Raphael Wicky has a pretty good seat for Saturday’s World Cup quarterfinal. But then again, he’s had a close view of this Swiss team for years now.
The Sporting Kansas City head coach isn’t just any former Swiss international. He played alongside current Swiss manager Murat Yakin. He coached 10 players on this World Cup roster at FC Basel or BSC Young Boys. He even shared the field with Lionel Messi back in 2007, earning his 75th and final cap in a 1-1 draw where the 19-year-old Messi was already clearly playing a different sport than everyone else.
And now the whole group is in Kansas City. Argentina set up base camp at Sporting KC’s Compass Minerals National Performance Center, the same training grounds where Wicky works every day. So yeah, the connections are layered.
A Swiss team built differently
Switzerland hasn’t won a World Cup quarterfinal since 1954. That was a home tournament, and it’s been 70 years of waiting. This version of the Swiss team feels different though. Wicky pointed out that nearly every player on the squad logs minutes for top European clubs week in and week out.
“I believe this is probably one of the biggest games in Switzerland’s history, playing against Argentina with Messi,” Wicky told MLSsoccer.com this week. “Our team has grown so much over the last 10 years. They face this real pressure every single weekend. I think we have a very experienced team who I believe has a chance to go further.”
That experience includes players like Breel Embolo, who Wicky coached as a 16-year-old at FC Basel. Wicky told the academy director after six months that Embolo was too good for the U-18 team and needed to move up. That kind of early read has played out across multiple careers. Manuel Akanji got a comparison to Vincent Kompany from Wicky back at Basel. Christian Fassnacht, Cedric Itten and Fabien Rieder all won a Swiss double under him at Young Boys.
The Messi problem
Then there’s the actual opponent. Argentina is the No. 1 ranked team in the world, the defending World Cup champions, and they’re led by a guy who’s having maybe the best individual tournament anyone has ever had. Messi has eight goals so far in this World Cup, breaking the all-time scoring record with 21 total. He’s 38 years old. He’s still doing this.
Wicky remembered what it felt like to share a field with him back in 2007.
“Messi was 19 then, but he was already on another level,” Wicky said. “If you know the names who played then, they were world-class players. But Messi was just above. There are really not many words to describe what he does. It’s almost 20 years now. It’s unbelievable.”
This could be Messi’s last international game. Switzerland beating the reigning champions in the quarterfinals would be the single biggest result in the country’s soccer history.
“Going into the semifinal and beating the world champion with the best player who ever played — that would be unbelievable,” Wicky said.
Meanwhile, back in MLS
While the World Cup hogs the spotlight in Kansas City, Sporting KC is still Wicky’s actual job. The team returns to MLS action on July 16 against St. Louis CITY SC, a rivalry game at a stadium that should be loud. Wicky is in his first season overseeing a roster rebuild, and the transfer window is still open.
“We keep building. We’re in a building state of a new era for the club,” he said. “I’m excited with some of the signings we’ve made. Not all of them are 100% fit yet, but I believe we’re on the right path. It just needs a little bit of time.”
For now though, Wicky will watch the team he helped shape try to pull off something no Swiss team ever has. And if they do it, he’ll have seen it coming for years.
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