A nation of just two million people, Slovenia have already punched above their weight to secure a place at this FIFA World Cup™. When one considers that they knocked out Poland, Czech Republic and, finally, Russia - population 142 million – to take their place in South Africa, the achievement becomes near-miraculous. Yet 2010 is, in fact, this fledgling football nation’s second appearance on the game’s biggest stage, and they are determined to continue defying the odds when they square up to the world’s best.
The road to South Africa
When the Preliminary Draw was made, most observers envisaged Group 3 being dominated by Czech Republic and Poland, two teams who had successfully qualified for both Germany 2006 and UEFA EURO 2008. As it was, the anticipated favourites melted into the background as the section developed into an enthralling two-way battle between Slovenia and Slovakia.
The Slovenians’ success was based on a defence that was arguably the meanest in the entire European Zone. True, the Netherlands just edged them in statistical terms, but Bert van Marwijck’s side also played two games fewer than a Slovenia team who conceded just four times in 10 group matches. Indeed, Matjaz Kek’s outsiders took their bid for top spot down to the final day, only to be denied when Slovakia – a team they had beaten home and away – somehow dug out a 1-0 win away to Poland.
Despite the Slovenians’ impressive efforts, it was clear that Russia could barely contain their glee being paired with them in play-offs, with Alexander Kerzhakov among those describing it as “a favourable draw” for Guus Hiddink’s team. How wrong they were. Everything looked to be adhering to the expected script when the Russians raced into a two-goal lead in Moscow, but their unheralded visitors refused to lie down and set up a thrilling return meeting when Nejc Pecnik fired home with just two minutes of the first leg remaining. The stage was set, and Slovenia rose to the occasion with a performance in Maribor worthy of any arena, one justly rewarded by a decisive Zlatko Dedic strike that secured one of the great qualifying upsets of recent years.
The star players
Household names are conspicuous by their absence in this Slovenia squad. Yet although his team’s success has been built on collective strength and spirit, Kek is not without talented individuals to call upon. Arguably the best known is Cologne striker Milivoje Novakovic, who scored five times during qualifying and, at 30, is approaching this FIFA World Cup at the peak of his powers. The Ljubljana-born striker describes himself as making up one third of Slovenia’s “backbone”, with goalkeeper Samir Handanovic and captain Robert Koren, a talented attacking midfielder, identified by Novakovic as comprising this key triumvirate.
The coach
A player renowned more for his leadership skills rather than any great natural talent, Matjaz Kek was already in his 30s by the time he won his one and only Slovenia cap in 1992. It was at Maribor, the club with which he won three successive titles in the twilight of his playing career, that Kek was given his first managerial post eight years later. After a moderately successful six-year stint, Kek moved on to Football Association of Slovenia in 2006, initially taking charge of the national U-15 and U-16 teams. By January 2007, however, he had been promoted to the position of senior coach, and has since gone on to exceed all expectations by leading his unfancied team back to the game’s greatest stage. As Kek himself said after seeing off the Russians: “Slovenia has realised a dream.”
Previous FIFA World Cups
Given that they only gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, Slovenia’s football history is shorter than the majority of their South Africa 2010 rivals. They can, however, reflect with pride on having qualified for the FIFA World Cup at just the second time of asking, when a team led by Srecko Katanec pipped the likes of Switzerland and, ironically, Yugoslavia to a place at Korea/Japan 2002. Sadly though, that debut tournament didn’t go as planned, with star player Zlatko Zahovic sent home after coming to blows with Katanec following the first of three straight losses during a disappointing group phase.
What they said
“For a small country like ours, it’s an incredible achievement to qualify for a World Cup. Before this qualification series started, nobody was giving this young team a hope. But now, the players and the whole country are proud of our success. We want to show that, small as we are, we can compete with the best,” Milivoje Novakovic, Slovenia striker.
- Source: Fifa.com
About the National Flag of Slovenia
Adoption and use of the Slovene flag
On 25 June 1991 Slovenia proclaimed independence from Yugoslavia and the flag was hoisted officially and for the first time on the Republic Square in front of the Slovenian Parliament in Ljubljana. At the same time the flag of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, bearing the red star, was lowered. Since there was not enough new flags, a lot of plain Slovene tricolour flags (without the coat of arms) were hoisted together with the new flag. The flag was officially adopted on 20 0ctober 1994 by the Law on the National Symbols.
Uroš Žižmund & Željko Heimer, 17 September 2002
The Slovene flag that can be bought in shops is officially in proportions 1:2. De facto, many flags are used in proportions 2:5 to match the municipal flags when they are hoisted together. There are also flags, intended for vertical hoisting, in proportions 4:1, especially popular for hoisting at border crossings or in front of official buildings.
Valt Jurečič & Željko Heimer, 26 January 2002
On the vertical flags, the coat of arms shall not be rotated vertically. Such a rotation was erroneously reported by Znamierowski [zna99]; this an evident confusion in flag use in Slovenia and Slovakia, the latter having the special vertical (rotated) version of the flag prescribed by the Law.
However, Slovene flags with the coat of arms uncorrectly rotated are sometimes used, as shown for instance by the newspaper Dobro Jutro (picture taken in Kranj, 4 July 2005).
Jan Zrzavy & Eugene Ipavec, 6 November 2005
History of the Slovene flag
The historical Slovene colours are the same as the Russian historical colours. However, contrary to the flags of Serbia and Bulgaria, the Slovene flag is not derived from the flag of Russia. This erroneous interpretation has been, unfortunately, spread by several authors, including Znamierowski.
Ivan Sache, 24 January 2007
Modern Slovenia is constituted of the entire historic province of Kranjska (Carniola), a part of Stajerska (Styria), a tiny part of Koroška (Carinthia), a part of Istria and some other parts.
The origins of the coat of arms of Carniola goes back to noble family of Counts of Andechs (they were the rulers over major part of Carniola in early 13th century). Their original coat of arms was a red eagle on silver. And that coat of arms became the coat of arms of the town of Kranj (Krainburg at that time), which was their main castle in Carniola. The red eagle was also adopted by Tirol because of the same family.
The same coat of arms was then adopted by Carniola, but the colour of the eagle changed in mid 14th century. In 1364, the eagle was blue on a silver field, with a silver-red chequered chest crescent. Around 1369, for sure in 1380, the field was changed to gold. In 1463 the Habsburg Emperor Frederic III changed the coat of arms to a blue crowned eagle on gold with a gold-red chequered chest crescent. That lasted until 1836, when Emperor Ferdinand I changed the coat of arms back to old colours (blue crowned eagle on silver with gold-red chequered chest crescent), because of the administration changes in the Austrian Empire.
So those were the colours which were transfered into the colours of the Carniolan (Slovenian) flag in 1848.
The tricolor flag was used:
* in 1848-1918, to represent the Slovene nation, but it was hardly ever recognized by the Austrian rulers. In the same time it was the landesfarben of Carniola, not a flag in the modern sense;
* in 1918, adopted by the Slovene nation that joined the State of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (1918-1929) but the State was too short of duration to have the flag officialized. Soon after the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), the flag was banned, or at least at times rarely tolerated;
* in 1941-1945, used by Slovene nationalists formations on Axis side, usually defaced with the coat of arms of Carniola. On the other side, the Slovene partisans used a flag defaced with a red five-pointed star or with OF emblem (zig-zag triple mountain line flanked with the letters OF)
* 1945-1990, always charged with the five-pointed star.
A flag with these three plain horizontal stripes was also the official flag of Slovenia (also Dravska banovina in the pre-Second World War Yugoslav Kingdom) up to 1945. In fact, it was used also by emigrants abroad after this time.
Aleks Hribovšek, Andrej Brodnik, Zoran Obradović & Željko Heimer, 24 June 2009
Location of Slovenia on the World Map
World Cup 2010 Games where you can see the Slovene Team in action:
Match 6
| 13/06/2010 13:30 | Polokwane Stadium | Slovenia vs | Algeria |
| Match 22 | 18/06/2010 16:00 | Johannesburg JEP Stadium | Slovenia vs | USA |
| Match 37 | 23/06/2010 20:30
| Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth Stadium | Slovenia vs | England |
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Cameroon
Chile
Côte d'Ivoire
Denmark
England
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Honduras
Italy
Japan
Korea DPR
Korea Republic
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Paraguay
Portugal
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Switzerland
United States
Uruguay
