Keystone
The Swiss U-20 national team started the World Championships in Canada with two defeats. The result was a 2-1 defeat against Slovakia in Ottawa.
Against Slovakia in particular, Marcel Jenni’s team could have done better in an evenly-matched game on Friday evening. A bad pass by Leon Muggli into the dangerous zone put Switzerland behind for a second time with just under three minutes remaining in the game and thus denied them a point. Eric Schneller had previously scored for Switzerland.
Friday night Swiss time saw the expected difficult start to the tournament. They lost 5-1 to the Czech Republic, who finished third at the last World Championships.
To reach the knockout round, Switzerland must finish at least fourth out of five teams in the preliminary round. The other opponents are Sweden and Kazakhstan.