This Nation

"Men love their country, not because it is great, but because it is their own." Seneca. I totally agree with the Greek on this one. They are approximately 195 countries on planet and lets be honest the bulk of them really are not that stellar. They are either poor, in a war time situation, the government pretty much run the citizenry lives or the worse of the lot, the country is hated by many. Seneca is right, if your country falls under any of those umbrellas one should always remember to love your country simply because it is yours. Even if there are ills, like social upheaval or economic instability it is your country and every citizen through birth or naturalization has the capacity to climb to the top or make resonating actions to make his or her nation prosper. It isn't easy they are obstacles but it can be done.
  With all the international football swirling around and the minor FIFA corruption scandal stagnating the air I thought I take the opportunity to promote one of the newer additions to the "FIFA Family," according to a certain recently unopposed FIFA president. I won't call names. 
 Montenegro gained her sovereignty and stood alone for the first time in 2006 when they annex themselves from Serbia. I am not a political man so I won't dwell on their history in the world but their history in football looks like a swift ascension. I have to back track on my words and invite history in the conversation. I could had at least waited a full paragraph to do that. As I write this Montenegro enjoys the luxury of calling themselves the 24th best team in the world.
 How did they get there? Well for one they are good. The reasoning behind that is that they come from very good stock. Montenegro was part of what was might of Yugoslavia a country in world football produced wonderful players like Predrag Mijatovic from Montenegro, Dragan Dzajic from Serbia and Zlatko Vujovic the Bosnia Croat. There has always been talent in the region. Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia all have players of note. They owe what legacy the forge today to Yugoslavia. Montenegro is no different. They owe their style, tactics and shared verve for the game with its predecessors Yugoslavia and its Baltic neighbors. It is about the men from Podgorica. In the 2006 World Cup held in Germany Serbia & Montenegro fielded a unified team at the start of the tournament. However it didn't end to well the unit loss all of its games including a 6-0 hammering by Argentina. It meant the team didn't make it pass the group stages. Quickly after this disappointment Montenegro finally got their chance to do things on their own in 2007. Where they  competed as a wholly sovereign state in their first game against Hungary where they won 2-1 at home. Since they are the newest team around that meant they started off with a rank the lowest rank 199th in the world so they really have to be credited as a success at this point it shows great hustle to reach the upper percentile of world football. As qualifying for a major tournament, the 2012 Euros held in Poland & Ukraine will be their first, they are giving a good account of themselves against like the likes of England and Switzerland. I hope they do well.
 On the player front, over the years Montenegro was quietly assimilated into the umbrellas of Serbia & Montenegro and Yugoslavia but now finally the microscope is fixed on their sons. Stevan Jovetic, Mirko Vucinic and Simon Vukcevic the ones that the "Brave Falcons," look to now before it was the likes of Predrag Mijatovic and Dejan Savicevic. They have real quality over there lets see how they carry on. My guess they will be soon staring down Serbia and Croatia for the accolade of best in the Balkans.  


One of Montenegro's Best