To begin with, Emir Spahić is the alpha and omega of Bosnia’s defense. He’s the current captain and unquestionably one of our strongest individual players. To those of you more familiar with our forwards and midfield players, this might come as a surprise; after all, Spahić has spent the last several seasons with an underachieving Lokomotiv Moscow. As far as I’m concerned, however, Spahić could be a regular in much stronger clubs. If he was younger, perhaps he’d even be attracting interest from them (Emir is 28). As it is, Spahić has stated his intention to leave Russia this winter, and several clubs have expressed interest. They include Wigan, Paris Saint Germain and Wolfsburg. He’s already stated that he’d enjoy playing with Džeko and Misimović, so I think the latter might be the favorites for his signature. Whoever gets him will be stronger for a tenacious and hard-nosed central-back.

Here’s a highlight video showing some of his defending (and, for whatever reason, numerous offensive blunders as well):

The problem is that Spahić is only one man, and the current squad doesn’t have anyone else near his level. To be fair, this is not for a lack of talent. Hasan Salihamidžić is a national team legend who can play well as a right/wing-back. Unfortunately, he inexplicably retired from international football in 2006. At 31, Hasan is in the twilight of his career, and these days he’s mostly riding the bench at Juventus. Still, it’s better then anything else we have at that position, and as far as I’m concerned he’s welcome back at any time. Unfortunately, I don’t see him returning unless we qualify for the world cup.

The situation with Saša Papac looks a little more hopeful. Papac is a more traditional left/center-back who plays regularly for Glasgow Rangers. He’s the only one of the original “boycotters” who has still stuck to his word, but there are new rumors that he might return in time for the qualifying match against Belgium. I have as much faith in Papac’s abilities as I do in Emir’s, so his presence is sorely missing. With him, Spahić and Hasagić in place, I would feel a hell of a lot better about our team.

I couldn’t find any highlight video for Saša, but if you want to see a goofy slide show set to “American Woman” by the 70s Canadian rock band The Guess Who, click here. If you would prefer to see drunk Scottish girls sing a song about him in some nightclub, you can click here instead. Um, yeah… thank you Youtube.

Beyond that, the situation is pretty sparse. On the wings, Mirko Hrgović used to be a pretty reliable option on the left while playing for Hajduk Split. Unfortunately, since then he’s signed for Dinamo Zagreb. You might be wondering “But Harun, Dinamo Zagreb is currently a stronger club than Hajduk Split. They’ve produced star players like Luka Modrić and Eduardo da Silva, and they regularly play strong European competition. Wouldn’t a move to Dinamo Zagreb be good for Hrgović / the Bosnian national team?” Well, yes, it would – unless you’re Mirko Hrgović and you karate-kicked one of Dinamo’s hooligans during a Hajduk-Dinamo game last year. In that case, it rather predictably leads to stuff like death threads and a Hrgović-puppet being hanged outside the club’s stadium. Needless to say, his form has gone down the toilet.

Without Papac, manager Miroslav “Ćiro” Blažević tends to play with three center backs and two wing backs. Some poor midfielder (typically Sejad Salihović) is put in to waste his talents at left-wing-back, while Džemal Berberović is put in at the right. Berberović’s career can be summed up in two words: wasted talent. He started out as a promising 22-year-old making a big-deal move from FK Sarajevo to Bayer Leverkusen. Today he plays for some left-field club out of Bulgaria. This hasn’t stopped him, however, from racking up 39 caps for the national team.

Let that sink in for a second.

Berberović’s starting spot on the right has become a unique Bosnian tradition, something like the cult of Queen Katherine or drinking from the fountain at the Gazi Husrev-beg mosque. No matter what miserable club he plays for or how horrible his form is, Bosnian fans can always count on seeing him whenever and wherever their national team plays. Hell, give him another year or two and he might well break Elvir Bolić’s long-standing cap record. In a perfect world, a rotation defender from Litex Lovech would only be able to do something like that for Moldova or Kazakhstan. But then again, this isn’t a perfect world – this is the Bosnian national team.

I mentioned that Blažević likes to play three center backs in between the wings. Spahić is obviously one of them, and I won’t really waste your time discussing the others. I can list close to ten players who could legitimately earn a spot on the team in the next few months, but at the moment none of them are near the level of Papac and Spahić. If this changes – if a younger player starts living up to his talent or if Berberović sucks the skill out of Sergio Ramos – I’ll be the first to let you know.

Let’s begin with a look at Bosnia’s goalkeepers.

Assessing a team’s quality between the sticks seems pretty straight-forward, since it only comes down to a few players. After all, you either have a dependable starter and an acceptable back-up or you don’t; there are no tactical complexities involved as with the defense or midfield. And in short, this is not a major area of concern in Bosnia’s quest for World Cup 2010 – for now. We have a strong starter who inspires confidence in the team, but no reliable long-term alternative behind him. With a back four that leaves much to be desired (more on that later), an untimely injury to him could be cause for worry against stronger teams.

The man I’m referring to is Kenan Hasagić from Istanbul B.B. Now approaching 29, he’s been Bosnia’s first choice keeper since 2003. In that time he’s collected close to 30 caps, and would have even more if he hadn’t been one of the players that boycotted the team for much of the Euro 2008 qualifiers (more on that later). Even with this handicap, I would not be surprised if he eventually became Bosnia’s all time caps leader. Kenan is held in very high regard by both his teammates and the fans. When Sergej Barbarez’s retirement proved final, he was one of the leading candidates for the captaincy.

How good of a keeper is Hasagić? Fatih Terim has repeatedly claimed that he considers him the best in Turkey. This might sound odd for someone playing in an obscure club like Istanbul B.B., but Kenan’s potential has always held far greater possiblities. When he first made a name for himself with Sarajevo’s FK Želježničar between 2002-04, there were rumors that he was even being scouted by Liverpool. A move to a big club never materalized (untimely injuries were certainly a factor), but most Bosnian fans would agree that he has been our best keeper since independence. Now that he’s gained Turkish citizenship, a move to one of Istanbul’s big 3 might make sense for both parties.

With all this praise, I should probably make clear that he’s no Buffon. He is prone to lose focus, especially against weaker competition, and this has occasionally cost us. Nor do I think that he has the quality to play for the continent’s great clubs. But that said, he is good, and I could comfortably see him in some mid-level European club. He certainly brings a sense of stability to the national team’s game, and I consider him one of our most consistent and dependable players.

It’s when you start looking for back-ups that things start to get thin. So far in these qualifiers, Miroslav Blažević has called Goran Brašnić to the squad, and the man defended reasonably well in our 4-1 win against Armenia at home (Hasagić was injured). Although he seems to have been capped before, he’s not someone I’m very familiar with. He plays for a small suburban club outside of Zagreb that I’m not going to bother mentioning (they’re currently fighting relegation in Croatia), and I don’t consider him a legitimate alternative to Hasagić. I see him as part of a long line of keepers picked from the Bosnian and Croatian leagues to round out the squad, based largely on factors like immediate form and connections with the coaching staff. This revolving cast also includes names like Muhamed Alaim, Jasmin Burić and Denis Mujkić.

In earlier qualification cycles, the back-up spot often went to Tomislav Piplica and Almir Tolja, but neither of these are likely to return. Piplica was one of the members of Yugoslavia’s golden 1987 U-20 team, alongside such names as Šuker, Prosinečki, Boban and Mijatović. He was a reliable option in his time at Energie Cottbus, but he is well past his prime and currently confined to the club’s bench. Tolja is several years younger, and currently plays for a club in Iran. Don’t let this fool you though: he has put in some fantastic performances for the national team, including a match against Spain in Valencia where he maintained a clean sheet until the 108th minute. He could probably still help us during this cycle, but anomisty from FA officials over his participation in the boycott makes this unlikely.

Note: I originally planned for my second post to be an overview of Bosnian football history. Unfortunately, I’ve been swamped with work lately, so I’ve decided to go with this previously-written one instead. Hopefully I’ll get to the history lesson next, before eventually returning to squad overview. In the meanwhile, Bosnia-Herzegovina seems set to play an away friendly against Slovenia later this month. I will try to provide detailed coverage of that match when the time comes. Till then.