With a training session at Grbavica Stadium, the Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team completed their first stage of preparations for the World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Today’s training session was open to the public, drawing a couple of thousand national team fans to the East Stand of Grbavica Stadium, where they showed their support for the players ahead of the upcoming match.
Sergej Barbarez, the head coach, said the main goal was to complete preparations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, play the match, and hold an opening training session. He also said he is happy that supporters recognized their work and will continue to show support.
Regarding the squad’s fitness, Barbarez repeated that he expects Tabaković to be ready for the second or third match of the tournament. Džeko trained separately from the rest of the team, while Šunjić and Hadžikić were in the stands today.
Haris is working on his recovery, and everything is going according to plan for him to be ready in a month, specifically for the second or third match of the tournament. Ivan has a follow-up scan today, after which we will decide whether he will go straight into full training or work with the ball on his own. Edin is fine; he will join the training sessions in the US. Unfortunately, Osman Hadžikić was injured and will not be traveling with us. That is why Mladen Jurkas was called up – he is a regular U-21 national team player, and we made this decision together with our goalkeeping coaches,” Barbarez said.
Their next goal, he added, is to start adapting to the time difference and temperatures, which he believes will be one of the major challenges.
“We are playing in the heat of the day, and that is our primary focus. In this final friendly, we will of course try to deliver a performance that will boost our confidence,” the head coach emphasized.
The national team will travel to St. Louis on Tuesday morning, where they will play a friendly match against Panama on June 6. They will then travel to Toronto, where they will stay until their opening-round match against Canada, scheduled for June 12.
