Serbia - Наша срца на терену

June 11, 2010

Four years ago I was heading to Amsterdam to catch a train to Gelsenkirchen. This was where Serbia & Montenegro, would play their second game of the 2006 World Cup, at the Auf Schalke Arena.

After the 1-0 defeat to Netherlands, would Serbia be able to get a positive result against Argentina?

The side qualified from a difficult group, that included Spain, with the best defencive record in Europe. This was a well drilled and experienced side led by head coach Ilija Petkovic that went into the tournament with hopes high.

Walking to the stadium the mood was positive, with chants of “Serbia, Serbia, Serbia” blending into “Argentina, Argentina”, the World Cup atmosphere is truely magical.

The blue of Serbia and that of Argentina blended together without any problem and a festival atmosphere was being enjoyed by all and we were joined in the crowd by Diego Maradona, the ultimate cheerleader of his nation.

Argentina treated the watching crowd to an exhibition of complete football, which was exhilarating from the first minute. Orchestrated by Juan Roman Riquelme the first goal arrived after 6 minutes with breathtaking ease and was followed by a move of 22 passes that all of the Argentines had a part in and was finished by Esteban Cambiasso.Another 4 goals were to be scored, all by Argentina and one player was sent off, Mateja Kezman. I arrived with hope for Serbia and left having seen, what I had thought would be the next world champions.

But how had things gone so wrong for a Serbian side that had looked so strong in qualification? An injury to Nemanja Vidic had left the defence missing its finest player and we were later to hear of splits in the squad that had left the atmosphere in the group destroyed.

There was also the controversy of Petkovic selecting his son, Dusan for the final 23 man squad and his resulting withdrawal, had undermined the managers authority and left the squad with only 22 players at the tournament.

Four years on and Serbia are once again heading to a World Cup but this time it feels very different. The side is very settled and once again qualified ahead of one of the old powers of European football, this time France.

The defence again looks solid but there is a good deal of flair that sits ahead of this in Stankovic, Jovanovic and Krasic. Radmoir Antic has his team organised and playing in attractive yet structured way, a very Yugoslav way.

In 1990 the team got to the Quarter-final stage in the World Cup and you have to go back to 1962 in Chile for the last time Serbia, as Yugoslavia reached a Semi-final.

Can this side equal these achievements?

Only time will tell but there is a lot of belief and hope in this current group of White Eagles who will go out there, with our hearts on the field.

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