Serbia World Cup Team Profile

May 21st, 2010 | by: chris | View Comments

They’re new! Wait! They’re not new!

Truth be told, if ‘06 wasn’t such a disaster, we’d give them the continuation, but for the sake of Serbian memories starting anew: it’s the dawn of a brand new era.

This is actually Serbia’s third incarnation: until through the ‘02 World Cup they participated under variations of Yugoslavia, and they waltzed into Germany hand-in-hand as Serbia & Montenegro. Finally, they’ll get to make their long awaited debut a a World Cup as simply Serbia.

Now all they have to worry about is the football in the deepest group at the ball.


Nickname: Beli Orlovi (White Eagles)

FIFA World Ranking as of April 28th 2010: 16th

Group D Matches:

Serbia v Ghana, June 13th, 4p, Pretoria
Germany v Serbia, June 18th, 1:30, Port Elizabeth
Australia v Serbia, June 23rd, 8:30p, Nelspruit

Buy Serbia World Cup tickets.

Kit: A basic home red with lovely cross, even if it looks a bit Danish.

Buy your Serbia kit here.

Coach: Radomir Antic. For a man who spent the first 20 years of his coaching career in Spain, he’s taken to his homeland awfully well – and awfully quickly. Something of a rushed appointment before qualifying, he, like so many good coaches, brought his own methods to the table and turned Serbian fortunes – the disappointing German World Cup and failed qualification for Euro 2008 – on their head. First in the group and 5-0 in recent friendlies. He took four years off between coaching stints, and it would appear it recharges the old magic wand.

Key Players: Antic has favored a 4-4-2 which looks on paper like a 4-2-4 with the attacking inclinations of the pacy, goal-nosed wing duo of Milos Krasic, Serbian Footballer of the Year, and Milan Jovanovic. Inside at the top have been two poachers, the resurgent Marko Pantelic and the ginormous, 200cm Nikola Zigic. Behind will be Nenad Milijas and Dejan Stankovic, who scores a fair few goals for a midfielder.

The Famous Four defense is gone and only one remains: Nemanja Vidic. Thankfully he’s awfully good at the whole defending thing, one of the best in the world, and together with Nevon Subotic forms an impressive and tough central duo. On the right will be Branislav Ivanovic, who enjoyed his coming out party this year, and on the other side the powerhouse left foot of Aleksandar Kolarov. It may not have the qualifying record, but it’s no less impressive than ’06’s crew – at least on paper. Rounding out the side will be Vladimir Stojkovic.

Player with best YouTube video: Milos Krasic should have a highlight video where he runs – just runs.

Player with best name: Zdravko Kuzmanovic is really fun to say in a deep Eastern European accent. That’s all that’s needed, really.

Player with best nickname: Nikola Zigic at least at one point was known as The Doctor.

I’m glad they went away from his size here – it would’ve been a little too easy, wouldn’t it?

Qualification: In games that mattered, they went 7-1-1 despite Antic being named only shortly before the start of qualifying, winning the group after an emphatic thumping of Romania.

Interesting: The White Eagles nickname derived from their rather extraordinary coat of arms:

National Anthem: “Bože pravde” (God of Justice)

World Cup History:

Expectations: Group D is awfully tough, some might say the toughest, and two teams deserving of qualification might be going home, but you’d have to think Serbia will consider it a disappointment if they don’t go through after their highly successful qualifying and recent run of friendlies.

Squad: Serbia World Cup squad.

Blog: Nikola commands the Serbian World Cup Blog.

- More World Cup 2010 Team Profiles.