We can only think and dream. USA 94 is not held up as one of the great World Cups, and although Italy and Brazil were teams worthy of being in the final, the semi-finalists were shocks in Bulgaria – led by Barcelona’s Hristo Stoichkov – and Sweden, and when the national teams of the constituent nations of Yugoslavia are combined around the 1994 World Cup, you have a large number of world-class talents either at or approaching their peak. A week after Serbia and Montenegro's final match against the Ivory Coast, the Football Association of Montenegro applied for separate membership to UEFA. Yugoslavia won its first match 1–0 against Iran thanks to a goal from defender Siniša Mihajlović. The team managed to bounce back with a draw in Russia and a win in Switzerland, but failed to defeat Slovenia in the penultimate game, thus finishing their qualifying group in third position. Priština was withdrew from the FR Yugoslavia football league system due to the situation in Kosovo, then was moved to the Kosovo football league system. It was controlled by the Football Association of Serbia and Montenegro. Milovan Đorić took over the team, but under his leadership, the team managed only two draws, 1–1 at home against Switzerland and 1–1 away against Slovenia. In a footballing sense, however – never to trivialise the horrific actions and effects of the wars in Yugoslavia – the major tragedy was the splintering that occurred in the early 1990s, and particularly the independence of Croatia. A 2–1 defeat against Ireland in Dublin was followed by victories home and away against Macedonia (3–1 and 4–2 respectively), meaning Yugoslavia needed to win its final qualifier against Croatia in Zagreb, or to draw with Ireland failing to beat Macedonia in Skopje, in order to automatically qualify for Euro 2000. For the later official football teams, see: Both FIFA and UEFA consider the Serbian national team to be the direct and sole successor of the Yugoslavia (Kingdom of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia and FR Yugoslavia) and Serbia and Montenegro national football teams. Read | The odyssey of Davor Šuker from untouchable goalscorer to vilified president. With the death of Tito, the glue that held the constituent nations of Yugoslavia was gone, and cracks quickly began to appear. Yugoslavia then lost 0–1 at home to Russia, marking the nation's first home defeat in official matches. The first, highly anticipated match against Croatia took place in Belgrade shortly after the bombing ended, and was interrupted due to a power outage at the beginning of the second half, resuming after 43 minutes[7] and eventually finishing 0–0. However, we will never know, and again thoughts of what if surrounds sport in Yugoslavia towards its collapse. Both players scored five goals, although Milošević played one less match.[8]. After the USSR had reduced the lead to 5–2, he, almost single-handed, took the score to 5–5, scoring his third in the last minute. The draw for the Euro 2000 qualifiers saw many eyebrows raised as first-seeded Yugoslavia was drawn in a group alongside Croatia, marking the first matches between the two teams after the breakup of Yugoslavia. As it happened, Ireland conceded an injury-time equalizer, meaning Yugoslavia's 2–2 draw with the Croatians was sufficient for automatic qualification. As the World Cup was about to start, it was decided that the Serbia and Montenegro team that had qualified for the tournament would compete, with the split into separate teams representing the new countries of Montenegro and Serbia to take place once the team was eliminated from the tournament. The national team participated in eight World Cups and four Euros, won the Olympic football tournament in 1960 at the Summer Games (they also finished second three times and third once), and developed a reputation for skillful and attacking football, leading them to be dubbed "the Brazilians of Europe".[8]. No third place match was played. The Football Federation of what was then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was founded in Zagreb in 1919 under the name Jugoslovenski nogometni savez (and admitted into FIFA), and the national team played its first international game at the Summer Olympics in Antwerp in 1920. Much like how the basketball team of Dražen Petrović and Vlade Divac never fulfilled its potential, we will never quite know how good the football team could have been. Slightly more than one year later, the team recorded its first ever win in a FIFA World Cup qualifying tournament in its first match in such a tournament, a 3–1 win over the Faroe Islands. When you consider that they would be added to a cast boasting names such as Savićević, Darko Pančev, Mihajlović, Stojković and Katanec, it is a footballing tragedy that they were never allowed to co-exist. This marked the end of Yugoslavia's run in the World Cup. By 1989, Milošević was the president of Serbia and the most powerful man in Yugoslavia. Neutral Record That sentence embodies Yugoslavia and the football team that the entire world missed out on. The only clues we have are their performances at club level and how the independent nations shone during this era. participated in the event for the first time. The war was brought to an end by negotiation, but by 1992 Slovenia would be officially recognised as an independent country, no longer a Yugoslav state. At the 1998 FIFA World Cup Croatia participated in the event for the first time. It was contested by 18 teams, and Partizan won the championship (declared on 12 June 1999). The New York Times stated Yugoslavia could easily be a semi-finalist in that year's World Cup . Prosinečki was also aided by players such as Zvonimir Boban, Davor Šuker, Robert Jarni, and Predrag Mijatović. The away kit was all-white, featuring blue and red trim. Naturally, had the country stayed together, you would assume that the key members of the World Youth Championship-winning side would have become full members of the Yugoslav national team sometime around the build-up to the 1994 World Cup, when they would be 25 or 26 and approaching the peak of their careers. The draw for the Euro 2000 final stages placed Yugoslavia in Group C alongside Spain, Norway and another former Yugoslav republic, Slovenia. One of the few bright spots of Yugoslav team in the whole tournament was Savo Milošević, who finished as the joint top scorer of the tournament, alongside Patrick Kluivert. [6] The fighting was barbaric on all sides, with a large majority of the horrors and war crimes in the Yugoslav War being perpetrated in Bosnia. In the final though, they would lose to Sweden. The final group match, against Spain in Bruges, saw the Yugoslavs take the lead three times, before a Gaizka Mendieta penalty and an Alfonso strike in injury-time secured a dramatic 4–3 win for the Spaniards and top spot in the group. After Savićević's disastrous spell as head coach, the country went under a political transformation, and Ilija Petković became the newly named Serbia and Montenegro's new coach.
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