Meet Your Croat: Josip Simunic

Josip “Joe” Simunic. Sounds like a western comic character doesn’t it? Yeah I guess it doesn’t.
Anyway, here’s Meet Your Croat, vol. III:

Name: Josip Simunic

Born: 18. 2. 1978. (age 30)

Position: Centre Back, Left Back

Club: Hertha BSC Berlin

National Caps: 60 (3)

Biography:
Born in Canberra, Australia, Simunic is one of our adopted diaspora (wiki) players. Having started his professional career down under with Melbourne Knights in 1995, he moved on to bigger and better things (a.k.a. Europe) two years later, joining the German side Hamburger SV. After a poor spell there and a brawl with HSV coach Frank Pagelsdorf, Simunic signed for Hertha Berlin, and has been a massive influence in the club’s defense department ever since (2000.-present).

His solid performances led to his NT back in 2001 in a friendly against Korea Republic. Since debuting, his consistency on both NT and club level has granted him the automatic spot in Croatia’s first eleven.

On The Pitch:
Ever since Bilic took over, Simunic has usually occupied the Left Back position in our NT’s back four line (note that Bilic was the first one to introduce the 4-4-2 formation, abandoning our somewhat traditional 3-5-2). With 1.95m in height, Simunic is not really your typical wing back, with lack of pace being the obvious issue.

However, despite his height and natural tendency to defend, Simunic possesses very good technique, one which he tends to make use of (read “show off”) when dealing with routine defense duties.

Off The Pitch:
Though he seems like a laid back fellow, Simunic is a rather hot headed fellow. Due to this he’s often caught off guard, often resulting in bookings and quite a few sending offs. Apparently he was even suggested an “Anger Management” treatment, after getting himself sent off 4 times in 17 appearances. However, there have been signs of improvement in his behavior lately.

The Good: Experience, technique, height, versatility
The Bad: Pace, temperament, likes to “complicate” things in the back
The Random:
- was awarded 3 yellow cards in a WC game against Australia (Graham Poll incident)
- Niko Kranjcar once told a reporter that Simunic has the best technique in the NT and tries all sorts of “Ronaldinho-like” flicks when practicing
- said he’d like to try playing a midfield role one day
- fought a Hertha teammate (Dardai) during a training session
- recently promoted to a role of vice captain in his club

Coming up next: The Kovac Brothers.