– How to team up with your enemies from the day before yesterday?
After losing out in the play-offs, sometimes violently, many players found themselves in the Swiss team. With a common goal and without animosity, they swear.
Published today at 8:45 a.m.
Sven Andrighetto manhandled Lausanne during the championship final. The Zurich resident could find some of his opponents in the National jersey.
GALLAYPHOTO
Observed from the outside, gymnastics seems almost impossible. How can we ask them to pull together, when they have just done everything to put obstacles in their way? The same equation arises every year at the beginning of May, the ice hockey play-offs once completed, when the last survivors extend their season in the service of the Swiss team.
In full preparation for the 2024 World Cup (from Friday against Norway), the national selection lost on Saturday against Finland (1-3) and faces the Czech Republic this Sunday in Brno as a final test. In the process, Patrick Fischer will make a final cut to accommodate two or three Zurich residents and as many Lausanne residents (read below). So what?
“Lump in the stomach”
So guys who happily cursed each other for seven matches must now embody only One man, one idea. And the magic must happen within a few days and nights. How do you make common cause with a guy who may have been your worst nightmare? And the one who put so much zeal into crushing you against the gang, obviously with pleasure, can we trust him? Besides, why risk a bone to protect someone who has just spent two weeks insulting members of your family? Because it’s like that: “We shit in each other’s faces all year round, but there’s a lot of respect,” summarizes Flavien Conne, ex-international.
Still, it leaves traces, today as yesterday. Olivier Keller, Swiss champion with Lugano in 2003, but defeated in the finals of 2001 and 2004, has not forgotten his post-defeat reunion with the national team: “You still have a lump in your stomach, the whole world has fallen on you on the head and a few days later, you have to meet the guys who are behind it, explains the Genevan. You see them laughing a little among themselves, from a distance, you feel that they are light-hearted while you have this knot in your stomach.”
Funny basis for forging a solid unity, a winning cement. Especially when there was ear rubbing and elbow play in the preceding days. “Depending on how things went, when we find ourselves after a tense and emotionally strong series, there can be small resentments. We are human beings, admits Tristan Scherwey, Bern striker selected for the 2024 selection. But we are all professionals and we are used to that. For some, we have met since the U16s and we know that it will continue. So, even if it sometimes takes a little time, we quickly forget.”
“No hard feelings”
Really, completely, always? “If necessary, we talk about it to put things back on track,” replies the tough guy from SCB. We must not forget that in the national team, we find those who are leaders in their clubs, therefore those who you are given priority to tickle during the play-offs. With the Zougois for example, there were still some explanations during our last quarter-final (editor’s note: 4-3 victory for EVZ). Sometimes we say things to each other, we do others. But it’s settled, I don’t hold grudges.”
So much the better, and we must hope that the opposite is valid. The testimonies are reassuring. “In the play-offs, there are always shots and words that get lost, but we quickly move on,” says Olivier Keller. One thing leads to another, with the days that pass, there is a team spirit that takes hold, with a unifying coach (editor’s note: Ralph Krueger at the time). And finally, you realize that it’s a good opportunity to expel the thing, to vent your frustration and your aggression, after a defeat.
The ex-defender was on the ice in 2001 when Swede Morgan Samuelsson scored the decisive goal in overtime, giving Zurich victory in the first VIIe final act in the history of Swiss hockey. But he assures that a few days later, he got along well with his executioners, starting with Mathias Seger. His former Lugano teammate Flavien Conne also experienced this mother of defeats. At the same time, for the World Cup, he joined a triplet with two Zurich players, Michel Zeiter and Patric Della Rossa.
“Everything is different”
The first handshake was special. “When you lose, you say “bravo”, without animosity. And when you win, you don’t arrive with your chest out. What is certain is that you don’t have the same emotions in your gut, says the Genevan, two finals won and two lost with Lugano. In the next ten minutes, two or three gags may come out but in a very short time, you completely switch. From the moment you pack your bag to go to the national team, everything is different. You change location, you go abroad with a new team, a new coach and new goals.”
Without animosity. As for complicity, it is created through play. “I have never hated anyone, but there are some, like Michel Zeiter, against whom I have never liked playing,” explains Flavien Conne. You go through a whole series of fooling around, arguing over commitments, you can’t take it anymore and, all of a sudden, you realize that it’s better to play with such a guy rather than against. With Reto von Arx, it was the same. The players you hate to face, in general, make very good teammates.
Tristan Scherwey, quadruple Swiss champion with Bern, is one. “The atmosphere is good in this selection, there are no clans between clubs,” assures the Fribourgeois. On the contrary, in recent days, I was rarely in the company of SCB players, I rather took advantage of spending time with others. Not having groups within a team, we know that’s the key to winning.” Especially when we’ve had trouble.
Simon Meier began his career as a sports journalist in 2000 at the newspaper Le Temps before becoming head of the section. In 2013, he joined the sports editorial staff of Le Matin and Le Matin Dimanche then joined that of Sport-Center for the various titles of Tamedia and 20 minutes.More informations
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