Long standing alongside some of Eastern Europe’s dormant football powerhouses with sporadic, but memorable winning runs in either a European, World Cup or Olympic championship, the Bulgarian national football team of today has long ago waved goodbye to its former days of glory. Once seen as a dark horse in any qualifying group stage by the likes of England, France and Germany, inflicting historic victories or registering shocking results at Wembley, Parc de Princes or “Vasil Levski” national stadium against the reigning German champions (1995), today’s remnants of what used to be a mighty side sink still deeper into the structural, administrative and organizational mayhem set by the country’s golden generation from the 1994 World Cup in the USA. It’s been these same handful of footballers who reached the semi-finals at the world’ biggest football stage and infamously defeated Argentina of Diego Maradona and Germany of Juergen Klinsmann and Lothar Matthaeus on their way to the nation’s first ever bronze medals from a World Cup - these same people who have overtaken the Bulgarian Football Union’s administrative ranks by storm over the last 15 years. The same men, who have swayed funding for football clubs and youth academies, keepings things barely afloat and notoriously twice re-electing the same ‘father figure’ of Bulgarian football as a president, namely Borislav Mihaylov.
But while the root of this footballing state of affairs continues to condemn the national team to placing even lower into the bottomless pit of sport team performances, it’s only fair that we turn into the latest results of the national team to prove this point.
With no clear long-term agenda, a change of 12 coaches in the last 15 years and boasting a squad that has no healthy balance between young talents and veteran players, it's no wonder that results continue to disappoint. Last Thursday’s latest defeat at home to Paraguay in a friendly match confirmed just that - a 0:1 loss, conceding a total of 13 shots to Bulgaria’s 4, a paltry 37% ball possession and another saddening scoreline which increased Bulgaria’s streak to a record 12 consecutive games without a win. Yet somewhat bizarrely, minutes after the end of the match, Georgi Dermendzhiev - Bulgaria’s newly appointed coach, shared his overall satisfaction and admiration for the style of play, but blamed the pressure as the reason for the loss.
Blaming the pressure in a friendly match with a new coach on the sidelines and in front of less than 2000 people at the national stadium - still another record for lowest attendance at a home game of the national side, may easily explain how detached Dermendzhiev is from football reality with the “Lions” at the moment.
But still more troubling for Bulgarian fans is the prospect of facing Czech Republic in today’s last game for the Euro 2020 qualifiers. Last in a group with the teams of England, Czech Republic, Kosovo and Montenegro, the winless run of games could soon increase to 13 in all competitions. Unless a consolating and by all means a largely surprising win would end the current abysmal record, the team is set to endure more boos and votes of no confidence from the entire football nation once again.
The selection of all 24 current national team players could look with little more than anxiety at all the previous major winless series in the last 20 years, knowing they have surpassed them long ago. Here are some of them.
6. September 5, 2001 - August 21, 2002 - 6 games without a win
World Cup 2002 qualifiers:
Bulgaria 0:2 Denmark
Czech Republic 6:0 Bulgaria
Friendly games:
Croatia 0:0 Bulgaria
Ecuador 3:0 Bulgaria
Mexico 1:0 Bulgaria
Bulgaria 2:2 Germany
End of winless streak
First game of Euro 2004 qualifiers
Belgium 0:2 Bulgaria
Goalscorers: Goran Jankovic and Stiliyan Petrov
5. November 17, 2004 - June 4, 2005 - 6 games without a win
World Cup 2006 qualifiers:
Bulgaria 0:3 Sweden
Hungary 1:1 Bulgaria
Bulgaria 1:3 Croatia
Friendly games:
Azerbaijan 0:0 Bulgaria
Egypt 1:1 Bulgaria
Bulgaria 0:0 Serbia and Montenegro
End of winless streak
Friendly game:
Bulgaria 3:1 Turkey
Goalscorers: Dimitar Berbatov and Martin Petrov
4. September 6, 2008 - March 28, 2009 - 6 games without a win
World Cup 2010 qualifiers:
Montenegro 2:2 Bulgaria
Bulgaria 0:0 Italy
Georgia 0:0 Bulgaria
Republic of Ireland: 1:1 Bulgaria
Friendly games:
Serbia 6:1 Bulgaria
Switzerland 1:1 Bulgaria
End of winless streak
World Cup 2010 qualifiers
Bulgaria 2:0 Cyprus
Goalscorers: Ivelin Popov and Dimitar Makriev
3. March 3, 2010 - September 7, 2010 - 6 games without a win
Euro 2012 qualifiers:
England 4:0 Bulgaria
Bulgaria 0:1 Montenegro
Friendly games:
Poland 2:0 Bulgaria
Belgium 2:1 Bulgaria
South Africa 1:1 Bulgaria
Russia 1:0 Bulgaria
End of winless streak
Euro 2012 qualifiers:
Wales 0:1 Bulgaria
Goalscorer: Ivelin Popov
2. June 4, 2011 - February 29, 2012 - 7 games without a win
Euro 2012 qualifiers:
Montenegro 1:1 Bulgaria
Bulgaria 0:3 England
Switzerland 3:1 Bulgaria
Bulgaria 0:1 Wales
Friendly games:
Belarus 1:0 Bulgaria
Ukraine 3:0 Bulgaria
Hungary 1:1 Bulgaria
End of winless streak
Friendly game:
Netherlands 1:2 Bulgaria
Goalscorers: Ivelin Popov and Iliyan Mitsanski
1. October 16, 2018 - November 14, 2019 - 12 games without a win
Nations League:
Norway 1:0 Bulgaria
Cyprus 1:1 Bulgaria
Bulgaria 1:1 Slovenia
Euro 2020 qualifiers:
Bulgaria 1:1 Montenegro
Kosovo 1:1 Bulgaria
Czech Republic 2:1 Bulgaria
Bulgaria 2:3 Kosovo
England 4:0 Bulgaria
Montenegro 0:0 Bulgaria
Bulgaria 0:6 England
Friendly games:
Republic of Ireland 3:1 Bulgaria
Bulgaria 0:1 Paraguay
Still on track with the current winless 12-game record, the Bulgarian team has scored 8 goals and conceded 24. If they lose or draw to the Czech Republic team, they will need to wait for another 4 months before the international break seeds them against another national team in a friendly, when the team will attempt to break their winless curse.
