Yugoslavia in the 90s: the greatest team there never was? (1 Viewer)

[Marc]

Barkuss is a true patriot, and I seriously hope you two meet up. He'd knock some sense into you... but you'd probably be dead. I seriously hope Bark pulls through, he's a true patriot, unlike yourself.

Anyone can be a true patriot through the Forum. You take this place too seriously.

I don´t even like patriots. They are the biggest idiots in the country and just cause damage, like you for example.

 

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[denco]

They had great potential and some fantastic players but to say they would have crushed the world is being too simplistic in my view. If we are basing winning solely on talent then it would be very difficult for Brazil not to win every tournament they enter. Argentina would have won far more tournaments that they have and surely Holland would have at least 3 world cups to their name and as many European championships. Is there a team that has won as little as Spain has with the array of talent they have produced?
What of the temperament of these players? How do you fit in all these players into 1 side? Would it really be possible to play Asanovic, Savicevic, Stoijkovic, Boban and Prosineski in the same team? Did they have a good enough defence or a decent goal keeper? Stigmac and Bilic were good but not unbeatable. jarni and mirkovic were hardly world class. Who can ever forget Pancev in serieA?
But perhaps the biggest obstacle is the mental approach to games, would they have gone into tournaments thinking they could win it or would coming second or third be something they regard as absolutely fantastic.
I thought Croatia were wore of the better teams in euro96 but as the tournament wore on, they became more and more afraid of losing, eventually kicking themselves in the foot against Germany when Stimac got himself sent off

Lets not forget the hammering they got from W germany in 1990

I don't know why Katanec is talking as he was 1 of the useless ones alongside Stanic

 

[Bozi]

Didn't read the article, will do later. But the Saudi youth team won the World Cup in 89, BOOM, 13 years later 8-0 against Germany. Although admittedly that wasn't the same team.

We qualified for the first time to the WC in 94 and won the Asian Cup in 96 with that 89 team, but still they were supposedly the best team in the world back in 89 but failed to get anything but continental honors (the weakest continent that is!)

Edit: I take it back, just looked it up, and only 3-4 players actually made it into the the 94/96 teams...the rest just failed to live to expectations. Which pretty much proves Greg's point more and more.

dude half the players in eth saudi team that won the world youth championships, beating scotland in teh final

how can i put this..............




they were about 26! man they all had beards and were about 6 and a half foot:faq1: it was men against boys that day

 

[Jun-hide]

They had great potential and some fantastic players but to say they would have crushed the world is being too simplistic in my view. If we are basing winning solely on talent then it would be very difficult for Brazil not to win every tournament they enter. Argentina would have won far more tournaments that they have and surely Holland would have at least 3 world cups to their name and as many European championships. Is there a team that has won as little as Spain has with the array of talent they have produced?
What of the temperament of these players? How do you fit in all these players into 1 side? Would it really be possible to play Asanovic, Savicevic, Stoijkovic, Boban and Prosineski in the same team? Did they have a good enough defence or a decent goal keeper? Stigmac and Bilic were good but not unbeatable. jarni and mirkovic were hardly world class. Who can ever forget Pancev in serieA?
But perhaps the biggest obstacle is the mental approach to games, would they have gone into tournaments thinking they could win it or would coming second or third be something they regard as absolutely fantastic.
I thought Croatia were wore of the better teams in euro96 but as the tournament wore on, they became more and more afraid of losing, eventually kicking themselves in the foot against Germany when Stimac got himself sent off

Lets not forget the hammering they got from W germany in 1990

I don't know why Katanec is talking as he was 1 of the useless ones alongside Stanic

As you mentioned, you got wonder whether they had enough in defence or defensive midfield to hold the team together and win it. But just imagine the prospect of Boban, Dragan Stoijkovic, Savicevic playing behind Boksic and Suker. We know, I would personally travel across the entire universe to watch those players play together as a team. With Dragan pulling the strings, only god knows, how effective Boban could have been as a true attacking force.

Beside all the teams come into competition with some kind of weakenss. France didnt have a striker in 98, W.Germany got to be one of the worst team to ever win a major competition in 96, Denmark actually couldnt beat those Yugoslavian's in 92, and without the intervention of war, those fairytale victors would have spent their summer in beach. I think 2000 is a bit of stretch, but even then those Serbian's still found enough punch to give Spain a run for their money with men down most of the match. I don't think they would have won all the competition but as Vlatko said, there is a good chance Yugoslavia could have won at least one of those 4 championships, especially Euro 92, and 96.

I think this Azzurri team and Brazil 94 is rare team in that, they were well balanced from top to bottom. Even Brazil 2002 had players like Roque Junior, Kleberson, Marcos in their side. You knows those are player kids will wonder 20 years, how did Brazil win with those players on the pitch? Whilst people forget that Italia, Argentina, and France did unbelievable choke job as a collective unit.

 

[V]

What of the temperament of these players? How do you fit in all these players into 1 side? Would it really be possible to play Asanovic, Savicevic, Stoijkovic, Boban and Prosineski in the same team? Did they have a good enough defence or a decent goal keeper? Stigmac and Bilic were good but not unbeatable. jarni and mirkovic were hardly world class. Who can ever forget Pancev in serieA?
But perhaps the biggest obstacle is the mental approach to games, would they have gone into tournaments thinking they could win it or would coming second or third be something they regard as absolutely fantastic.
I thought Croatia were wore of the better teams in euro96 but as the tournament wore on, they became more and more afraid of losing, eventually kicking themselves in the foot against Germany when Stimac got himself sent off

The temperament problem is a good point, most of these players were indeed hotheads that probably would never get along because of their different views of the former country. But we're talking about "what ifs" here, we're talking about a scenario where no civil war would happen and they all would have one home country, Yugoslavia. They might have been a lot of temperament in those players, especially Mihajlovic, Savicevic, Asanovic but there was also a lot of calm level headed players to cool them down like Bilic, Boban, Jarni, Suker.

You do have a point though, the mental aspect of the game could have been a problem for this team. Aside from some very temperamental players, Yugoslavia(and the future countries) never did have that german "never say die" menatality. When we screw up at the beginning, we rarely fight back, the team starts to fall apart. All that aside I can't help but wonder about what could have been, that was simply a golden generation of players that were world class at their peak, the best in their position. I'm not afraid to say that Prosinecki was the best midfielder in the world in the early 90's. Red Star winning the CL? That's something special.

As for the defense at that time almost everyone played a 3-5-2, with Bilic and Stimac there as CB's add Mihajlovic and you got a very solid backline. Don't mention Mirkovic he wouldn't make the water boy position in that team.

 

[Rami]

dude half the players in eth saudi team that won the world youth championships, beating scotland in teh final

how can i put this..............




they were about 26! man they all had beards and were about 6 and a half foot:faq1: it was men against boys that day

Haha, I don't know about that, we heard these allegations before, but not half of the squad thats an overstatement, the alleged players were 2 IIRC, and one of them was Jabarti Al-Shamrani.

Perhaps its true, I don't know, but the thing is, men/boys hit puberty earlier in hot regions, I know some friends that used to shave regularly or rather daily when they were 15. It's not totally unheard of around here.

But as I said Jabarti and the other dude were allegedly overage and were 18 in an U-17 championship, which is wrong and disgusting, but you can't say its men against boys...your just bitter and after 18 years

 

[Bozi]

Haha, I don't know about that, we heard these allegations before, but not half of the squad thats an overstatement, the alleged players were 2 IIRC, and one of them was Jabarti Al-Shamrani.

Perhaps its true, I don't know, but the thing is, men/boys hit puberty earlier in hot regions, I know some friends that used to shave regularly or rather daily when they were 15. It's not totally unheard of around here.

But as I said Jabarti and the other dude were allegedly overage and were 18 in an U-17 championship, which is wrong and disgusting, but you can't say its men against boys...your just bitter and after 18 years

well its not often we get close to being world champions in football, there they were, wee boys playing against a team of socrates lookalikes

 

[Rami]

well its not often we get close to being world champions in football, there they were, wee boys playing against a team of socrates lookalikes

Guess you were just not good enough.

RIP Khalid Al-Ruwaihi (the scorer of the last penalty)

 

[Arvin]

what a team it was... "old is gold"..

 

[Bozi]

Guess you were just not good enough.

RIP Khalid Al-Ruwaihi (the scorer of the last penalty)

did he die of old age??

nah sorry to hear that

 

[ararossi]

They had great potential and some fantastic players but to say they would have crushed the world is being too simplistic in my view. If we are basing winning solely on talent then it would be very difficult for Brazil not to win every tournament they enter. Argentina would have won far more tournaments that they have and surely Holland would have at least 3 world cups to their name and as many European championships. Is there a team that has won as little as Spain has with the array of talent they have produced?
What of the temperament of these players? How do you fit in all these players into 1 side? Would it really be possible to play Asanovic, Savicevic, Stoijkovic, Boban and Prosineski in the same team? Did they have a good enough defence or a decent goal keeper? Stigmac and Bilic were good but not unbeatable. jarni and mirkovic were hardly world class. Who can ever forget Pancev in serieA?
But perhaps the biggest obstacle is the mental approach to games, would they have gone into tournaments thinking they could win it or would coming second or third be something they regard as absolutely fantastic.
I thought Croatia were wore of the better teams in euro96 but as the tournament wore on, they became more and more afraid of losing, eventually kicking themselves in the foot against Germany when Stimac got himself sent off

Lets not forget the hammering they got from W germany in 1990

I don't know why Katanec is talking as he was 1 of the useless ones alongside Stanic

The 1991 European Champions Generation
Goalkeepers:

Milić Jovanović
Željko Kaluđerović
Stevan Stojanović (captain)

Defenders:

Miodrag Belodedić
Slobodan Marović
Ivica Momčilović
Ilija Najdoski
Duško Radinović
Refik Šabanadžović
Goran Vasilijević
Midfielders:

Vladimir Jugović
Siniša Mihajlović
Robert Prosinečki
Dejan Savićević
Vlada Stošić
Rade Tošić
Strikers:

Dragiša Binić
Vladan Lukić
Darko Pančev


Coach: Ljupko Petrović


These players had won the European Cup in 1991 followed on by the Intercontinental cup , so there was defintely the right temperament there amd most of them were at that time playing for the Yugoslavia and possibilty of doing it that at greater stage was there but while the other teams Brazil , Argentina Holland and Spain had the chance to play together these team had only a short career as a united Yugoslavia.What a shame

 

[Seven]

A good read about a great team. But I am far too jaded with experience to lend any credibility to the idea that a legendary youth squad naturally translates to a good adult squad. Teamwork is an elusive thing.

But that's mainly due to youth players not evolving to great mature players. And they pretty much all did that. IMO it has got nothing to do with the squad itself, but with the players individually. Yugoslavia would have had a great team, no doubt.

 

[BarkuZ-yes i am an ass]

Barkuss is a true patriot, and I seriously hope you two meet up. He'd knock some sense into you... but you'd probably be dead. I seriously hope Bark pulls through, he's a true patriot, unlike yourself.

LOL....andy andy.....
do not provoke him please,he can't be a patriot he's just a serb

 

[Rami]

did he die of old age??

nah sorry to hear that

No he died around 4 years later in a car accident.