For the second year in a row, the Coronavirus Hoax moved the traditional May Day street soccer tournament to the month of June. This time, the jubilee 30th tournament was more than a game – it was a tribute to two heroes from our settlement who gave their lives defending Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija, and which the treacherous colonial administration in Belgrade is trying to push into oblivion. They will not succeed.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the entire settlement gathered on the idea of preserving the memory of our heroes. Street soccer was there only as an occasion for great socializing and evoking memories. Everything always starts with the scoreboard table. You always have a crowd here, not only because all decisions are made there, but also because it is the only place by the pitch where there is a shade. It seems that there is also a well from which beer springs, but I never managed to break through to it 😉

The official title of this year’s tournament is:

“Heroes from Košare,
Buda and Civi”

The day started with determining the groups for the first phase, because as many as 16 teams registered for the tournament, including two youth teams. The skeleton of the competition was made like the one at the World Cup!

The audience took all the shaded places around the pitch, patiently waiting for the beginning of the tournament.

It was obvious that many were thirsty for a good soccer after a long break!

Saturday was hot after a few rainy days that almost hindered the completion of the mural. And on the field, the heat was multiplied by the desire to win!

After the end of the first match between the teams of ‘Smederevo’ and ‘Smederevo Youth’, the tournament was paused due to the ceremony of unveiling the mural dedicated to the fallen heroes Dragan Komarica and Ivica Serafinović.

The program of unveiling the mural was opened by Milan Čučković, announcing the anthem of Serbia, which was sung by Staša Mitić. Then he read the basic data about the heroes from our settlement, and Dragana Nikolić read patriotic poetry……

Fellow soldiers, friends and Dragan’s son evoked memories of our heroes:

Dragan Komarica was killed as the commander of the second division of the second platoon of the 5th battalion of the military police of the First Army, a unit that was on the frontline defense of the homeland all the time. It was the first unit to come to the aid of the 53rd Border Battalion of the Priština Corps, which received the first NATO strike on Košare. The Commander of the 53rd Border Battalion, Colonel Duško Šljivančanin, was with us today paying tribute to his fallen soldiers, finding the best words about them and confirming that there truly was a ground invasion on Serbia:

Ivica Serafinović, known in the settlement as Civi, was a member of the mortar company of the 125th Motorized Brigade of the First Motorized Battalion. They were there to respond with fire and they were beaten with fire there. The battle of Košare and Paštrik was described in the book “Košare and Paštrik – Serbian Thermopylae” by General Nebojša Pavković and Rear Admiral Boško Antić. The co-author of the book and former professor at the military academy, Boško Antić, was also with us today and conveyed the greetings from Nebojša Pavković.

On behalf of the veterans of the 5th Military Police Battalion, their representative presented symbolic gifts to the organizers of this magnificent memorial.

Then, with the sounds of patriotic songs, the mural was unveiled, and guests who came to Smederevo, wanted to keep а memento…

And here is a new generation that will be able to preserve the memory…

The event was covered by colleagues from TV Copernicus, reporter Zoran Jovšić and cameraman Bojan Nikodijević, and you can see their report here:

Smederevo thus joined a group of cities which, having lost all hope that the colonial administration in Belgrade would do something to preserve the memory of the knights who defended the homeland with their lives, decided to preserve the memory themselves, by painting murals. These cities are Kosovska Mitrovica, Negotin, Niš and Belgrade (Serbian language).

There is almost no person who lived in the settlement in 1999, who does not remember these guys, and everyone wanted to keep their memories despite reporting…

Thanks to a raised level of organization, the tournament continued well into the night under new spotlights. The night term is much more suitable for the game because there is no heat, but there were teams that still kept refreshing:

This team, ‘Nikšićko’, had strong competition, although they did not step out on the pitch at all 😉

During the tournament, donations were collected for the payment of the mural and for a further organization improvements of the tournament.

And let's not forget soccer. It was great as usual, with a lot of goals.

In the end, we have the results from the group stage, because the decision day is tomorrow: the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals! The first two teams from each group go to the quarterfinals, and here are the selected ones:

See you in the Finals!

All photos taken with the Fujifilm X-T20 camera with the Canon EFs 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS USM nano lens adapted to the Fuji body using Fringer adapter.