Switzerland and Honduras are both on their way home from the World Cup after they toiled in a 0-0 draw on Friday.
Ottmar Hitzfeld 's Switzerland went into the game at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein knowing that a win would likely, if not necessarily, send them into the knockout stages. However, they never really looked like getting it as Honduras earned their first point of the competition, seeing that the Swiss would bow out alongside them.
The European team started in the almost trademark fashion of just aiming to keep possession without looking to do anything too adventurous, or indeed interesting. After ten minutes or so of this they did carve out a chance, with Tranquillo Barnetta slipping a clever a pass into the path of midfielder Gokhan Inler, but the shot from the Udinese man was dragged wide from the edge of the area.
Sad to say, there was not too much better fare than that on offer for the rest of the half, as Swiss full back Stephan Lichtsteiner sent a fine cross into the Honduran area from the right where precisely none of his team-mates were waiting, and then Eren Derdiyok offering up another contender for miss of the tournament when he headed over the bar from a Barnetta cross when it would have been so much easier to score.
Honduras, for whom a crazy myriad of results on the night might have meant the most unlikely of progressions, were not doing anything too clever for their part either, David Suazo being flagged offside the first time they looked like threatening after a long ball forward from Johnny Palacios.
Maynor Figueroa then tried and failed to emulate his fine long-range set-piece goal for Wigan Athletic against Stoke City in the Premier League last season, but only fired a 40-yard effort miles off target from the Swiss goal.
Blaise Nkufo then failed to control the ball from a Derdiyok cross as the half-time whistle sounded the end of 45 minutes of torture for the small crowd in the stadium.
Another 45 was to follow though, but Hakan Yakin was introduced by Hitzfeld to try and find the goal or goals that would extend his side’s stay in South Africa.
The second half was a slight improvement on the first as the sides at least looked to try and get a goal, though if anything it was Honduras who looked like they would be the ones getting it.
And they should have when Edgar Alvarez put a smashing cross right onto the head of Suazo, but he wasted it by heading wide from six yards.
After Derdiyok blazed over from 18 yards, talisman Alexander Frei, not fully fit, was sent on to replace Nkufo for the Swiss, yet again it was Honduras who had the next good chance when Alvarez collected the ball unchallenged on the edge of the area and curled an effort that required an amazing save from Diego Benaglio to keep his side’s hopes alive.
Lichtsteiner did nothing to aid those hopes when he blazed over as the one of three unmarked Swiss men to take a chance when their side broke after a hilariously bad Honduras attempt at an attack.
Honduras sub Georgie Welcome – on for Palacios – then put the ball in the net after a fine cross from Alvarez but was rightly ruled offside in a game that did not really merit a goal.
Welcome missed another chance as the opposition all but knew that their chances of staying in the competition were gone.
This was soon confirmed by the final whistle, Switzerland’s opening day win over Spain nine days earlier a false dawn (in terms of result if not ability - they were poor that day too) as they go home and the European champions and Chile advance.