lo, volleyball, basketball, tennis... And while we wept over our football fate, Dragan Stojković ‘happened’ to us. It was in March that the legendary Piksi accepted the job that no one wanted, the job of raising the grounded “Ea- gles” to heavenly heights. Stojković succeeded in what probably no one but him believed was possible. As soon as he took on the job, he said that he would lead Serbia to Qatar. At the time, that just sounded like the bold claim of a man who’d tak- en on an excessively difficult duty and was attempting to lift his own self-confidence. Elevate spoke with Piksi back in March, when he was first ap- pointed head coach of the nation- al team. And prior to the start of the interview, he stated casually, matter-of-factly, that he had no intention of harassing the players, of searching for them around the hotels and checking to make sure they’re sleeping... “They’re grown men and there’s no reason for me to change them or not to trust them. Some like to talk to their wives or see their chil- dren before a match. Why would anyone ban that? I’m not some ty- rant. Trust must exist between us. If I achieve that, I’ve done a great part of the job,” Stojković told us at the time. And when, in the same inter- view, we asked him whether Ser- bia will make it to Qatar, he paused for a few seconds before answering: “There’s no capitulation. The goal is to get to Qatar. How? I don’t know, but that’s the goal. I don’t like to lose and I’m not someone who gives up easily”. He might not have known how back then, but he does now. And he knew it even before the match against Portugal, when he was asked whether possibly qualifying for the World Cup would be his greatest coaching success. He answered as if shot from a cannon: “What, bre, do
you mean possible, bre?! We must go to Qatar, bre!” And this “bre” isn’t coincidental... As Momo Kapor not- ed long ago, “it serves to express ap- proval and admiration, and at the same time disapproval and regret; it serves for wonderment, for an invitation and a warning, for sur- prise, for exhortation, encourage- ment, emboldening and pleading. We’re all in that little ‘bre’, with all our vices and virtues – it is seem- ingly our essence.” The players accepted that there was no mere possibility, ‘bre’, and played like there was no tomorrow. Good-as-standard captain Dušan Tadić was joined by Aleksandar Mitrović, and their goals stamped our World Cup passport. Mitro- vić, aka Mitrogoal, first “plucked up our spirits” at the start against the Irish (3:2), and then brought bitterness to the lives of the Por- tuguese, including Cristiano Ron- aldo, twice! Christian cried in Bel- grade first, only to fall to his knees in Lisbon. What next? Training for the World Cup in Qatar, to be played next year from 21 st November to 18 th December. We will only receive the full list of all passengers head- ing to the World Cup at the end of March, when qualifications and play-offs conclude around the plan- et. The World Cup draw has been scheduled for 1 st April, and we know that we’ll be there. And we don’t care if our appetite has grown by then. With Piksi, Serbia can reach the final, bre!
SERBIA AT THE 2022 WORLD CUP Buckle up, we’re flying to Qatar! Serbia’s top footballers, with the legendary Piksi at the helm, managed to do something that we haven’t achieved for more than 30 years, and never under the country’s current name: they beat the great Portugal in the middle of Lisbon and thus qualified for the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup
D irect qualification for the 2022 World Cup is an incredible achievement, particu- larly considering that this is practically the same team that got drenched at Belgrade’s “Maraka- na” last year, when we couldn’t even beat a weak Scotland team, even af- ter penalties, to secure a place at the European Championships. Back then we were ready to forever write- off Serbian football and turn to the sports in which we’re really among the best on the planet – water po-
Football » Fudbal | 23
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator