Argentina vs. Switzerland: Sporting KC connections, Messi memories & World Cup history | OneFootball

By Justin Ruderman

As Lionel Messi and Argentina practice at Sporting Kansas City's training center ahead of Saturday's FIFA World Cup quarterfinal matchup against Switzerland, perhaps nobody has a clearer connection to the occasion than Raphael Wicky.

The SKC head coach is a former Switzerland international who represented his country on the world stage at Germany 2006, and will now watch on as a slew of players he formerly coached, led by a manager he previously played with, attempt to deliver the biggest victory in the history of Swiss soccer at Kansas City Stadium (9 pm ET | FOX, Telemundo, Peacock).

“I believe this is probably one of the biggest, or the biggest game [in Switzerland's history], playing against Argentina with Messi; it's a huge game,” Wicky told MLSsoccer.com this week.

“But our team has grown so much over the last 10 years and have gained so much experience. On a club level, all these players play in top, top, top clubs. Every single weekend, they face this real pressure. Then, as a national team, all these players have gained so much experience in tournaments. [Whether it is] a Euro, which is a big, big tournament as well, with the best teams and a lot of pressure, or World Cups.

"I think we have a very experienced team as well, who I really believe has a chance to go further than what they are now. It's one game and everything's possible in this game.”

Close ties

As you might expect from a former Swiss international, Wicky’s connections to the current squad run deep.

Whether playing on the national team with current Switzerland head coach Murat Yakin before overlapping coaching careers at FC Thun, or the 10 players on their squad whom he previously coached, Wicky has ties to nearly half of Switzerland’s World Cup squad.

“It's really nice to see and to follow their careers,” said Wicky. “For example, Breel Embolo, I coached him when he was 16 years old at FC Basel in the under-18 team. But after six months, I told the academy director, 'He's too good. He needs to go higher up. It doesn't make sense to stay with me.' Even if he would have probably helped me winning games more, but it's obviously about the development of the player… and that happened with many other players. It's nice to be somewhere part of their career, like they were part of my career.”

In fact, there’s a laundry list of those other players.

Alongside Christian Fassnacht, Cedric Itten and Fabien Rieder at BSC Young Boys in 2022-23, Wicky led the team to the Swiss league and cup double while famously qualifying for the UEFA Champions League.

At FC Basel in 2017-18, he told now-Inter Milan center back Manuel Akanji, “The way you play and the potential you have is similar to Vincent [Kompany]” as they reached the UCL Round of 16 for the third time in club history.

“It's just a confirmation and nice to see,” said Wicky. “I'm very pleased and happy to see that they're having such an amazing career and now obviously that they can also experience what I have experienced as a player; playing at a World Cup is the biggest thing you can achieve playing for your country.”

Unique challenge

Those players now have an opportunity to do what no Swiss team has ever done: win a World Cup quarterfinal match. The last time Switzerland reached this stage was over 70 years ago, when the country hosted the tournament in 1954, beating Italy twice before eventually falling to Austria. However, the challenge this time around is even bigger.

Carrying a No. 19 FIFA World Ranking, Switzerland will have to contend with the No. 1-ranked team in the world, the defending World Cup champions, led by Inter Miami CF superstar Lionel Messi. And once again, Wicky knows firsthand just how difficult such a proposition will be, having earned his 75th and final Switzerland cap in a 1-1 draw against Messi and Argentina in 2007.

“I remember very well that they had a really strong team. I remember that Messi was [19] then, but he was already then on another level… You could feel it," Wicky recalled. "I mean, if you go through the names who played then, and whoever lived in that era, that know that these players were already really good and world-class players, but Messi was already then, just above.

“I don't think there are any words for Messi, for this [World Cup] campaign, for his whole career. I think every time, every year, we're just in awe again. I just think we all need to enjoy as long as he still plays. Those players or those athletes, it's just amazing that we can now, obviously compete against them, but also that we can actually follow their careers."

This World Cup, Messi has a tournament-best eight goals and has broken the all-time World Cup goals record, reaching 21 total.

"There are really not many words to describe what he does every single year since, I mean, I played against him back in 2007," Wicky said. "So that is almost 20 years and he's doing what he does [for] almost 20 years. It's unbelievable.”

Now, it’s up to Switzerland to try to put an end to those decades of dominance in what could potentially be the final international game of Messi’s career by beating the reigning champions in Switzerland’s fourth-ever World Cup quarterfinal appearance.

“It's something that never happened, right?” said Wicky. “Going into the semifinal and then obviously beating the world champion with, in my opinion, the best player [who] ever played – that would be unbelievable.”

Kansas City connection

Incredibly, Wicky’s links to Saturday’s quarterfinal showdown don’t end there.

As if coaching much of the current Swiss squad, playing with the manager and playing against Messi himself weren’t enough, the training grounds Argentina chose as their base camp during this World Cup also serve as Wicky’s office on a daily basis.

One of four teams to select Kansas City for their base camp, Argentina have trained at SKC's Compass Minerals National Performance Center throughout their campaign, offering Wicky a chance to catch up with another old FC Basel friend, Argentina assistant coach Walter Samuel.

“That has been amazing,” said Wicky. “It has been amazing for Kansas City as a city that, first of all, there are six games to host. That four teams have chosen their base camp in Kansas City, I think that is amazing.

"You can feel that people are very proud that that happened and this is really special. For us, obviously, being in the same facility has been amazing as well.”

Rivalry looms

While there isn’t much interaction between the squads, SKC are similarly in preparation for a big match themselves – a rivalry game at Western Conference foes St. Louis CITY SC – when they return to MLS action on July 16 (8:30 pm ET | Apple TV).

Sporting KC are undergoing a roster rebuild and hope to climb the table in Wicky's first season.

“It's exciting to start your own competitive games again, and directly with a competitive game against St. Louis is going to be great [with] a good atmosphere in that stadium,” said Wicky.

“We keep building, right? We are in a building state of a new era from the club. I'm excited with some of the signings we've made. Not all of them are yet 100% fit to play these games, but I'm excited of where the club goes also in the coming months, where we will probably sign still some other players.

"I believe that we are on the right path. It just needs a little bit of time, but we're gonna compete already now, I'm pretty sure. It's really exciting for the future.”