Antić Rallies His Troops

A lot of time has passed since the last WC qualifiers, and I can tell you I couldn’t wait for this international break and some pretty important games that are on the way. Serbia played it’s last competitive games against Lithuania and Austria, dispatching both of it’s rivals in a rather stylish fashion, while the friendlies played since then (Serbia 6-1 Bulgaria, Serbia 2-0 Cyprus and Serbia 0-1 Ukraine) also didn’t dissappoint at all. So, the cloud of optimism still surrounds the NT and Serbia’s quest for South Africa cointinues with a real desire to win all the games that are on the way, starting with next saturday’s game against Romania.
Now, no matter how optimistic things can be for Antić and his men at the moment, the road to the World Cup isn’t an easy one and rivals such as Romania shouldn’t be underestimated in any circumstances. True, our eastern neighbors aren’t having a good run at all and things seem pretty bleak for them at the moment, but one would be a fool to think that Victor Piturca’s men aren’t a talented and strong team capable of much, much more. Playing at home and needing a win to keep their WC hopes alive, Romanians have enough quality and desire to embarass us properly and seriously wound all of our optimism and pride if we’re not up to the challenge. After that qualifer, Serbia hosts Sweden in a friendly that is bound to be a competitive one, especially if the result against the Romanians doesn’t turn out to be the one we’ve hoped for.
Anyway, here’s Antić’s list of players for these two games, other then Twente’s Rajković’s long-term suspension, Zoran Tošić’s inclusion in the U21 squad and an injury to Udinese’s Aleksandar Luković, there aren’t any other notable absentees and the coach will have a full-strenght side at his disposal. Here’s the full list:

Goalkeepers:

Nikola Žigić (Racing Santander)
Marko Pantelić (Hertha Berlin)
Danko Lazović (PSV Eindhoven)
Miralem Sulejmani (Ajax)

There are two debutants in the team: Dynamo Kyiv’s Miloš Ninković, who already got a call during the previous qualifers but whose injury kept him from making his debut in the autumn and Borussia Dortmund’s Neven Subotić, a new and exciting additon to the team who only recently decided to play for Serbia instead of the United States, the country where has lived in large periods of his life and for who’s youth selections he’s already played for. These two players are definetely an excellent boost to our already talented team and I really can’t wait to see them in the red shirt (or white away shirt, actually). I just hope Antić integrates them well and the Sweden friendly will definetely give him the chance for that.

Oh, and, the U21 team also plays some friendlies with Ukraine and Romania, both played at home, but away from Belgrade, where all NT games are usually played. That would be a nice strategy to employ in the long-term, people outside of the capital are really frustrated because of the Belgrade-related football dominance at all levels, and the U21 games in Belgrade don’t really fill up stadiums anyway. The team itself is talented as always, with Zoran Tošić relegated from the senior NT, probably because of his lack of playing time at Manchester United, while the rest of the team is quite similar to the one that defeated Cyprus a month ago. Two victories perhaps shouldn’t be expected, but are definetely hoped for.

I’ll write a preview about the Romania game in the next few days. If you’re interested, I believe J at the Romania WCB might also give you an interesting perspective to the game. It promises to be a very tight encounter and will likely decide much of the fate of the Group 7, also featuring France, Austria, Lithuania and Faroe Islands.