Serbia & Montenegro, that is. (I guess Yugoslavia didn't have enough syllables). They are no longer called Yugoslavia and they're now playing worse than Trinidad & Tobago. Seriously, does anyone know why they are not getting any results?
Dejan Savicevic's parting words as he resigned yesterday were that the domestic league is not doing a good enough job of preparing players in terms of strength and stamina and the older star players who play in the bigger leagues are just too old. I'm thinking the turbulence in that country over the past decade or so has squeezed the pipeline of young talent, and their finally feeling the effects. BTW, Mijatovic, Mihajlovic, and Mirkovic all announced their retirements after the game.
the real reason theyre doing poorly is that when it was yugoslavia pre1991 it was a mix of players. But now Croatia has its own team and were doing much better than them 1996-euro quarters wc98-3rd place 2002-just made the world cup.....dissapointing serbia didnt make 2002 and they wont make 2004.. to simplify this all the talent they had before was croatia and now we are our own separate team. the new team has been formed and these are the last 4 games we played croatia belgium 4-0 croatia andora 2-0 sweden croatia 1-2 estonia croatia 0-1.............. and we never got beat 6-0 like the yugos did at euro 2000 lmao thanx kluivert you made us all happy
I don't think its because of Croatia, although it does add to it. In my opinion, its because of the fact that age has caught up to many players. Mihajlovic, once one of the better players, now basically sucks. Mijatovic, same story. They also lost greats like Stojkovic due to age. Now its time for the younger players to step up and play better
the reasons are all listed here - 1) croatia took... well a quality roster's worth of players away 2) the strong nucleus is aging or retired from international football 3) a gap exists in the talent pipeline - several years passed whitout any new stars emerging... well until kezman - now there is some hope, but they may struggle a few more years because europe has become more competitive overall (if that was possible!) they will almost surely miss euro2004 and i wouldn't be surprised at all if that extended to WC2006 also
I think they'll get it together by the world cup... Stojkovic (the president) is considering Matteaus for the new coach, as he he is currently in Partizan. All they need is a jolt from their younger players. But I'd definatly say that age was the main cause of their collapse. In 87, they won the FIFA youth cup... you do the math, the people leading that team are old now...
In 1992 Yugoslavia had one of the favorites to win the European Championships but were banned from the competition (their replacement Denmark went on to win that tournament). This ban streched into World Cup 94, where they would've qualified as well (Greece went to the World Cup). They qualified for the 98 World Cup and the 2000 E.C., this is all after 1991, so the breakdown has been a recent phenomenon (last 2-3 years). I don't think losing Croatian players has anything to do with it, they are a good team and have had more success lately, but Yugoslavia/S&M has produced good enough players to be on a competitive level in Europe, with or without Croatia's players. It has hurt them a little bit though, not to the extent you say, and it's not the reason for them sucking right now. I think the problems now is the ineptitude of the coaching/tactics and the federation. Hiring Pixi and Savicevic has been a mistake, they thought they could sail on their reputation as players when they entered the federation, and it hasn't worked. Some of this has helped foster poor attitudes among the players (not that their attitudes were great to begin with). Mix in a crappy domestic league with the indifference from their talented Euro based players and you've got a stagnant situation. They really need a foreign coach, someone like Hiddink who can whip these guys into shape. The situation with that team is pathetic right now.
They just hired Bora Milutinovic, who coached many international teams in his lifetime. If he doesn't mess it up as well, they'll qualify for WC 06
Interesting. Bora always do miracle with limited teams and qualify them for the WC, and now he will be coaching his homeland team, with previous tournament tradition. I think Serbia & Montenegro couldn't be in better hands.
I like Bora as a person, wonderful guy, but I don't know if he would be the kind of guy to put in this crappy situation. I don't think he is much of a motivator. Maybe an MLS comparison isn't the best, but when he came to coach the MetroStars who were in a crappy situation (just like S&M is now), did absolutely nothing, and finished with one of the worst marks in MLS history (7W-25L). And then flew the coup. I think a Bora move might backfire. I hope I'm wrong though. Qualifying in UEFA is a totally different beast, he did okay in CONCACAF with Mexico (W5-D5-L0), but he still had some crappy results (3-3 home draw vs Costa Rica; 0-0 home draw vs 10-men US); he was replaced before the World Cup. In China he had it easy as the draw was tilted in their favor. And of course with the US, he didn't have to qualify at all. I'm too young to remember what he did in Costa Rica. And yes he had some great World Cup results, but he hasn't made it past the 2nd round. I'm kind of skeptical of this hiring. Lothar would've been a much more intriguing choice, he might have something to prove coaching internationally, but I don't really trust him either. We'll see how this turns out. I hope they fix that sinking ship though I didn't know Mijatovic and Mihajlovic retired after that Azerbaijan loss!! Screw em, Mihajlovic never had his head in the game anyway.