Last and only win a “farewell gift” for Köbi

Keystone

Feted by calls of "Köööbi, Köööbi" by the fans in Basel, Köbi Kuhn ended his tenure as Swiss national coach on Sunday with a 2-0 victory over Portugal at Euro 2008.

Switzerland’s newspapers also celebrated the 64-year-old Kuhn, whose seven-year stand as coach of the Swiss football team concluded with two disappointing games, personal drama and finally a meaningless win over Portugal.

“At least a good feeling in the end,” wrote Zurich’s Tages-Anzeiger newspaper on Monday in its coverage of the match, played before 39,730 fans. It called Hakan Yakin’s two-goal performance late in the game a “salvation”.

The Blick tabloid dubbed the Basel-born midfielder, who in the past has been publicly critical of Kuhn, the “hero of the Swiss”.

“It was a Swiss team that delivered what Kuhn had promised it would be, that showed some pride and was able to leave the tournament without hanging its head in shame,” said Lausanne’s 24 Heures.

Kuhn, the former coach of the national junior team, ended the evening with final lap of the field trailed by his players, a banner reading “Merci Köbi” in hand.

“It was very emotional,” he said after the bittersweet win. “Some of these players were 12 years with me. I can only thank them for wonderful times.”

“The end of the match was almost a communion between the Swiss team, its fans and Köbi Kuhn,” wrote 24 Heures.

The Blick praised the coach’s “human qualities”.

“Kuhn was always himself,” the tabloid wrote. “He gave his players a lot of confidence.” The newspaper’s website invited readers to weigh in on the future of the national team. “What comes after the Köbi era?” it asked.

The end

A relative triumph over what the Neue Zürcher Zeitung called Portugal’s “B team” was a “farewell gift for the trainer”, the newspaper said. Le Temps newspaper also sought to temper the good feelings with a dose of reality.

“One of the most successful Swiss national coaches leaves on a positive note,” it said. “That’s all well and good though, and does not replace a broken dream.”

“Let us not get too excited,” it added. “Retaining only three of his first-choice players, [Portuguese coach] Luiz Felipe Scolari showed that the match was less important for him.”

“We should have actually replaced 11 players rather than eight,” Scolari reckoned after the game. “We ran too many risks during this match. I made a mistake. I made a big mistake.”

Football has not been the only thing on Kuhn’s mind over the course of the tournament. His wife, Alice, suffered an epileptic fit five days before the start of the tournament.

Doctors awoke her from a medically induced coma in time for her husband to inform her the team had been eliminated on home soil.

The referee seemed to be on Switzerland’s side for this final match. “It was the helping hand the Swiss needed to forget their bad luck, a win for their honour, a win to stay on good terms with the fans,” said 24 Heures.

Switzerland, the world’s 44th-ranked team, ended its Euro 2008 experience at the bottom of Group A. Co-host Austria faces a daunting challenge against Germany, whom they will have to overcome for a place in the quarterfinals.

swissinfo with agencies

International press

International media have reacted to Switzerland’s final match with lukewarm congratulations and a shrug.

Britain’s Daily Mail supplemented its match coverage with titbits on Köbi Kuhn’s run as coach of the Swiss national team.

“A game that was utterly meaningless as a contest but a game that clearly meant so much to the coaches and even some of the players,” it wrote.

Most media services in Britain chose to cover Turkey’s victory over the Czech Republic.

In Canada, the Winnipeg Sun tabloid led with the headline, “Portugal tunes out for tune-up against Swiss”.

Nevertheless, it said the game was worth playing.

“In international soccer, there are no such things as meaningless games,” it wrote.

Yahoo! Sports columnist Martin Rogers prior to Sunday’s game requested “No more co-hosted Euros, please” in a column.

“Austria and Switzerland deserve to be hosting the second biggest soccer tournament in the world,” he wrote. “Whether they should be playing in it is another matter.”

Euro 2008

Switzerland is co-hosting the Euro 2008 football tournament with Austria from June 7-29.

The 31 games are being played in four cities in Switzerland (Basel, Bern, Geneva and Zurich) and four cities in Austria (Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Vienna). The final will be held in Vienna on June 29.

The championship is being shown in 170 countries and are expected to be watched by about eight billion cumulative TV viewers.