In April 2011 the World Cup looked a long way off for Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Sitting fourth in their Euro 2012 qualification group they were suspended by both FIFA and UEFA after failing to introduce a new governance model to replace their three-pronged presidential system.
Until then the Bosnia-Herzegovina Football Federation had ensured a Bosniak, Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Serb had been represented simultaneously in the organization’s highest office—a measure that addressed the ethnic tension in the country following the Dayton Agreement that ended the three-year Bosnian War.
The next summer’s European Championship in Poland and Ukraine seemed a world away. But on May 31, 2011—just four days ahead of a qualifying match against Romania in Bucharest—the suspension was lifted, all three ethnic groups having approved a “normalization committee” to elect a single president.
Romania thumped Bosnia-Herzegovina 3-0, but it was the last defeat The Dragons would suffer in Group D.
Successive wins over Albania, Luxembourg and Belarus (twice) and a 1-1 draw with France at Saint-Denis saw Bosnia-Herzegovina through to the playoff round. But after a scoreless draw against Portugal in Zenica they lost the return leg at Estádio da Luz—the same ground on which their 2010 World Cup hopes had ended two years prior.
Despite a talented squad chock full of players representing the biggest leagues in Europe, The Dragons had come up short at the final hurdle. Again.
Against the odds
Bosnia-Herzegovina, like many of the seven states that emerged from the embers of the former Yugoslavia, has made their way in international football against the odds.
It wasn’t until a year after Dayton that the national team played its first match (against Italy in November 1996), and it was only in 1997 that Bosniak and Bosnian Croat club sides agreed to face one another outside their ethnically-specific leagues.
“A few years ago you couldn’t imagine Bosnian Serbs or Croats supporting [The Dragons],” Bosnia-Herzegovina manager Safet Sušić told World Soccer in a September interview. “The country is torn apart by political and economic problems… but I think playing in Brazil would help in both directions. Even now this team brings people together.”
Sušić has also insisted an appearance in the 2014 World Cup is vital for the future of The Dragons, given the million or so Bosnians who now live outside the country’s borders.
“Most people did not voluntarily leave the country; it was the result of a terrible war,” he said. “The problem will come 10 years from now, with third or fourth-generation Bosnians living abroad. It will be hard to pursue them to play for the country of their grandfathers. That is one more reason why we need to reach this World Cup and other major tournaments—because kids will identify with the country.”
A handful of Sušić’s players, including Vedad Ibišević, Sejad Salihović and Miralem Pjanić, have already been pried from the clutches of other international associations, and Pjanic—who was also eligible to represent Luxembourg after moving there with his family shortly before the war’s outbreak—is particularly bullish on The Dragons’ chances of reaching the Brazil finals.
Punch their ticket
At present, Bosnia-Herzegovina have 22 points from nine qualification matches in UEFA’s Group G. Level with Greece atop the bracket but with a superior goal-difference, they will qualify for the 2014 World Cup with a victory against Lithuania on Tuesday—a result that would see them avoid their historic playoff pitfall.
And Pjanić expects nothing less.
“Victory should not come into question,” he told Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz on Sunday. “It’s time to finally go to a big competition.”
As it happens Pjanić is the only one of Sušić’s players to be doubtful through injury ahead of the Lithuania showdown. The 23-year-old Roma playmaker skipped Sunday training with a back injury and will be reassessed after the team lands in Kaunas on Monday. One of Izet Hajrović and Zoran Kvrzic—both of who made substitute appearances on Friday against Liechtenstein—could take his place if he is unable to start.
Sušić has the depth to cover losses to his first team, but as long as strikers Ibisević and Edin Džeko are healthy and in blistering form his side will always be wild favourites against eliminated Lithuania, anyway.
Six times in their nine Group G matches Bosnia-Herzegovina have scored at least three goals, and going into Tuesday Ibisević and Džeko have combined to score 17 of The Dragons’ 29 tallies—a haul only Germany and The Netherlands have so far surpassed in qualification.
The strength of this side is up front, and Sušić knows it.
“We will strike them immediately,” he told Dnevni Avaz regarding his plans for Lithuania. “We will be offensive and open.”
A single win is all it will take.
In October 2013 the World Cup is suddenly tantalizingly close for Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Jerrad Peters is a Winnipeg-based writer. Follow him on Twitter.