Serbia-Montenegro coach to quit
BILLERBECK, Germany (AP) - Serbia-Montenegro coach Ilija Petkovic will quit the national team after the World Cup.
"I will resign when we return home," Petkovic told The Associated Press on Saturday following his team's humiliating elimination from the tournament.
The announcement came after Serbia-Montenegro's 6-0 loss to Argentina on Friday that ranked as the worst in World Cup history for the national team.
Also quitting the team will be captain Savo Milosevic, defender Mladen Krstajic and midfielder Predrag Djordjevic, who announced their retirements from international play even before the World Cup began.
Serbia-Montenegro yielded only one goal in 10 qualifying matches, but conceded seven in its first two Group C matches against the Netherlands and Argentina. The Serbs play Ivory Coast on June 21 and still haven't scored at the tournament.
Friday's loss was the worst for the former Yugoslavia at the World Cup. There was a 6-1 semifinal defeat against Uruguay in the first edition in 1930.
The team last qualified for the World Cup in 1998 as Yugoslavia, and was knocked out in the second round. Serbia-Montenegro's appearance in Germany is the national team's 10th trip to the World Cup, but the first - and last - under that name. Montenegro voted for independence in May.
"I will be the biggest fan of Serbia or Montenegro if they qualify for another World Cup," Petkovic said. "The defeat against Argentina was painful, but football goes on."
He described the loss as "a debacle," but also blamed unnamed "strategists" back home for denouncing his game plans at the World Cup as too defensive.
He said that he was sorry for "disregarding my own principles" when he started more offensively against Argentina.
"I'm sorry that I didn't close down the defense in my way," Petkovic said.
The Serbs were in disarray against Argentina, with problems ranging from injuries to key players to squabbles over tactics and skirmishes between players at training sessions.
Petkovic conceded "the atmosphere within the team wasn't good, as it always is when a team is losing matches."
He also said that the breakup of the country contributed to the early exit.
"All teams at the World Cup sing their national anthems, but ours is booed," Petkovic said. "It's hard to play in such an atmosphere."
Serbian fans detest the old communist-era Yugoslav song "Hey Slavs!" and regularly booed it, leaving players shifting with unease.
Petkovic said his players will have to forget their two losses at the World Cup, and turn to the match against Ivory Coast in Munich next Wednesday. National team officials have threatened players with unspecified "financial penalties" if they don't take the game against the Ivorians seriously, team spokesman Aleksandar Boskovic said.
Same Rules Apply here. Break them and be banned.
General help
The MGC Chatbox Evo is really easy to use
You can :
You can :
- Send chats : you just have to enter the text in the dedicated input field and then to validate it by pushing the return key ou by clicking on the OK button.
- Format the chats : once you un-collapse the chatbox formatting toolbar by clicking on the BBCode button, you have access to different formatting options for your chats. You can format a chat by selecting a part (or the totality) of it and then select one of the buttons/list. You can also add empty formatting tags by selecting nothing and clicking one of the buttons/menu thus allowing you to add the chat text afterwards between these tags.*
- Access to the different channels : you can have access to different channels restricted to only some usergroupds or for specifics use of the chatbox. The different channels are accessible from the buttons on the left of the chatbox.*
- Edit your chats (or others chats) : the edition of a chat can be done by a simple double-click on it.*
- Use specific commands : some commands can be accessible in the chatbox depending on the will of the administrator(s) of your forum. These commands let you execute specific actions of formatting, management, etc... You will herebelow the information on the command which are accessible to you. You must notice that you are not forced to use the command prefixes (/command_name) when you use them in the channel they are attached to (except in the general channel).*
Results 1 to 7 of 7
-
06-17-2006, 10:00 PM #1Administrator
- Join Date
- Jun 2005
- Location
- New Jersey
- Posts
- 31,660
Serbian NT Manager calls it quits
-
06-17-2006, 10:01 PM #2Administrator
- Join Date
- Jun 2005
- Location
- New Jersey
- Posts
- 31,660
Re: Serbian NT Manager calls it quits
If i were him i would not even go back to Serbia. His life is will be in real danger if he goes back.
-
06-17-2006, 10:08 PM #3
Club Star
- Join Date
- Jun 2006
- Location
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Posts
- 1,108
Re: Serbian NT Manager calls it quits
Unlucky for them they had to face Holland and Argentina, with Ivory Coast still to come up.
They put down an impressing qualifying performance getting above Spain, but that's how a draw goes, can't always be lucky, people tend to look at the present, he let Serbia get humilliated (again), even after an impressive performance he had to go down.
-
06-17-2006, 11:43 PM #4
World Class
- Join Date
- Dec 2005
- Location
- █◙◙█
- Posts
- 5,839
Re: Serbian NT Manager calls it quits
If this isn't bad. I just read on a Serbian website that Koroman and Kezman have left he SCG squad and will not be returning for the game against Ivory Coast.
MAN U
-
06-17-2006, 11:53 PM #5
FIFA President
- Join Date
- Jan 2006
- Location
- USA
- Posts
- 25,550
Re: Serbian NT Manager calls it quits
They are real losers then.
Originally Posted by Fusion..!
-
06-17-2006, 11:53 PM #6
FIFA President
- Join Date
- Jan 2006
- Location
- USA
- Posts
- 25,550
Re: Serbian NT Manager calls it quits
they should have played harder Originally Posted by Fenerliyim
-
06-18-2006, 06:14 AM #7
Club Substitute
- Join Date
- Jun 2006
- Posts
- 307
Re: Serbian NT Manager calls it quits
what a pathetic team
We are not done with you sir BS!
Reply With Quote
Thread Information
Users Browsing this Thread
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)