Bundesliga. Olic and Rakitic. Thunder and lightning. Now I’m certain there’s a lot of people out there (myself included) who’ve doubted Ivica’s quality and his chances of making it on this high a level, but boy were we wrong. This man, if his lung capacity doesn’t disqualify him of being labeled as one, has single-handedly led the German outfit to doorstep of European glory. Nah. You can forget about fancy Robben volleys, or those dazzling Ribery runs. If not for Olic, those tiny bits of football magic would be buried forever under avalanche of boo’s their fans would have thrown at them had they not made it out of the group stage back in late December 2009.

It was Olic who went to Turin and beat Juventus, and it was Olic again who went to Old Trafford and made sure the last of “The Big 4″ was eliminated out of this year’s Champions League. And though his last minute winner in the first leg was as crucial as a goal can get really, one cannot argue that his goal at the brink of half time at Old Trafford wasn’t at least equally as important when looking at the big picture of this quarterfinal fixture. Because not only were playing away at one of Europe’s essential footballing grounds, and not only were they 3:0 down; they were complete and utter kacke, mist, scheiße. (Prepare for a few nasty images if you Google those terms. Don’t say I didn’t warn you). And somewhere, somehow, again, Olic stepped up and brought hope when visiting side’s approach had left them hardly deserving anything, let alone hope. The rest is history of course.

Bayern now face Lyon in Champions League semi-finals, in what promises to be an exciting, all to play for, Olic-to-score-another-winner encounter. But where was Pranjic in all of this? Well, and I’m really happy to say this, he *was* around. While not a first team regular, Danijel did his fair share of hard work, capped off with a solid performance in Munich’s first leg against Manchester. Curious though, was the role with which Pranjic was appointed in that particular match. Cause for the last what, three or so years, we’ve been contemplating on whether his best role was at left back or left wing, and here he was, playing a deep lying midfielder in a match as competitive as they get in regards to club football. He did well, held his position defensively and kept it simple on the offensive department.

So what’s next for these two? Well, seeing as Bayern are alive & rolling in all three competitions (top in Bundesliga and German Cup finalists), they’ve got plenty of exciting stuff ahead of them. And so does Schalke’s Rakitic, who is by the looks of things, playing the best football in his life. Consistently strong performances, capped off with 7 league goals so far (some, well actually most of them fairly spectacular), Rakitic, along with Kuranyi and Farfan, looks to be Schalke’s strongest card in an effort to overtake Bayern at the top of Bundesliga. These performances of course led to Rakitic being linked with a couple of big names, with Mourinho’s Inter side particularly standing out. While flattering and awarding at the same time, I can still see Ivan staying at Gelsenkirchen for another year, especially with German side looking certain of reaching Champions League football next season.

Mladen Petric? Here you go.

A decent season behind him so far, even more so with a solid record he’s having in Europa League, scoring 5 goals in the competiton. And with Hamburg still alive and kicking in EL, let’s hope he adds a couple more wonder goals to his name.

Joe Simunic? No fancy links here unfortunately, but seeing as he’s actually there to prevent goals like the one above from ever occurring, it kinda makes sense. Though I will say he’s had solid season so far, even if same can’t perhaps be said for his Hoffenheim side, who are sitting at 13th with 3 games to go. Their record isn’t too shabby (39 conceded), but their overall performance left something to be desired, particularly after last season’s great result. And speaking of good/poor results, how smart (or poor on Hertha’s behalf) was Joe’s decision to leave Hertha for Hoffenheim last year? Very smart I’ll say, because the Berlin team is sitting at the bottom of the table with zero to none chance of avoiding the drop. Smart move Joe.

OK you’ll need a bit more info then that. So, against a rather young & promising Belgium side Bilic decided to try and give a go at a 3-5-2 system, a formation most of us really saw as obsolete, and with right reason. Because, and I’m fairly shocked with Bilic here, why try and play with 3 at the back when roughly 90% of the world plays with a back four, not to mention the fact that we’ve been struggling at left back for generations now, and you’d need a class act at both sides if you’d like your 3-5-2 to be remotely useful. So yeah, we disagree, and I’m pretty sure the majority of fans feel like this as well. But on with the game. Our starting lineup featured familiar faces, with only Mate Bilic upfront and Hrvoje Cale at left back as exceptions. We looked pretty disorganized right from the start, and it was our luck the host looked pretty out of shape as well.

There was no real passing game going on, with loads of mistakes coming from our usually dependent passing maestros Modric & Kranjcar. Cale looked impressed by the occasion, and I’m not sure I blame him as the role he was asked to play would have impressed a much better player then him. All in all it was a scrappy game decided by a fortunate goal. The goal, while a good strike, was in all honesty a blunder on Belgium goalie’s behalf. Of the players introduced later in the match, Eduardo looked lively, though at times leaving that impression that he’s more eager to assist rather then score.

Also, lately I’ve seen a lot of negative comments aimed at Srna’s performances. And I have to say it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a decent performance by him, certainly nothing that would compare with his world class reputation he’s made for himself at Shakhtar. Robert Kovac came into the press recently and stated that Croatia lack the leader that Niko Kovac was, and I have to admit I’m in agreement. There’s chemistry missing on the field, and no attempts at some weird formation will cover it up. Bilic needs to bring in fresh blood, ASAP.

This was the first time all of our 3 musketeers started and played the whole match through and through. And not just that, but it was their interplay that led to a fantastic Modric goal, which proved to be a match winner in the end. Though comfortably up in the first half, Spurs were made to work hard for all three points as the visitors kept pushing for the equalizer right until the final whistle.

Blackburn predictably lost away to Liverpool, but with Kalinic now firmly cemented in Rovers first eleven, we can’t have any complains there. The rest of our Premiership force ain’t involved as much, with Eduardo back on the bench after an injury Klasnic being played periodically. Though, regarding Klasnic, if the reports I’m seeing are accurate, he’s doing good things with the time he’s being given.

Still in Premiership, Srna has apparently made some baby steps in his (long overdue) transfer to Chelsea come next summer. It’s still miles (and months) away, but I’d (and probably everyone except Shakhtar fans) would love to see Darijo sign for a top club on a top level. Not to disrespect Shakhtar or anything, it’s the league standard that I’m referring to here mostly.

In Bundesliga, Rakitic scored a beauty in Schalke’s 2:1 win over Borussia Dortmund, earning himself the man of the match title in the process. The brightest spark in a title contending side, this is definitely the Rakitic we all want to see. Bayern played HSV, with Olic and Petric featuring and Pranjic sitting through the match as an unused substitute. With Bayern coming out on top with a 1:0 win, it looks like a repeat of pretty much every Bayern weekend for the last couple of months. Bayern wins, Olic gets scraps while Pranjic dozes away on those comfy benches. It’s ironic that we should actually cheer for a couple of poor results for Bayern, just so the coach mixes it up a bit and gives our players more playing opportunities.

Looking at the Bundesliga table, it’s a nice view once you consider that out of top 4 clubs, 3 have at least one Croat in their roster, Leverkusen being the only exception. Honorable mention goes to Zvonimir Soldo and his Koln side, who’ve managed to upset Leverkusen with a goalless draw and surrender the league leaders position to Bayern.

In France, Runje couldn’t help his side to better then a 1:0 away loss to Toulouse, while Dejan Lovren was benched in Lyon’s 2:0 win over Nice. After a string of first team appearances and with a few Lyon regulars returning from injuries, Lovren has sat through the last few matches. There was a lot of talk regarding Puel and his decision to use Lovren so soon and so often, and it looks like the coach decided to play it safe for now.

Before closing this week off, there’s a brief visit to Serie A we have to make, where Igor Budan came on as a substitute for Palermo and less then a minute later scored the second goal for visitors in their 2:0 shock win over Juventus. Budan sort of fell under the national team radar for the last year or so, yet with the likes of Mandzukic and Kalinic on the verge of first team, a few more moments like this and Budan might be an option for Bilic to consider.

Bayern’s form is still red hot, even if our duo isn’t exactly making the same impact as before the winter break. Against Dortmund Olic came on as a substitute with twenty minutes to go and Pranjic sat through the match. We’d like to see more from our Munich duo but with Bayern’s winning row extended to 12 matches now, you can understand Van Gaal’s decision in not changing the ingredients of what seems to be a winning formula.

Yay, we’ve got a new league & new face to report on. In France, at Lyon to be more precise, Dejan Lovren has already established himself as a first team player. Need I remind you that it’s been a month at most since his transfer from Dinamo to Lyon, and this guy has already got a handful of starts under his belt. Acclimatization? What’s that? A fantastic start for the youngster, as he promises to be an integral part of Lyon’s back line in years to come. In regards with this weekend, Lovren played the whole match against Runje’s Lens. Lyon won 1:0, in a fixture we can now officially declare our french-croatian derby.

Meanwhile, back in our favorite Premiership, Tottenham are struggling. And there’s a tiny coincidence their slip of form started around the time both Modric & Kranjcar were both fit and ready to play. Harry Redknapp seems to have dropped the idea of having both of our midfielders start the match, and now simply prefers to rotate them on Tottenham’s left side of midfield. Ideal scenario? Modric in the middle and Kranjcar on the left, or what I like to call (uninspiring I know), the Bilic way. Anyway, this weekend in England was reserved for FA cup matches, which saw Tottenham earn a replay at White Hart Lane after drawing 1:1 away at Bolton. Moving on, Kalinic looks like he’s settled in at Blackburn and is starting to play a significant role in Rovers’ mid table exploits.

To be honest, I wasn’t quite expecting Kalinic to break into the squad this fast, especially after a relatively slow start he has had. Good times for Kalinic, not so good for Klasnic and Eduardo. Both are struggling with injuries, with Eduardo’s one coming at a particularly, excuse the language, crap moment. Arsenal had a string of decisive matches, and Eduardo once again had to sit through these sidelined. Few things in life are certain, and Eduardo NOT winning the lottery is one those things. To illustrate (that bad taste humor I was mentioning):

(…I know, I’m sorry)

We drew Greece, Israel, Georgia, Latvia and Malta in Group F of Euro 2012 qualifiers. Greece, though Euro champions recently, are probably one of the more predictable sides we could’ve drawn from pot 2. A well organized side and a tough nut to crack, perhaps equivalent to the Ukraine side we faced in our last WC qualifying cycle. We’ve faced Israel a couple of years ago as well, came out victorious in both matches. Still, that one promises to be a tricky away fixture.

The rest of the group with Georgia, Latvia and Malta, looks favorable as well. Georgia and Latvia are sides known to cause an upset or two on their day, with football slowly but steadily on the rise in both nations. Still, the gap in quality ensures us to see these as routine fixtures. As for Malta, well they’re Malta. They won’t beat anyone but it sure as hell won’t stop them from trying.

Oh and I’ve just noticed that Greece, Israel and Latvia have actually played each other in WC 2010 qualifiers, in what was a pretty tightly contested group.

Here’s how the whole thing played out today:

Yep, looking good from our perspective.

While indeed all 3 players had made appearances in the match (Olic was substituted and Pranjic was brought on later in the match), only Simunic did the whole 90 minute routine. Still, the 3 points and the ultimate bragging rights stay in Munich, as Bayern won the match 2:0. Meanwhile, Petric scored his fourth of the season in his team’s 2:0 beating of Freiburg. Hamburg’s No.10 took advantage after a defensive blunder and beat the keeper from short range with his weaker right foot.

Also in Bundesliga, Rakitic had a busy weekend, playing the whole 90 minutes in Schalke’s 1:0 victory over Nürnberg. Further on Rakitic; for quite some time now I’ve felt that his progress has hit a brick wall. I remember a few years back he was this extra promising young forward, banging in goals and assists and making headlines with rumors that the likes of Inter Milan were interested in signing him. Yet, since then till now, he’s somewhat struggled to win back/keep his spot on the team, and his overall progress has, at least according to my own impression, stagnated. Still, he remains a massive talent (among the top in our current crop of players surely) and let’s hope he can get back on track as quickly as this spring.

Back in Premiership, loads of stuff to report on. As always, our first stop is North London. Modric, Kranjcar and Corluka played the whole 90 minutes in their club’s goalless draw against Hull City. I swear, the day when Tottenham field more Croats then English is fast approaching. And as if to further bolster this theory,rumor is that Pletikosa was actually having a medical in London a few days ago. Stipe has made it known on numerous occasions that he’s very fond of Premiership, but misfortune struck as his knee is apparently what halted the deal. As for the game itself, it’s worthy to note that our playmaking duo occupied the wings, Modric on the right and Niko on the left side of the pitch. Being similar in profile, general opinion is they both drifted in a bit too often.

Besides the Tottenham trio, we have 3 more strikers to report on. Eduardo and Klasnic had a mini duel on Sunday, when Arsenal made a trip away to Bolton to try and keep up with league leaders Chelsea. Despite a strong performance from Klasnic, with whom Gallas was struggling throughout the match, Arsenal came away victorious. Dudu played a big role in his side’s result, with 2 assists of which the first one was quite fantastic. Catch a glimpse of it in the highlights below. Kalinic, who’s been getting more and more playing opportunities, has had a run of bad luck in terms of finishing lately. He gets into quality positions but somehow always rattles the crossbar/woodwork rather then the back of the net. Everyone around the club has been pleased with his commitment and performance, and there’s a general consensus that he only needs to break this barrier for his goals to come pouring in.

And lastly, yet another Croatian youngster has made the headlines last week. Dejan Lovren, formerly of Dinamo Zagreb, signed a hefty contract with French giants Lyon. While it was rumored that Tottenham are prepared to sign the man, Lyon were more determined and got their man in the end. This means that our French contingent is rising and now firmly standing at … two. Well, it beats one, that’s for sure. Speaking of that one, Vedran Runje of Lens, he’s been as consistent as ever, helping his team’s effort to hold out for a 1:1 draw after having a player sent off. Boring player, Runje, isn’t he? Always playing and playing well. How inconsiderate. But anyway, head over to Lyon Offside to see how the Lyon faithful welcomed Lovren into their ranks.

Our creative duo occupied both wings and proved to be too much of a threat for the lowly Peterborough side. And while Corluka was benched this time around, it’s expected that all 3 of our Tottenham musketeers (or stooges for that matter) will be in the starting lineup for Tottenham’s upcoming tie against Liverpool. This would indeed be the first time that happened since Kranjcar was recruited in summer, and one probably couldn’t have imagined a finer venue then Anfield to celebrate such a sweet occasion. Good times.

And while his task was always gonna be harder then that of our Tottenham crew, Kalinic did well in his side’s 3:1 defeat at Aston Villa. Kalinic played the whole match and got on the score sheet early in the second half, pulling his Blackburn side back into the match after the visitors were 2:0 down and reduced to 10 men before the half time whistle. An uphill battle lost, but Kalinic will look back at this one with confidence. At Bolton, who’ve dealt with Lincoln City with an easy 4:0 victory, Klasnic played the whole match and provided an assist for one of the goals. Now’s a good time to put in good performances for Klasnic, as Bolton have parted ways with Gary Megson and a new coach is about to be appointed.

And of course, to cap a fine weekend off, Eduardo scored the winner in Arsenal’s 2:1 victory away at Fulham. While his touch is still a bit rusty and his all around performance is still a way off then what we usually expect from him, 3 goals in 3 matches means Eduardo is slowly but surely gaining his confidence back. Oh and did I mention the goal was a beauty, a fine header won against Upson & beating R. Green between West Ham’s posts. Both of these are potential candidates for England’s World Cup squad, but I’m not insinuating anything.

P.S. while there was actually another batch of matches played back on Monday through Wednesday, I’ve decided to rather focus on the FA Cup one’s, as it was pretty much good news all around. But I will say that Eduardo scored a lucky deflection from a free kick and Modric scored with a cool finish to celebrate his return to Tottenham’s first eleven. Arsenal and Spurs won their matches 4:1 and 2:0 respectively. All in all, a fine weekend display by most of our players.

More of the same please.

Some might say “Hey, Bilic does it with Croatia, why can’t Redknapp at Tottenham?”, but there’s a lot more to the equation when playing week in & week out at what’s arguably the fastest & most physical league in the world. Anyway, we’ll see how that unfolds soon enough. Meanwhile, the rest of our striking force in Premiership didn’t have the best of weekends as well, Klasnic was substitued in a 1:1 draw at Burnley and Kalinic sat through Blackburn’s away game at Wigan. But to get back to the man I’ve opened this week’s review with, Eduardo.

There’s something rotten in the state of Wenger’s, and it might as well be a matter of self confidence. Judging by the last few games I’ve seen him, Eduardo is as confident as much as he is the next Queen of England. Meaning, he’s not, and it shows on every touch he’s made over the last couple of weeks. Which can mean only one thing, ladies and gentlemen. Eduardo is indeed a human being. I mean, the guy got his leg torn apart just as things were starting to settle for him. He recovered miraculously. He then got trialed & prosecuted like a medieval witch, and for what? I’m not gonna even spend time writing it down. And now, after all is said and done, the circumstances are such that Eduardo is pretty much the only available striker in the team.

Furthermore, Arsenal are seen (righly so) as contenders, meaning the pressure is all the more greater. So he buckles under it. Shit, it happens. But, and from what I’ve seen Arsenal fans understand it perfectly, it takes time & it takes faith. I’ve heard lots of people tag & criticize Arsenal fans as a quiet and less worthy bunch. But when I hear those Eduardo chants (and they do it often & loud), they prove to me that they’re above that and I can’t help but feel great fondness for these guys & gals. Thanks for that.

Oh and I seem to have completely neglected one player who’s made somewhat of a backdoor entrance to the Premiership. That’s right, we’ve got a Chelsea bound 17 year old keeper in the shape of Matej Delac, who spends an hour parrying Drogba shots and then goes off to learn the capitals of the world with his classmates. An awesome story and an awesome prospect. But I’ll save it for the upcoming talent column that I’ll start posting up soon. Till then, Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

But let’s get back to business. And we might as well start off with the Premiership, where some of our most talented players earn their cash by playing with the big boys. At Crospur, Crottenham, or however you wanna call them, things are looking good for the most part. Kranjcar has been excellent lately (2 goals against Man. City and now an assist against Blackburn), while Corluka has also picked up in form lately, after his somewhat slow start to the season. The only downside is that our little magician, Luka Modric, has picked up a slight ankle injury which held him absent from this weekend’s action. After spending so much time out with injury, I suppose things get a little rusty in you. Still, I’m sure every Spurs fan out there can’t wait to have Modric back and to see how coach Redknapp introduces him back into the team, with our man Kranjcar now in there as well.

But to get back to the rusty side of things, one particularly likeable guy scored his first goal after a near three months draught. Yes, Eduardo tapped in from a couple of yards in Arsenal’s 3:0 beating of Hull City, and hopefully opened the flood gate for his goals to start pouring in. Ivan Klasnic meanwhile, even though he is starting to shine for Bolton Wanderers. Two against Man. City(remember Kranjcar scored a brace against these guys as well) and one against West Ham puts him in a good position to cement himself a place in the starting lineup. Which leaves us at Nikola Kalinic, who is getting picked all the more often by Big Sam lately. Allydryce spoke recently on how he didn’t want to put Kalinic into the pit just yet, as he felt afraid the player might buckle under the pressure, so hopefully these recent appearances are a signal of more first team chances coming Kalinic’s way.

In Bundesliga, Olic is kicking some serious behinds. The man who was often ridiculed for his arguably average technique and rather unique dribbling ways, is proving with each day that he’s got what it takes to be at the very top of club football. After practically single-handedly knocking out Juventus in the middle of Turin, the man keeps goals and goals a plenty. He got on the scoresheet this weekend as well, scoring a goal in Bayern’s 5:2 thrashing of Hertha Berlin. Danijel Pranjic, our other Bavarian emissary, also featured in the match. Pranjic had a less then memorable start to his Bayern career, but things look like they’re heading in the right direction after the team’s recent change of fortune, result and performance wise.

To keep things short, I’ll end this one here. Expect some videos & pictures to go with future editions of this as well. Oh and feel free to let me know who I’ve (un)intentionally neglected, as thankfully there’s loads of Croats playing the beautiful game around the globe. Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated.

The one with the familiar last name stole the show though, netting two times and setting up Eduardo two times for the Crozillian to tap in. It was nice to see Eduardo back to his scoring habits, especially due to his impending Arsenal trials as his teammate Van Persie seems to have picked up an unfortunate lengthy injury. Back to Lichtenstein, Drago Gabric, the former Hajduk Split prospect, also had a decent game, supplying Bilic with a nice assist for that fast-but-not-quite-Guinness opening goal.

Get your highlights while they’re still fresh (a.k.a. active):

All in all, a decent showing in front of a nicely packed Cibalia stadium in Vinkovci. But speaking of crowd, well apart from confirming that there’s other venues than Maksimir to play in, we’ve also confirmed that the crowd is at least as intolerant (that’s a kind word considering the kind of chants our people cheer to nowadays) as the one that gets to see Bilic Boys on a more regular basis. All we do with this kind of chanting is give credibility to those categorizing us as extreme nationalists. But though it is Sunday, I’m not about to turn this into a sermon, so let’s get back to the footy side of things.

And what exactly have we learned from this friendly?
Well there’s not much you can learn from a friendly, is there? You try a few solutions but it’s not the real deal unless there are points at stake and motives aren’t in question.
That said, it’s nice to see some new faces introduced to the team. While the core of the team will pretty much stay the same for the next qualifying cycle, bringing in fresh motive and competition will do good to enrich the atmosphere around the team. And Bilic might just have a few more faces at disposal after Drazen Ladic’s U 21 selection successfully overcame the 1st of two major obstacles thrown their way in November.

I mentioned in the previous post on how a couple of players had been moved from the senior side to help out the U 21 cause. This paid off at once, as Rakitic immediately made an impact, scoring a winner in a narrow 2:1 victory away at Cyprus. The result is all the more important as the only defeat our youngsters suffered so far was against the same opponent back in June, and it keeps us well within the reach of group leaders Slovakia, whom we incidentally face on Wednesday. Keep at it Ladic Lads*.

*Bilic Boys. Ladic Lads. Hell yeah.