A little harsh England Fan. Although, I must agree…this qualification has karma written all over it. Croatia put in a lot of effort, but nobody would argue that Ukraine have not been the second best team in group 6. Let’s not forget how they put the fear of God in all England fans back in June.

@ An England Fan:
There’s one thing you left out of the equation. Thing called fair play. All we did on that night was give our best, and you couldn’t do that tonight. And for that, Croatia doesn’t envy you.

@ Rich:
We didn’t deserve to go through, end of. Simply the fact that you have to depend on someone says you ain’t cut out for it. In a strange way I’m not sad England lost tonight. Cause otherwise I’d have a legitimate reason to like them.

I agree with An England Fan here. “We are simply the better team” by Slaven Bilic just made him look like an even bigger douche today.

Posted from  United States

I hope England lose every game during the world cup. Now I see why the Scotish cheer for every team playing England.

Goodbye Slaven Bilic, its time for you to move on. Hes way too close to the players. I think Bilic will be a fine manager whereever he ends up but our national team needs someone who is more strict with the players. I would love to see us get a non croat to coach the team. A Sven Goran Ericson or someone like that. It wont happen but one could hope.

P.S.. Whens the draw for Euro 2012 lol

I don’t want Sven Goran Erickson anywhere near any of the teams I support. I don’t think he is good at all. Look how Mexico is fairing since he left. I still can’t come to terms with Croatia not being in the WC. I guess we didn’t really deserve it if we couldn’t even get second in that group, but the fact that a team like Switzerland is getting through with automatic qualification hurts.

Posted from  United States

Kevin… Yeah it sucks we will miss the WC. We didn’t do enough to qualify and its our own fault. We tied Ukraine twice and looking back at that should have told us that something was wrong with the team. Its a shame considering the talent we have. Corluka, Modric, Kranjcar, Eduardo, Petric, Srna and Olic can start on any team in the world yet we only got 2 points against Ukraine in 2 games and we were lucky not to lose to Belarus at home. We got embaressed by England twice. Something is wrong.

Today Bilic sent Simunic and Krizanac home for unknown reasons. He also had to dicipline Jelavic and Sharbini. Srna is blaming England when he should be blaming himself and his teamates. Somewhere over the past 18 months Bilic lost controll of the team and for him to be a top manager he has to be the boss and not a buddy to the players.

I used Sven as an example but my point was that we need an outsider to manage this team, someone who wouldnt feel pressured by the media to pick the team he thinks will give us the best chance to reach our potential. Four years ago Bilic was that guy, he brought in Eduardo and Corluka from the under 21 team because they deserved the call up (everyone thought he was nuts). Over the last 2 years our team has gotten a bit stale, no one is afraid of losing their spot, the lack of competition for starting rolls makes the players lazy. If Mandzukic or Kalinic are scoring goals for their domestic teams then they deserve a shot at starting on our national team. I might be babbling but I am very disapointed with this team, not because they dont have talent but because they do.

@An England Fan

Take a hard long look in the mirror before you judge the conduct of others.

Your behaviour here only serves to confirm what the world already thinks about the English.

The English players and fans have a long and well documented history of arrogance, violence, and underachievement.

We didn’t deserve to go to the WC and we won’t. Everyone gets what they deserve … and England will be getting theirs long before the final match is played next summer.

Yea I definately see what you are getting at in rgards to the managerial position, Ivan. I just have a soft spot for Bilic as manager, because he manages his own country and he seems like a down to earth fellow. Maybe a manager with a more outside, objective view is what we need. Better yet, my blue Kranjcar Croatia jersey just came in the mail. Perfect timing, eh

Good points as well, Kruno.

Posted from  United States

“but the fact that a team like Switzerland is getting through with automatic qualification hurts”

Well said Kevin, I feel the exact same way. It’s the way the spots are divided I guess. I’m sure Sweden or Croatia could easily beat Switzerland, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia or any of the other (nearly qualified) nations in the other regions like Costa Rica, Japan, S. Korea, Algeria, to name a few.

It’s just the way things are and I guess it’s more fun to see more countries outside of Europe at the WC.

Posted from  Netherlands

Croatia are a good team. Even those who don’t support Croatia will agree. Many key players were missing off and on during their qualifying campaign. Perhaps a different, defensive, and more drastic set-up could have been fielded against a Cappello-led selection (or at least the 2nd time around); as McClaren’s squad, although containing many of the same faces were not led by a proven winner in Capello. Those two matches proved to be pivotal. At full strength, Croatia can compete with anyone. Their selection plays in any and all of the big European leagues. They will be back!

lol..croatia is out

Posted from  Spain

I’m furious. I’m utterly stunned, I feel exactly what I felt like when Croatia lost to Turkey in the Euro 2008. I can’t believe such a great team, with amazing and talented players, and with a very close to the brazilian ‘jogo bonito’ scheme will not be going to the biggest display of skillful football. Then again, ‘World Championships’ of any kind aren’t always accurate or fair. It’s only an indicator, but it doesn’t mean all that much (objectively i mean). It’s always a matter of chance, whether we have all the skills in the world, or not. I agree with many of the commenters when they say Croatia is a far better team than many of the teams that qualified already. I don’t think Slaven Bilic’s methods are wrong, matter of fact, many countries would love him as a coach (hell, I have that much faith in that man that I believe he could make the shittiest team in South America, PERU that is, qualify for Brazil 2014). I think Croatia’s mistake was relying on their renewed confidence as a consequence of their performance in the Euro 2008, and they fell behind as to pushing the envelope and fighting for every point. Belarus should have been an ass-kicking, and Ukraine could have been a tie, maybe even one of the two games against England could have been a tie. Arrogance is overrated, like many would say ‘talk the talk and walk the walk if you can back it up’. I know Croatia CAN back it up, they just talked a little too much. Slaven’s remark wasn’t half as bad as any of the press conference statements Diego Maradona has all of us latin americans so used to hearing.
I have always been of the idea that it’s unrealistic to blame one single person for the series of mishaps of any organization. I have always criticized that in peruvian football, and i’m sad to see now that it’s basically a standard reaction.
In my eyes, Croatia is as good as they have always been, qualified or not. One Luka Modric, One Darijo Srna or One Ivica Olic make up for 11 good for nothing peruvians.

Croatia will be back. This one will sting for a while, but I think the Croatian National set-up will be better because of this stumble.

As an Italian Canadian with many Croat friends, I will never miss a chance to give them a dig. But all the same, I would have preferred to see them in the Finals. Like my one buddy (and many of you) said, the England-Ukraine result is the final dish of revenge served by England.

Let the English puff their collective chests out right now. And let them think they are actually going to win this World Cup next summer. You know and I know, that they are going no further than the semi-final

Posted from  Canada

Wow, thanks all for joining in, some real quality responses from you guys (and gals of course). Glad to see you holding heads high while keeping feet on the ground as to who’s responsible for us not making it. Thanks for that.

Nice blog Mario. Just a few comments … The things that kill us are also the things that make us a good football team. We Croats are a close nation, even over here in Canada, us Croats hang out and go drinking with other Croats. When we have a few too many, its always a fellow Croat that gets us home safe. That bond is also evident in our national team, we play for one another and thats why a nation of 4 million people can compete with nations who have 80 million. Right now theres a song thats going through my head, theres a line in the song that goes “the good times are killing me” and that sums up our team. Im sure our players always look forward to playing for the national team, not just because they like playing soccer but because its a chance for fellow Croats to get together. Sometimes things get out of hand like this past week.

As far as Bilic goes, I’m not sure whats the best way to move forward, with him in charge or with someone else. Either way we have enough talent to get back to the top with this group of players. We need to rebuild our back 4, that was one place where we are weak. Kovac, Simunic are past their prime, and we havent had a left back for a long time now. Like you mentioned above, Pranjic is much more effective in the midfield then at the back. The right side we are set with Corluka and Srna, the other 3 spots we need to fill with new talent. Depth will always be an issue with us since we are a small nation. Its going to be a sad summer watching the World Cup and not seeing our boys play, but we will be back.

I just want to tell all of you something. I have never seen such an arrogant national football team with such an arrogant coach. you totally deserved that your country won’t be at the world cup. By the way you didn’t play any football this qualification stage, you don’t have a time at all. Croatia deservdly missed the World cup. You are a team that after recent success just sat down and laughed about all your opponents. The only player of you, who is really worth to play at the World Cup is Srna. The rest is a group of drunken playboys.

LOL @ Marko. We are not arrogant, we just know we are a top 10 soccer nation. Yes we missed out on this upcoming world cup and it wasn’t because someone else beat us, it was because we beat ourselves. We will be back on the world stage and better then ever. We match any national team in the midfield and up front. Enjoy the World Cup Marko, It will be a long time before you get another major tournament without Croatia in it.

We are Croatians – a never die nation and race – and a race with tremendous passion, intellect and talent. The battle may have been lost for WC2010 – so what?? Our boys don’t like the dust anyway and never forget we are a “Football superpower” with only 4 million people…………oh hang on we’re not too bad at handball, waterpolo, athletics, snow skiing, tennis, basketball,swimming, table tennis, windsurfing, jetskiing, boxing, karate, mu tai and the list goes on. Not bad for a small nation and tell me who in the world doesn’t know or respect us.
Let us never forget who we are and the boys and girls that make us proud – even when they lose. To the European Brasilians – Slaven keep it up but please no more heart aches like this one …………..lol.
Our hearts will always be with you even though some of us whinge at times.
Bog i Hrvati

Cheers Mudri!!!

Kalinic hasn’t been playing much. Its good to get him into some games with meaning.

..so, deep into injury time, 1-0 down and Wayne Rooney is taking a throw in – like how is HE going to score if he himself is taking the throw in??? Or is that the point!!! I think it would be karma if Ukraine knocked England out of the WC!!..

Whatever happened to Rakitic? I assumed Magath would mold him into a star, but I haven’t noticed him in the starting line-up as much lately.

@ Harun… Yeah Im not sure whats going on with Rakitic. When he first got to Shalke he was impresive for a 19 yr old. He got a few goals and looked like an offensive weapon from the midfield. He had some problems with the manager in the later half of the season and he was sitting more then playing. I thought things would improve this year when Shalke changed managers but it hasn’t turned into more playing time for our Croat. I think he needs a change in venue, Shalke is in some financial trouble and there may be a selling spree there. I expect Rakitic to be moved during the January transfer window. Right now there seems to be a lot of interest in him from Italian clubs. Hopefully he moves and gets his game back on track.

Kalinic is also being traeted with kids gloves in Blackburn. They are being very carefull with him and It was fine when he first got there since he wasn’t in playing shape. But its been months now and he needs to get into games on a more regular basis. Our players cant be sitting on the bench for their club teams and then be expected to produce for our national team. Kalinic, Rakitic, Klasnic, maybe Kranjcar (once Modric gets back) all need to play regularly if they expect to be productive for the national team.

dobar blog