The coach of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team, Sergej Barbarez, officially announced the list of players for the upcoming World Cup in Sarajevo today. At today’s press conference, Barbarez and the director of the Bosnia and Herzegovina A national team, Emir Spahić, spoke about the plans for the World Cup, the team’s preparations, organizational details, the team’s assembly process and the ambitions of the BiH national team before the biggest challenge in the last few years.
Barbarez pointed out that the preparations will begin with 26 players, emphasizing that the coaching staff had been weighing the final decisions for a long time in order to leave room for possible changes due to the health bulletin of the national team members.
“It is always difficult to tell someone that they will not be part of the team for the World Cup. We decided to start with 26 players so that we would have the opportunity to react if problems arise,” said the coach.
He referred to the team’s health bulletin, and in particular to Amir Hadžiahmetović, who was on the list despite his injury problems. The coach emphasized that Hadžiahmetović showed great desire to be part of the team for the World Cup, although at one point he was very close to surgery.
“He was practically about to have surgery, but he wanted to try an alternative way of recovery. We are in constant contact with the doctors and the agreement was that he would be ready for the team on May 23, which he promised,” said Barbarez.
Speaking about the players on the wider national team list, the coach confirmed that nine preliminary calls have been sent to football players that the coaching staff is seriously counting on in case of unplanned changes in the squad.
The team’s team is scheduled to gather for May 23, when the first part of the national team players will join the team, while the rest will arrive two days later.
BiH will have its first test match on May 29 against North Macedonia at the Koševo stadium, and then the national team will travel to the United States of America on June 2, where it will play a friendly match against Panama. The match against Panama will be played on June 6 in St. Louis, after which the national team will travel to Toronto where they will face the home team of Canada at the start of the group stage of the World Cup.
During the conference, Barbarez also spoke about the tactical options that the national team will use during the warm-up matches.
“Against North Macedonia, we will try certain variants of the system and test alternative solutions. Panama is a specific opponent and good preparation for Canada because it is a national team that plays hard and disciplined,” said the coach.
He emphasized that the BiH national team now has more offensive options than before.
“We have shown that we can play very offensively. We have player profiles that allow for different variants and greater flexibility in the game,” said the coach.
The debutant in the BiH national team jersey will be midfielder Ermin Mahmić, a young footballer who previously played for the youth teams of Austria. Spahić revealed that the process of changing sports citizenship took months.
“It was a long and demanding process, but his desire to play for Bosnia and Herzegovina was not in doubt from the beginning. We are happy that he will be part of the national team,” he said, while Barbarez described Mahmić as a player profile that the national team was missing, and emphasized that he is a “very offensive and technically good player who has a lot of room for improvement”.
“We want young footballers who will form the backbone of the national team in the coming years,” emphasized the coach.
He added that the main camp of the national team will be in Salt Lake City.
“After the match in Toronto, we are moving to Salt Lake City, where our base will be during the tournament. Our goal was to reduce the number of flights and avoid additional fatigue due to time differences,” explained Barbarez.
When asked about administrative problems related to visas for Canada, Barbarez emphasized that representatives of the National Football Team of Bosnia and Herzegovina are in contact with embassies so that all members of the delegation receive the necessary documentation on time.
Bosnia and Herzegovina will play in a group at the World Cup with the teams of Canada, Switzerland and Qatar, and the coaching staff believes that the national team can achieve a historic result and make a step forward compared to its debut appearance at the 2014 World Cup, Fena writes.
