The football team of Bosnia and Herzegovina met with Panama today in a general rehearsal for both teams before the World Cup. The match ended with a score of 1:1.
Today’s match in St. Louis had a phenomenal farewell to the BiH national team and its send-off to the World Cup, because our national team literally had the atmosphere as if it were playing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, even though it was very far from home.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is certainly a stronger selection than Panama in all circumstances, and Barbarez led perhaps the strongest team in the standard 4-4-2 formation, consisting of: Vasilj, Kolašinac, Muharemović, Katić, Dedić, Bašić, Tahirović, Alajbegović, Bajraktarević, Demirović, Lukić.
It is therefore not surprising that from the beginning it was evident how much better our team was than Panama, every time our players went forward, Panama was in trouble. We had no serious chances, and somewhat surprisingly, our wing players Esmir Bajraktarević and Kerim Alajbegović were quite indisposed.
Tarik Muharemović dominated, who repeatedly threw our attackers into dangerous situations with deep balls, and Amar Dedić, Jovo Lukić and Ermedin Demirović didn’t play a bad first half either. However, Panama had the first chance in the 16th minute when Barcenas’ attempt was saved by Nikola Vasilj.
Nhis namesake Katic gave the BiH national team the lead in the 23rd minute after Amar Dedić’s cross, and the stands of Energizer Park exploded with enthusiasm. Our team had a few more half-chances, where the Panamanians kicked the ball into the corner at the last minute, but it easily became evident and a serious flaw in our game that Barbarez will have to eliminate before the game with Canada. Panama created chances too easily after winning the ball, our counter-pressing was very weak, and so in stoppage time Vasilj took off Martinez’s zicer, then saved Murillo’s shot, but he had no chance against Ramos at the very end of stoppage time, so Panama equalized.
The second half started identically to the way the first ended, our footballers performed individually much better than the Panamanians, but with Alajbegović’s early shot, there were no serious chances.
On the other hand, the Panamanians were again quickly approaching our goal, and they had two more very good chances, which Vasilj successfully stopped. The picture was not significantly changed by five changes in our team. Čelik, Hadžiahmetović, Gigović, Memic and Baždar got their chance instead of Katic, Bašić, Tahirović, Bajraktarević and Lukić, but not much has changed in terms of formation.
It is comforting that the selector Barbarez pointed out before the match that he will hide certain things, and that a solution will be found very quickly so that our defense is not as porous as it was without a doubt in today’s match.
U In the 75th minute, our team played the best action since the start of the game, and Amar Memic finally hit the post of the Panamanian goal. Until the end of the match, there were chances from both sides, but in the end there was no change in the result.
