“You must be allowed to dream” | OneFootball

Aurèle Amenda talks about his first World Cup, aims with Switzerland and fitness expert Eduardo Parra Garcia.

Aurèle, while the internationals such as yourself were preparing for the World Cup, Eintracht announced the new head coach. Adi Hütter was in charge of Young Boys from 2015 to 2018, while you were in the academy in Bern. Did you happen to have any contact back then?“That’s true, we did overlap in time, but I didn’t have any direct contact with Adi Hütter. I saw how he worked successfully in Bern for three years and led Young Boys to the title, but I was still very young at that time and in the YB academy, so unfortunately there haven’t been any points of contact as yet.”

Onto the national team: kick-off for Switzerland is on Saturday at 12:00 local time in Santa Clara, California. How well prepared do you feel for the World Cup?“Playing at midday is unusual and it’s possible that the pitches will be a bit different to most European stadiums. But that doesn’t matter because every individual is just looking forward to this tournament and proud to be here. We’re extremely well prepared and have had a good training camp. In my view, we’re ready for the start and we can have a good World Cup.”

A nine-hour time difference, but a comparatively milder climate than at other World Cup venues – how do you find the conditions on the West Coast?“It’s just about adapting, and we’ll have had enough time to do that over a couple of weeks. As far as performance goes, I don’t want to get too hung up on it, especially since I’ve seen this firsthand from two training camps with Eintracht. But like I said, there are no excuses, it’s down to us and that’s the same for every country.”

Since 2023, you’ve had a proven performance specialist on the team in Eduardo Parra Garcia. Can you tell us about any particular performance-boosting measures?“A very good point – Edu is a really good guy and an important factor in our success. He works really well with the team, or rather, with each individual. Edu talks a lot to every player to find out if one person needs more or another needs less, to ultimately get the right balance between fitness and freshness. He uses a lot of technical tools to do that, whether it’s saliva tests every morning or tracking during sleep and training. All very professional, we’re in good hands!”

Your final warm-up match against Australia took place – probably not without reason – at 12:00. What lessons did you learn from the 1-1 draw?“It was a good test. It had been a tiring week for us, so the result is all right. We saw some good things and now know what to expect in terms of the weather conditions and climate. We know what wasn’t quite clicking yet against Australia and what we need to work on before Saturday. I’m confident you’ll see that in the first match.”

Switzerland’s group opponents are Qatar, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Canada. How do you rate your chances in the group phase?“Our aim is clearly first place. That’s not supposed to sound arrogant but we want to go out there to win every match. I just think the World Cup is possibly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, where you must be allowed to dream. That comes from having maximum ambition and not least a great team, which we have. I’m confident we’re capable of making it a World Cup to remember.”