History Of The World, Part II

Well not much can be said about Croatia in France 98′. We sort of walked in there unannounced, caused havoc, and walked away with some bronze stuff in our pockets. Something like “Veni, Vidi, Vici“, but with a slight exaggeration on the “Vici” part. First thing to mention though, and I’m sure no one except probably die hard Croatia NT fans will know this, one person must be credited for actually booking us a trip to France that summer. Hero of the day was none other than Peter Schmeichel, whose clean sheet against Greece on the final qualifying day meant that Denmark had qualified automatically and Croatia occupied the second (playoff) place and lived to fight another day.

I remember how a national TV here in Croatia broadcasted that match, and well, in a cracking atmosphere where Greeks expectedly dominated and Schmeichel was literally under siege 24/7, you could say it just wasn’t your average, mildly exciting affair. A parallel might be drawn between what Denmark did for us back then and what we did for Russia’s NT nowadays. But of course, we did it with slightly more style (*wide grin*). Oh, it might even be worth mentioning that it was Ukraine who we played in those crucial playoffs, beating them 2:0 in Zagreb and defending that lead with a 1:1 score in the return leg. It was a less dramatic tie due to a crucial away first half goal scored by Boksic (pictured) (though Ukraine did give us a scare by taking the lead earlier on).

Now onto 98′. We had a very promising group draw, which saw us end up with WC contenders Argentina and fellow WC debutants Japan and Jamaica. One major football force and three rookies, with the latter surely battling it out for second place. Our first match saw us go head to head with a nation one would rarely associate with football, that of Jamaica.

It was a fairly balanced affair until we broke the deadlock on 26th minute, with Stanic pouncing on a rebound following some neat set piece play. The Reggae Boyz did fight back and managed to grab an equalizer just before the half time break, Robbie Earle getting on the scoresheet. So at halftime, all was level with both teams scoring their first ever WC goals in their WC debut match. However, with a significantly tougher qualifying experience behind us and simply put, more quality at disposal, that match was always going to go our way. Prosinecki restored our lead, with a wicked looking cross from the left. A natural right footer but equally adept with his left, Prosinecki tricked the Jamaican keeper (and probably the rest of the world as well) and instead of crossing he managed to put the ball in the back of the net. Suker capped it of with a finish that saw Croatia walk away with a 3:1 victory.

That goal also meant Suker had opened his WC scoring tab, which was, as I’m sure you all know, not at all modest during those few weeks in France. Next up was Japan, a nation on whose mention you’d probably grab your Playstation remote instead of football boots, but nevertheless, they gave us quite a scare.

It was a decent match, with a host of chances on both sides, most of them coming from our side. I remember Suker missing a handful of chances, then finally breaking the deadlock some 15, 20 minutes before the final whistle. Ladic also made a few key saves that afternoon, but what was most memorable about that match was the stubbornness of Japanese defenders throughout the match and then the sheer delight and relief which followed after finally breaking them down. There was an extra weight added to this victory, as Argentina had also beaten both Japan and Jamaica, meaning we were through regardless of how our encounter with the Gauchos went. It was a dream scenario really. But to keep this as short as possible (note the irony), I’ll just say that we went on to play a not-so-memorable match against the Argentinians.

In regard to what was happening on the pitch, it was an open affair and could’ve gone either way. We ended up losing with Pineda scoring the winning goal late in first half. In truth it was a match we were lucky to lose, as groups winners Argentina went on to play England in last 16, leaving us to battle it out with a slightly less predominate Romania (on paper of course).

I’ll put up the second part in a separate post, seeing as I’ve probably broken a record or two with this one’s length. Oh, and if anyone is interested you can catch the highlights of the above mentioned games on the following youtube links:

Croatia - Jamaica
Croatia - Japan
Croatia - Argentina

Credit goes to Azra2796 for posting these up.