This post is almost a year late, but I don't post on the internet much, so oh well. I posted here before taking a female friend of mine to the US v Bosnia friendly last August in Sarajevo. I was wondering if it would be safe. Most folks said not to worry, though some here or on another forum kept warning us not to let anyone know we were away fans. In the end, we wore our US jerseys and cheered just as we wanted to... in no way rude, but not hiding either. Anyway, we were about the only US fans in the sold out stadium. Bosnia went up 3-0 and the US eventually won 4-3 after BiH subbed most of their starters. Once the US started scoring, the guy next to us used a weird form of sign language to tell us to stay close if there was a problem, which was nice. But there never was. Bosnian fans were amazing. We went out drinking and chatted with a bunch of them in Sarajevo afterwards and had a blast. It couldn't have been more fun... though we really hoped for a tie. Anyway, I've been meaning to tell Bosnians for the last year that you were amazing. FWIW, i have a BiH scarf hanging in my apartment now, and will definitely be going back. Anyway, that's all. Sorry for not replying sooner. EDIT: Oh, and I was directly behind Edin Dzeko on my flight back (he flew coach, btw). He kept putting on his headphones trying to sleep, but the flight stewardesses kept bringing up any passengers who asked to take photos with him. I felt bad for Dzeko because he obviously wanted to rest, but he got up and smiled for everyone with no complaints. Seemed like a nice guy to me... not many US celebrities would have done that at least.
A lot of us rag on Dzeko about being a prima donna sometimes, but he's a class guy. That's great of him. And I'm glad you had fun in Sarajevo! Come back again, tourists are always welcome
I will definitely go back. And because it was interesting, Klinsmann and his family were basically the only folks in 1st class. But also, weirdly, a fringe US left back who didn't make the WC team (Dzeko has like a 100€ million euro contract and was in coach. Tim Ream is barely hanging in the English Championship... it made me chuckle). Coach class to Munich was mostly US coaches and players... and probably Bosnian players as well, but I wouldn't recognize their faces except for Begovic, and didn't see him. Sarajevo has a tiny airport without a lot of daily flights, and it made the way back one of the neatest experiences of my life. Just behind me, I listened in to Martin Vasquez (ex-US asst coach) telling his seat mate how he and JK handled coaching Bayern Munich when so many players spoke different languages (answer: in general English, with some translators). In short, gorgeous city, fascinating (sometimes tragic) history, friendly people.
I'm glad you had fun and yea for most part our fans are very cool and mix with just about anybody. Always a bad apple here and there but it's like that everywhere. That game was pretty exciting but probably should have ended in a draw. Many Bosnians are taught how to save and not overspend at an early age so Dzeko probably just doing what he's always done.