The Swiss national ice hockey team is ready for the World Championship title. Here are the reasons why they should make it this time.

It took a long time on Saturday evening for the Swiss national ice hockey team to complete their media work after the semifinal. The 7-0 victory against Denmark caused a stir not only in Switzerland, but throughout the ice hockey world. This team, which had languished somewhere in the dark of international ice hockey for years, has so far made it through the knockout phase with an overall score of 12-0. The 5-0 quarterfinal victory against Austria was followed by the gala performance against the Danes.

The satisfaction of what had been achieved was written all over the players' faces. Their statements, however, remained sober and considered. Almost all of them expressed it like Nino Niederreiter. "We haven't reached our goal yet." Shortly afterward, national coach Patrick Fischer said: "We've learned from our recent defeats." And then he added that the last step was still missing.

As succinct as the statement is, it's equally true. The Swiss have already won silver three times in the past twelve years. What's still missing is the world championship title, which Patrick Fischer specifically set as his goal from the beginning of his tenure as national coach. Today, in the final against the USA, the Swiss aim to take that final step. They will face an opponent who is better and, above all, more confident than the last two.

North American teams tend to coalesce over the course of tournaments. They are always assembled immediately before the start of the World Cup from the players of teams that have already been eliminated from the Stanley Cup. In the Americans' case, 23 players come from the NHL, and two played college hockey last season. But as their 5-2 semifinal victory against Sweden showed, there's no reason to underestimate this opponent.

The World Championships in Stockholm and Herning are full of surprises. Three heavyweights of international ice hockey, Canada, the Czech Republic, and Finland, have already been eliminated in the quarterfinals. Germany, the Swiss's real bogey team of recent years, hasn't even reached this stage of the tournament. Who would have predicted before the tournament that Switzerland would have to face Austria and Norway at the start of the knockout phase?

For years, the Swiss repeatedly lost to Slovakia in the decisive stages of the tournament. But that era is now over. They have joined the world elite in the international hierarchy. Today, Switzerland is one of the greats of international ice hockey. Patrick Fischer praised the league's foundation, which he had also previously strongly criticized for its foreign policy.

The National League is one of the best, if not the best, league in Europe, not only in terms of attendance, but also in terms of athletics. Geneva/Servette and the ZSC Lions won the last two editions of the Champions Hockey League. Imagine the new football champions, FC Basel, winning the Champions League in football – that's pure fantasy.

But this isn't about comparing football and ice hockey. While football is a global sport, ice hockey remains a niche sport. The banishment of the Russians because of their war in Ukraine has made the competition even smaller and more manageable than it already was. Without the superpower from the East, international ice hockey is missing one of its best schools. But that, too, is not up for discussion at the moment.

Switzerland has the chance to become ice hockey world champions for the first time in history in this Sunday's final against the USA. They are in the final of a World Championship tournament for the fourth time in the last twelve years. They lost twice to Sweden, and a year ago at the World Championships in Prague, to the host country, the Czech Republic. These two nations are usually ranked ahead of Switzerland today. This is demonstrated by the number of NHL players these nations field (Sweden: 98, Czech Republic: 29, Switzerland: 11).

But the Ice Hockey World Championship isn't about putting together the best possible team on paper, but rather a team of 25 players who will go through fire for each other. And that's exactly what the Swiss have done so far in Stockholm. The solidarity of this team surpasses anything that has gone before.

A possible symbol of this is striker Sandro Schmid. The Freiburg player was hit in the face by a puck in the first period against Denmark and was forced out with a gaping head wound. He went to the locker room, had stitches, returned to the ice, and scored the 5-0 goal in the final period, dispelling any remaining doubts about the outcome of the game.

But now there's one more match to go: the final against the USA. The Swiss have already played this team once in the group stage in Herning, winning 3-0, and have now won five of their previous nine matches without conceding a goal. Since their opening loss in extra time against the Czech Republic, they've been flying from victory to victory.

Here are five reasons why the Swiss should win the World Cup title today.

- Andres Ambühl, the Davos ice hockey legend, deserves to retire with gold in his 151st and final World Championship game.

- Leonardo Genoni, the goalie wall with championship experience with HCD, SCB and EV Zug, deserves to crown his career with World Cup gold.

- Nino Niederreiter. The Chur native is the only player to have won every Swiss medal since 2013. With four medals, he is the most successful Swiss ice hockey player in history. But even the Chur native is still missing gold.

- Their opponents are the USA. Sweden is something of a hockey nightmare for the Swiss; the Scandinavians have already stood in the way of Patrick Fischer's team in the final twice. This time, they fell flat to the USA in the semifinals.

- Patrick Fischer: Ten years ago, the Zug native took over as national coach with the goal of becoming world champion. He implemented Swissness in the national team and was ridiculed for it. Now it's time for him to settle the score and reap the rewards.