Switzerland 0-1 Czech Republic

What a start to the tournament. I missed most of what seemed to be a fairly sloppy, ho-hum first half, but the second half provided plenty of drama, especially considering there was only one goal scored.
The Swiss came out of the locker room with a lot of energy and offense, and basically dominated the Czechs from the opening whistle. A Hakan Yakin free kick sailed over the left part of the crossbar several minutes in; a Johan Vonlanthen screamer hit the bar later in the half. The Swiss showed some nice offensive creativity, stringing together one-two passes and overlapping runs in the offensive half to knock the Czechs back on their heels. This was even more impressive considering the fact that star striker Alex Frei left the game late in the first half with an injured knee; they could've easily folded and began playing for a draw, but they didn't.

Yet despite their play, the Swiss failed to captialize on their opportunities. When the Czechs countered and got a corner, a bad clearance by Philippe Senderos led to a header back toward the Swiss goal, where Czech sub Vaclav Sverkos (who replaced veteran star Jan Koller) narrowly avoided an offsides penalty and buried the ball into the lower right corner of the net in the 71st minute. The Swiss didn't stop attacking, and had several more opportunities to draw even, including a controversial no-call (looked like a PK to me, a Czech defender chicken-winged the ball in the box and got away with one) late which would have given them an easy chance. Despite controlling possession and outshooting the Czechs 13-8, the Swiss came away with no points, and now face a must-win against Turkey during the week. As for the Czechs, they are fortunate to have left their first game with 3 points; they were sloppy and just plain bad at times in the second half, and were lucky to score on a counterattack/Swiss miscue. That they could win a game where they were outplayed so blatantly is impressive on one hand, but they're going to have to bring their proverbial "A game" in Group A next time out against Portugal. Group A games resume on Wednesday in Switzerland.