We used one of the three “match balls” so far, when history was written in 2013, i.e. when we won the only appearance at one of the championships, the World Championship that was played in Brazil in 2014.
How did the first opportunity go?
We had the first opportunity to win the first place in the group in the last round of qualification and win a place back in 2003.
More precisely, it was October 11, 2003. Denmark came to the Olympic Stadium “Asim Ferhatović Hase – Koševo” in Sarajevo, and we need three points to qualify for the European Championship, which was played in 2004 in Portugal.
Forty pop artists for the first time after the war from all over the country premiered the now iconic fan song “Haj’mo Bosnia, Haj’mo Herzegovina”. There was unprecedented euphoria. Spectacle.
The team of coach Blaž Slišković scored a goal in the 12th minute in an excellent atmosphere, cheered on by 35,000 fans. The Danes took the lead through Martin Jorgensen. But the Olympic building exploded 27 minutes later. Hasan Salihamidžić crossed from the right flank. Elvir Bolić jumped fantastically and scored with a header to make it 1:1.
Until the end of the game, we attacked against a favored opponent. Had a chance. The closest we got to a goal was in the finish when Elvir Baljić was not accurate from the guests’ box. We didn’t make it.
Many of the 35,000 people left our biggest stadium in tears. Our first big opportunity after September 1, 1996 and the first qualifying match with Greece in Kalamata (0:3) was thus not used.
The worst away game
A generation of great footballers, among whom was today’s coach Sergej Barbarez, well led by the popular Baka, had a correction two years later. But, in far more difficult circumstances and at the worst possible away game, only 10 years after the brutal aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
That October 12, 2005 in Belgrade was, in the truest sense of the word, hell for all Bosnians and Herzegovinans who played for their country and did not support the neighboring country. From the early hours of the morning, chauvinism and nationalism echoed through the streets of the then capital of Serbia and Montenegro.
Upon arrival at the stadium, they cheered war criminals Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić, sentenced to life imprisonment for, among other things, the genocide in Srebrenica, then fugitives in Serbia from the judiciary of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the International Tribunal in The Hague.
Somewhere around 1,000 of our fans were brutally attacked from all sides upon entering part of the stand. Chairs, cannon shots… They defended themselves bravely. And defended.
I remember, he was a small-minded person and he kept turning towards the news box. He provoked us several times:
“Balije, do you write in Arabic?”
Insurance didn’t remove it. The same one tried to catch one of the white doves of peace, which the hosts symbolically released before the match, and which landed right next to the sick mind.
“Come on, let me drown him. What peace with them”he spoke while, in truth, some tried to reason with him only at certain moments of the match.
And so, in pure Bosnian language and Latin script, not Arabic, I reported from the heart of Europe:
“Serbia and Montenegro beat Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1:0, with Meteje Kežman’s goal in the seventh minute of the horror game and qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany”.
We didn’t even make it to the playoffs, because Spain finished second in the group.
We returned home alive, some seriously injured, but he is proud of the game and commitment of the country’s national team, for which the native Serbian Ninoslav Milenkovic played, whose president was the late Milan Jelić, and which had sports heroes in its ranks, among them that night was the greatest – Barbarez.
Let’s go to Brazil!
We waited eight years for a new direct chance. In the meantime, we won two barrages. With the late Miroslav Ćir Blažević for the World Cup that was played in South Africa in 2010, and with Safet Sušić two years later for the EURO, played in then still partly unoccupied Ukraine and Poland.
Ronaldo’s Portugal “spoiled” us both times. Nevertheless, they were hints of history.
It happened on October 15, 2013 in Kaunas, Lithuania. It was Eid, for us in the true sense of the word.
We got up early. They went to the Eid prayer in the hall of Žalgiris, where the famous Arvidas Sabonis made his first big basketball steps, and where a prayer was organized for the guests from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Baklavas were distributed. Everything smelled of happiness. To the big celebration. Thousands of our fans walked through the streets and squares of Kaunas, to the delight of the nice, hospitable, friendly Lithuanian people. The flags of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Brazil are tied in the cafes, as a message – let’s go to Brazil!
Nervousness grew. We came to the stadium. Until then, never worse that I have seen. Dilapidated. From the Soviet era. We were in the lower stand, and the fans were above us. While they were chanting “who doesn’t jump, hates Bosnia”, everything was shaking. We were afraid that the stand would collapse.
We attacked on the pitch. And they attacked… But it was goalless at halftime. At halftime, improvised toilets were set up in front of the stands in the non-conditional stadium. A huge queue. All ours. How to get there, do the necessary “physiological need” and get back in time in such a big crowd until the game resumes. To work. No way, I thought. I’m going, I’ll suffer. At that moment, a penetrating voice, from Krajina, a guy covered with a Palestinian scarf – keffiyeh, said:
“Move away, the man has to go to work. This is that journalist”.
And they let me go. Everyone. No words. I was relieved.
However, the real relief for about 6,500 of us from Bosnia and Herzegovina in the stadium was in the 67th minute when Vedad Ibišević scored a goal for indescribable joy.
Victory and qualification to the World Cup in Brazil. Our first and so far only major competition.
There was delirium on the streets of Kaunas, Sarajevo, Mostar, Tuzla, Zenica… We celebrated in Kaunas pubs late into the night. The verses of our music echoed, to which the good people of Lithuania danced.
The smell of lilies spread through Kaunas. For Eid. For Brazil.
A tragic morning in Poland
Colleagues Zlatan Kapić and I, after only three hours of sleep, headed home. By official car on an almost two-day trip to Sarajevo. I was driving.
In Lomza, Poland, we received information that they were in a serious traffic accident killed three of our fans, Hasib Mahmić, Vildan Pehlić and Almir Kasumović, members of the “Ljuti Krajišnici” fan group.
One of the victims was the guy who helped me at halftime of the game.
In Vienna, play for the best of us – Hasib, Vildan and Almir!
Written by: Bakir Tiro
(Vijesti.ba)
