Squad overview: Backs

No – I’m not dead. Unfortunately, college exams really cut into the time I have to work on this blog. My schedule is looking a little better now, so here’s the second (of… four?) squad overview post. This time I’ll summarize the situation in Bosnia’s back line, which is by far the weakest part of the team. Our fortunes in World Cup 2010 qualifying will largely depend on how things work out with this unit.

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.