Bosnia Manager: Iran Will Have to Fight Hard to Beat us

“This should be a great day for us, a day we expected to challenge Iran for second place in the group,” Safet Susic, Bosnia-Herzegovina’s manager, told a group of reporters yesterday in Brazil.  

“Unfortunately, 10 days after our first game at the Maracana, our team is heading home, defeated and dejected.”

But, Susic said, make no mistake: Bosnia will be aiming for victory tonight, showing the Bosnian side’s huge determination. “We will show the team’s honor and pride,” he said. “We will not go home with our heads bowed.”

Susic said the team was looking forward to the game. “It’s an important match against Iran,” he said, adding that the team had no intention to take part in the match as mere “tourists”. 

He described the Fonte Nova stadium, where Wednesday’s match against Iran will be played, as “magnificent”, revealing a certain pride that Bosnia-Herzegovina had been given the opportunity to take part in one of the world’s most impressive sporting competitions, however tainted by the events of Saturday’s match with Nigeria.

“We have disappointed people, and for that, we are sorry. But we must remember that this is Bosnia’s first World Cup and we played quality football to get here."

“This has been a great experience for us”, he said, referring to the team as well as fans back in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The team’s captain, Emir Spahic, agreed, and spoke of team’s vast improvement and huge achievements. Being part of the World Cup was a triumph, he said.

During the press conference Susic said Wednesday’s line-up would differ from the previous games against Argentina and Nigeria, adding that a few new players would be introduced.  Although he felt the previous line-up had been solid, he now felt that setting up with two strikers had been a mistake.

Iran played well against Argentina and Nigeria, particularly in terms of defense, Susic said. “But, in its match against the Dragons, they will probably have to play more offense.” He assumed Iran would approach the game with Bosnia somewhat differently, because Iran needs to win to progress out of the group stage. But Bosnia would not easily concede any goals, he added.

In response to questions about his future as Bosnia’s coach, Susic said he’d be sorry to leave whenever it happened. “I did something no one else was able to do, take the team to the World Cup. Some day I will leave, but this is not the moment to talk about it, because we have an important match ahead of us.”

When people look back at Bosnia’s performance in the competition, Susic said, they will realize that the team demonstrated considerable skill— and also that they suffered both bad luck and some questionable decisions from referees, particularly in the game against Nigeria, when Edin Dzeko’s strike at 21 minutes was disallowed. Bosnian fans have since started a petition to remove the referee responsible.

"Something needs to change, definitely,” Susic said. He suggested the type of video technology used in American basketball or international tennis might be appropriate for football.

Bosnia, of course, was not the only team that felt they had been poorly treated, and Susic cited the Croatia-Brazil game, when the referee did not award a penalty against Brazil. Susic said he’d been very impressed by Mexico during the competition, with whom they’d played a friendly in early June. 

Wednesday’s line-up is likely to include Begovic, Besic, Mujdza, Spahic, Sunjic, Kolasinac, Medunjanin, Pjanic, Višća (Lulic), Ibisevic, Dzeko and Susic (Misimovic).