The Contenders...Switzerland

Today we take a look at the second of the hosts for Euro 2008 and another one of the teams not expected by many to make much of an impact. If there is to be a side who provide a shock I reckon it could very well be this one...

Switzerland

THE MANAGER...
Switzerland will be led into this summer's competition by Jacob Kuhn. The 65 year old, who was capped 63 times by his country will quit after the tournament and will be looking to go out on a high before being replaced by Ottmar Hitzfeld. Having played over 500 games for FC Zurich during his 16 year career Kuhn has managed the national side since 2001 and made his first task on taking the job to cull the older players and try to bring through the youths who had won the 2002 European Under 17 Championship. Kuhn has already succesfully led the Swiss to the Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup.

QUALIFYING STAGES...
Like Austria, Switzerland qualified for Euro 2008 automatically by being a host nation. During the last few years manager Kuhn has tried to organise his young squad by playing in numerous friendlies, though not always with success. The Swiss achieved a position of 17 in the FIFA rankings after the 2006 World Cup though have been sitting in around the 40s since then and currently hold 46th position. Over the last year Switzerland have played friendlies against some of Europe's top sides with the best result achieved being a 2-1 win over Holland and a 1-1 draw against Argentina. Here are Switzerland's last five friendly results...

26/03/2008 Switzerland 0 Germany 4
06/02/2008 England 2 Switzerland 1
20/11/2007 Switzerland 0 Nigeria 1
17/10/2007 Switzerland 0 USA 1
13/10/2007 Switzerland 3 Austria 1

THEIR GROUP...
Switzerland were drawn in Group A and will face the tough, but not impossible task of trying to qualify by beating the Czech Republic, Portugal and Turkey.


PLAYERS TO WATCH...
Alexander Frei... Striker and captain Frei, pictured, is one of the more experienced campaigners in the Swiss squad. The Borussia Dortmund hitman was part of the Euro 2004 and 2006 World Cup squads and has 56 international caps to his name. He is also only 3 goals away from becoming Switzerland's all-time top scorer.
Philippe Senderos... Arsenal's somewhat erratic defender will play a crucial part in the Swiss' assault on this summer's tournament. Senderos, who is from Spanish and Serbian descent, is prone to the odd slip up or sending off, but can also be crucial at set pieces and was a huge loss at the 2006 World Cup after receiving a shoulder injury. The Swiss never conceded a goal during that tournament and went out on penalties to Ukraine in the last 16 without Senderos in the side.
Gelson Fernandes... Born in Cape Verde, midfielder Gelson could be a player to make his big breakthrough at this summer's tournament. Signed by Sven Goran Erikkson during last summer for Manchester City, the former England manager has hailed Fernandes as the 'Best Young Player in Switzerland' and there are high hopes that he will take to the big stage and come of age this summer.


THE KIT...
Switzerland play in kit made by Puma.
Their home kit consists of red top, white shorts and red socks with white lines. The away kit has white tops with red flashes, red shorts and white socks with red lines.
Buy the Swiss home and away strip here...

THEIR CHANCES...
Switzerland could surprise many and have proved with their performance at the 2006 World Cup that manager Kuhn can get them organised and they can be very stuffy at the back. In what is undoubtedly going to be a tight group I can see home advantage counting here and the Swiss qualifying from the group stages.

Another chance to win Euro 2008 tickets..

Euro 2008 sponsors JVC are giving fans the chance to win tickets for the big event with this quirky and quality game that can also help you while away the hours at work. Every fortnight from now until this summers' tournament you can win a pair of tickets, and the more people who play, the more tickets JVC will release as prizes.

You can play a mini version of Euroball here by clicking on the widget above. Please give my ads a few clicks too while you're at it and ad a few pennies to my Yard of Ale fund for the Euros!

Euroball is a take on 'table football' and though frustrating to begin with, once you get the knack you'll be spending far too much time plugging away in the hope of bagging some briefs. So far there's been six winners who have all got their hands on some goldust Euro 2008 tickets, with a Dutch lady holding the highest score so far of 2,568, 450..something I can only dream of...a Dutch lady that is. Anyway, lost my train of thought for a second there so get yourself over to the Euroball website and see if you can get yourself onto the Euroball Champions winners rostrum.

Cuckoo..Cuckoo

After a few days off from this blog due to..well, lazyitis, I return with today's addition to the YOYWYW banner and a suggestion from a subscriber to this blog...THE CUCKOO CLOCK.

Now OK, I'm sure a lot of you are saying 'Cuckoo Clock' what's that got to do with Switzerland an Austria, that's a German thing and well, you'd be right. But what you may not know is that for whatever reason or other if you ask someone 'Where does the Cuckoo Clock originate?' they're highly likely to say Switzerland.

One person who takes a good bit of the blame for this misconception is Mark Twain. In his story 'A Tramp Abroad' one chapter is entitled 'The Nest of the Cuckoo-Clock' and describes how Lucerne is the home of this style of clock...which, as you now know is a load of Cuckpoo!

Switzerland did have a big influence on this style of clock and one of the most common, and the kind I have chosen to add to the banner, the 'Chalet' style originated in Switzerland in the nineteenth century and were regarded as higly valuable souvenirs from the country.

You must think I'm 'Cuckoo' sitting writing this in relation to Euro 2008..you'd be right.

Today's banner addition..

Following on from yesterday's Austrian, our Arnie, today we see the addition of Swiss legend and tennis genius... ROGER FEDERER and one of his many cows, Juliette!

Federer has dominated world tennis for years now and during his reign has managed to gain himself a herd of cattle that was given to him by his homeland for winning major titles like Wimbledon. Unfortunately for Fed, our pictured cow Juliette didn't last long and was slaughtered due to not being able to produce enough milk. You could kind of say it was a Deuce (or lack of it) point!!

YOYWYW banner

Every day we'll be adding to the YOYWYW banner at the top of this blog to bring you an insight into the host nations Austria and Switzerland.

As you can see so far the 'Hills are alive with the sound of music' as the YOYWYW yodellers Helmut and Heinrich belt out some traditional Austrian tunes while our beautiful barmaid Gretel shows off some of her lovely jugs...of ale that is!

Today's addition is Austria's most famous son, no, not Adolf Hitler but the one they call Arnie...

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger

Keep your eyes peeled for our banner changing and if you have any suggestions as to what we could be adding to our Alps then please leave a comment and we'll see what we can do.

89 days and counting...

The countdown clock is ticking to this summer's big Euro 2008 football tournament.
With the Home Nations all having failed to qualify it's going to be a long summer for British and Irish footie fans as we sit watching the cream of Europe battle it out in Switzerland and Austria.

The opportunity to be served a jug of ale by busty Austrian beauties has passed us all by and there will be no yodelling 'Engerland..Engerland' in the Alps or bagpipes blowing in Berne this time round. It is a undoubted disaster for no Home Nations to be represented at a tournament of this stature and we'll all have to make do with watching from afar this time round...a crying shame!

With this void in all our lives for Euro 2008 and to keep the interest in the tournament up I've decided that the way forward is to be involved in as many Fantasy Football competitions as I can. This blog is designed to keep you informed of any new Euro 2008 Fantasy competions that appear (and there will be plenty) and to keep you abreast of the numerous betting opportunities that will be on offer up to the tournaments big kick off in 89 days.

Over the next couple of months we'll be looking at the countries involved in Euro 2008, the tournament itself, the players, the managers, the venues, the fixtures... but mainly the many Fantasy competions that will be on offer. I will also be setting up Super Leagues in tournaments so we can all battle it out and also keeping you abreast of odds and offers available from the many online bookies as the battle commences to get your 2008 betting stakes.

England, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales may not be there and we're all at a loss because of this no matter what nationality we are. But I tell you what, we're gonna have a damn good time watching this tournament even without our own teams to follow so keep coming back to 'You only Yodel when you're winning' and let battle commence...