TWO HALVES OF ONE GAME
FIRST GAME BIH - PORTUGAL 0:0
SECOND GAME PORTUGAL - BIH 6:2
Empty streets with only few
passerby’s and sellers of Bosnian flags,
journalists of daily news dressed in
Bosnian jerseys and a huge line in front
of Zenica’s stadium Bilino Polje formed
the big picture of Bosnia on great six
ones (11.11.’11.).
However, some dreams are
just that. Although the Bosnian Dragons
were enthusiastic and well prepared,
the Portuguese team was simply
superior.
It seems like the fate had
decided to play a trick on both teams, as
it made them play again - on the same
stadium - with the same euphoria.
Followed by worldwide media, this
match held the title of becoming the
most interesting one. Even though the
game itself was a bit static at the
beginning, it didn’t take long for the
Portuguese to show off their superiority
and take predominance. With three
attempts at the target, including one of
Ronaldo and the Portuguese stopper
Pepé, who as a shadow had followed
Dzeko, the Manchester City’s goalgetter, the first half of the game could
easily be assigned to Portugal, even
though they might regret for not taking
the full first-half dominance.
With Ibisevic entering the game
in the second-half the things got a little
bit better for the Bosnian part, and both
he and Dzeko made their attempt at the
target, which were the best two
opportunities of Bosnian team, but both
goal nets remained untouched. Having
Portugal with its desire to prevail and
maintain their status of a great national
team on one side, and Bosnia with its
best football generation who’s longing
to enter the European Championship for
the first time on the other side,
everything was possible in the second
game.
ALMA I. MILIŠID
The first halftime was clearly
under the feet of the Portugese, with
Ronaldo scoring a goal seven minutes
into the game, followed up by Nani’s
goal at twenty fourth minute. Bosnians
groaned in disappointment, but our
hopes were raised with a great penalty
shoot by Misimovic.
The halftime ended with a sense of
anticipation, as both teams were giving
their best on the field.
The second halftime wavered
between euphoria and despair. The
back and forth game, with Ronaldo
scoring for 3:1, and then Spahic
reiterating with 3:2 lasted until around
seventy minutes of the game. Then the
ball just started flying inside our net,
leaving the players lost, and us, back
home, silent.
The end result was 6:2 for
Portugal. But in the end football is not
just a winning game – every single
proud Bosnian can tell you that.
ELDIN MILAK
COURIER NEWSLETTER/PAGE 11
The Hopes We Kept are Gone
It was a special date. As the whole
world was crazy about the date 11.11.11, we
were crazy about the game and a special
result as well. As the game began, the hopes
we kept went away.
That team on the field was not us they were not representing our Turkish spirit
or our football mentality. In these kinds of
important games the Turkish National Team
used to play differently. They used to play like
warriors who were never defeated and never
excepted failure as a result. Like in the 2008
Europe Championship Games, Türkiye became
famous with those goals at the very last
minute of the game; we qualified after
penalties and sent Croats back home.
At the very first minute of the match,
while we were chewing the fat, we faced a
goal and we were all in shock. That
disappointed us, but we thought this goal
would provoke our players’ quick response.
But things didn’t go like that. Instead of a
quick response we got another slap on the
face. Then we understood that that night was
not one of those legendary nights, and would
not be one of those legendary victories we
had in the previous years. When the second
half started we continued deceiving ourselves
and everyone around us - because nobody
wanted to face the truth. Later on, they
scored the third goal and that was the end for
our players. From that moment on, they
didn’t play, but just ran randomly across the
field, aimless. They lost their ambition, their
temper. They were just waiting for the game
to end and to get rid of this torture.
So finally Croats became aware for
what they were playing for and took their
revenge for the 2008 Europe Championship.
ERDİNÇ HAKKI KESKİN