Yes, Serbia is also one of the civilised countries where football is one of the most important things in life; where sport clubs are for some people on the “love list” even higher than mom and dad; where it’s perfectly normal to die or to kill for your favourite club; and when it comes for footie, most people cheer for two national teams: Serbian and whichever team that is playing against country’s arch-nemesis. For Argentina it’s Brazil, for us it’s Croatia. Couple of days ago our other team beat Croatia, and today we are playing against the other teams arch-nemesis. Destiny, some would say. I say – rubbish.
Everything is on stand-by during the World cup, and specially during the Serbia-Montenegro games. I will now use the ancient phrase “picture says more than 1000 or so words” and try to present some of that “on hold” atmosphere from the streets of Belgrade.
Bear with me today as try to do the impossible: to run around the city centre visiting different indoor and outdoor Belgrade cafes, record the situation with my trusty digital idiot camera and broadcast the Serbia and Montenegro vs. Argentina game after it had already ended.
So i will say that the goal of this entry is only to present the atmosphere, and it doesn’t matter who’s gonna win at the end. (This sentence gives me the chance to rightfully criticize our team if we lose and righteously praise them if we win. Clever, wouldn’t you say?)
Couple of hours later…
Wow… what a game. I don’t think that anybody expected this catastrophe, no matter how pesimistic one was. This is something you can’t foresee. I must admit i thought that we’re going to lose and that we’re gonna lose badly, but i realy couldn’t see this one coming. Serbian football is now officially dead, see you all in a couple of decades.
But it all started so nicely… first we beat such quality names in qualifications as Bosnia and Herzegovina, then the country splits but we still go under the same name of Serbia and Montenegro, i think without any Montenegrins in the team, listening to national anthem of a country called Socialistic Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, under the flag of Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, when we really are Serbia. Makes you wonder though – if we manage to get to the World Cup under so strange circumstances, do we really have to go OUT of the World Cup with a bang? Maybe it was unavoidable. But then again – it was 16.06.06, Gelsenkirchen, Germany – we should have read the signs really.
And it’s time for the pictures now, you can add your thoughts about this achievement in the comments section as usual. (btw, I think i managed to walk a greater distance today in the city than some of our players in Germany)
Kasina, Terazije – judge blows the whistle and i’m off.
Nusiceva street, still no excitements, nobody suspects anything.
Orange cafe, Decanska street – people are lining up to see the game.
Dva bela goluba kafana, Skadarlija – even people in kafanas decided to watch the game. Still 0-0, 5th minute of the game.
Skadarlija again, we recieved the first goal in the 6th minute. Maradona is happy. Crowd in Belgrade isn’t.
At least some people enjoyed themselves during the game.
Strahinica Bana street cafes were also pretty full, with people stopping by and checking the score from their cars and scooters. The score at the end of the street – 3:0 for the team with live players playing in it.
Halfway down the Strahinica Bana, our national team started to look a lot like our national car.
Since all criminal activities stop during the World Cup, the police could also rest for a while.
Those cafes without the TV set didn’t have many guest to hope for.
Some cafes had many TVs but gave up on the game in half time – this is Pevac cafe near Obilicev venac showing Motors TV.
By the time i got to Obilicev venac, we were still losing by 3-0 in the other half. Not bad, i thought. I was wrong.
Once at the Republic square it was already 4-0. At that point i gave up shooting and went to Nusiceva once again to sit and watch the game end while sipping on some juice. We recieved two more goals. Maradona was extremely happy by this point, even without coke.
So that was it. Well, actually, not completely. Note that many of these cafes look alike, specially those at Strahinica Bana. I must admit i made many more pictures, but they all look so much alike that you would think i’m kidding you and that i took the photo of the same cafe ten times. Yes, there are really that many Belgrade cafes, specially in the summer, and yes, you would have to take my word for it, or come to Belgrade and see for yourself. Uploading this many picture was a troublesome task as it is, you will somehow survive without the other 20 pics/cafes i have left.
Cvijus, maybe it was better you didn’t give your hard earned money for this game. But i still want those pictures, preferably some with fans chasing the players down the street. 
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m Scottish but I was supporting SCG today. I don’t know what happened, I watched SCG in qualifying and there are not 6 goals between them and Argentina.
What I saw on HRT yesterday, when they watched Croatia-Japan (0:0), there was much more apparent passion. But I think it’s rather big issue: how (most of) Serbs feel about their country as compared to Croats
I must say SCG didn’t look like they even wanted to win in the last game. They let balls roll by without even trying. As much as I’d like SCG to lose, I really don’t like to see Argentinians win. They play dirtiest of all teams (worse than the Mexicans). As long as it’s not a tie I’ll be happy for whomever loses