A picture is worth 1,000 words.
I never thought I would witness such a photo: 7 Croatian footballers in complete jubilation surrounding a fallen Brazilian at the end of his World Cup road.
But it happened. Croatia came back from the dead in extra time to equalize in the 117th minute after keeping Brazil scoreless for 105 minutes in the World Cup quarterfinal. Livaković stood on his head the entire match; making 11 saves on the day and one more to start the penalty kick shootout.
Croatia finally get to scratch BRAZIL of their list of world super powers they have slayed. Only Portugal remains.
Brazil is Brazil in football. We know who they are and we know their history: 5-time champions. This was the most stacked Brazil squad since they won the whole thing in 2002. Neymar, Vini, Rodrygo, Richarlison, Silva were all supposed to bring Brazil their sixth World Cup title in 2022. They were tournament favorites at the start.
But the Vatreni found a way through Oršić, Petković, and Livaković to slay the dragon. Any day you knock mighty Brazil out of the World Cup is a good day.
Watching Petković’s shot hit the back of the net and Marquinhos’ penalty kick rattle off the left post is easily my #1 moment for Croatia this World Cup.
I’m thinking that Perisic as a sub coming on when defences are tiring is a way to possibly extend his international career, because what I saw from him as a starter this world cup tells me his best days for the Vatreni are well and truly behind him.
In my opinion Orsic is actually similar to Perisic in that he seems to shine in a more open game also, so in my opinion he wont be an upgrade on Perisic at all. If a team sets up defensively against us Orsic will have the same problems Perisic had throughout his international career in those type of games. This is my opinion.
Further going on about majer from down below
I think he will be just fine
We gave Kova plenty of chances and honestly he’s only Become a game changer or potential one in what the past two years at most
Majer I feel like sosa there is a lack of speed which can be seen
How do we deploy him in the midfield going forward?
I think he will prove his worth with more time on the field has a nose for goal(yes he looked nervous on the pk) but chalk it up to youth and the big stage
He is just turning 25 now
Next two years we should see more growth I would think
I think he needs to fight hard to make up for his speed
Maybe improve fitness
The left foot thing as someone pointed out may be an advantage for set pieces and other things in the future
Where does majer and sucic fit into the future before next euro?
They may not get much opportunity beyond an injury to the big 3
Count me in on the Oršić bandwagon.
Destroyed spurs single handily.
Was prolific for us, relatively speaking.
Perišić has to bring his athletic self to support him in another spot.
Perišić needs to still play in an attacking position for us.
He is too good and we suck in the final third. Plus we now have a stable of defensive studs.
He can play second striker and as a right winger.
Dalic has to crack the offensive code for our attack.
I like Ljubičić because of his hunger and quickness in the final third.
It does seem like the consensus is to have a good look at Musa who has been consistently showing his quality and ljubicic who has been hot and like you guys said wait to see if he can carry it on
With this time off we should see now if it was just a streak
But as we all know we only needed a hot keeper and hot striker for the month. We got the keeper….
I like both Musa and ljubicic for their youth and energy from the bit I’ve seen
Trusting hajduk to catch a prospect is like asking a homeless person for financial advice
No hate at all, but their recent track records remains awful
Maybe it’s part being a toxic environment? Maybe it’s poor management?
If ljubicic continues to score giving him for 1.5 mill is a tragedy
Maybe biuk proves similar?
You guys keep saying “no politics” “no politics” “no politics” and “chetniks” “chetniks” “chetniks”. You keep talking out of both sides of your mouths.
Relax. It’s just slang. I use it all the time, even in front of Serbs. Who cares.
That was the greatest win in our nation’s history. Brazil were heavy favourites to win the tournament. They always struggle with European teams in quarter finals now. In my mind Europe is still number one in football. Due to the fact the Argentinian team filled with Spaniards, Germans, Italians and others consisting of the team. The African majority ones in Europe don’t count. I got good feelings about Euro 2024. I think other nations up and coming are the Netherlands, Norway, and Hungary. When you think about it, Croatia is the only former yugoslavia republic to make it out of the group stage. Highly doubt any former ones like the chetniks, Bosnians or Slovenes have a chance to make it.
Dude, the nation of Argentina was founded by Spaniards and to a lesser degree Italians, Germans and other Europeans. That’s why they speak Spanish. What exactly is the problem there?
And when will you unbury your head from WW2 w/ the incessant “chetniks” jibe? Chetniks were nationalists while Yugoslavia were anti-nationalist/communists, no?
In Serbia chetnik Vucic still calls some Croats Ustase as if that’s supposed to be an insult, tell me, why would he do that if the Ustase were nationalists just like chetniks? Why doesn’t he “unbury” his “head from WW2 w/ the incessant Ustase jibe”?
In Serbia to this day a nationalist is a chetnik, in Croatia a nationalist is an Ustasa.
Croatia is where it is today because the Communists and Chetniks outsmarted the Croats with their good cop bad cop routine before the homeland war, simple Croats didn’t understand that the good cop and bad cop are both anti-Croatia.
So the Croats “win” the war and the good cop/commie takes them straight to the EU where the bad cop/chetnik wanted them also.
“And when will you unbury your head from WW2 w/ the incessant “chetniks” jibe? Chetniks were nationalists while Yugoslavia were anti-nationalist/communists, no?”
What do you mean by “jibe”? Would you feel insulted, mocked, if I called you a nationalist?
Alice in chains. No shit they speak Spanish. Thanks Shitlock Holmes for the clarification. I’m simply stating Italians make that team. I call Serbia chetniks because that president Vucic was apart of the Serbian radical party. Chetnik’s still collaborated with the partisans which was lead by Tito during WW2. Get your history right.
Orsic has scored too many nice goals to consider him some flash in the pan
That pk he took against Japan was probably the most memorable I’ve ever seen for pin point accuracy
If messi did that, the internet would explode
Great point. I was most nervous for the Orsic penalty b/c he had no WC experience and not much playing time up to that point, not to mention I believe it was taken right after Livaja’s miss (off the post), yet Orsic took it with aplomb, low, hard, into the left side panel on the fly. Unstoppable.
It was actually against Brazil.
It was a critical one too, because it was the fourth one which forced Brazil to have to score on the next one. It was essentially the game winning goal.
It was great because Allison guessed right, jumped early…and still couldn’t get it. It couldn’t have been more perfectly placed.
Oddly enough, it was actually Majer’s PK that had me nervous. I would assume he would be great at PKs, but he seems to take them the same way Modric does. Badly, lol.
He looked very nervous walking up to the ball, and sent it down the middle (but barely above the ground).
Modric’s wasn’t much better and it only looked good because Allison went the wrong way. Modric didn’t send him the wrong way either. It was essentially the same PK he took against Denmark in 2018. Didn’t wait for the keeper to move, and just took a soft one slightly to the right of the keeper. Very dangerous.
Strangely, the lesser skilled guys (like Vlasic) have been awesome for PKs. Passing the torch from our PK king Domagoj Vida, ha ha.
One of the sleepless nights during the WC I had to look up the penalty records of all our players. Modric is actually exceptional overall.
Crazy how all the pks blend into the same match in my head
But ya that orsic pk goal was stone cold killer at the biggest stage possible
His goal against Morocco to rewatch is pure genius
He was unlucky to get that one other blast to deflect
It was on its way to cause damage
If he had those chances sosa Harry Kaned into space who knows other results of games
Sosa at least hit two well into the upper deck from what I can remember
Saw this mamic video
Yes it’s mamic and he probably still getting paid but he says sutalo is not any worse then gvardiol
Just had an injury and wasn’t in top form
Again I think we would all agree lovren did better then expected but i for sure want to see more of sutalo
And IMO even against a better line up if we keep most of the other guys and roll out a Musa or colak ljubicic to try instead of the usual suspects that’s just fine
I think we have all been scratching our heads for lack of orsic
Whether it’s Perisic on lb or striker or right side we need to see orsic
He is in his best form and as soul champ or slavonac say, we can’t count any nogometas out before 29
Tho there is clearly Nothing to count out
I know he has a good gig in zAgreb but the fact a guy like orsic is in Zagreb at 29 after showing many times on big stages he is legit is just jaw dropping
Musa vs Colak vs Ljubicic
I’ve watched all 3 of these guys play and they’re all different from each other. In my opinion, and I’ll start with Colak…
Colak is in his prime (27-31) as far as age goes and I just don’t see enough of an impact from him. To me, he’s like a knock off version of Livaja…playing in a weak league, not performing well in Europe and just not doing enough to be impactful. Livaja was below average in this World Cup…yeah he scored and made an important assist but he also walked a lot and wasn’t very involved for long periods.
Musa is interesting and I’d keep an eye on him. He has technical quality but I don’t see enough of his scoring instincts lately. The guy has a good touch and he makes some very good passes and plays but his job is to score goals so he needs to do that more often. I’d be interested to see how well he does in the next year.
Ljubicic is a topic for me. Last seasn and the season before, I watched a lot of Hajduk games and he was always involved. The kid is tempermental and plays with speed, high energy and aggression. He lost his spot on the Hajduk roster when Kalinic signed and then the Hajduk media were saying he just wasn’t good enough…which really surprised me. Now, he’s scoring goals and I ask myself…”is this because he’s in a weak league, is this a fluke, is this temporary”??? The reason I ask myself these questions is because he was let go soo easily and as if it were no big deal and after reading that he “wasn’t good enough” I wondered whether this was Hajduk trying to justify bringing in Kalinic or are they just not good at identifying talent. Either way, they pushed him out and it makes me wonder how this kid caught fire so quickly and now we are talking about him for the National team?
One last thing. Budimir is a really good guy but he has no place on our National Team. The only reason I’d ever call him up would be because we have absolutely nobody else. His ship has sailed to China!
We finally agree on all fronts. 😉
I feel the exact same way about all three of these strikers as you stated.
I am probably most inclined to push for Musa to get his chance, simple because he plays for the best team out of the three (and most of the strikers we currently have on our team), and is doing well despite only recently getting starts at his club.
Even though his scoring numbers are low, the scoring rate is very high (he has 5 goals in the equivalent of 7 games played).
His rate last season at Boavista was good too, and he was on the league scoring leaderboard.
He is the type of striker that we currently need (a true #9, that can feed off Sosa and our mids, workhorse that can play without the ball, etc.).
I think calling up Musa for the March friendlies is a no-brainer (Dalic had him in there for June games before he got sick).
Colak (and Rangers) being useless in Champions League really hurts his stock. I’d give him a try but after Musa. I too have a feeling that he’ll just be another Livaja.
Ljubicic is a completely different striker that gets me excited, but I want to make sure that this isn’t just some early season hot streak. If he continues to score like this, then I would put him ahead of Colak and on par with Musa for a callup.
Hajduk is a joke and has made many mistakes re: their prospects. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just shit the bed again with Ljubicic. LASK’s buyout option is painfully low, and Hajduk pretty much gave him to them for free.
They have a history of this. They tried to selloff Vlasic for 1.5 million back in the day (his father stopped them) and they pretty much told Modric to eff off. They had guys like Perisic and Jelavic just leave for nothing, and they constantly miss out on Dalmatian youth talent (like Gvardiol, Vrsaljko, Moro, Jakic, Baturina, etc.) that Dinamo capitalizes on, yet focus on these random prospects like Seric, Vucko, Vukusic, Tomasov, Balic, Kalinic who never really pan out.
There are 8 Dalmatinci on the team and only two came from Hajduk (Pasalic, Livaja). Everyone else went a different path in their careers before being called up.
Does anyone have a strong opinion or final verdict on Majer’s overall performance? Should we be hopeful moving forward with Majer?
I believe Majer had one goal only? Orisic actually had 2 assists and 1 goal. That was a generous assist to Majer during the Canadian game. I think Majer had more time on the pitch.
Orisic and Majer remind me when Perisic and Jelavic were coming up, and I was wondering who would have the most impact on the national team when their story was all told.
we played a very smart game that day. defensively sound and maintaining a lot of possession I didn’t really anticipate. overall, when Neymar scored, something inside me didn’t really panic although I did think it was over for us. when I saw Orsic running down the right wing I then started to HOPE that maybe…maybe we could do something magical and then…BOOM, I screamed and almost passed out from screaming soo loud.
One thing I’ll mention about that play. Lovren ran in behind Gvardiol (I think) and instead of just knocking the ball out of bounds, he kept it in and then Modric got half control and passed it to Vlasic, who then passed it to Orsic. If Lovren didn’t try to keep the ball in play, none of this happens and we lose out on our chance to advance.
…when I saw Orsic running down the “left wing”…
That was one of my favorite sequences of team play from start to finish. After Lovren kept it in, Majer headed it to Modric from the end of our own box. Modric did his thing and as you mentioned Vlasic with a great run to Orsic and so on. I loved watching Majer head that ball from the edge of our box and then sprint the length of the pitch to be right behind Petkovic in case he missed it.
I think the one player that had the most production with the time they were given, and the most impact was Miroslav Orisic.
The goal in the 3rd place final was almost prettier than the one I witnessed by Suker in 98′ in the 3rd place final.
Croatia could not have made it through without Perisic with his critical timely headers, but now I wonder, if the games would not have been different if Orisic got Perisic’s minutes, and Perisic recieved Orisic’s minutes.
I agree with you about Orsic needing more time out there. I still don’t want to sacrifice Perisic and don’t think his talents are best used defensively at LB where Sosa should continue to be our future there.
We’ve had such a gap at RW and it kinda worked out with the Kramaric/Pasalic/Vlasic RW by committee at the WC. But that’s a Band-Aid and I’d really like to see Perisic start at RW. He’s two footed and even if it’s less than what he can provide at LW, it’s still probably more than out of position Krama, Pasalic or Vlasic.
Orsic shows some real skill with his cut ins from the left wing where he rips shots off from the corner of the box. It sends defenses into fits as they scramble to converge from the middle and opponent’s right side.
This skill has been completely non existent from our right side. Maybe Perisic can be the one to help balance out our attack on that side.
It would have been great to have had Dalic tried your line-up ideas. Do we think this was Perisic last world cup as well?
Unfortunately I do think it was Perisic’s last WC. He’s already talking about a final retirement year with Hajduk before he calls it quits.
Perisic for me is #2 behind Modric in terms of value added to the team throughout his run. He’ll be missed for sure as he always had that ‘clutch’ factor.
Well, if we have to break it down into two moments. The Petkovic goal is #1, and the Penalty kicks are #2, because Croatia seemed to have the mental advantage at the point, to the extent, it almost seemed probable that we would win, once Petkovic’s goal hit the back of the net, especially after the 2018 WC, and the Japan OT victory.
Yea, I remember we were all still cheering for the tying goal and the euphoria was still so very high, that we didn’t even fully settle down before Livakovic saved that first penalty on Rodrygo.
Then it was just another eruption of cheers, that kept the momentum going, with everyone saying “uh oh they’re gonna do it again!” and all of us laughing as fucking deer-faced Livakovic was sitting there with his sheepish grin.
…until that moment when Marquinhos nervously walked up to take his, and it hit that post. Then another eruption of cheers, and then wartime victory chants after ha ha.
Previous PK shootouts were nerve wracking…but this one wasn’t.
We were left for dead against the top team in the World, and we tied it up in the last minute and our keeper saved the first PK on them, pretty much making it a mountain for them to come back. The entire time it was just waiting for that moment for Brazil to breakdown, and it obviously came when the man responsible for the Croatia goal (Marquinhos) lined up to miss his PK.
The England win SHOULD be #1 because of what it meant to win that…
But I think many of us knew that we could take out England that game.
Sure, we weren’t the official favorites, but I think most of us knew we could take them out the same way we eliminated them from Euro2008.
But beating this Brazil team….that was something nobody expected.
Brazil 2022 was like Dream Team USA at the ’92 Olympics.
Nobody should be beating them.
Let’s face it. If we lost that game, it would be Neymar and Brazil hoisting that World Cup trophy.
Argentina would have shit the bed against Brazil.
We are more responsible for Argentina winning the World Cup than Argentina themselves.
England in 2018 still edges this out for me by a hair.
Might be cause i was the only guy in a bar full of english people who were a bunch of the cockiest mfers in the world, plus a bunch of American Idiots cheering for England cause they still couldn’t point out Croatia on a map.
Nothing better than going down 1-0 and having them get all excited and then dominating the remaining 60 minutes + OT with a fucking Mandukic DAGGER at the end.
Brazil felt like we hung on for the ride a bit, tactically played well, but not pretty.
England was the game for me where we showed the world we had arrived.
How about Olic goal against Turkey in the revenge match. That has a lot of sentimental meaning to me.
That 3-0 victory felt great.
It was our second best revenge win I think.
Our 3-0 beating on Germany at WC98 was first though, after we lost to them 2-1 at Euro96 (thanks to horribly biased reffing).
Brazil was absolutely below average at that time …
that means this guy surpass their skill and technique
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHxM9iiIOvg
———————————————————————————-
this guy’s job only doing for da’wah | not for soccer
Hahahahahha gtfo of here with this trash
It sounds like most of the Team will go unchanged
Will vida retire? Do we carry petko livaja and krama. Surely budimit will be cut
Is there a way colak and or Musa make it for March
Ivanusec/brekalo?
Does Jakic stay on squad. He gets meaningful mins In Frankfurt playing in a 3-5-2 in the back middle or right
So I think he’s a good stop gap as defence and defensive mid field stop gap
Or does misic become broz’s understudy?
If livakovic can improve even more dare I say it we are set for euro at least
Defence should continue to improve Hopefully gvardiol and JJ make the right moves
Sosa I imagine will move the next step up on a new team
Any other guys you guys think could challenge for time in next years campaign?
Obviously it we take the first two matches outright we can maybe try some stuff with Armenia and Latvia…
The first two matches are imperative
Wales and turkey will be playing hard to take on us a border line powerhouse
Dalic with a narrow mindset
will never ever change ]{ still playing Lovren }
unless you kick him out -. 4 future generation
no more for stupid Dalic as our manager }
Agadmator will be fit for this position…
with abilities and decision-making skills…
Yea I think the team will remain the same (unless a player retires).
Which is very, very unfortunate.
We need to immediately move away from Lovren, Vida, Budimir, Livaja, and Barisic. I expect Vida to retire, and I pray to God that Lovren does.
The strikers will likely want to stick around, but I am hoping Budimir just stops scoring at club level and is phased out. I don’t think Dalic is as afraid of Budimir as he is of Lovren and Vida.
Barisic and Livaja were garbage this World Cup (despite Livaja scoring). I hope they’re somehow let go, but I expect Dalic to keep them around for another tournament.
Petkovic and Kramaric are okay as depth players only, and need to be relegated to the bench. They tend to score regularly against weak competition, so that’s useful in qualifying (especially when there are injuries to starters).
But the other five mentioned above provide essentially nothing that we don’t already have.
We need to test out Musa, Colak and hopefully Ljubicic (if he continues to score the way he has been, and that this wasn’t just a lucky early season streak).
I would call 2 or 3 of these guys immediately, and start guys like Sutalo, Erlic, Stanisic, etc more regularly to get them better integrated with the team for Nations League and Euro2024. To be honest, they should have been starting some games at this World Cup. Luckily Lovren only had 2 or 3 bad games, so we didn’t pay a major price, but Sutalo looked good against Morocco and I think he’ll be a good one for the next tournament and Nations League (if he’s allowed to start).
” luckily Lovren only had 2 or 3 bad games ”
not for the standard to win the world cup ~
Dalic absolutely lets him satisfy his ego…
Everyone eats that shit! } as if he is patriotic
absolutely luck ~ what can we say . . .
Sorry guys. I thought it was implied #1 moment of the 2022 World Cup…not all World Cups
My ranking all time is:
1. 2-1 extra time over England 2018
2. 3-0 over Germany in 98
3. Penalties over Brazil in 2022
Yes Ante, it was understood that you meant #1 moment of World Cup 2022; however, we somehow decided to change it to all World Cup’s in the discussion. Once again, a job well done with the article.
Thanks for all you do, and may God bless you and your family abundantly!
Sretan Bozic, i Sretna Nova Godina.
Yes, three cheers for Ante! I’ve been following since the beginning and realize the effort you’ve put into this site and accomplishing your goal of bringing Croats together. Shout out to the whole team here and many commentators. Many thanks to all. Sretan Bozic.
Mine will always be beating Italy at the Stadio Renzo Barbera in Palermo in the Euro ’96 qualifying, it was then I started telling non Croats that the ’94 WC would’ve been ours and making the SF at France ’98 confirmed that!
Yes, I remember that when late Tomislav Ivic replaced Blazevic as the coach for that match. Blazevic was suspended and under investigation due to some irregularities in French Football. After beating Italy, I remember reading headlines in English press that a new powerhouse in European football had arrived. For sure we would have had a great WC in USA 94.
That was awesome, but I had the score ruined for me (because I watched a taped version of the game, and someone already told me the result).
Italy was a powerhouse then, and we waltzed into Italy right after they lost in the World Cup final and handily beat them.
We were already making waves in basketball and tennis…but when we suddenly made waves in the best sport in the World, that was a great feeling.
Undoubtedly number 1 remains the wins over England as
1) it led to a final rather than semi final
2) it was a clean win rather than penalties and a deserved win whereas Brazil was still a lucky result
3) where Brazil has the edge in quality of opponent, England and the pundits have the edge in arrogance. Although it was enjoyable to stop that salsa dancing
Moments now should rank
1) England 2018
2) Germany 1998/ Brazil 2022
3) Netherlands bronze 1998
4) Morocco bronze 2022
Although the latter two are likely worlds below jubilation of other matches not on the list but still take high standing for the significance
#1 Extra time goal to put us in a fucking WC final and deny football from “coming home”. Croatia over England 2018
Beating Brazil #2. The level of upset was higher for us beating Brazil because of who they are and what was expected of them, but it didn’t put us in the final. If we went on to overcome some shitty calls and beat Argentina, then the Brazil game has even more meaning and may edge out the 2018 semifinal in my opinion.
*VARgentina
I agree that the Mandzukic goal vs England was the best feeling for me because as soon as he scored, I thought ” wow- that is likely the goal that wins a silver medal at a minimum, and possibly gold”.
Whereas the Brazil upset was huge and an awesome feeling, but it came piecemeal- goal by Petkovic followed by 4 successful penalty kicks, and lastly a missed PK by Brazil.
For me the win on penalties against Brazil was nerve racking, amazing and ranks as number one of all time, followed by 3 – 0 win over Argentina in Russia. My third best result was when we beat England 3 -2 at Wembley in 2007 to knock them out of EURO.
Whaat?
No 2-1 England semifinal win that got us into the Final?
That’s gotta be #1 or #2 (between that and the Brazil win).
Also, that 3-0 win over Germany in France98 was that WTF moment where shit just got real.
2 – 1 over England in the SF was our greatest, highest achievement. However, winning 3 – 2 at Wembley was very special. Also, the 2 – 0 win over Serbia in 2013 in Zagreb was also something special that will live with me forever.
I would give anything to feel like I did in that moment again for the first time … Truly the best feeling ever, like when Perisic scored against England in ET in 2018, but even better
Probably the best moment ever in a tournament.
Crazy win.
I spent the next day listening to pundits eat their words. Nobody had us going through.
It truly was a great moment for us . We may never experience another victory like that for 20 years. Sreten Bozic tebe