No Solace for Serbs in Soccer Match

With a record as dismal as theirs has been lately, the Serbs sorely needed a victory from the Yugoslav national soccer team Wednesday night in its match against Croatia.

Instead, more than 50,000 fans suffered a blackout, a choking cloud of tear gas and a pathetic showing by players who were their own worst enemies. There was even a substitute striker named Milosevic who disappointed.

And after all the pain, nobody won the game, which ended 0-0. It was sport imitating life.

Yugoslavs may find more cause for hope today, when at least 100,000 anti-government demonstrators are due to rally in Belgrade, the Serbian and Yugoslav capital, in the biggest protest since NATO’s bombing campaign forced Serbian troops out of Kosovo in June.

With the opposition still deeply divided, President Slobodan Milosevic’s ruling Socialist Party hinted Wednesday that it may call early elections, but probably without the international supervision the opposition has demanded.

“We believe that there are more important things on the nation’s agenda than the elections, but if the opposition wants that, so be it,” party spokesman Ivica Dacic told Associated Press. “We are ready.”

Opposition to Milosevic is so divided that U.S. special envoy Robert Gelbard has met openly with several of the leaders to try to get them to work together.

Milosevic then turned the news of U.S. involvement against his political opponents by branding them lackeys of the same North Atlantic Treaty Organization powers that bombed Yugoslavia for 11 weeks.

Wednesday night’s soccer game, the first between the Yugoslav and Croatian national teams since the Yugoslav federation began to disintegrate in a series of wars eight years ago--including one in Croatia--was supposed to help salve the Serbs’ badly wounded pride.

In the wake of the country’s loss to NATO in the war over Kosovo, a southern province of Serbia, and the departure of the Serbian minority from Kosovo in fear, the soccer fans were hoping for better fortunes at Belgrade’s Red Star stadium.

Spirits were high before the referee blew the first whistle. Spectators jeered the police, both the Croatian and the Yugoslav national anthems, and set fire to both country’s flags.

They also mocked Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and in the next breath Milosevic, the man more and more Serbs are blaming for their seemingly endless humiliation.

“Tonight is our night!” fans in the north stands chanted before the match began. “Let Tudjman roast on a spit! Let Milosevic roast on a spit!”

Once the game began, and dragged painfully on, fans sank deeper into their seats and grumbled much like any crowd that’s tired of losing time and again.

“On the field, the Croats are better,” said Toplica Stojanovic, 29. “And they also have more political will to win than we do.”

The game, a qualifying match for the European championships next year, was supposed to be played March 27, but it was rescheduled when NATO began bombing Yugoslavia three days earlier.

The airstrikes did so much damage to the electricity grid that Belgrade still suffers regular power failures, which may explain why the stadium went pitch black in the first few minutes of the second half.

“NATO aggressors!” some shouted in the dark. “We have no power. Slobo, go away!” others jeered at Milosevic.

And they weren’t talking about Savo Milosevic, a striker sent in to save the Yugoslav team. Milosevic--no relation to the widely despised president--was a failure.

It took about 15 minutes to get the stadium lights back on, but a fan threw a canister of tear gas that wafted across the stands, forcing thousands of gagging spectators to take cover under their shirts.