Simic run, run Simic run…..

There is always a chance of a player sitting out the better part of pre-tournament play due to an injury. But what is a player to do when he is benched in favour of other players. Figo did the best he could after being sidelined for the second half of the 2004/2005 Primera Liga season by Luxemburgo; he trained hard and found his way back to the starting line up at Inter. He has since regained his top form and will be more than ready for the WC2006.

In this post, we are going to look at the back line of our little band of brothers and their play ready (or lack of) form. What do we think of Dario Simic?
He has played very little this year in Milan, only a dozen or so games, and so it is fair to question his playing form. Is he going to be ready for International play?? There has been grumbling since January that he is leaving AC, but now his agent is finaly putting out the vibe to potential teams in need of an ‘almost new, barely used’ defender. He was a good player in ‘98, when he was in full form; but how is he going to perform now, at 30, with barely any playing time under his belt?

It’s a good thing he has strong support there on the back line huh?…I mean, Tomas, Kovac, Simunic, Tokic, Tudor, what else could you ask for? Hmmmm, lets see….

Tomas has played all of 3 games at Galatasaray this year due to him being on strike for not being paid..right.

Kovac was sidelined for the better part of this year due to knee injury. He has started playing again regularly for Juventus in the last two weeks, but is still prone to inury.

Simunic played his first game this year after an inury has had him warming the bench since December.

Tokic has just undergone surgery for his shoulder, and will not play for at least one month, maybe more, prompting Kranjcar to quip about his readyness.

But hey, we’ve got Tudor (who by the way received the fastest red card in the history of Seria A, picking it up in the first minute of play)

I am hoping that by the time the World Cup rolls around our team invalids and second stringers will have had the chance to brush up on their play; but a team that did not concede a single loss during qualifying, is doing something right.

Ajde Hrvatska!