Who the @#$% is Mirnel Sadović?

Time for another post in the build up to the August 12th friendly against Iran. This time I’ll discuss a new (and rather questionable) call-up to the squad, the latest developments in the Begović saga, our players performances in Europe and some more issues surrounding the game itself. More below the fold.

1. I guess I spoke too soon in my last post, when I expressed relief that we were finally calling up our best players. A few days later, with the media largely looking the other way, Ćiro decided to call up a certain Mirnel Sadović. If the title up above wasn’t enough of a hint, suffice it to say that I’m not a fan. Sadović is that rare breed of player that doesn’t even have a wikipedia article to his name, and with good reason. Thus far, he seems to have spent his career as a journeyman in the Austrian lower league. His biggest accomplishment is apparently coming in as the third leading scorer in Austria’s second division last season, helping his team earn a promotion to the Bundesliga.

16 goals in der ersten Liga might warrant a transfer to FK Sarajevo, but a call-up to the national team is quite a stretch. With all due respect to Mirnel, him making the cut is an insult to all the quality players who didn’t (Ermin Zec comes to mind). What makes it particularly frustrating is that Sadović is a forward, by far our strongest position. I only wonder how much money Munib Ušanović got for this one. Whatever the amount, a good deal of it will probably be spent on Ilidža’s whores and kafane. Unbelievable.

2. In a (somewhat) dramatic turn around from my original post on him, Asmir Begović seems to have firmly decided to play for Bosnia-Herzegovina. Wait, what? Well, following Ćiro’s call-up to the friendly, Asmir clarified some things in another interview or two with the Sarajevo press. He explained loud and clear that he intends to play for Bosnia, but had denied it during the infamous radio interview because he hadn’t yet spoken to anyone from the Canadian FA and didn’t want them to hear it from the media first. He also said that he hoped to be able to come to the preparations for the August 12th friendly in order to meet the team, but that he probably couldn’t make the game itself as his wife was scheduled to give birth on the same day. He assured fans that he’d be available for the qualifiers against Armenia and Turkey.

Asmir is apparently set to go out to some Scottish club on loan, which means he’ll probably be getting valuable first-team experience in a fairly decent European league. As far as the national team goes, I can see him as our starting goalkeeper by the end of the year. Much of it depends on Hasagić’s health, but I honestly can’t see Supić providing too much of a challenge. On a related note, I will never understand the fans’ bizzare love for Nemanja Supić. He did well enough when called upon, but from the way he’s treated on the Bosnian internet you’d think he was the second coming of Enver Marić.

Beyond that, I don’t really have much to say. The topic has been done to death on both sides of the Atlantic, often getting hyperemotional and way too political. Whatever. Sorry Canada.

3. The new season is starting up across Europe, and our players have already put in some nice performances. I watched both Wolfsburg v. Stuttgart and Hoffenheim v. Bayern, and our Bundesliga quartet played fairly well. Zvjezdan Misimović scored a fantastic goal from just outside the box to seal the game for Wolfsburg (first of the Bundesliga season… Youtube clip below), and Edin Džeko created a couple of nice opportunities that he failed to punctuate with a goal. Sejad Salihović had a very nice game against Bayern, playing a little more forward than last year, while Vedad Ibišević made a nice assist for the team’s only goal and nearly scored himself with a header. Meanwhile, in France, Emir Spahić couldn’t have wished for a better start with Montpellier, scoring a 90th minute equalizer against Paris Saint-Germain in his Ligue 1 debut. Montpellier had been down a man for much of the game, making Spahić’s performance at CB all the more impressive. Also, potential returnee Haris Van Međunjanin scored against Wolverhampton.

4. As far as the game itself… what to say? I’m in Sarajevo at the moment, so I’ll be able to head out and see it from the stadium myself. From what I’ve heard, Iran is missing several key players due to the aftershock of this summer’s political events, which should make our job quite a bit easier. Fair enough if you ask me. We’ve already played several friendlies with Iran in recent years and it’s almost always ended up with a defeat on the field and chaos off of it. Why? Because our corrupt FA officials (most notably the departed Ahmet Pašalić) arranged to get bags full of cash under the table from their Iranian counterparts. In return, Iran would get to play a friendly against a real “European” team and prove their footballing prowess by defeating our motley crew of disgruntled veterans and anonymous nobodies (think Mirnel Sadović). Well now it’s time for revenge. This is the last opportunity to hone our tactics before facing Armenia, and so our players will take it seriously. On paper, anything less than a convincing win would be a disappointment.

That said, a couple of recent developments have probably forced Ćiro to shuffle and re-shuffle his line up. As I mentioned earlier, Begović won’t be playing because he’s expecting the birth of his first child on the same day. Similarly, Misimović will be staying behind in Germany due to some problems with his father’s health. The first bit of news leaves Nemanja Supić’s starting spot assured, while the second means that Misimović won’t even play a single half. Seeing as we can’t count on Miske for the qualifier against Armenia, it’s probably better that way. Who exactly will replace him, however, is still less than clear. On the injury front, Zlatan Muslimović and Elvir Rahimić both wont be able to show up, but the latter can now be replaced by Zlatan Bajramović, who apparently no longer feels any pain in his big toe (fingers crossed). With all this in mind, my projected line up is on the right; perhaps not ideal, but more than enough to deal with a depleted Iran squad.