The Bosnian tank brings down Genk

Where to begin? I don’t think there’s a single Bosnian fan left unsatisfied after yesterday’s rout of Belgium. We rolled through the Benelux like a German army, mercilessly pummeling Stijn Stijnen’s goal in a sublime 13-minute stretch during the second half. In the process, we catapulted ourselves to the 2nd spot in Group 5, leaving us with as good a chance as we’ve ever had of qualifying for a major tournament. I’ll give some analysis, but I won’t bother summarizing the match details – if you’re reading this, you should know them. And if you don’t, please enjoy Marjan Mijajlović’s world-class commentary below.

I swear, it’ll give you more goosebumps than the chorus of Yugoslav band-aid when you were like, what, six and a half?

Anyways.

- You can look at this game in a number of different ways. Certainly, it wasn’t a simple case of domination, and we have to admit that Belgium had an initiative in those first 20 minutes of the second half when they scored their equalizer (up until our fans paused the game that is). That said, it’s still a fully-deserved win for us. Belgium never really impressed me. In fact, they were a dud during the entire first half and a disaster for the remainder of the second. That leaves you with somewhere between 20-25 minutes of quality football – hardly enough for a win against a team of our caliber. The absence of Kompany and Van Buyten obviously hurt them, but we were missing four regulars so it’s hardly an excuse.

- I can’t help but feel that this game came down to mentality. On our side, the pause helped us collect ourselves and move past that cursed Balkan defeatism. On the Belgian side, their entire approach to the game was horribly condescending. What’s that you say? Six points in six games? Yeah, good luck with that. I mean, seriously, what am I missing? Of the players they had at their disposal going into today’s game I saw a couple of domestic superstars and some up-and-coming youngsters. We had 7,000 screaming fans, a full deck of players starring at comparable clubs (PAOK, Hajduk, Lokomotiv) and the best offensive partnership in the Bundesliga. Belgium doesn’t even look better on paper – how about some respect?

- Ciro seems to have finally learned from his mistake against Turkey. You can’t play bunker when your defense is far and away the weakest part of the team. Play offensive. Play with two strikers. Don’t even think about fighting to keep the draw. If we do qualify for South Africa, it will be on the wings of our offense – let’s play to our strength.

- No individual player made me happier than Zlatan Bajramović, who came back from an exruciating 14-month ordeal with an on/off toe injury to score the decisive third goal. Prior to these toe troubles, Zlatan was probably our most valuable individual performer on the European club scene. At a time when the rest of today’s team’s backbone was just starting out, he was a highly-regarded regular at top-form Schalke 04. He was also a fan-favorite, occasionally serving as captain and participating in the original boycott against the NFSBiH. His long fall from top was painful to watch as a fan, so I can only imagine what it was like for him; after causing all the trouble by encouraging him to play through the pain, Schalke unceremoniously released Zlatan last summer, and he re-aggrivated his injury several times in trying to make a comeback for Eintracht Frankfurt. I think everyone was happy to see his name on the roster for Belgium, but it seemed no one actually expected him to receive playing time. For him to anchor our midfield for half an hour and slide in a beautiful goal… it’s everything you could’ve asked for.

- Boris Pandza and Sanel Jahić. Both defenders. Both players that the fans have been wanting to see in the national team for months. Both repeatedly snubbed by Ciro. Both performing above and beyond what was expected of them. Jahic, as versatile as anybody in Europe today, filled in for Rahimic at DM and played a phenomenal game even if you ignore that crucial second-half goal. Pandza, once a highly touted prospect, finally seems to have justified the early hype. He didn’t place a foot wrong the whole time, and it’s increasingly clear that Hajduk Split will not be the last stop in his career. If he can muster a repeat performance in Zenica, we seem to have finally found a new partner for Spahic in the back (and one for the future at that). The same goes for Jahic, but with the added bonus that he can become the new starter at four or five different positions.