AN UNHAPPY ENDING

VLADIMIR NOVAK ON SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO'S LAST WORLD CUP...

- 

THE open-top bus containing the players of the Serbia-Montenegro national team was slowly cruising towards Belgrade city centre, followed and greeted by enthusiastic supporters.

Nemanja Vidic, Dejan Stankovic and co had just beaten Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-0 in their final World Cup qualifier to book a ticket for Germany 2006.

It was a fine achievement, and came against the odds, as Serbia-Montenegro were drawn from the third pot of seeds, ranked behind Spain and Belgium.

But in the end Ilija Petkovic's team qualified as group winners, unbeaten and conceding only in the away game against Spain.

It's true that in some matches their performances were not impressive, that in the six matches against the main opponents Spain (0-0 and 1-1), Belgium (0-0 and 2-0) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (1-0 and 0-0) they scored only four goals, but such was the tactical orientation of Petkovic, a safety-first approach.

I remember an informal conversation with Ratomir Dujkovic, who at that time was national coach of Ghana, whom he would guide to the knockout stage in Germany.

When I asked him about Serbia-Montenegro's success in the qualifiers, he replied that, of course, he was happy that our national team qualified, but he also added "for my taste we play too defensively".

Be that as it may, to finish in first place in front of Spain was a remarkable success. After all, it was a strong Spanish team with the same coach (Luis Aragones) and with top players (Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Carles Puyol, Xavi, Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres) who two-and-a-half years later would win Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland.