All's well in the Bulgarian camp
June 17, 2004 Edition 1
Povoa de Varzim, Portugal - Two leading Bulgaria players have denied reports they were involved in a dressing room punch-up after the 5-0 defeat by Sweden on Monday.
The pair, Predrag Pazhin, a Serbian who qualifies for the team by virtue of a Bulgarian passport, and fellow defender Ilian Stoyanov, who was on the bench, stressed there had been no rows or fights after their Group C thrashing in Lisbon.
But that did little to dampen heated speculation among the Bulgarian media at the seaside hotel where those responsible for the reports thronged at a subdued news conference.
Pazhin, who failed to stop Swedish striker Henrik Larsson scoring twice on his return to competitive international action after a two-year absence, twice made voluntary and deliberate statements to clear the air.
"The reports in the Bulgarian press are not true," he said. "There was no fighting between us. You can see that we are here together today. There are no problems in the team at all."
Pazhin (31) a widely-travelled stopper who has played in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey and China, is one of three players in the 23-man squad who can represent the national team through having a Bulgarian passport though he was not born there.
The others are defender Zlatomir Zagorcic (34) and forward Zoran Jankovic (30) from Serbia and Montenegro.
Pazhin denied there had been any kind of tension within the squad caused by their different origins.
Stoyanov, trying to rebuild morale following a lengthy squad meeting behind closed doors at their Novotel base on Tuesday, recalled that Bulgaria lost their opening match at the World Cup in the United States 10 years ago but reached the semifinals. - Reuters
