Croatian NT WC schedule…

Is it me or did we schedule 1 too many friendlies. Thats alot to squeeze in 3 weeks time. A whole lot can happen in 4 games. I just hope everyone is healthy come June 9.

Posted from  United States

Guys… I am an Italy fan, so I don’t care what you do, as long as you knock Brazil off of their high horse on June 13.

Posted from  United States

If the Brasilieros think that the Croatia match is gonna be just a walk in the park, there in for a big surprise!

This is not going to be a warm up match for the quaters–because the Vatreni are gonna be fighting tooth and nail.

The Croatians love big time matches, they are gonna come at Brasil gunz blazing.

This should be one of the most interesting matches of the group phase.

Posted from  United States

Being a Croatian, I would love to see them beat Brazil. Realistically if Croatia were to actually beat Brazil, there would definately be a case of over-confidence which would see them probably lose to both Japan and Australia, the best thing for Croatia would be a drubbing against the holders, which would be like a wake-up call to them.

Posted from  Canada

In all honesty and putting my patriotism aside, i really think that we can beat the Selecao if we play with the heart we did against Argentina. Rather than getting “drubbed” by Brazil i think a draw would be the best thing, to shut up the critics and to prove that Brazil isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The Vatreni’s advantage to a draw? as Karlo said, not being over-confident because as we all know, us croatians can easily let things get into our heads.

I too am proudly Croatian…

…and to say that the best thing for Croatia would be a drubbing by the holders is heretical to say the least. For tactical reasons this is highly unlikely (read my analysis on Croatian starting 11 against Brasil posts).

Look no further to the ’98 when they triumphed over Germany 3-0. They didn’t suffer from a case of over-confidence then—and where France’s most difficult opponents. Afterwards they went on to place third.

Over-confidence or not when the Vatrieni make it to the knockout stage, they will have to continue to win to stay alive. The most important thing for the team is to stay concentrated, play with passion, and not to take any opponent for granted.

Let this be a warning to all the teams out there….underestimate Croatia at your peril! Just ask Holland and Germany, and more recently Italy and Argentina.

Yes, this side is a dark-horse candidate—and one that has the potential to rekindle the magic of ’98.

Posted from  United States

I said it before and I’ll say it again. Brazil will struggle to get out of the group stage.

Posted from  Australia

Tomislav, I disagree with that. I firmly believe that Croatia and Brazil are both coming out of that group because Japan and Australia just can’t hang with us. Whether Brazil wins the group I think that may be up in the air. The Vatreni can definately compete with them.

Posted from  Canada

Yer im also a Proud Croat. But im also reaslistic. We no longer have the Yugoslav produced Golden Generation of yesteryear. Boban, Prosinecki, Suker ect have all retired and gone down in history as great footballers. Sadly no in the current team can match these individuals, and Brazil will walk all over us.

LOL jks guys. Im actualyl predicting a draw for the first game, and Croatia finishing on top of the group.

Posted from  Australia

I am proudly Croatian, but lets be realistic, the best we can hope for against Brazil is a draw. Underestimate Brazil at your peril, they are truly a fantastic team, but at the same time they are human and beatable. Croatia is in for a rough time against Australia, this game is not going to be easy for them. Croatia is not a tier 1 team, they play with heart and passion. I predict Croatia will finish second to Brazil in the group with a win against Japan and a draw with Australia, it will be tight. Go Cro!

Posted from  Australia

If anyone watched the game against Austria yesterday… well, I haven’t seen them play this well in a long time. Kudos to Klasnic, he really shone, especially the second goal. OK, Austria is a team in the making, But I think Cico wanted to concentrate more on going through the middle with Klasnic and Prso, which is why Srna wasn’t that noticable. And as you might have witnessed it worked out great. And not just that, Olic and Balaban have made a great performance, too, which means that Cico has four scorers who are all closely matched and if one gets injured any of the ohter two can replace him. Furthermore, Niko has done some very nice moves, too. Finally, there are some very good young players, meaning that we’ll stay strong even in the years to come. Here I especially mean Modric (will be a world class player) and Eduardo, i just hope he won’t reconsider playing for Cro because Cico didn’t invite him.
Does anyone know what the Brasilian media thinks of this last game?

Crna Gorac whats this “Yugoslav produced Golden Generation”.
You dont know the facts about the rise of our(Croatian) golden generation through the biased Yugoslav program.
Dont make me laugh that your a proud Croat when 90% of your posts are to stir up Croatians. WHERES Kapcro to put u in your place.

Posted from  Australia

Milane, how you doing good Buddy. How’d you like that last Austria friendly. Loved that Balaban kick(not to mention the rest). I figure Croatia is in the WC and the rest is gravy. There are all sorts of opinions out there, some of which are such a stretch. I tried to look up that place mentioned in the earlier post and its nowhere to be found on any map for years now. Apparently there was a recent vote or something that destroyed what little vestige of this long forgotten place was left. The world moves on so should certain individuals. Hard to argue about a non-existent entity. “98 team was Croatian no denying that. Croatia is compiling a nice little list of WC appearances. I saw an article in a prominent English football magazine recently that lists two of our strikers in the top 50 strikers in the world. Its nice that we don’t have to tout the quality of our players when the international football media does it for us. Also, nice to see we have newly minted “proud ” croatians in our midst. It may take some people a couple more decades to face a new reality and then some just wallow in archaic mental states that make the rest of us smile with incredulity. Good friends, looking forward to some great football from a number of teams. Be proud of our “Vatreni” and respect all the other representations.

Posted from  United States

There he is.

It’s true, CRO is in the WC and the rest is gravy. We are one of 32 best teams in the world and that says something in itself. Not to mention that since we have been going through the qualifying stages as Croatia, we have been in all major tournaments ecept one.

Crna Gorac whats this “Yugoslav produced Golden Generation”.

I agree with Milan here. The old Yugosalvia would have been a much better football team had more Croatians been picked in the national side. Croatian players had to be “something brilliant” for the Yugo’s/Serbs to even notice them. They only picked the very elite Croatian players but stacked the Yugo team with average Serbs. Don’t get me wrong, the Serbs had some fine players too, but the national team selectors were biased against Croatians. The Croations were oppressed in those days, thank god for our independance!
The results speak for themselves, Croatia has qualified for 5/6 major tournements, what have the Serbs done?

Posted from  Australia

They have produced Lyle, the wonder blogger.

This outside influence on Croatian football talent was addressed back in March I believe where that same quote was posted. That’s why I pointed out then that the Croatian Football Federation on its site states that discrimination existed in selection processes and that there was resultant resentment and infighting with regard to teams previous to the independant Croatian teams. Revisionists with a certain political agenda are constantly now trying to give the impression that shortcomings and failures didn’t exist in that long lost political arrangement before the independence of Croatia. The attempts at revisionism extend from politics, economics, social and cultural aspects of life and also to sports. There are many who have personal knowledge and or experience as to what went on then and can certainly refute outlandish or distorted views quite adequately. I won’t bother to repeat what I stated then but can point out Branko Oblak the Slovenian star that played on the 1974 team has stated in the press regarding this issue that the tensions, battles and infighting throughout that time period between national groups on the then NT was not a “pretty sight” (his quote) and that selections were not fairly done. I don’t need to elaborate which groups he was referring to. Once again someone that is non-croatian is witness to the real situation at that time so that we don’t have to state the case ourselves. I stated before that football talent developed in all republics from the huge pool of young talent playing and the NT football administration at the time was inept and mismanaged and by all sorts of accounts biased and stacked in favor of one national group.

Posted from  United States

Hello Kapcro, im fine thanks mate. The Friendly with Austria was a beauty and all but reinforced my belief that there is something special with this Croatian team. Just how the team is gelling together and playing so well, it would surprise me if we do make the semi’s this world cup or mabe even further.
Great to see also how everyone here is informed enough not to believe the propaganda Crno Gorac is spitting out.

Zivili Hrvati

Posted from  Australia