At the Energizer Park stadium in St. Louis was given an official training session by the BiH national team before the match with Panama.
Before the start of the training, a press conference of our team was held, where the selector Sergej Barbarez and the national team member Nidal Čelik answered questions from journalists, reports the official website of the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In his opening address, the selector thanked the media representatives who came to the USA to follow the national team, and said that the team is ready.
“We trained well and we are eager for matches, especially with teams that are not from Europe. We want to feel that mentality and way of playing. These are some challenges that interest us, to see how we can deal with teams from outside our continent, because they have a different approach to football,” he said.
Barbarez also referred to the health bulletin, pointing out that Edin Džeko and Ivan Šunjić will not play in that match, the media reports.
“As for Edin, he will most likely not be in the team tomorrow at all because we haven’t fully resolved his injury. He still has a few problems and that’s why we decided that he will be spared today, and simply take him out of the training process for a few days to focus on the match in Canada. Ivan Šunjić is the only one still out with him, but there won’t be any problems going forward. He is almost at the level and is starting to train with us,” Barbarez said, according to the media.
Among other things, the coach also talked about the performance at the World Championship, which is ahead of the BiH team.
“It is a great honor for us to be here and to be part of this story. We have responsibility and obligations towards the country to do our best and to do as well as possible. It will certainly be a special moment when our national anthem starts at that first game, then I will be especially proud.”
We are all ready for what awaits us at the World Cup, but right now we are only focused on tomorrow’s match with Panama, Čelik said.
“My dream was to play for the national team and I’m happy that it came true, to be here with my teammates and the coaching staff. From the first day in St. Louis, we felt the support of our people who live here. It means a lot to us and we will do our best to make them happy,” he said.
The Panama-Bosnia and Herzegovina match is scheduled for today, June 6 at 2:00 PM local time (9:00 PM CET) at Energizer Park in St. Louis.
