Courtesy: UEFA.com

Beograd bank on Serbia strength

Wednesday, 22 November 2006

by Aleksandar Boskovic

from Belgrade

With the Elite round of the UEFA Futsal Cup taking place from 4 December, uefa.com is having a closer look at each of the 16 sides involved. Today we examine Group C contenders KMF Marbo Beograd, who take on two-time European champions Action 21 Charleroi, hosts Clearex Chorzów and Azerbaijan's Araz Naxçivan.

Successful start
The Belgrade outfit were founded in 1970 as KMF Mungosi. With futsal already a popular amateur sport it was decided to build a successful professional club and although there was no national Yugoslavian league they triumphed in around 70 tournaments over the next two decades. After the hard years of the 1990s, things began to change in 2000 when the club became KMF Tempo Kompani and two years later took their current name after a sponsorship deal.

Title hat-trick
In 2003/04 they became Serbo-Montenegrin champions for the first time and have gone on to complete a hat-trick of titles. Those honours meant European competition, and they impressed on their UEFA Futsal Cup debut in 2004/05, defeating 1. SC Incar Nitra 6-1 and FS Cap del Carrer 4-0 before a 7-3 loss to holders Boomerang Interviú in front of 2,000 fans at Belgrade's Sportski Center Voždovac.

Memorable week
Things got even better a year later after Beograd had this time stormed past the first qualifying round with wins against Dinamo Tirana, Athina '90 Athens and Slovenian hosts KMN Svea Lesna Litija, scoring a total of 32 goals. They were picked to stage Group B in the next stage, and chose the 6,000-capacity hall at the Palata Pionir, Serbia's most famous indoor venue. It proved a wise decision as the arena was close to full for three unforgettable nights of futsal, which began with a memorable 4-4 draw against 2004/05 runners-up MFK Dinamo Moskva, while holders Charleroi lost 4-1 to FC Shakhtar Donetsk. Shakhtar then defeated Beograd by the same score, and although wins for Dinamo against Charleroi and Shakhtar ended the Serbian side's hopes of progress, they played out an exciting encounter with the deposed champions, leading 2-1 through two Igor Šošo goals before losing 3-2. Beograd, of course, now have the chance to avenge that last result.

Ivancic in charge
This season there has been a change to the coaching structure, with 35-year-old Goran Ivancic now in sole charge having previously worked in tandem with Dejan Knezevic. Ivancic, also assistant coach of the national team, signed goalkeeper Vlada Radosavljevic to replace the departing Predrag Brzakovic while Borko Surudzic and Zoran Benić came in to take over from Davor Stankovic and Senad Aslani. However, the key men remain top scorer for the last three seasons Predrag Rajic, captain Bojan Pavicevic and another Serbia regular, Zoran Dimic.

Winning form
The changes certainly do not seem to have affected Beograd's form. Not only have they won all seven league matches to date, but they finished top of their UEFA Futsal Cup Main round group in Romania. Beograd defeated KMN GIB Beton MTO Zagorje 4-1 and FC Marlène 5-2, which meant they could afford a 3-2 defeat by hosts CIP Deva.



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com