Word: switzerland
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Sure, it's just the first round, but in this kind of tournament the first game sets the table. Which means, alas, that Austria and Switzerland, the co-hosts, are likely to go hungry. "That was a really hard loss," a Swiss friend e-mailed after his "Nati" went down, gamely, 1-0, to a competent if unimpressive Czech side to open the tourney. Too bad. Basel was ready to party...
...hair down, but the city's stadium, home to second-division Servette, doesn't hold even 30,000 spectators. There was the usual big-screen Fan Zone set up in the Plain Palais that drew throngs of Geneva's Portuguese and Turkish populations to watch the Switzerland-Czech Republic game followed by Portugal-Turkey. But Geneva is a serious city filled with diplomats, private bankers and watchmakers. Geneva on a Sunday is still deader than road kill...
...Zurich, Switzerland's business center, the media guide brags that the city built the Letzigrund Stadion just in time. That hurried effort produced a single-level doughnut of a stadium stuffed with 30,000 supporters for France's matchup with Romania. Neither the French fans not their team seemed all that impressed, and the latter played that way. France was pathetic in the 0-0 stalemate. If this game were a cuisine, it would be English, and no one would eat it. Sure, it's difficult to play against the Romanians. The men in gold stacked 9 or 10 players...
...Switzerland A Defeat for the Far Right Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected a June 1 initiative that would have stiffened the country's already rigid naturalization process and have allowed townspeople to vote by secret ballot on whether to grant citizenship to their neighbors. The failure is a blow to the right-wing Swiss People's Party, which rode a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment to a plurality in parliament. About 22% of Swiss residents are foreigners--one of the highest rates in Europe--and the party exploited rising xenophobia in its referendum campaign with ads depicting dark hands snatching Swiss...
...least on the football field, Europe, too, has learned that diversity can have its rewards. The great Zinedine Zidane is the son of an Algerian; Florent Malouda, born in French Guiana, and Congo-born Claude Makelele will feature for France this year. Turkey once exported guest workers to Switzerland and Germany, and is now seeing a return. Several of its team, including Hamit Altintop and Hakan Balta, are German-born. Germany itself reflects Europe's now swirling populace. Two strikers, Miroslav Klose and Lukas Poldowski, are ethnic Poles, and striker Kevin Kuranyi was born in Brazil. An intriguing newcomer, Stuttgart...