Successful dribbles: 40. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and NK Krsko spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Antonio Marin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Matic Birsa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. NK Domzale lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Domzale this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Matic Birsa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NK Domzale will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Domzale this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at NK Domzale training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matic Birsa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Koper scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Filip Bijol was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the NK Domzale dressing room was either.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
NK Domzale offered $1.1M; NK Celje said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Antonio Marin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Tomas Sikosek has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. NK Domzale will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at NK Domzale hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Koper have kept their man, and NK Domzale go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at NK Domzale training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gregor Elsnik is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
NK Domzale have made the call to HNK Rijeka. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sandi Kurtovic has his answer from NK Domzale; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NK Domzale, and both men came out saying it was fine.