“In Sarajevo, a city ever running out of parking space, the downtown area was closed last night to traffic for the match between Nigeria and Bosnia. I suppose a massive victory celebration was anticipated. Everyone had been speculating about the outcome, the game largely already won. Everyone, that is, except the national team manager Safet Susic, who was repeatedly quoted as saying that Bosnia just needed a tie with Nigeria. The game to win was the next one, against Iran.” New Republic

“Even though Bosnia lost to Argentina in its opener, the World Cup debutants left an extremely positive impression, taking charge of the midfield for long spells and often playing significantly more imaginative soccer than its illustrious opponent. One of the reasons behind this was the precise play of Zvjezdan Misimovic. For close observers of the Bundesliga a few seasons back, this surely came as no surprise. Misimovic had been a slow, lazy playmaker who never liked to do the dirty work in defense—at least until Felix Magath came into the picture. Playing under the disciplinarian coach at Wolfsburg, Misimovic transformed into a rare genius, providing an all-time German record of 20 assists for the club during 2008–09, when its won the Bundesliga.” Fusion

“The Indomitable Lions get eliminated, Croatia still alive. It was a bad, bad night for Cameroon: a ridiculous red card from one its star players; four goals allowed; and head butts from teammates. An ugly day, but some cool GIFs.” Fusion

“The morning after Croatia defeated Germany, the defending European Champion, 3–0 in the quarterfinals of the 1998 World Cup, I drove a rented Renault up to Vittel, where the victors would be based for the days leading up to the semifinal against France. Vittel is a genteel spa town, best known for the mineral water that is bottled under its name. Grand old hotels lined the perfectly maintained streets. The few people appeared oblivious to the presence of the team that had just pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament.” Fusion

“It’s the question Edin Dzeko is constantly asked. ‘You ask me again about war…’ sighs the 28-year-old, rolling his eyes and smiling as he enjoys a rare moment of peace outside Bosnia-Herzegovina’s team hotel in the picturesque suburb of Ilidza. Perhaps the line of questioning is understandable given that just a short drive away is Dzeko’s home city of Sarajevo, where the national hero lived throughout the Bosnian War which raged between 1992 and 1995.” CNN

“There’s always something of a novelty about a new nation qualifying for the World Cup. This time, the sole debutants are Bosnia-Herzegovina, who reached the Promised Land by topping Group G in UEFA Qualifying, ahead of Greece on goal difference. Bosnia, who have only been a member of FIFA since 1996, topped their group and thus avoided the dreaded play-offs, where they were narrowly defeated by Portugal prior to the last tournament in South Africa. For a small country with a population of under four million, it is a colossal achievement, especially considering that, twenty years ago, the nation was embroiled in a long, bloody civil war, with its roots deeply entrenched in complex ethnic divides.” backpagefootball

“VEDAD IBISEVIC ACCELERATES his black Mercedes-Benz into Stuttgart traffic, almost outrunning the memory of his family crammed into an overcrowded bus, fleeing another home. His memories are always there, exerting both lift and drag. Today he is a star striker in the German Bundesliga. Twenty-two years ago, in a four-month period, the following things happened to him and his Bosnian family: Serb neighbors invaded his mother’s village, Pijuke, and called out familiar names on a bullhorn, promising that no one would be hurt. They murdered everyone who emerged. The ethnic-cleansing militia tortured and killed as many Muslims as they could find, burning down every house. They split his grand­father’s head open and carved a cross into the chest of a local shop owner, a man who kept chocolate in his store for children like Vedad. Eleven of the estimated 100,000 killed in the Bosnian civil war died on May 8, 1992, in a little town surrounded by rolling green hills and grazing white sheep.” ESPN (Video)