A painful 2:0 loss in Amsterdam on September 8 put the Bulgarian football team close to another failure. The Euro 2008 qualifying campaign in Group G looks like it will be won by Romania and Netherlands. Now anticipation is building for the game between the two leaders in Bucharest on October 13, which will show whether Dimitar Penev’s team will get a chance for a “New November 17”, when Romania will visit Sofia.
On that day, 14 years ago, Bulgaria beat France, in Paris, 2:1 with a last-gasp goal by Emil Kostadinov and qualified for the World Cup 1994, at the expense of the French. Led by the superstar Hristo Stoitchkov and coach Dimitar Penev, the team dethroned world champions Germany, subsequently finishing in fourth place. Since 2000, everyone in Bulgaria has been expecting this generation of players to achieve something great but, they were too inexperienced when they missed the World Cup 2002, later they suffered three losses in the Euro 2004 finals and they did not qualify for the World Cup 2006. Now they are on their way to miss Euro 2008 as well.
If the three favourites win their games against the “small” teams and Romania beats Holland on October 13, it would mean the end of Bulgarian hopes. But if Marko van Basten’s men do not lose, it could give Bulgaria a chance to jump over the Romanians with a victory on home soil on November 17.
The pessimism, however, grew huge after the disappointment of Amsterdam. The players spoiled the chance to steal a point, or three, from an unimpressive Holland and allowed the home team to score two easy goals. In the changing room, captain Dimitar Berbatov blamed some of his team mates and later confirm the public criticisms. “We must face reality,” the Tottenham star said. “Maybe we are not the same calibre as Holland. We are letting in some cheap goals but when you’re making the same sort of mistakes game after game - now that is stupid. I’m the captain and I had to say some things to some others. We are not a playschool.
If someone gets insulted, he’d better stay home.”
Players confirmed Berbatov’s anger but denied something serious happened. Coach Dimitar Penev said he missed the situation because it occurred at the time he was speaking on national television. According to Penev, keeper Ivankov and the defenders are not the only ones to blame, Berbatov should be as well for his two or three missed chances. The coach later revealed that the players cleared everything between themselves.
The president of the Bulgarian Football Union, Borislav Mihailov, and Dimitar Penev are facing a delicate situation - they can not argue with the two team leaders and best friends Berbatov and Martin Petrov, because a conflict with these players would guarantee a collective disaster. It is impossible for Penev to create an artificial balance within the team, as he did between the stars of 1994, because all the current players agree “Berbo” and “Marto” are clearly in a class on their own.
But Mihailov may have at least rattled the aces with his comment: “It seems now that many people are right to say this team didn’t win or couldn’t win a big match. The only more or less strong opponent beaten was Croatia 4 years ago. This generation is near its limit and fortunately managed to reach one big championship - Euro 2004. The players must realize the border between a good and an excellent team is to win sort of games like that against Holland.”
