When the game finally came around the nervousness started to show up. I mean no one was throwing up or losing their minds (that I could see anyway!) The Germans had some really big guys and they were always a European Championship contender.
I had heard that they had a 6’10” left tackle and some big bruisers on the defensive line. Well, they didn’t exaggerate either.
It’s always interesting to stand by the gate when your opponent enters the field. It kind of gives you a feel – not only of their size … but their demeanor as well. I can attest that the 6’10” dude was legit and the two defensive linemen were both at least 6’6″. This was going to be troublesome without a doubt.
I’m not sure that any of the Swiss National Teams had ever won in these international games… I mean ever! Whether it was the Senior or Junior teams … they had always had difficulty with these types of games.
Now we had a couple of good looking players (One of our tackles would play in the US at New Mexico Military Academy (Junior College) and then move on to play at the University of Buffalo. We had some pretty good receivers as well as a really quick runner.
Defensively we had a good group of linebackers and a decent front four. But honestly, those guys wearing the black uniforms looked to be really solid.
Well, one could only hope … but as everyone knows “Hope is not a good strategy!”
In our case – “Hope” left the stadium before the game started.
You could tell right from the beginning that they were going to have their way with the Swiss team. Defensively they completely shut down our offense – and offensively it seemed like every play they tried (and they had a lot of them) gained ten or more yards.
The Germans ran thru us, over us and around us. They built pretty much an insurmountable lead into the second quarter.
But, somehow our quarterback Richie rallied the troops and managed to put together a drive that put us inside the five yard line in the final seconds of the half.
I love Richie – he is one hard nosed guy from Winterthur. To this day I still tease him that he is a linebacker playing quarterback. The guy is tough!
Here we are on the verge of scoring a TD that would mean so much to our players from our tiny country. The Germans hammer us around and we end up with a fourth down and a yard or so to score with just a few seconds.
Now, to set the stage – in the last several Germany vs. Switzerland international games our valiant teams have been held without a point. What to do???
We call our last time out and the coaches gather and time for a major decision. It is a decision to go for the touchdown. I lobby for a field goal try – I mean we haven’t scored a point on these guys in forever!
But, hell I’m their guest and although I just wanted the team to get a score. We had a good placekicker and it should amount to an easily made field goal – there is no way I’m going to put in more than I should.
The Germans stuffed us and we leave the field at halftime without a point.
Have to say the second half was more of the same. But the German coach was good about it and took his foot off the gas. Nonetheless they beat the hell out of us … I’m just glad some of our smaller defensive backs made it out of the game alive.
In the following game Spain would play the host team from the Netherlands. The winner would have the dubious distinction of losing to the powerful German squad. We would get the loser of that game and play for the bronze medal.
The Spaniards prevailed over the home team and that set the stage for us playing against the “Dutch Lions!”
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