The excitement is building as we get closer to opening match of the 2010 World Cup. The Great Tournament is less than a month away and the anticipation of the 1st African World Cup is building, its going to be great. The final Group D team to breakdown is Serbia.

Official Name: Fudbalski savez Srbije (Football Association of Serbia)


Nickname: Beli Orlovi (White Eagles)

FIFA Confederation: UEFA (Europe)

FIFA Code: SRB

How They Qualified: 1st place in Group 7 of UEFA WC Qualifying

World Cup Appearances (Including 2010): 3 (After 1994-During Breakup of Yugoslavia)

Best WC Finish: 4th place, Uruguay 1930 & Chile 1962 (As Yugoslavia)

World Cup Record (MP: Wins - Draws - Losses): 7: 2W - 1D - 4L (After 1994-During Breakup of Yugoslavia)

Head Coach: Radomir Antić

Most Capped Player (# of caps): Savo Milošević (102)

All-Time Goal Scoring Leader (# of goals): Savo Milošević (37)

Brief Footballing History:
Before Serbia became its an autonomous nation, its players were part of the Yugoslavian national team. Prior to 1994, Yugoslavia qualified for the World Cup 8 times, they advanced out of the group stage 6 times. Yugoslavia's best finishes were a couple of 4th place finishes. In the 1st WC in Uruguay 1930, where they lost to the hosts in the semis and Chile 1962 where they lost to the hosts in the 3rd place match.

With the onslaught of the Yugoslav wars from 1991-1995 and the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia had to wait till Germany 2006 in order to participate in a World Cup as a independent nation, even though it was Serbia & Montenegro. South Africa 2010 is the 2nd consecutive World Cup that Serbia has qualified for but its the 1st for Serbia on its own, not under Yugoslavia and with no other country attached to it.

Player To Watch:
The player to watch for Serbia was in middle of a bit of a tug of war between two national teams for his services. A young player with a bright future, he is Neven Subotić.

Photo by Community.footballpools.com
The 21-year old Serbian born Subotić almost played for the United States. He was a member of the US youth international teams after his family moved to the US in 1999. However, apparent public criticism from US Under-20 coaches of Subotić's progress helped pushed the 6 foot 4 inch central defender to choose Serbia.

Outlook:
The Serbians will be highly motivated as this will be their 1st WC as only Serbia. The team is well balanced and can draw confidence from their impressive qualifying campaign. Serbia has the talent to win this group because Group D doesn't have one dominant team.

WC Group Schedule:
June 13 vs. Ghana
June 18 vs. Germany
June 23 vs. Australia

Group E teams are the next teams up.