Dragons and Unicorns

Olimpija Ljubljana become mainland Europe's first champions but has their reign ended before it's already begun?

Olimpija entered yesterday’s Vecni Derbi with the potential for greatness but the potential for massive pitfalls also. Their incredible form of the Autumn had given way to a slightly wobbly spring that had been punctuated with outbursts from Albert Riera that had suggested the pressure was starting to get to him a little bit. Gone was taking the responsibility for the negatives onto himself and in came a bit of referee blaming and asking questions of the players. The reality is that run-ins are difficult things with pressure added and, for a coach new to this type of pressure, it felt that he cracked a little.

And at a club that can turn small cracks in identity into gaping chasms and crises quicker than almost any other club in football, much of the discussion was that if Olimpija failed to take their first chance to secure the title, the cracks people saw in Olimpija would swiftly be so large that the foundations of their success would crumble.

But in the face of eternal rivals and in the face of an in form side in Maribor, with the hottest striker the league has had in many a season, they rose to the challenge.

Performing like champions

There is little doubt that the past two to three weeks of Albert Riera’s life have been eventful. Over the international break, his father passed away to be welcomed back to football with a commemorative banner from the Ultras against Tabor Sezana. Olimpija then put Riera through the wringer against Celje in the cup going to a 20 penalty long shoot out before going through. The day before the Maribor game was his birthday and then this.

Perhaps, bizarrely, all those things helped. They relieved the pressure by giving other things to think about than football, by testing character in the cup proving the squad’s grit and by providing a unifying factor to bring everyone together. In a run-up to the game where Olimpija’s chin was questioned and where the futures of both Riera and his playing staff were being openly speculated upon, it would have been easy for minds to wander.

They emphatically did not.

Maribor, for the first half at least, did not go quietly with a corner grazing the far post and an uncharacteristic misjudgement from Matevz Vidovsek resulting in him having to do some quick and impressive scrambling to prevent a goal. But when the opener came, it was exactly what Riera wanted his side to do.

Calm passing around the back led to space for Sualehe to run into created by Seslar drifting. A one-two allowed Sualehe to attack the space but Maribor may not have thought they were in that much danger until Sualehe unleashed a powerful daisy cutter into the opposite corner that bounced just in front of Azbe Jug and kissed the post on its way in. 90 seconds before half time, it was the perfect time to land a haymaker and meant that, if Maribor were to keep the title alive, they would have to come out in the second half on fire.

Instead, Olimpija put in perhaps their most complete 45 minutes of the season. While a side that contains the craft and guile of Ilicic and Tolic can never be silenced entirely, Olimpija were rarely anything other than comfortable in possession and it would be flattering to Maribor to suggest that they even created a half-chance. Maribor threw attackers on but were kept at arm’s length and Olimpija’s dominance was rewarded as Bristric got the party started early with a tap in created by a wonderful bit of skill from Svit Seslar with 15 minutes to go. Stozice, with 9,000 making the noise of a full house throughout the 90 minutes, was more than happy to indulge them with plenty of pyro and post-match pitch invasions.

What the future holds

But this is Olimpija. While Timi Max Elsnik was talking about taking on Europe next season, Albert Riera was non-committal on his future saying simply that he doesn’t know. Over the past couple of weeks, there has been ample discussion around the future of the side as a whole. Mario Kvesic, one of the side’s most impressive performers this season, has basically already been told the club cannot afford to keep him next season. Albert Riera seems likely to leave for similar reasons with the club seemingly openly courting Istra’s manager Gonzalo Garcia (which at least shows they’ve got good taste) as his replacement.

The club are stuck between a rock and a hard place somewhat - they have an excellent side, they have stumbled upon a style of play that works for their very specific needs and they are very good at it but they can’t afford to keep it going and it seems more or less certain to break apart this summer. Riera is a Guardiola acolyte and those listening to comms will have heard the term ‘Manchester City’ more than once during the title clincher but coaches with that background aren't exactly ten a penny, particularly ones who have the mental toughness to deal with the pressure of a title race as Riera has proven.

With all those factors in consideration, it’s easy to feel that this Olimpija are a bit of a unicorn, much as Igor Biscan’s redoubtable (but far less enjoyable) 17/18 title winners turned out to be. When you consider that this is a club that sacked both manager and sporting director a fortnight before the season, that Riera imprinted himself on the side so quickly is little short of miraculous. For Olimpija to have pulled off a title win from those circumstances is a shock equal to the title wins of Celje and Mura a couple of seasons back.

It would perhaps be even more shocking were they to actually keep this all together going into next season and Olimpija’s administrative challenge now is to either keep Riera through the summer transfer window at least and make clear to him they won’t stand in his way should a bigger club come calling or to identify Riera 2.0 so there is as little disruption to things as possible.

Regardless of what happens at Stozice, this season will be a summer of flux in the league given the amount of talent due for a sale going around the league such as Seslar, Vipotnik, Vidovsek and more. Much the same is the case in dugouts - Celje have dipped to a level where a change there seems inevitable, Dejan Grabic will get his first transfer window to create his idea of Mura and Koper, arguably, will find themselves looking also. The changes to European competition mean that group stages are more achievable and the national team have hit on a positive feeling also. There are ample reasons to think that this summer will be an explosive one in the Prva Liga that can hopefully be built upon for the medium term success of football in the country.

Olimpija, of course, won’t care about that. For Riera, the challenge is now to turn a title win into a double win to match Biscan’s side of five years ago be that as a sign-off to the most memorable one season spell he could imagine or be it as the foundation for more next season.

Olimpija will pray it is the latter.