[Europe Group 6]
10 Matches 7 Wins 2 Ties 1 Loss (23 Points)
| 4/24/96 | Vs. Faroe Islands | Win | 3-1 |
| 6/2/96 | Vs. Malta Win | 6-0 |
| 10/6/96 | Vs. Faroe Islands | Win | 1-8 |
| 11/10/96 | Vs Czech Republic | Win | 1-0 |
| 12/14/96 | Vs. Spain | Lose 2-0 |
| 4/2/97 | Vs. Czech Republic | Win | 1-2 |
| 4/30/97 | Vs. Spain | Draw | 1-1 |
| 6/8/97 | Vs. Slovakia | Win | 2-0 |
| 9/10/97 | Vs. Slovakia | Draw | 1-1 |
| 10/11/97 | Vs. Malta | Win | 0-5 |
| <Playoff> |
| 10/29/97 | Vs. Hungary | Win | 1-7 |
| 11/15/97 | Vs. Hungary | Win | 5-0 |
| Offense |
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Defense |
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Experience |
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Capacity to surprise |
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The effect of war on Yugoslavia was immeasurably great. Due to United Nations sanctions, Yugoslavia was excluded from Euro 92, in which its participation had already been decided, and was not able to even enter the 1994 World Cup qualifiers. Considering this, the fact that Yugoslavia won a ticket to this World Cup in France is itself quite meaningful. However, to tie up the power that won through the most competitive group in Europe with almost no danger at all as a simple dark horse is going too far.
More superb than anything else is the presence of talent with the world's highest level skills. The traditional Yugoslavian creative play remains well and is a characteristic of the team. However, this also becomes a cause for letting slip away absolute chances and a sense of stability, so Yugoslavian soccer can be called a "two-edged sword". Nonetheless, now with the strong reaction to its protracted removal from the international stage combining with the improvements in the area of tactics brought about by Coach Santrac, the motivation vector should be facing up more than anywhere else.
Causes for concern are defensive errors brought about by the excessive offensive-mindedness and the condition of key player Savicevic. Also, the fact that Yugoslavia's talent is scattered across many countries for the club team play and the team does not have enough joint practice and training matches is a minus. The training camp immediately before the World Cup tournament will be the key point.
*FUDBALSKI SAVEZ
JUGOSLAVIJE
[Address]
- Terazije 35,
- PO Box 263 11000 Belgrad
[Established] 1919
*9th World Cup
(1930, 1950, 1954, 1958,
1962, 1974, 1982, 1990,
1998) |
Predrag MIJATOVIC
* Forward
Mijatovic is a goal-scorer who shows the greatest goal-scoring drive even on the Yugoslavian squad awash in talent. He made a large contribution to the league title won by the prestigious Real Madrid (Spain), to which he transferred last year. This performance has been well received and in the Balondur balloting, he gathered the second most votes after Ronald and has become well known in Europe. He is characterized by his ball reaction and dash speed and had tremendous skill at sniffing out opportunities. He can aim for the goal from either foot or from his head. He is also strongly defensive-minded and has the flexibility for team play according to the way the play is developing.
Slobodan SANTRAC
Coach Santrac was born on July 1, 1946. In his playing days, he played for OFK, Partisan, Grasshopper, and other clubs and marked over 200 goals in 18 years. He was the top striker in Yugoslavian history and was called the "Yugoslavian Gert Muller". However, he was not able to utilize his power at the national team level, and in the eight matches in which he appeared, he only notched one goal. He has no particular history of success in his coaching experience and rose to the position of coach of the Yugoslavian national team A squad in December 1994 after being the coach of the national youth team in the former Yugoslavia. This time, he leads the new Yugoslavia to the World Cup.
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