much been bossing the game since a little before they had Cana sent off
@piratedan: Really neither Albania nor Switzerland are powerhouses, although the Swiss have more players in top leagues. Albania came out a little tight in their first major tournament game ever, but settled down by about the 30th minute
BillCinSD
The Goalkeeoers, Sommer for Switzerland and Berisha for Albania played very well (after Berisha made an early error on the Swiss goal). Albania once they got into the game played well, Switzerland was a little underwhelming.
philadelphialawyer
Meh, I don’t get the slant of the coverage. The Swiss won. They get the three points. And the goal differential, and the goal. Albania gets nothing. And had a key player sent off who is now ineligible in its next game. Survive and move on is what tournament soccer is all about. Not style points or moral victories.
Right now: “Switzerland has only itself to blame.” For what? For winning? Oh my, the Swiss keeper had to make a save in the second half. Again, so what?
I have no dog in this fight, but WTF?
BillCinSD
@philadelphialawyer: well Switzerland think they have a great shot to go deep in this tournament and Albania is in their first major tournament ever. Albania was the better team, even with 10 men, for most of the game. Therefore, Switzerland was quite disappointing
philadelphialawyer
@BillCinSD: Yeah, I’d rather win and live to fight another day and be characterized as “quite disappointing” than lose or draw. Right now, after one game played, the Swiss are second in their group. With home team and powerhouse France being the only team of the four who did better than they did, and, at that, only by having one more goal.
Aldo
@Berliner2: couldn’t you say that Albania is the other federation to field two teams under different flags? Could say the same about Kosovo. All those guys essentially own triple citizenships
Berliner2
@Aldo: you could. But they were all formed in Switzerland and played for Swiss federation teams up to the U-21 level. So on that technicality, my version holds up.