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The Return Of The King

August 12th, 2009 | By: Mario | 11 Comments »

Though the title deserves an immediate explanation, I’ll start the post off by saying a few words about today’s encounter. Eduardo Is Back! And seeing I skipped writing down the list of players called up for this one, I might as well start there. Traditionally, our defense is the last place you’d think we’d have trouble calling up quality players, yet this time Bilic had a worry or two on his mind. Turns out the only viable centre back pairing we have at our disposal is that of Krizanac and Simunic, with the likes of Knezevic and R.Kovac having been ruled out with injury earlier on. Eduardo Is Back! So with little improvisation, Bilic decided to call up Dinamo’s youngster Lovren to fill in the ranks. Though this move did raise a few eyebrows, to those familiar with Bilic’s tendency towards the youth (don’t quote me on anything illegal here, much appreciated) this didn’t come much as a surprise. Moving on, while many have flirted with the idea of having I. Juric dropped from the squad due to his misplaced comments, Bilic decided to keep the man on board. Good call? Eduardo Is Back! Sure, but keep those inquisitive reporters at bay please. Now onto more delicate things.

The Shape of Things to Come:
As mentioned above, the only viable but still arguably the best (in form at least) defensive duo of Simunic and Krizanac will park the bus in front of Runje, with the usual suspects Corluka and Pranjic completing the back four. In center midfield, Modric will do his usual passing routine while Vukojevic will be focused on biting the opponent. Literally. Srna and Kranjcar will occupy the flanks. Speaking of Kranjcar, he’s had quite an injury streak last season so here’s to hoping that today’s good performance signals a much better season for the Pompey midfielder. Up ahead we have an in-form Olic and that Brazilian lad that scores a bunch of goals every once in a while.

The Optimistist’s Corner :
That’s right, Eduardo is back. The one, true heir to the bad ass finisher that Davor Suker was. Hell, make that an upgrade to Suker. A cybernetic being sent from the future to score loads of goals and bring immense joy to Croatian people around the world. Yep, that sounds about right. Having spent the last year and a half going through lengthy recovery periods, things have finally started looking bright and if Bilic and Wenger are to be believed, Dudu looks rejuvenated. He already scored a couple of goals for Arsenal in their preparation friendlies, but this, well this is different. It’s Croatia, it’s vital, it’s difficult, and it’s time to score goals. The king is back.

But to take the spotlight away from Eduardo for a second, there’s one more player who’ll be out to prove a point in tonight’s clash. Ognjen Vukojevic, the one legitimate successor to Niko Kovac’s role will finally get a chance to prove his worth and perhaps even prove wrong Bilic’s decision of not handing him the team’s bulldog role as soon as Kovac senior decided to step down.

The Pessimist’s corner: vacant

Oh and here’s a few words about our opponents tonight: Hleb, Hleb & Hleb. Did I mention they have Alexander Hleb over there? No disrespect meant to his teammates of course, but the former Arsenal and Barcelona (minor names in world football these two, aren’t they?) is definitely Croatia’s public enemy number one tonight. But not to start instilling any kind of fear, I’ll just wish Belarus good luck and may the best team win (nudge nudge, you know what I mean). So let’s get this show on the road.

P.S. Eduardo Is Back!

Tags: Croatia, Croatia Belarus, Eduardo, Ognjen Vukojevic

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Comments

By ivan | August 12th, 2009 at 11:34 am

Like the starting line up you have there Mario. Except maybe the one at the very very back. I still think Pletikosa should start. Anyway on paper it looks like this is the starting lineup we need to get the job done. Lets hope they start playing like a team from the 1st minute, if they do that then it should be a victory for us. My prediction Cro 3 Bel 0. Goals by Dudu, Kranjcar and Modric.

Im off to the bar now to watch our boys play.

Cheers!

By ivan | August 25th, 2009 at 9:55 am

We won. Very little happening on this site

By Kevin | August 25th, 2009 at 7:40 pm

Haha yea little indeed. To be expected, Croatia isn’t a world powerhouse. I was only able to catch the second half in and out. From what I could tell we played pretty solid. Dissappointed to see Kranjcar subbed out as early as he did. Bring on England!

Posted from United States

By ivan | August 26th, 2009 at 12:32 am

We are a powerfull football nation. Since 1993 we have been in every major tourney except for 1. The England game is sold out (90,000). The bar I went to see the game at was packed with Croat supporters. We played very well. I also am a big Kranjcar fan and think he is very under-rated. Ever since he left Dinamo to join Hajduk Split the croatian media (mostly from Zagreb) have been negative towards him. Time is on his side to prove them wrong.

Some interesting rumours regarding Srna moving to the EPL. Chelsea, Tottenham, Atletico Madid and Barcalona all interested. $20 mill euro seems to be the asking price that Shaktar has put on him. Another stumbling block is Srna’s wage. Reportedly Srna earns 5mill Euro a year in Ukraine mostly tax free since the tax rate in Ukraine is very low for football players. One week left in the transfer season so if anything happens, it will be soon.

By Kevin | August 26th, 2009 at 10:09 am

That sounded different than what I had ment. I wasn’t knocking Croatia’s footballing ability, and of course they are going to have great support in Croatia. Was trying to say that they won’t have the same fanbase as an England, Germany, Brazil, ect because of population numbers and they won’t get the bandwagon fans those nations will. I do live in the States so my view on this could be completely different than someone who does live in Europe, however.

I would love to see Srna leave Shaktar. Why not Tottenham they already have 2 Croatians? haha. I think the way Atletico plays, plus their lack of quality in the back, could be a good fit for Srna.

Posted from United States

By ivan | August 26th, 2009 at 2:49 pm

No worries Kevin, I see your point. We dont want bandwagon fans anyway . Im in Canada and we do have a fairly large Croatian comunity here. Before the advent of online viewing of soccer games there were quite a few bars that showed international soccer matches. I remember going to a qualifying match for the 1998 world cup. There must have been over 1000 Croatian/Canadians packed in the bar and when Suker scored late in a game the bar exploded with celabration. It was amazing. Hopefully the USA get the world cup sometimes soon, it would be great to experience a world cup live and follow the Croatian team.

By Kevin | August 26th, 2009 at 6:19 pm

Thats awesome that you can go to bars and watch games, especially when you have fellow supporters of your team. I can barely find a place around here(North Carolina) that will have people viewing USA games, or club teams for that matter.

Posted from United States

By ivan | August 26th, 2009 at 11:10 pm

Its too bad that Soccer hasnt made a bigger impact in the USA. I guess it all starts with the media. More media coverage is needed to promote the game. The media covers things that are more popular so i guess its a “chicken and the egg” sort of thing. The media needs more people watching soccer so it can be put on the 1st page of the sports section and soccer needs more media coverage to get more people interested in it.

I thought Beckham coming to the Galaxy was going to make more of an impact but the result was a very short burst of interest. People smarter then me (or is it …smarter then I?) have tried to promote the game with little success. Im not sure what it will take to get even close to the popularity it has in europe. I did however read today (somewhere online) that ESPN2 was supprised at its ratings for this weeks EPL game of the week. They had a 400,000 viewership which was about 4 times the viewership FOX had averaged last year (90,000). A far cry from other top sports but nevertheless a huge improvement. ESPN signed its contract with the EPL just 12 days before the start of the EPL season so ESPN2 got these numbers with very little advertising. A good sign for soccer in the USA.

Anyway I got a little off topic here, I hope Mario dont mind

By Mario | August 27th, 2009 at 7:06 am

Hey you two, thanks for commenting. Sorry for the lack of updates, due to some bad things catching up with me lately I haven’t had the time to keep this thing the way I’d like to, quality and up to date. As far as off topic goes, as long as it’s not politics it’s ok with me Thanks again for hanging around, hopefully I’ll jump start this thing soon. Cheers.

By Kevin | August 28th, 2009 at 11:57 am

Yea im really shocked that ESPN is actually covering it. I think that speaks for how far soccer in the States has come over the years. It’s good that they just take the UK feed and show it here, people there actually know what they are talking about. I know more than the ESPN soccer analysts they have for USA games, they are a joke. More exposure to the beautiful game the better.

No worries Mario, hope all is well. I’ll be ready to read the next post of yours, hopefully regarding the England match.

Posted from United States

By Mario | September 1st, 2009 at 2:30 pm

@Kevin: nice to see football getting it’s share of attention in the States. And now if only you’d stop calling it soccer…kidding Oh and thanks for the support, it’s much appreciated

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