Sergej Barbarez falls to second homeland in home debut

It was always going to be an uphill battle for Bosnia’s latest coach, Sergej Barbarez, whose appointment came just last April. For the former Bundesliga star, making his home debut against the country he calls his second homeland, Germany, was by his own account special – even if the result, a 2-1 defeat – didn’t go his way.
“I take both postives and negatives from the match,” he told reporters in the post-game press conference. “In some situations we were a bit naive, but we saw a strong work ethic and belief in ourselves.”
Still, this left him without a win after five matches in charge. Perhaps this is not so suprising, as he came into the job with no high-level coaching experience – a job he had sought as early as 15 years ago, when he was overlooked in favor of Safet Susic.
In hindsight it’s hard to argue with the Bosnian FA’s decision at the time, as Susic led what was admittedly a “golden generation” of the Dragons to their only major tournament, the 2014 World Cup. Even though Bosnia failed to make it beyond the group stage, their demise came as a result of an Edin Dzeko goal against Nigeria that incorrectly wasn’t given for offside, it seemed like the start of better times for as side that had previously done little to distinguish itself since the country declared its independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1992.
But from their highest placing in the FIFA rankings – 13th in 2013 – on the way to that only World Cup, it has largely been downhill. By Friday night’s contest, Bosnia found themselves in a lowly 75th place.
Since Susic’s sacking in late 2014, the position of head coach of the Bosnian men’s football team has been one of the most precarious in sports. Barbarez is the eighth man to try his hand at the job in the past decade – few of whom have lasted much more than a year, if that.
But Barbarez, outfitted with a four-year contract, is hoping to become the exception and last month’s Nations League scoreless draw in Hungary will have been encouraging.
The home side, playing in the ever-boisterous but relatively small and long-in-the-tooth Bilelo Polje stadium in Zenica, started brightly. Four minutes in, the Dragons came close to drawing first blood, when Ivan Basic’s free kick from 25 meters out sailed dangerously close to debutant goalkeeper Alexander Nübel’s left post.
For the first 20 minutes or so, Bosnia did well disrupting the buildups of a Germany side that saw coach Julian Nagelsmann forced to improvise due to several regulars being missing.
However, gradually Germany, began to take control. Just before the half-hour mark, Florian Wirtz made brilliant run through the Bosnian defence, receiving a longish ball from Robert Andrich with his back to goal before laying it back to Deniz Undav to slot into the low left corner. Moments later it looked like Germany might be about to leave Barbarez’s side in their dust – but this one was called back for offside.
Five minutes later, Stuttgart’s Ermedin Demirovic – one of several of the hosts with strong German connections – gave the Dragons faithful another glimpse of hope. Having been sent through alone on his Stuttgart teammate in the German goal, Demirovic, put off slightly by a rushing back Andrich, hammered it off the bar.
That hope would be short lived though, with the man of the night, Undav volleying a second home mere seconds later. In fact, the Stuttgart man could have made it a hat trick around the hour mark – but on VAR examination this too would be called back for offside.
In the ensuing 10 minutes Barbarez, who spent most of the match urging his side on from the coaching zone could be seen taking a seat on the bench at times – almost like a man resigned to his fate.
But then, out of nothing Bosnia caught fire. Their 38-year-old captain, former Wolfsburg striker Dzeko got his head to a cross off a corner – sparking a roar that would have threatened to take the roof off a more closed stadium. Suddenly the home supporters were really into it again – and so were the Dragons. Moments later Dario Saric hammered a strike from well out that wasn’t far off Nübel’s left post, drawing another roar, then collective sigh from the white-and-blue-clad fans.
In the end, though, Germany staved off Bosnia’s last-ditch push to level the score – there was to be no miracle for Barbarez’s underdogs on this night – who remain rooted at the bottom of Group A3 halfway through the stage.
Indeed, it was always going to be an uphill battle – and likely not just on this night in central Bosnia.
“Of course the defeat hurts,” he conceded. “But you like to take the positives out of every game… We have a very difficult match ahead of us (Hungary at home on Monday) for which we will need a great deal of strength.”
Edited by: Louis Oelofse