Bulgaria Month, June 7

Bulgaria 1-1 Republic of Ireland

The postmortem from The Sofia Echo's Nick Iliev: "It was a decent encounter on a sunny afternoon in Sofia that saw the travelling merry contingent of 3000 plus Irish supporters who had arrived to back their team, singing and drinking constantly. The carnival atmosphere was augmented by the 35 000 thousand Bulgarians who also created a wall of noise in support of their team. It was a good day of football, without crowd trouble, and although the score could have been a little better for the hosts, it will go down as a pleasant encounter for both sides."

And, so, while not definitively eliminated, Bulgaria appears unlikely to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup and instead likely to extend vigil for its next "Golden Generation." That's the nickname for the 1994 national team, the only Bulgarian side to ever achieve the World Cup semifinals.

Later during Bulgaria Month, we'll look at where else in the Bulgarian sports world resides excitement. More importantly today, however: http://www.sofiaecho.com/2009/06/06/731292_bulgaria-falls-in-love-with-fast-food?p=0#comments!