Switzerland

The Story

Switzerland arrives at this World Cup the way clockwork is supposed to arrive: quietly, on time, and with a perfect record. Ten qualifying matches, ten wins — the first European team to ever manage that. A squad that on paper reads like a greatest-hits of the last decade of Swiss football: Granit Xhaka still conducting the midfield at 33, Manuel Akanji anchoring the defense, Yann Sommer still at Inter, Breel Embolo still the first striker on the team sheet.

And yet the same sentence keeps getting written about Switzerland: Round of 16, out. Again. They've made the knockout stage at every recent World Cup — 2014, 2018, 2022 — and haven't advanced past it since 1954, when the tournament was structured entirely differently and Switzerland was hosting. Seventy-two years is a long time to be stuck at one door.

Manager Murat Yakin, now in his fifth year in charge, is a very Swiss figure: competent, unflashy, fluent in the idea that you don't need to rebuild what already works. The group Switzerland gets here — whatever the draw eventually sorts out — will likely see them finish second and march into the Round of 16 as underdogs again. The question, as always, is what happens on that one specific knockout day. The Swiss have a lovely track record of proving they belong. The next step has, for seventy-two years, eluded them.

3 Players to Know

Granit Xhaka

The 33-year-old captain, record-appearance-holder for the national team, and the heartbeat of this entire operation. After a career at Arsenal that was often defined by red cards and occasionally by genius, he reinvented himself at Bayer Leverkusen under Xabi Alonso — winning the 2024 Bundesliga title — and is now at Sunderland in the Premier League. For Switzerland, he's simply the conductor: over 130 caps, a passing range that defines how this team plays, and an on-pitch authority the Nati cannot replicate.

Manuel Akanji

The Inter Milan center-back (on loan from Manchester City), the calmest defender at this tournament not named Van Dijk, and a genuine world-class player by any measure. Born in Switzerland to a Nigerian father and Swiss mother, fluent in four languages, famously unflappable — at Pep's City he was the guy who'd walk the ball out of the back line and into midfield like he was crossing the street. His partnership with Fabian Schär is the reason Switzerland conceded the fewest goals in their qualifying group.

Breel Embolo

The 28-year-old Monaco forward, born in Cameroon, came to Basel as a kid with his family, became a Swiss youth international and has been the team's first-choice striker for most of the last decade. He scored against Cameroon (against his country of birth) at the 2022 World Cup — and then refused to celebrate, a gesture that said more about modern football identity than most FIFA commercials have managed. With Shaqiri retired from international duty since 2024, Embolo carries more of the attacking load than ever.

The Food

Signature Dish

Fondue is the Americanized answer, and it's not wrong — a communal pot of melted Gruyère and Vacherin spiked with white wine and a little kirsch, cubes of crusty bread speared on long forks, rules enforced (lose your bread in the pot, you buy the next round). But the Swiss will tell you raclette is the real winter move: a half-wheel of cow's-milk cheese warmed under a grill, the molten top layer scraped directly onto boiled potatoes, cornichons, and pickled onions. And rösti — a single large potato pancake crisped in butter — is the breakfast-or-anytime Swiss grandmothers will fight over. Wash any of it down with a fendant from the Valais, if you can find one.

Where to Eat in DFW

Simply Fondue has locations in both Dallas (on Lower Greenville) and Fort Worth (West 4th Street), and they are the only restaurants in the region that take fondue seriously as a four-course meal — cheese, salad, meat-and-seafood, chocolate. The traditional Gruyère-Emmenthaler blend is the Swiss pick. Swiss-specific restaurants in DFW essentially don't exist; this is the closest thing, and it's genuinely good. For raclette, you'll have to make it at home — Central Market carries the half-wheels.

Fan Culture

Swiss support at a World Cup is the opposite of carnival. Cowbells — actual, heavy, clanging Alpine cowbells — are the signature noise, and they will be audible in the stadium long before you see the red-and-white flags. Supporters travel in modest numbers and behave themselves; the stereotype is true. "Hopp Schwyz!" is the universal chant, shouted in Swiss German and understood by everyone. The Swiss celebrate goals the way they celebrate most things: briefly, warmly, then back to watching the match with the quiet focus of people who have trains to catch. If you sit near them you will probably end up in a polite conversation about which canton they're from and whether the fondue they had last night was up to standard.