Clear statement on the goalkeeper question "I basically think Kobel is the better goalkeeper"

Matthias Brügelmann, editor-in-chief of Sportbild, takes a clear stance in Heimspiel bei der Nati on why he thinks Kobel is the better goalkeeper for the national team. He also looks back on Yann Sommer's rather mediocre adventure with Bayern.

Yann Sommer or Gregor Kobel? The Swiss national team has a luxury problem that divides opinion. Murat Yakin has two absolute world-class goalkeepers at his disposal. At the Euros, he has always preferred Sommer in the three group matches so far. It should be no different in the round of 16 duel against Italy.

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The German editor-in-chief of Sportbild, Matthias Brügelmann, has little sympathy for this. In the football talk show Heimspiel bei der Nati, he takes a clear stance on the goalkeeper question: "I think Kobel is basically the better goalkeeper. If I had to choose, he would be my clear number 1."

Brügelmann justifies his choice on the one hand with the outstanding campaign that Kobel recently delivered with Dortmund in the Champions League. But not only that: "For me, he is simply the goalkeeper with the better future prospects and the more stable performance."

Perhaps this impression is also influenced by Yann Sommer's performances in Bayern kit, which were not always beyond reproach, as is now the case at Inter Milan. Brügelmann is aware of the difficulties of the transfer at the time: "He came to FC Bayern at a time when there was total chaos. In which the coach was changed again, in which mistakes were made. The team was generally not running smoothly."

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And then Yann Sommer came in as a kind of emergency solution after Manuel Neuer was sidelined due to injury. "At the time, I thought it was a totally understandable purchase by Bayern, even a spectacular solution. [...] And then Bayern suddenly realized, oh, he's a few centimetres shorter than Manuel Neuer. He also had one or two insecurities when playing out from the back. I think he was simply the right goalkeeper at the wrong time."

The potential of the penalty-killer

Not so at Inter. Sommer has dispelled all doubts right from the start. In 43 competitive matches last season, the Swiss player did not concede a goal 25 times. A statistic that also left an impression on Murat Yakin.

And of course, Sommer's experience and routine should not be forgotten. All the more so as we enter the decisive phase of the tournament, where Sommer also has great potential to shine as a penalty-killer. From a Swiss perspective, we are only too happy to remember the last Euro and the round of 16 against France.

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