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Croatia vs. Austria 4:1…

May 23rd, 2006 | By: Soze | 11 Comments »

Wow, I was thinking 2:1, maybe 2:0 for Croatia but not 4:1. Nice prediction Marco.

The game itself was not that good. I was thinking that Austria would have shown more heart and ability than they did. They were a slow, technically challaged team that seemed to be very disorganized on the pitch. Croatia held 65% of ball possesion.

In the first half, even though Ivan Klasnić scored two goals, I thought Dado Prso was the best player on the pitch. He controlled the game with his precise passes and was involved with both Klasnić goals. It’s almost like he was playing a midfield position.

The second half had more attacks on net than the first, but the game itself was still stale. No real technical showing from either team. Niko Kranjcar made one nice play of bringing the ball inside the box, dribbling around two players in the process, but threw away the chance with a weak pass to nobody…and that effort took 77′ to arrive. He was basically non existant during the game. There were other chances for Croatia to score, but they were wasted by players who seemed confused in the box as to who is gong to kick it in. The highlight of the second half was the free kick goal by second half sub Balaban from 25 meters. A beautiful dip over the human wall competely out of reach of the Austrian golie. Superb!

This was the easiest friendy Croatia has lined up. The others against Iran, Poland and Spain will prove to be more of a challange…but I will defenitely ask Marco for his opinion.

As a side note, this was the first game Croatia has played in their new away jersey and I’m sure our overlord Bob was happy not to see the usuall Italian tablecloth inspired shirts.

Tags: Austria, Croatia, Friendly game, Klasnic, Kranjcar, Prso

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Comments

By red | May 24th, 2006 at 2:34 am

i watched the game and was happy that every time we had a chance to score….we scored:)!!
but defensively i think that we may have some problems, and hope that cico will do something with our defense, we have a defence that’s so slow and i am not feeling that tudor should play defensive middfielder…
but we gonna score against brazil on corners or free kicks cuz we v.good at that…:)
r.

Posted from Poland

By Marko | May 24th, 2006 at 7:42 am

Croatia annahiliated Austria. It really wasn’t any challenge.

Defensively, they have to concentrate more. They let up some foolish goals against Argentina. Tudor is slow for midfield, and maybe center back is a better option for him.

Posted from United States

By Crno Gorac | May 24th, 2006 at 9:54 am

I told you guys Klasnic will be the main man. Sick player….

Posted from Australia

By marco | May 24th, 2006 at 10:16 am

You gotta remember this though … australi are not going to world cup .. so the players are on holidya now so they dont care you know … still 4-1 is a good result

Posted from Australia

By Soze | May 24th, 2006 at 10:18 am

Ever since EC2004, I have been hoping that Klasnic would be included on the starting 11. Yesterday, he defenitely proved his worth.

By Marty | May 24th, 2006 at 10:19 am

Can we please find a goalie that does not have two left hands. Look for Klasnic to have a big tournament with a lot to prove (those critics saying he cant play with the national team) especially with playing what are home games to him in Germany.

Posted from United States

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Posted from United States

By Marco | May 27th, 2006 at 1:33 am

haha i knew it 4-1
vs iran it will be 3-0