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Top 5 Moments For This Blogger

March 27th, 2006 | By: Soze | 11 Comments »

Over at Brazil’s blog page, Euler has gone down memory lane and shared with us his top 5 WC moments. His memories all include Brazil and the highs and lows they have experienced. This has got me thinking; with Croatia being such a young country and not having the pedigree of Brazil or some of the other soccer great nations ,do I write about only ‘Vatreni’s’ moments or do I include my top memories of WC in general.

Let’s see how it goes:

WC1998 Moment #1: Undoubtedly, has to be, without question Croatia’s third place finish at World Cup 1998 in France. Our golden generation beat out, Jamaica, Japan, Romania and EC1996 Champions Germany to make it to the Semi’s and capture third place over the Netherlands.
Add to this the fact that Davor Suker, the Real Madrid and Croatia striker was awarded the golden boot; achieving the honour of being the top scorer of the games, edging out such greats as Batistuta, Vieri, ROnaldo, Bierhoff, Henry and Rivaldo makes this fact the highlight of the Croatia soccer campaign thus far.

Moment #2: Our undefeated qualifying record to secure a place top of our group in the 2006 World Cup. This campaign was filled with stellar performances, but marred by lacluster ones by a team that got complacent against perceived weaker sides. The good and the bad and the ugly (Croatian fans destroyed the Maltese national stadium after their displeasure with their sides performance) are still alive and well in the unpredicatble game of soccer.

WC1994 Moment #3: This is just a personal recollection of my viewing of the WC1994 final game. Brazil vs. Italy. Myself and 4 Portuguese friends are in a casino in the south of Portugal, our Brazil flags in tow. We are watching the game from the back of a theather in their standing room only section due to the fact that the rest of the 400 or so seats were occupied by a tour group of Italian women on vacation. A tense moment, I can still see it like it was yesterday. Roberto Baggio lines up the ball to take what came down as a do or die moment for the Italians. Score and stay alive, miss and go home. Well, we all know what the outcome was, and seeing that the five of us were the only ones in the place cheering for Brazil; our collective “YEAH!” was greeted by 800 eyes buring right through us and followed by about 50 pairs of angry Italian legs chasing us out of the place. What a night!

Moment #4: After winning the WC1998 and the EC2000 France seemed like a force not likely to be leaving any time soon. Nothing against France in general (I love a good baguette like the next guy) but I was so sick of them being at the top that I wanted nothing more than to see them falter. WC2002 will probably go down in history as the worst start of a previous champion ever. What made this disgrace of France even sweeter was that I put a couple of bucks on the France Senegal game…and won.

Moment #5: Hand of God. ’nuff said.

Come on yall…lets hear the other bloggers.

Tags: Croatia, Great World Cup Moments, top five, World Cup History, World Cup Memories

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Comments

By Euler | March 28th, 2006 at 6:56 am

That 800 eyes story was very good and funny!!! Poor Italian babes! Did any of you 5 try later to console one of them? Italian girls are amazing!!!

By Soze | March 28th, 2006 at 12:02 pm

Oh goodness no Euler. They were all 50 and over.. but had alot of feist in them. If the room was full of young Italian babes, we would have been Italian supporters that night.

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By The Blog Goes on 03.28 - FIFA World Cup 2006 - World Cup 2006 Blog | March 28th, 2006 at 3:07 pm

[...] Top 5 World Cup moments Croatian style and Paraguyan style (Croatia and Paraguay Blogs) [...]

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By The Best World Cup Memories - FIFA World Cup 2006 - World Cup 2006 Blog | March 28th, 2006 at 5:14 pm

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By CzechPride | March 28th, 2006 at 6:06 pm

I agree with all of the above, but EC 1996 Croatian vs. Denmark - that goal by Davor Suker over Schmeichel was just too damn good, it was a wow for few minutes, and it’s still remembered so well!

Posted from Czech Republic

By My Top 5 Unforgettable Team Melli World Cup Moments - FIFA World Cup 2006 - Iran World Cup Team Blog | March 28th, 2006 at 11:42 pm

[...] You know, now that everyone is following Euler’s lead, I can not be left out! I did write a list, but it was my Brazil list (I am a big fan of Brazil). But after reading Mexico, Croatia, Portugal, and Paraguay write their own team’s top 5 memories, I can not let Team Melli drag behind! [...]

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By LAST KICK » Blog Archive » My Top 5 Unforgettable Team Melli World Cup Moments | March 29th, 2006 at 12:05 am

Posted from United States

By Tomislav Chagall | March 29th, 2006 at 3:35 am

here are mine (in chronological order only).

2002: victory against italy, pure sweetness.

1998: for me, it was the semifinal against france–i had been @ the stade de france and watched the game live with my father. the best thing from taking third place (albeit it should have been first) was trashing germany 3:0 and repaying them for the game in 1996, where they progressed thanks to dirty play and referee support.

then, nigeria’s game against spain at group stage, it was unbelievable how they managed to turn the game upside down.

as to your mammas-from-italy-experience: i had been the only one rooting for crotia in the game against turkey in 1996 among a crowd of turks. screamed all the time, had my jersey on and threw a round afterwards. no problems there.

1994: bulgaria’s victory over germany, awesome.

1986: one man: maradona. one limb: the hand of god. two words: ’nuff said. also, the game brasil versus italy (quarter final, if i recall correctly). beautiful display of football skill, attractive gameplay and speed. none of them deserved to lose–a true final. 1986 saw a game that had infuriated me a lot, that of belgium against the soviet union. rarely have i seen a more biased referee bent on eliminating the soviet team.

1982: the semi final france against germany, this is my personal favorite and most tragic wc game of all time (i was nine then). such injustice made my young skin creep while i watched the game. but it was compelling and had everything you asked for: goals, drama, thrills, violence, suspence. that was ace.

yugoslavia had been one of the favorites, but their lackluster approach and a referee that was supposed to help the spanish side progress helped them return home early.

and that’s that.

Posted from Germany

By Soze | March 29th, 2006 at 11:30 am

Yeah, that 3:0 thrashing was a sweet payback for the previous Euro. And the best thing about it was that there can be no comments about our dirty play and referee support ‘couse we won…fair and square.

I had forgotten about that particular France Germany game. The French player was knocked unconscious in the box by gthe German keeper on purpose. No penalty awarded and not even a yellow card. But is was an exciting game.

If we’re gonna talk about tragedy in the world of soccer I think that the murder of that Columbian player after the 1994 WC for an own goal has got to take the cake.

By Tomislav Chagall | April 5th, 2006 at 3:15 pm

soze,

i meant german dirty play in 1996 (klinsmann should have been sent off the pitch around the 10th minute or so).

schumacher broke three ribs and knocked out a few of his teeth in 1982 — makes you remember what kind of game it used to be and how difficult it was for technically skilled players to survive the game (quite literally): maradona used to jump into the air every time he got the ball so that the defender behind him would not break his leg.

the andres escobar incident, yes … some people should be locked away and the key flushed down the toilet. however, i meant in-game tragedy.

Posted from Germany

By catalog | October 6th, 2006 at 3:53 am

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Posted from Turkey