Serbia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Montenegro etc Football Season 2018/19

[krdel]

I do not believe that each of those countries need a separate topic and I do not want to interfere with bugylibicska's copy-pasting in the "small leagues", so I am opening this topic. It is meant for the leagues and cups of Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, (North? ) Macedonia and maybe Kosovo, if someone is interested. Croatians will probably open it's own topic like each year.

So, in Serbia we have 16 teams, same system as before, 30 regular rounds and a play-off. Two teams will be relegated, this season newcomers are Proleter Novi Sad (they will probably play on Vojvodina stadium) and Dinamo Vranje. The main favourite is Crvena Zvezda (Red Star), other European contenders are again Partizan, Radnički N, Vojvodina, Čuka and Spartak, who will play in EL this season after many years. Unfortunately the stadium in Subotica is in extremely bad shape, but they promised to build a new one few days ago (such promises must not be taken to serious in Serbia).

Bačka
Crvena Zvezda
Čukarički
Dinamo Vranje
Mačva
Mladost Lučani
Napredak
Partizan
Proleter NS
Rad
Radnički Niš
Radnik Surdulica
Spartak
Vojvodina
Voždovac
Zemun

In Bosnia and Herzegovina this will be the first season with a new triple-round-robin system, which I believe it's great, but I think some of our forum members disagree. The favourites are similar as always, Croatian Zrinjski and Široki and Bosnian Željezničar and (to a lesser extent) Sarajevo. Banja Luka's powerhouse Borac was eventually relegated for licensing reason and Čelik stayed in top flight. Two newcomers are Zvijezda 09 from Stanišići (playing in Ugljevik) and a funny club "Tuzla City" (from Simin Han playing in Tuzla) with Sloboda's ex chairman. There are two second level leagues divided on ethnical princeps and I hope and expect for the legendary Velež Mostar to finally return to the premier league.

Čelik
GOŠK Gabela
Krupa
Mladost Doboj Kakanj
Radnik Bijeljina
Sarajevo
Sloboda Tuzla
Široki Brijeg
Tuzla City
Zrinjski
Zvijezda 09
Željezničar

In Slovenia Olimpija took the title from Maribor again and it is expected that we will have another season of 36 rounds of this "eternal" rivalry. Others are here to fill the places, Domžale are playing the best football in the league I would say, but they always lacked consistency and ambitions and support for something more, Rudar has a great coach, but they will have hard times if they want to repeat this great season and Celje might be the surprise this year. One club will be relegated and one will go into the relegation play-offs. This season's newcomer is one of the traditional clubs, third in the country support-wise, Mura from Murska Sobota. Also second league will be interesting, as there are some great clubs.

Aluminij
Celje
Domžale
Gorica
Krško
Maribor
Mura
Olimpija
Rudar Velenje
Triglav

In Montenegro we have the same system as in Bosnia, 12 clubs, but with more relegations. Previous season champion will play under new (for some controversial) name OFK Titograd, the name it has used during the time of Yugoslavia. The actual champion is Sutjeska Nikšić, which has high ambitions and has just revealed plans for the stadium reconstruction and the third favourite is Budućnost Podgorica, a giant from the capital. It is not much to say about the others, as they are quite small teams with considerably small support. Grbalj did not obtain the license, so Rudar from Plevlja, mining city in the mountainous north, will play in EL. Two newcomers are Mornar Bar and Lovćen Cetinje (oldest club in the country).

Budućnost
Grbalj
Iskra
Lovćen
Mornar
OFK Titograd
Petrovac
Rudar Plevlja
Sutjeska
Zeta

I don't really follow Macedonia that much. There are only ten teams now and they play standard 36 round system. The biggest club is Vardar from Skopje and the currently best is Škendija from Tetovo. Other European contenders are Rabotnički, Sloga, Sileks and maybe Pobeda. Pelister was unfortunately relegated, so there will be no eternal derby this year. Two clubs will get directly relegated and one will go into the relegation play-offs. This season newcomers are Belasica and Makedonija GP.

Akademija Pandev
Belasica
Makedonija GP
Pobeda
Rabotnički
Renova
Shkëndija
Sloga
Sileks
Vardar

[AnelZ]

I kinda used the wrong word when I said potential as it exists but it is very hard to unleash it. I mean the purchasing power over here is just too low for some higher european level and it won't change a lot in the next two decades. Partizan and Crvena Zvezda are household names and I don't see any club from Bosnia and Herzegovina being able to reach even that level anytime soon because they will hardly be able to match their finances. The record budget in a single fiscal year of any club of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 until today was 3,55 million € in 2015 by Sarajevo which was kinda inflated as they payed all their tax debt they had that year; the budget is around 2,5-3,0 million all the other years (Zeljeznicar tends to fluctuate more with the budget compared to Sarajevo).

[Posmatrač]

Spartak will play EL,on vojvodina stadium.Btw its hard to tell who will fight for european places and relegation,because there is lot of non-football factors,besides teams quality and performances

[krdel]

So, the first round is over and we already have some interesting results.

Crvena Zvezda-Dinamo (V) 3:0
Vojvodina-Mladost (L) 1:1
Radnik (S)-Partizan 1:0 !!!
Radnički (N)-Proleter 3:1
...

In Serbia Partizan lost already in first round, and that in Surdulica! Zvezda is on the way to the new title, while Vojvodina continues with poor home results. Both new teams also seem very poor.

Maribor-Rudar (V) 5:0
Gorica-Olimpija 2:0
Domžale-Krško 2:0
...

In Slovenia Olimpija also lost in first round. They changed coach and formation and have a lot work still to do. Maribor is the clear favourite this year, first they crushed Rudar.

GOŠK-Željezničar 0:1
Sloboda (T)-Zrinjski 0:1
Radnik (B)-Sarajevo 2:1
...

In Bosnia Sarajevo lost, while the two main favourites Željezničar and Zrinjski both won away. It seems another tough season for Sloboda and Čelik.

[AnelZ]

Good start for us. It was apperent already 2-1 against Narva that the players stopped to run as before that goal in order to conserve energy for the league game as the goal is, like any other season, to win the title. First half was had quite some chances and only thanks to some nice goalkeeping did the first 45 minutes finish 0-0. Wasn't able to watch the second half so didn't even see the goal until today. Zec scored it soon after he entered from the bench, I do think he deserves more confidence from the coach.

Hope we can play good against Appollon on Thursday, a very tough match awaits us and then already the weekend after that game we have an away game again in the league again Celik which is a derby when it comes to the rivalry.

[EarlofBug]

Partizan lost their first match against Radnik!

Also, Basel lost their first match in the Swiss league against St. Gallen

[krdel]

Crvena Zvezda-Radnički (N) 2:0
Dinamo (V)-Partizan 0:1
Zemun-Vojvodina 0:0
…

In Serbia Zvezda won, but they scored their first goal from a very dubious position, as it seemed clear offside (the second goal was a penalty in added time, when Radnički opened a bit). Partizan fans will be furious I think, well at least their team won against Dinamo in Surdulica (Yumco stadium is not yet ready it seems). Vojvodina still poor, Spartak lost…


Maribor-Mura 0:0
Krško-Olimpija 0:0
Domžale-Rudar (V) 3:1

Some interesting results and less interesting matches to watch in Slovenia, the traditional eastern derby between Maribor and Mura ended 0:0, but then Olimpija despite some chances played the same in Krško. Domžale kept the form and won routinely.

Sarajevo-Mladost (DK) 4:0
Zrinjski-GOŠK 3:1
Čelik-Željezničar 1:0 !!!

Željo lost in Bosnia against Čelik, one of the poorest clubs in the league. I haven't watched, so maybe Anel will inform us on that one.

[popularside]

As it is mentioned in the first post I thin k it is OK to ask here?

Anybody know when the fixtures will be released for the league in Kosovo? I'm interested in games on Saturday September 8th so probably not the Superleague.

[krdel]

Of course it is ok.

The problem is they are albanian and I (and probably most others here) do not understand that language, so I cannot search it for you. Maybe someone will know, otherwise just keep checking their federation website.

[AnelZ]

Abysmall display against Celik, on par with our performance against Apollon. Can't expect a good result when you play like that, even against a very poor Celik. Krcmarevic resigned after only two months citing that fans are right by demanding the highest goals from the club and that he made mistakes during the transfer period as he didn't brought enough players to fill all the gaps but in my opinion he just wasn't ready to deal with the pressure. The team is taken over by Milomir Odovic and I hope he can bring us back on the right tracks.

[popularside]

Of course it is ok.

The problem is they are albanian and I (and probably most others here) do not understand that language, so I cannot search it for you. Maybe someone will know, otherwise just keep checking their federation website.

Thanks. I have been checking the federations website (they have an English version too) and Soccerway but nothing yet.

[krdel]

Olimpija also sacked the coach Stolica after the poor start.

[popularside]

Answering my own question here but have at least found the opening round of fixtures from Kosovo.

http://www.ffk-kosova.com/en/?p=12766

[krdel]

Voždovac-Crvena Zvezda 1:2
Partizan-Mladost (L) 0:0
Radnički (N)-Dinamo (V) 2:0
Vojvodina-Rad 1:2
…

In Serbia another surprise from Partizan, this time they lost two points at home against Mladost. Zvezda won on top of the shopping centre and extended their lead on partizan to 5 points already. Vojvodina lost and stays without a win this season.

Aluminij-Maribor 1:5
Mura-Domžale 5:1
Olimpija-Celje 2:2
…

Biggest surprise is Domžale's defeat in Murska Sobota against a newcomer with five goals to one (some bad referee decisions, but stil..). Maribor won routinely, Olimpija only drew again.

Sloboda (T)-Sarajevo 0:1
Široki Brijeg-Čelik 6:0
…

Sarajevo won the traditional duel in Tuzla, while Široki goes on top with an easy win over very poor Čelik. The derby of the week between Željo and Zrinjski is still being played. So far it seems that the manager change has paid off.

[AnelZ]

Željezničar 2-0 Zrinjski
attendance: 5500

Could have easily been even a higher margin, we had two more great chances with one hitting the bar and the other going just a little bit beside the goal with a lot more decent chances. Zrinjski did came to the match without couple of standard players but we played really, really good and that is the main cause for the, suprisingly, easy win. First half was totally dominated by us where we also scored both goals (one from the penalty spot) while Zrinjski did finally play football in the second half, especially the last 20-25 minutes where they had one great chance saved with a parade from our GK. A lot of completed passes, even in tight quarter, and above average movement and running from our players. This squad honestly do seem more compact and better then what we had last season + Odovic preffers posession and attacking. In the last 5 years there have been less then 10 games where we played as tonight, at least on home turf as I watch only 20-33% of our away games so can't comment on them.