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I look at the Greece game like this: we lost to a team that displayed zero interest in winning for massive stretches of the game. Enough said.
But I’m sure a win today over Latvia and eventual qualification will smooth over all the warts this team clearly has with many…until the inevitable 3-and-out at Euro.
@IvicaA, excellent explaination, thanks. Just one question, say Sweden lose and Denmark lose by 1 goal and Croatia wins 3-0; that would leave the points and goal differential btwn Croatia & Denmark equal – then what?
I think it’s “total goals scored” next, then after that it’s “goals scored away from home”. If we subtract our Malta goals, then Denmark has us on total goals scored. Looks like Cro will have to go for 4+ goals against Latvia.
Why do we have leave it to the last match….
Oh yea, Greek loosing would obviously be the number one choice
Basically these are the results we need to pray for tonight. BiH to loose, Sweden to loose, Denmark to loose big. Us to win big at latvia. Boze zacuvaj
@ Anonymous and Wallace
We are not in any competition with BiH for top 2nd place team. If BiH beats France, then BiH finishes first in their group and that’s it. France would finish 2nd and would fall two points behind us due to that loss (assuming we beat Latvia). If they tie, or BiH loses, then BiH falls behind us by two or three points.
The only teams that can take top 2nd place team is Denmark/Portugal, Sweden, or Croatia.
Croatia is +4
Denmark and Sweden are +8
Portugal is +10
If one of Portugal or Denmark win, then it becomes a goal differential game. If they tie, then Croatia is screwed as Denmark will stay in 2nd and stay ahead of Cro. However, Denmark can’t just play for a tie because if Sweden beats the Netherlands in their final match, then Sweden will leapfrog Denmark. Croatia has to hope that Sweden doesn’t win and that Denmark/Portugal don’t tie (we need a loser out of the two).
If Sweden ties the Netherlands, and one of Denmark/Portugal loses, then Croatia has to score a huge win against Latvia to go through (something like a 5-0 victory). Ideally we want the Dutch to win (and officially take Sweden out of the running) and Denmark to lose (as they have the lower differential). If that’s the case, then a 3-0 victory over Latvia will do.
On a somewhat related note, Estonia takes 2nd place over Serbia if the Serbs can’t pull off a victory in Slovenia. Estonia!?! LOL.
It will be a very interesting day tomorrow.
The question is if BiH draw or lose, and Denmark & Sweden both lose by 1 goal, how many goals does Croatia have to score? What if Denmark, Sweden & Croatia are all tied or two are tied with the same goal differential – what’s the next tie breaker? Wins, goals?
Here’s what’s gotta happen 2 morrow. If Greece looses and we win, we finish 1st. To get top2nd place finisher, multiple things need to happen. This is all assuming we win 2morrow. Bih, Denmark Sweden, are our competition. Need BiH to loose or draw against France. Sweden to loose against holland. Denmark to loose against Portugal or vice versa. Then it will come down to goal differential. Right now we are +3 and Denmark +8, but that number could go down if loose to Portugal big. We need to put up major points on Latvia 90 minutes of attacking, no sitting and watching. Big day tomorrow.
Ante: “Is Croatia a Top 10 team in the world? Yes. But only by default.”
That doesn’t make sense, you’re either a top ten team in the world or you’re not. If you want to say that the difference btwn the top 4+/- teams compared to bottom half of the top 10 is greater than before, than I suppose you could make a case for that.
Ziva Istina: “I am not comparing Germany. Germany has 50 years of history to draw from in major tourneys when discussing them…”
No shit Sherlock, I (ME) was the one who compared Germany’s RUN in Euro 08′ to Croatia’s RUN in Euro 08′; nothing less, nothing more. You’re reading comprehesion skills are severly lacking. All I did was show how your assessment of Croatia’s RUN in Euro 08′ being a fluke can be applied to just about anyone – which proves your assessment lacking.
@Hamilcar, @IvicA, @TheGoldenChild, @Ante
Well said and coherently put.
@ziva istina
ive heard it all before from you. Its like im struck with a big case of deja vu every time you post.
@ Golden Child,
I took a look at the link and started watching highlights all the way back to 2006. We are missing 3 things right now:
speed of play, leadership, a fighter.
Our current teams tends to kick the ball around and attempt to get a perfect shot off on goal. You cannot accomplish that without speed. Get a player going down the line, whip the ball in the box and keep pressure on. We may not have that player at the moment but I’ve seen Pranjic exemplify this tactic from the midfield position.
Srna, Simunic are not captains. You need someone vocal out there. But at the same time, it’s about respect. How can you respect Srna when he’s flopping every 5 minutes? Niko Kovac was one in the same. Fighter and leader. Smallest guy on the field but he wouldn’t let a bigger guy take an inch.
The current morale on this Croatian side is out of whack and the momentum is at a stand still. But at the same time, where is our place in world soccer?
I will be delivering a piece later in the week on the state of Croatian soccer.
From lack of payroll, lack of a legit youth system and a national media that will roast you once the slightest thing goes wrong…we’re doing pretty good. Is Croatia a Top 10 team in the world? Yes. But only by default. The Sweden’s, Czech Republic’s and Belgium’s have fallen off the map in the last 8 years. We need to inject some new blood. Starting at the top of the Savez. Markovic needs to go. New coach is necessary that won’t be influenced by upper management…preferably foreign.
Van Gaal anybody? Let’s break some bread and get some fire under our asses. Way too much talent on this team for the current mentality to be wrecking everything.
Ziva,
You can’t just say that Croatia’s Euro2008 run was a fluke if we had similar or better tournaments in the past (Euro96 and WC98). Much like your argument of Germany having a great history to draw from, you can apply the same to Croatia’s short (but successful) history.
You’re also not factoring in that the war had a MAJOR impact as to why there was a talent gap between 1999 and 2004. I doubt many families were cool with seeing their 13-year old kids outside training every day in mine-laden fields with the odd shell potentially being fired on them. Who knows what additional success could have been added to Croatia’s football history if that war didn’t constrain that generation of players.
So I’ve been watching matches from 06 to now for the past 24 hours, and it’s been amazing. Check out FanaticZG channel on Youtube, full match feeds. I remember watching these games, but I wanted to go back to see what’s the difference from then and now. We do have a good amount of the same players, but the biggest difference between now and then have been our defense.
Like Ziva said, everybody wants to get another Kovac to lead the team, but that’s like finding another Suker. It’s just as hard to find a unbelievable striker, as it is to find a good defender who has balls and can lead a team. Our defense was the base that we worked off of in the past. Yes, we did have an amazing offense even earlier, but a lot of our success fell on the strength of our defense. In the past 10 years our offense hasn’t been stellar, but we didn’t need to worry about having a defensive midfielder, one less guy in attack, since the back four held it down. We’re missing an anchor, and a player that is going to get the players heads out of their asses. There is nobody on our team now, that is going to light that fire because, as ziva said, they’re all pampered.
Next, our offense and counter were something that was way more fluid and fast. Even though we still use a lot of the same one dimensional tactics, there were bright spots in attack. Niko, Luka, Babic, Rapaic, Jarni, etc. use to dribble downhill and open up the game, and now we look at side to side and standing around. We had Simunic and Corluka swinging balls in from the sides. Their attack also brought another option to give the ball to a Niko, Luka, or Eduardo in the middle who could then attack head on. There was a lot more options, a lot more fluidity, and we got our share of the luck too.
When you’re not worried about your defense being a piece of swiss cheese, the rest of the game benefits. That confidence allows you to have a different mentality, and it’s going to allow less of a physical toll on the attackers, which will allow them to perform better on attack. We’re so worried about what’s going to happen when we give the ball up, that when we get the ball we’ve forgotten what to do or don’t have enough men to do it.
Finally, a lot of blame rests on the players. Playing on the NT has become a break from club play, rather than an honor. The only way that’s going to change, is with a drastic change. We all know the hierarchy of Croatian Football is not going to change anytime soon, too crooked. We all know Bilic is next, and I bet Stimac is next in line. What international coach would want to come to Cro and coach under these guys that are running our national team? They saw how badly Bilic aged after 4 years…I don’t think they’re going to want to be next.
Ziva, I don’t get what your point is.
Are you trying to say that the Croatia team today is no different from the Croatia team in Euro2008, and the only difference between the two is luck? You’re only half-right.
You’re right that there isn’t that big of a difference in quality. With the exception of finding a new Niko Kovac (which I hope can be Vida one day), the quality level is pretty much the same. Some players have dipped (ie. Pranjic, Simunic), but new ones have started to come in (ie. Perisic, Lovren). Our team is still strong in the the midfield and wings, decent in defense, bad in goaltending, and has ‘okay’ forwards (with no natural finishers).
I wouldn’t discount Croatia going undefeated in the Euros as ‘luck’ or ‘weak competition’. They didn’t lose to what could be seen as a ‘weak’ Russian team like the Netherlands did. Your argument could apply to pretty much any team.
I think the major difference these past couple of years versus the Euro2008 was that Bilic seems to have difficulty transitioning from the old to the new. Sure he brought in a fresh roster when he first took the reigns, but has had troubles moving away from that initial roster since. He tries to bring in new guys like Jelavic or Perisic, but keeps second guessing himself and tends to play out a different roster game-in game-out with little consistency in the lineup. In these nine qualifiers, we had seven strikers playing significant minutes. At times we had these strikers even playing in midfield positions and roles they have never played before. How is our midfield supposed to develop any sort of chemistry with your forwards if you keep rotating four of Olic, Petric, Klasnic, Jelavic, Kalinic, Dudu, & Mandzo every game? It’s not just the forwards, there have been quite a few changes in the midfield too. Even our defense/goaltending had Schildenfeld and Runje as key starters, now swapped with Plete and Lovren (not complaining about this change). The only constant, really, is Strinic at LB, lol.
Couple a constantly changing roster and players playing out of position with inconsistencies in your playing style (long balls in Georgia, playing for ties in Greece) and you’ll end up with a string of inconsistent results that won’t reflect your level of individual talent.
Typical response from those who just don’t understand the game.
I am not comparing Germany. Germany has 50 years of history to draw from in major tourneys when discussing them…
I am discussing present day Hrvatska.
let’s see, a few years ago I said our performance at the Euros was a fluke. Fast forward 3 years later……..no WC appearance and an indifferent performance in the qualifying group. It appears the results back what I was saying.
same dalje!!!
So according to Ziva Istina’s logic, the 08′ German team sucked.
Gentlemen, some of you just don’t like seeing or hearing reality. That is why I am here.
I’ll stick to my comments about Euro 08. I never mentioned anything else.
I don’t know how much you guys follow the savez and all its members. Maybe if you did you would realize the the level or lack of professionalism with everyone involved. Do you guys realize what Markovic and Mamic did to keep him in power. They stole the fricken election, not that the alternative was any better.
You guys paint a picture that we were some sort of tourney favorites going forward based on what we did at Euro 08.
Here is what we did…….
Beat Austria…..what has Austria done?
Beat Germany…..amazing accomplishment, but it was a fluke. one-time deal. Go ahead and mention the 98 WC against Germany and then go watch the video and see how we played against the Germans when we were at even strength before the red card.
Beat Poland……what have they done.
Lost to Turkey in PKs…..took us 120 minutes to score a goal against them…..
Since then we have lost a player who was the heart of this team and really every team he played on in Niko Kovac. He has yet to be replaced and he wont.
So, why does it appear that I am gloating?????? I am not, but I called all of this and the inconsistent play 2 years ago. I saw it coming. I saw it in Bilic, I saw it in the current players and more importantly I saw it in the savez.
Turkey “got lucky” against Croatia, “one time deal.”
Let’s look at Germany’s path in the 08′ Euro. Beat Poland, “what has Poland done?” Beat Austria, “what has Austria done?” The only decent team in the group they played (Croatia), they were beat convincingly. Got “lucky” against Portugal, what has Portugal done since? Beat a depleated and spent Turkey team, what has Turkey done since? Then when they FINALLY played a good team, they lost (for the 2nd time).
So according to Ziva Istina, when the Croats win, they ain’t that good, they’re just lucky, and the opposition sucks; so that when Croatia loses, he can say “I told you so” and of course it had nothing to do with luck. Croatia wins = luck, Croatia loses = has nothing to do with luck.
And by the way, who are all the great teams that Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, play on their way to the finals of major tournys? Do they ALWAYS play each other? or do they also play lesser ranked teams along the way?
Watch what happens between Vida and Klasnic at the 19-20 second time frame.
http://gol.dnevnik.hr/clanak/nogomet/reprezentacije/tko-ce-biti-novi-izbornik-vatrenih-cico-kranjcar-ili-igor-stimac.html
@ziva istina said:”Then I hear the argument that we are not even close to what we looked like at Euro 08…..Remember the 4 teams we played in Euro08, only Germany was a real good side. Austria and Poland have done nothing in 25 years and the turks are average. We hit a fluke against the germans and everyone was overjoyed. In the end, the Germany game was nothing more than a fluke result where Bilic got lucky and outcoached Lowe based on his formation. So, to recap, we played 1 real good team and 3 average to subpar teams in the Euros. Most teams would look good in that situation.”
Even if that were true, you cannot discount the amazing qualifying stages, in the years leading up to the euro finals of 08, barring the macedonia game, the team played with style, flair, great fluency and a desire to impress and win. But most importantly they had a consistency in getting the results. I know it is not exactly the same team as that period(Pravi eduardo, kovac brothers, pranjic club regular, simunic younger version) but the players we do have like modric have advanced in skill level. Even at the euro finals the team without eduardo, played with class, minus the first game jitters against austria, the rest were fantasic games to watch, germany shellshocked at the oppostion they got that day, a B side croatia showing poland how its done, the turkey game might have been cagey as hell, but the side had some great moments, and would have won if olic could finish.
Since then bilic has lost his compass. Can this side become respectable again? Yes, but not under bilic’s guidence.
The username Croatia was me, sorry! LOL
(Note: I’m depicting how some historical Croatian results can be distorted to support Ziva Instina’s and others’ defeatist views of Croatia’s National Soccer Team)
case in point:
Euro ’96
1. We had a lucky last minute win against the Turks in an extremely lackluster match.
2. Due to Suker’s individual brilliance and Denmark being past it’s Euro 92 glory prime we were able to crush an aging side.
3. Our team’s true capability and depth are exposed against an average Portuguese side.
4. We were shown the doors to the tournament by the then to be champions, Germany.
WC 98
1. We barely managed to get into the play-offs thanks to Denmark holding Greece to a lucky draw.
2. Ukraine nearly eliminated us, but Boksic scored a fortunate goal.
3. We played an awfully sluggish game against Japan that we could have easily lost had they used their chances, but Suker saved the day.
4. We managed an expected win against new-comer Jamaica.
5. We were shown our limitations against a superior Argentina side.
6. Thanks to a fortunate penalty, that had to be taken twice, we beat the Romanians in one of the most boring games of the tournament.
7. We were barely holding off the Germans with Klinsmann and Co, until they got a red card after an oscar worthy performance from Suker. Then the tides turned.
I could go on. All these events are part of soccer and you can interpret them favorably or negatively. Croatia has had a lot more positive results that negative. That doesn’t happen by chance. So when someone begins to crap on Croatia’s success you have statistics to show they are full of it.
Mabye this is why Ciro Blazevic doesnt want to come back to coach Croatia becuase of the HNS?
Also i just found out that CIro Blazevic said this: Dont touch Bilic, put the blame on Markovic. Here is the link
http://www.jutarnji.hr/ciro-porucuje-iz-irana–ne-dirajte-slavena-bilica–za-sve-je-kriv-vlatko-markovic-/979719/
This is what Ciro Blazevic said in this article
Whatever shifts! Do not touch Slaven Bilic. I will not pour fire on him, There is no sense to attack Slaven . This is his first defeat in a crucial game. Do we really need to change our coach after that? right now what we need to do for him is to support him.
“We need to change Vlatko Markovic, he is to blame for the current situation. Ask him why we lost against Greece” – says Ciro.
There will be no changes, Bilic is remaining as Coach. I posted a comment with links to show you but it is currently being moderated. If you want to see this go to Jutarnji and in sports section under National team you will see it. The article is titled Markovic: Changes? Bilic is remaining as coach who ever doesnt like him or hates him can say whatever they want
I hear some of the candidates for coach are Stimac, Katalinic, Kranjcar, Kuze, Ivankovic. What does everyone think of those choices?
Ziva Instina,
By your standards you could say Croatia’s entire footballing accomplishments were nothing but a “fluke”. Get real. The results speak for themselves.
Ancelotti????/Sure, but can we pay him. He is not taking over a job for what Bilic is being paid or for even 5 times the amount Bilic is making.
Hello everyone, i found a couple of links about Bilic.
This link is about Zidak saying that we have a coach that needs to leave but we will let him leave in style
http://www.jutarnji.hr/imamo-izbornika-koji-mora-otici—-ali-pustimo-ga-da-ode-kao-gospodin/979578/
ALSO the next link is about Markovic saying this : Change? Bilic remains the coach who ever doesnt like him or hates him can say whatever he wants.
http://www.jutarnji.hr/markovic–smjena–taman-posla–bilic-ostaje-izbornik–on-je-momak-koji-zasluzuje-sve-pohvale/979733/
Looks like Slaven Bilic is staying!!
I think it’s time the Croatian federation puts up some money and hires a real coach.
I believe a man by the name of Carlo Ancelotti is still available. I can only dream …………
Je istina sta si reka ziva samo si jopet ponavla sta je svak reka ja ću ti rec sta je problem “no offence” za dom-U-
U want to know why the national team is in for an extended period of this type of play on the field, look at the people who are in leadership roles within the savez.
Markovic consults with the likes of Suker and Mamic.
Mamic is able to spend money in the cro league to get any player he wants, you don’t assemble national teams that way. He has no credibility.
Suker is a nobody. What executive experience does he have besides watching his own company file for bankruptcy??? None.
Then some of you guys want to bring in someone like Boban to be the coach???? Based on what, he is another version of Bilic.
Then you guys want a foreigner as coach. Fine, but who???? We wont be paying someone millions unless one of the sponsors is willing to pay a few millions.
Is it time for Bilic to go??? yes, even if we advance to the Euros without a playoff. But, remember this if he is replaced before the playoffs. The new coach will have no time to work with this collective bunch of pampered players.
Everyone is bitching that we have no Niko Kovac type of player on this team with play and leadership. That is correct, but the way you guys complain it seems like you think those type of players are easy to replace. They are not.
Then I hear the argument that we are not even close to what we looked like at Euro 08…..Remember the 4 teams we played in Euro08, only Germany was a real good side. Austria and Poland have done nothing in 25 years and the turks are average. We hit a fluke against the germans and everyone was overjoyed. In the end, the Germany game was nothing more than a fluke result where Bilic got lucky and outcoached Lowe based on his formation. So, to recap, we played 1 real good team and 3 average to subpar teams in the Euros. Most teams would look good in that situation.
Do what I have done the last 18 months. I have realized this team is not as good as its individual parts. Part of it is on Bilic, but a large part is also on the players. I have no clue what it is. The guys on the repka have no issue regarding Bilic but something is missing.
@nepoznat
“The problems weren’t necessarilly who got subbed out but who got subbed IN. Kalinic over Klasnic? Perisic ok… And Vida when already down a goal?”
I agree 100%. Last substitution was mind-boggling. Bring in defense for defense when you are down a goal.
@Ziva istina
“Not all of this is with Bilic.”
I agree 100%. But Bilic’ time has run out.
@Jack Vrankovic
“I don’t feel that all the criticism of Bilic is warranted.”
I agree. Not ALL criticism, but enough to cost him his job.
@Petar Radman
Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere he is. Always a pleasure. Stick with us “buddy, buddy, buddy”.
“Boban is an idealist, always has been. He would never be affiliated with the outright corruption and incompetence which is Croatian Football. He has a sweet life in Italy, he makes his t.v. appearances. shows up on Gazzetta Dello Sport every now and then, why leave?”
That puts the end to rumors of Boban taking over Croatia.
“THERE IS QUALITY. I believe that many of them have tuned Bilic out ages ago, he has lost that dressing room long ago. Add to the fact that his insistence to run Eduardo and Mandzukic in the midfield is always met with disaster, yet he insists on ramming that formation and tactical set up down our throats…. For the most part, I agree with Ziva Istina. Most of you guys should expand your research and think with your heads and not your hearts.”
I agree on all three points.
“Denis, did you finally read those articles I sent you?”
Not yet buddy. I will get to them. Finally getting over post-game-depression.
@Allen19
“@Jack Yes Corluka was the best player for Croatia yesterday. He made several good moves on players and looked confident.”
Yes, I like Carli at RB. He’s a stud at RB.
@Vlad
“Their are a tone of average sides that have more of a identity than we do! This team is capable of more than what is shown! Anyone who thinks less is wrong!”
Well said. I agree 100%.
@4august
Ask any non greek what they think of Greek football. First word will be boring.
““boring” football you are all commenting on was a brief period in our history.”
Hallelujah. Amen. Finally a Greek admits they are boring. Thank you. Good man.
“we won the Euro that year so that game plan worked then. I dare for anyone else to try and win a Euro with strategy like that. Not going to happen.”
No one wants to try a strategy like that because they dont want UEFA to engrave “pussies” on our championship trophy.
@Mishko
As far as I’m aware, Suker hasn’t had much of/any experience as a coach. Just b/c he was a great player, doesn’t mean he’ll be a great coach. God only knows though. The way soccer is being run down their, and Suker’s ties, I wouldn’t be surprised.
The thing that surprises me here, is everybody is blaming Bilic. Yet the board have not fired him yet(had the balls to), and besides that Kranjcar article, I don’t see anybody rushing or qualified to take the job. Circus.
@anonymous
“We have no leadership out there on the pitch and it shows.”
Thats been a fact since Niko Kovac retired. Robert was an ok captain.
WE dont have this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v63mHA0YTmo&list=PL3C9705C793A1B318&index=21
@Johnny P
“The game was a well organized trap and you felt right into it.”
I agree 100%. Bilic failed in the second half as McClaren failed with England.
“Spain-Greece 0-1 (2003)”
That was 8 years ago buddy. Another Greek talking about the “legendary” team of Euro 2004. Don’t be like the Brits and still look at Bobby Charlton and England ’66. Will this be you in 30 years?
“The biggest mistake is to underestimate your opponent.”
I agree. But Croatia didnt underestimate Greece. Most of the Croatian fans did, yes, I will give you that.
@Johnny Grbic
“One thing though, I’d rather see the comments in reverse chronological newest first.”
Not a bad idea. We thought about this and decided to stick with our current format. After 50 missed comments or so, you dont remember where you left off. This way, you scroll down and remember where you left off.
@Hellas40
Good take. Enjoy 3 games and out at Euro and being looked down upon by the global football community.
“Im offended when Croatian posters above call my team garbage, boring, etc. etc. yet we keep you scoreless over 2 games and thump you 2-0 in the biggest game of the campaign.”
You will be offended for the rest of your life. Ask any non-Greek about Greece 04? No one will ever give the Greeks credit. People dont like Anti-football.
“And to add that Croatia’s efforts in 98 come close to Greece’s triumph in 04 is just a joke.”
The question here is not what was a bigger triumph. Honesty, I would say 3rd place in the world cup. But a Euro win is up there with that. The question here is which teams was respected. Which team today will be remembered? Which team will be praised? Use “Croatia WC 98” and “Greece Euro04” in the same sentence and see what type of response you get.
The entire world was pulling for Croatia as the tournament Cinderella team.
This will answer everything for you:
Why wasnt Italy respected after winning the world cup in 2006? Because they were playing like Greece in the final. Italians to this day continue to bitch.
Your team was better, deserved the win, this I will not take away. Croatia and Greece both dont deserve to qualify. Make sure you dont book past the first round of Euro as the Greek team will be sipping down Mai Tais on Mikonos after going 0-3.
@Anonymous
“Come on guys, let’s play soccer today. Ok, I am going to try and score. Not me, I am Greek I am going way back there to defend and wait for a corner kick 50 minutes later. ”
haha. I agree. That is why Greek football is not entertaining. Bottom line, football is there to entertain.
@Martin
Thanks for sticking with us and commenting for the first time. Where are you writing us from?
I agree with your analysis except for Keleva. PLetikosa still deserves the start for Croatia. However, Keleva should be brought in for friendlies and possibly against mediocre sides like Malta and Latvia. I would start Keleva start against Latvia.
“Congratulations to the Greeks today, but here I will go out on a limb and predict the following: Greece will lose 1-0 in Tblisi against Georgia and Croatia will beat Latvia 2-0 at home, putting us directly into the Euro.”
Wow! What a prediction. We’ll see.
anonymous
“Pride is everything”
Not for the Greeks. Win means everything. What they dont understand is the W means nothing when you dont have pride.
“Your team is boring. You should not be offended. You should do something about it. I would not be able to look myself in the mirror playing sports the way you guys do. “Hey coach, can we go past midfield now?” “No, not yet!” “But why?” “Because we don’t play football/soccer, we play a different game. It is within the rules but we can have no pride trying to score goals from open play.” LOL”
hahahahaaha. I agree.
@Bobby V
“the last 20 minutes was like watching “The Real Housewives of New Jersey”.”
classic. Looked more like a Greek comedy.
@Fistonich
“Bilić wants to keep talking about “domination?”
Bilic was clearly under a lot of stress, very emotional, and the reporter was a dick with a straight face. Bilic corrected himself later in the interview basically saying that he used the wrong word.
@Shinobi
“Man it pains me to lose to such a poor quality and talentless opposition, even thou they are a well drlled unit and who are the ultimate opportunists when comes to scoring goals.”
Well said. You hit it right on the nail.
@Josko Balaban
“There are both many pros and cons but there will be no politics and nepotism!”
I agree. Croatia needs a “caretaker” for Latvia as it is just about a meaningless game. I can coach Croatia to beat Latvia at home. Then quickly look for a coach to finish off playoffs. Foreign manager needs to be on the Croatian sidelines in the next few months.
@everyone,
Feel free to post links as comments along with a summary of what the link is about. This could be just one sentence. We will approve all comments with links to avoid spam. It might takes us an hour or so, but your comment will appear at a later time.
@Anonymous and CroatianCrippler,
Thanks for the update on Stipe Miocic. We will have a MMA guy real soon.
To add to the Stipe Miocic comment. Stipe beat a tough experienced fighter tonight in Joey Beltran and looked good doing it. Stipe looked composed throughout the fight which is rare for a fighter of his experience in his first fight in the big show.Stipe is a pravi Hrvat with the Croatian shorts and his sponsor banner even sported an extra large grb on it.
Lets show Stipe our Croatian support and let him know on his twitter account. Good job and lets hope CroCop represents us well on October 29th against Roy Nelson.
Crippler, here’s part one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfdhOBLp4EQ&feature=related
here’s part two.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA0hp64t8FY
.
sorry meant to say stipe miocic
@Ante and Denis,
Stip Miocic won tonight in the UFC. He is american croatian, good victory tonight
Just throwing this out there. What about Suker as coach?
As for the Greeks posting. Croatia needs a riot dog, that’s about the only entertaining thing that comes from Greece.
Welcome to Croatia…
the only decent national team in the world that currently has a coach that has never coached professionally.
kako smo mi pametni narod…
2004 complete luck & u no it! Great run & enuff said But all props to this Greek squad! They did wot they needed & Croats choked!! Billic needs to go!! He has dun nuthin & is workin off that wembley win years ago. On paper Croats look great but on the field the results r not ther. This must b wot an English fan feels like:). Enjoy the win Greeks & croats let’s hope for a new coach
Keeps saying my comment is being moderated than when i come back to the website its not there, then i repost the comment but if i do post multiple times please forgive me!
Sorry for the spam but here are some more links
Cico Kranjcar says: He is ready to take over the National team right away
http://www.vecernji.hr/sport/nogomet/cico-spreman-sam-preuzeti-reprezentaciju-odmah-clanak-334180
http://www.vecernji.hr/sport/nogomet/htjeli-bilica-smijeniti-zrakoplovu-ali-ga-mamic-spasio-clanak-334159
and also from another link i used google to translate this article its about the HNS board talking about replaicing BIlic one quote that i found intersting was this one
“He realized that was too hard to dismiss Bilic ahead of Latvia, it would be ridiculous move anyway dezorijentiranog president. Thus Bilic will be removed on Monday, but Wednesday. It is unlikely that it can be saved and that on Tuesday everyone realize his dreams and to match the miraculous results, so that Croatia went directly to the Euro”.
“Markovic, assisted by Zdravko Mamic, backed away from an emergency session of the IO. But in his head shook the thought of a possible loss of 10 million does not go to Croatia on the EP.
– I’ve already lost so much, I went to SP! I will not stand for the 20 million euros – added up Markovic 10 +10
Witnesses to travel from Athens says that Slaven Bilic saved Zdravko Mamic and Pero Vićan. Critical mass on the Executive Board of HNS, and almost all were in Athens, so is that Slaven Bilic almost dismissed early Saturday morning at the airport in Zagreb!
– That we can not take you anywhere! It should not take any match with Latvia – said one of the members, but Mamic and skillful as the ball descended.
Similarly, he thought, and Vlatko Markovic, because even in Athens, said the session of the Executive Committee, with only one topic on the agenda – removals Bilic – but later withdrew the little hand.
He realized that was too hard to dismiss Bilic ahead of Latvia, it would be ridiculous move anyway dezorijentiranog president. Thus Bilic will be removed on Monday, but Wednesday. It is unlikely that it can be saved and that on Tuesday everyone realize his dreams and to match the miraculous results, so that Croatia went directly to the Euro.
Most of the HNS believes that before the return of the living dead chicken, but this group of players. Markovic and Mamic are aware that with him not to enter into the risk of additional qualifications. When Samaras scored the goal, it began to wiggle in Athens. And after the final whistle, one for members HNS began debate on the heirs, the people who can bang his fist on the table, pick a team from the dead.
Markovic government representatives have indicated Igor Stimac (44), Vlatko sworn enemy should be the type who will bring Euro and Euro, and most importantly, it recognizes and Mamic and these will be on call on a conciliatory Stimac, “mamićevski” talk . In the game menu and Cico Kranjcar”.
Sorry for spam…. I think i posted more than once if i did sorry i do not mean to do it…
Sorry for the spam but here are some more links
Cico Kranjcar says: He is ready to take over the National team right away
http://www.vecernji.hr/sport/nogomet/cico-spreman-sam-preuzeti-reprezentaciju-odmah-clanak-334180
http://www.vecernji.hr/sport/nogomet/htjeli-bilica-smijeniti-zrakoplovu-ali-ga-mamic-spasio-clanak-334159
and also from another link i used google to translate this article its about the HNS board talking about replaicing BIlic one quote that i found intersting was this one
“He realized that was too hard to dismiss Bilic ahead of Latvia, it would be ridiculous move anyway dezorijentiranog president. Thus Bilic will be removed on Monday, but Wednesday. It is unlikely that it can be saved and that on Tuesday everyone realize his dreams and to match the miraculous results, so that Croatia went directly to the Euro”.
“Markovic, assisted by Zdravko Mamic, backed away from an emergency session of the IO. But in his head shook the thought of a possible loss of 10 million does not go to Croatia on the EP.
– I’ve already lost so much, I went to SP! I will not stand for the 20 million euros – added up Markovic 10 +10
Witnesses to travel from Athens says that Slaven Bilic saved Zdravko Mamic and Pero Vićan. Critical mass on the Executive Board of HNS, and almost all were in Athens, so is that Slaven Bilic almost dismissed early Saturday morning at the airport in Zagreb!
– That we can not take you anywhere! It should not take any match with Latvia – said one of the members, but Mamic and skillful as the ball descended.
Similarly, he thought, and Vlatko Markovic, because even in Athens, said the session of the Executive Committee, with only one topic on the agenda – removals Bilic – but later withdrew the little hand.
He realized that was too hard to dismiss Bilic ahead of Latvia, it would be ridiculous move anyway dezorijentiranog president. Thus Bilic will be removed on Monday, but Wednesday. It is unlikely that it can be saved and that on Tuesday everyone realize his dreams and to match the miraculous results, so that Croatia went directly to the Euro.
Most of the HNS believes that before the return of the living dead chicken, but this group of players. Markovic and Mamic are aware that with him not to enter into the risk of additional qualifications. When Samaras scored the goal, it began to wiggle in Athens. And after the final whistle, one for members HNS began debate on the heirs, the people who can bang his fist on the table, pick a team from the dead.
Markovic government representatives have indicated Igor Stimac (44), Vlatko sworn enemy should be the type who will bring Euro and Euro, and most importantly, it recognizes and Mamic and these will be on call on a conciliatory Stimac, “mamićevski” talk . In the game menu and Cico Kranjcar”.
again sorry for the spam!!
I FOUND THIS NEWS ARTICLE ON JUTARNJI JUST NOW, THE TITLE SAYS JOUNILISTS HEARD THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN MAMICA AND DAVOR SUKER: BILIC NEEDS TO GO TONIGHT!
http://www.jutarnji.hr/novinari-culi-razgovor-zdravka-mamica-i-davora-sukera—bilic-mora-otici-jos-veceras–/979654/
Dont worry Allen Denis can always copy and paste that to his the new article LOL!
EXCELLENT EXCELLENT POST DENIS!! That right there might have just been best comment I’ve read on this site. Only negative is ripping Kranjcar (oh look Allen19 is kissing Kranjcar’s ass what else is new!!). Niko was horrific out there, which is pretty bad considering he talked a bit too much. But the guy usually plays well and I don’t know how you can rip him. He was tearing it up at times in qualifiers. I won’t get into it more, I will be waiting for a big CSR article on yesterday’s game. I will go into Billc and all his chaos. Denis should have used that as an article but whatever.
shame, we played like 10 drunk slovenian girls
greetings from Croatia
Looks like Bilic will stay on as manager…. at least until after the Latvia game.
Positives about Bilic:
1) The guy loves Croatia. Rejected multiple contracts to stay and manage Croatia. He would manage Croatia (almost) the rest of his life.
2) Most of the team loves him. He’s a players coach(meaning less discipline, half the time the team is joking around, like they are on holiday) This is good for the players, bad for the performance.
3) I still dont mind that first half strategy by Bilic. We didnt park the bus in front of the goal. We waited and were patient. Croatia was never less pressured in a game. His failure came after halftime.
4) Bilic really tried his best, sacrificed everything for Croatia. And I admire him and respect him for this. However, it wasn’t enough. Not good enough.
In the end, I thank him for his services and move on. All the blame should not be placed on Bilic, but he didnt do enough. He didnt do anything extra. The only great thing he did all qualifying tournament was sub in Dujmović and Klasnić for Perišić and Vukojević in the 71st minute after being a goal down to Georgia at home.
I was a huge supporter of Slaven Bilic. But in the end I was fooled as his passion and love for Croatia overshadowed the fact that he doesnt have a clue.
My reasons as to why Bilic should be fired ASAP:
1) Results: Almost as bad as Greek results. Croatia sucked against the top 3 teams in the group(Israel, Georgia, Greece). Considering those are ‘top teams’ Croatia should have coasted through this group to compete in Euro.
2) Out-coached Bilic was out-coached in games with England, Ukraine, Georgia, Israel, and Greece.
3) failure to change strategy/predictable Bilic bluffed before the match that Croatia play only one style. We can not play for a tie. Strategy worked for the first half. Greeks changed strategy in the second half, Bilic stayed the same. Bilic never countered Fernando Santos’ 2nd half strategy. Just like in chess, figure out your opponents move, then counter that.
4) Pressure When the going got tough, Bilic broke under pressure. NO pressure for Croatia in the first half, everything cool. As soon as the Greeks pushed forward, Bilic failed to counter.
5) favoritism of players Mandzo, Jelavic, Kranjcar, Srna and Vukojevic seem to be on that list. Almost guaranteed a starting spot.
6) players trust A few of the players lost respect for Bilic a long time ago. Pranjic was the only one to come out and say it. I’m sure that Klasnic and Petric feel the same.
7)change any change is good at this point. Bilic has run out of ideas. There was a psychological study done on office workers. How performance improves after a room is painted in a different color. Results are amazing. Even something as simple as new paint can improve performance. Change is good.
8)inexperience Bilic is like Maradona for Argentina. All the passion and love in the world can not turn you in to a great football manager. Bilic is more like a fan.
9)Latvia game is meaningless Take this scenario into consideration. Croatia beats latvia 1-0 at home, Greece lose to Georgia 1-0. Croatia goes forward as 1st place…. oh wait now, lets keep Bilic. We cant fire him after a win says the HNS.
If we lose to Latvia it doesnt matter. We are still in the playoffs. If we dont get a seed even better as we wont have to face Bosna, Srbia, or Montenegro. Again, not afraid, just dont want problems.
Replacing Bilic is easier said than done.
Who is a suitable replacement for Bilic?
What does everyone think of Soldo as a coach?
We don’t beat Latvia..mark my words.
If Bilic is going to be fired let it be after lativa and if we do qualify let it be after the tournmount.
Bilic is a hack. He’s done.
@Shinobi
I’m not surprised, and neither are you… you and I have been the most vocal on this board against Bilic… as they say, you reap what you sow… Bilic is a quagmire… nema pojma sto radi…
@Denis
Luv ya, but how is Jelavic even on the NT…? Maybe he didn’t get any service, but the guy cannot even control the ball, or even stand up on the field… Bilic will end up being fired because of his insistence on playing and selecting guys like Vukojevic, Mandzo, Jelavic… these guys are all very good at falling to the ground, that’s about all… You can add Old Joe to this list, except he never falls, while having his 90 minute walk in the park… Bilic will get fired because we had 70 minutes to do something and nothing happened… playing for a draw, what clown.
Also, as I’ve said here on the boards many times before… our worst coaching shows up because of the most basic things in soccer… like corner kicks… we lose on two corner kicks… and we never ever get anything from ours… this is peewee soccer, yet it appears to be too complicated for the Croatian national team… sram
@4August
Congrats to you and Greece on the victory, you deserved it. Your team was smarter and better prepared. You outcoached us, although none of us here are real surprised by that since everyone outcoaches us.
Give us a German coach from the 3rd division and we smoke you guys, but we have a choban for a coach. If I were Mexican, I’d call him a “Chilango”.
Anyway, from our perspective it’s embarrassing to your side and your nation how you Greeks roll around on the field for the last 20 minutes of the game with a lead, it’s ugly, low and dirty. Not to mention the previous 70 minutes too. It ruins the game and makes you look very similar to the Turks. Your left back comes immediately to mind. If you are so great you can win without that garbage.
btw., as for the Greek fascists… haha umm i don’t know how to say this, but i don’t think we’re scared bro…
come on man, you guys were playing for the tie to wrap up the division…. thats pretty ugly too.
and not to say Greece was doing all well up to the half. They seemed to be playing for the tie too up to that point.
The change of attitude happened during the half, Santos fired up the team by telling them they pretty much locked in 2nd by taking any result but a win. He pushed them to attack the 2nd half and it was a different team that came out then.Croatia stuck to the same game plan and didnt change even after the half.
@JP
“Luv ya” haha. Its ok man. Let me have it. We will always be cool.
You know I was never big on Jelavic. I have said in the past when he was scoring multiple goals for the Rangers that scoring in the SPL is like scoring in the HNL. Jelavic never impressed me. I just cant blame him for the Greece game because 1) he was alone up top. 2) He received no service.
I still have Eduardo/Klasnic as starting strikers and Petric/Olic subs. We just dont have better. Mandzo, Kalinic, and Jelavic have not impressed me.
“Bilic will end up being fired because of his insistence on playing and selecting guys like Vukojevic, Mandzo, Jelavic”
I agree.
Woops…Looks like someone already posted the video
For all of you wondering about the violence at the game.
Here is the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq4_RVBptyE&t=3m40s&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fsoccer%2Fcomments%2Fl50wl%2Ffan_violence_halts_greececroatia_match_they_hurl%2F
Here is the yahoo story.
http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=ap-greece-fanviolence
@4august
Thanks for joining us. Always interesting to hear a take from the opposing side. Also, thanks for signing in and adding your link.
We are a sports only site and all political and racial talk will be deleted.
Congrats to the Greeks! Their Portugese manager outwitted our manager. Your German manager in 2004 outsmarted all of Europe. Croatia needs to follow and bring in a foreign manager.
As far as the Greek quality is concerned:
1) boring football
2) mediocre talent (You cant say that Greece is more talented than Croatia)
3) second tier European side. They are somewhere in that second pot.
Greece will not lose to Georgia. Greece will qualify for the Euro and will strike out in three matches.
Both Croatia and Greece dont deserve to qualify.
1) Weakest qualifying group in Europe
2) Greece results: Georgia 1-1, @Croatia 0-0, Latvia 1-0, Israel 2-1, Latvia 2-1, @Malta 1-0(94th minute goal), Malta 3-1, @Israel 1-0, @Latvia 1-1(84th minute equalizer), Croatia(2-0).
Greece squeaked through the entire group. Look at those results. Can you honestly tell me that this team deserves to be in the Euro? Do you honestly think this team can do damage in the Euro?
I wont post Croatias result cause we are in the same boat. Actually, worse results than Greece.
In the end, the group was won on this result:
2 legs, Greece (0-0, 2-0) Croatia. Greece deserved to qualify.
You better hope that the Greeks dont think like you or they are in for a rude awakening at the Euro.
Also, you sound like a Brit, still bringing back the days of Bobby Charlton and WC66. Will this be you in 40 years?
Lastly, our WC98 3rd place team was loved and respected all over the world. We had a little luck, Im not going to lie. However, Croatia didn’t travel by bus to France.
Like I said, great to have you aboard. Best of luck to the Greeks. I’m not bitter. But dont expect to win a game.
@Ottoman Pete
Welcome, thanks for signing in. However, we dont care for political or racial talk.
@Black Zodiac
“By the way Denis when will the forums be up and able to register.”
We are still only 90% or so complete on Croatian Sports. I believe you can register right now. Forum should be up sometime next week.
all due respect, can you simply predict that we will go 3 and out? i say let them play the games and see. but first I want Greece to wrap up the division in Georgia and then think from there. Georgia wants to damage us no doubt so my concerns are there for now.
but as for the finals, no one can be sure what will happen. but being in it gives us as any chance as the other team.
@4august
“can you simply predict that we will go 3 and out?”
All you have to do is look at Greece’s results. Struggling to score against Malta? Good luck scoring on England, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia, France, etc etc.
Remember, I’m not bashing the Greeks as if they are enemy #1 and I root against them in Euro. I really dont care how you guys do, but I dont wish you bad luck. I do however, bash your style of play. Boring boring football. Not basing this on the last game, but the last 6 years.
“but as for the finals, no one can be sure what will happen. but being in it gives us as any chance as the other team.”
This is what China thought in world cup 2006. How did they fair?
True. No one expected Greece to make the second round of Euro2004. No one expected Denmark to win Euro92. Miracles and flukes do happen.
Despite the great possibility that Bilic might be sacked off, I would not want such to happen before the Latvia game (or the possible playoff). It would be messed up, imo.
I wanted to see Pranjic in the game against Greece. He doesn’t play much for Bayern anymore, and he felt horrible about not being able to play. Club or not, he probably would’ve received a great morale boost against Greece by simply being able to play.
@august
“The economy thing in Greece will work out somehow. I dont know how that fits into the conversation about football though?
ok you have qualified 3 times for the wc. and?
we qualified twice. and can we count the early 30s? or during war times? you werent a country even then.
and we have qualified 3 times (and tuesday it will be 4) for the Euro and won once. 1980, 2004, 2008 and soon 2012- many nations in Eastern Europe would love to be in our position (especially the 2004 position)”
You do and think whatever makes you feel better.
You gotta admit though, qualifying only twice for the World Cup since the 30’s is quite horrific! For an apparent soccer power nation.
again you are saying things I never said. Where in any conversation did I say we are a apparent power nation? nowhere. I said we can compete with the big boys though. and that I will stand by. The last wc we choked the first game and we were put in a bad spot needing to win against Argentina. still I dont make excuses. in 1994 we played great to get into the wc and then they sucked during the tournament. at least I admit it. You guys come up with lame excuses.
this last decade no one can say anything against us. least of all you guys. and just to remind you , we beat Spain to qualify for 2004, and in 2004 we beat Portugal, France and the Czech republic.
@jm
no your right on the money, i also think that either denmark or portugal will get that automatic second place spot. Croatia have not shown that they are capable of big wins as of late, and i cant see portugal and denmark to come out all guns blazeing for the win. Im tipping a 0-0 draw in that game.
@4august
“hey, we were good enough to beat you yesterday.
and am I proud of the 2004 Euro. You bet I am. you cant justify your jealousy that you havent accomplished that yet. Nor has Bulgaria, Slovenia, slovakia, Ukraine, Turkey, Albania (they cant even qualify once) and the list goes on.
Oh trust me , you will see Greece go far again one day. then you will look back to this conversation and be pulling your hair. concentrate on your team for now”
You do the same! You have qualified for the World Cup twice in your history. Since 1934. We have qualified three times since 1998. LOL!
I know you beat us. Congratulations!
Jealousy… That is a joke ! Yeah, I am jealous of how all your players should be on the cover of GQ magazine! LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Greece is the word is the word that you heard! LOL! How is that economy thing working out for you? LOL
The economy thing in Greece will work out somehow. I dont know how that fits into the conversation about football though?
ok you have qualified 3 times for the wc. and?
we qualified twice. and can we count the early 30s? or during war times? you werent a country even then.
and we have qualified 3 times (and tuesday it will be 4) for the Euro and won once. 1980, 2004, 2008 and soon 2012- many nations in Eastern Europe would love to be in our position (especially the 2004 position)
@4august
“and being huddled around the goalie…. maybe in 2004, but again. we won the Euro that year so that game plan worked then. I dare for anyone else to try and win a Euro with strategy like that. Not going to happen.”
I could never look at myself in the mirror and be proud of that accomplishment! Never! If Croatia were to win a tournament huddled around the goalie the entire game I would not be proud but ashamed. There is no pride in that. No one else will try and win in that fashion because they have pride. So you are correct in saying that it will not happen again. Especially for you guys!
Once again, you won, fantastical, awesome, outstanding. But stop trying to justify that you have a great team! You do not have a great team that can contend with the world beaters. I know you said already that you are not trying to say that you have a great team but yet you come back here again and again trying to justify that you have a great team. Which is not the case.
hey, we were good enough to beat you yesterday.
and am I proud of the 2004 Euro. You bet I am. you cant justify your jealousy that you havent accomplished that yet. Nor has Bulgaria, Slovenia, slovakia, Ukraine, Turkey, Albania (they cant even qualify once) and the list goes on.
Oh trust me , you will see Greece go far again one day. then you will look back to this conversation and be pulling your hair.
concentrate on your team for now
Our chances of an automatic second place look very grim and will require a very solid performance coupled with some weak play of our opponents. The four possible teams that could get automatic second place bids are Bosnia, Croatia, Sweden, and either Denmark or Portugal. I’m going to rule Bosnia out b/c it seems very unlikely.Like Croatia, they have 13 pts. Subtracting their goals against the bottom team, their goal differential is +1. Not good enough.(Croatia +4) And they play France next. So could be tough to improve, or even get a win. That leaves Sweden and Portgual or Denmark. Portgual and Denmark are tough ones to predict and it looks likely that one will get the automatic 2nd place bid. They have 16 points,(just like us if we win), so a tie will give one an automatic second place spot since they’re atop the same group. If one of them loses, it becomes a game of goal differential in which case it still looks pretty favorable for them. Croatia is +4 on gd, denmark + 8, and portgual + 10. If portugal loses, it would be tough for us to beat them on gd since they’re already 6 goals ahead of us. we’d need a combo of them losing bad and us crushing latvia. seems unlikely. Even taking denmark would be very tough. For us to tie them, we’d have to win by 3 and them lose by 1. For us to take them, we’d have to do even better/them worse. It is possible,but based on how we’ve played lately, I can’t be overly optimistic. I think either Denmark or Portugal will take one of the spots. Best case, Portugal crushes Denmark (they won 3-1 last time!) This leaves Sweden, which could also be tough b/c they edge us out in points right now with 16. So if they tie/win, they automatically get in ahead of us. The good news is they play the undefeated netherland who beat them 4-1 last time. I judge a loss by Sweden to be likely (bad flash backs of England-Ukraine come to mind) but i’ll ignore that for now. The issue is goal difference again. Sweden is ahead of us at +8 vs our + 4. Once again, a doable task if the Netherlands beats them and we beat Latvia good. If we tie on points and goal differential, it goes to total goals against top 5 in group. We are pretty screwed if it comes to this. We are +10, denmark +13, Sweden +17, Portugal + 20. In the end, I see Sweden losing and Denmark/Portugal taking the spot. We need Sweden to lose, Portugual ideally to crush Denmark, and us to beat Latvia by at least 3 goals to get us into contention. Possible?…yes. likely?…very tough. Anyone see it different?
@4augest
Greece are well known for their boring, bland, ugly football they play. And everyone besides the greeks know this, i dont know why all you greeks try to disguise it as something its not. There is no hiding it, thats what they do, because thats all they know what to do.
claim what you want, Samaras’ goal yesterday was as exciting as it gets.
and what do you call the football you guys played yesterday? exciting?
The 4-5-1 formation should have looked something along the lines of this:
GK: Pletikosa
RB: Corluka
RCB: Vida
LCB: Lovren
LB: Strinic
CDM: Badelj
LAM: Perisic
CM: Modric
RAM: Rakitic
CAM: Kranjcar
ST: Eduardo
The midfield is our strongest focal point to this team and should be embraced. Reasoning for this layout would be
CDM Position: Badelj vs Vukojevic, Badelj simply has an edge on the attacking front as stats show. On the defensive note it can be argued either way as Vukojevic’s mishaps vs Badelj’s National teams inexperience.
LAM Poistion: Perisic is a natural on the LM role, not to mention CAM position, simply puttin him into this position is ideal to put Kranjcar up front.
CM: Modric deep lying play maker, simply put he is always feeding the attack more then doing the attack itself. Though getting less shy of taking shots on net as we seen vs Israel and Liverpool he can make those long shots (great ve bunkering teams) like Kranjcar and Rakitic can pull off.
CAM: Kranjcar simply isn’t one of our best crosser for the national team as why I believe he would suit the CAM role a little better then the LM position & being upfront with the “lazy” nature he has on the pitch running against a counter attack he wouldn’t have to waste much energy in the CAM role. Great long striking qualities & dribbling/short passing skills would be ideal up front.
ST: Eduardo a great finisher up front, may not get starting spot for his club, scoring stats are better then Mandzukic & offers a little more then Mandzukic at the moment. There is no need to worry about Mandzukic not developing as he plays more then enough at club level.
Onto Slaven Bilic now, have been a huge fan of Bilic from start to finish, an alright coach that doesn’t exactly know how to embrace our national teams strengths to it’s fullest potential and does tend to play the favorites card here and there. It’s time for him to leave the coaching position now and make offers to Zlatko Kranjcar, Miroslav Blazevic as these two brought smaller national teams on to a higher level or simply fork out more money and bring in a foreigner. Either or needless to say Bilic needs a break from coaching the NT.
To the Greek fans, show a little more class & patriotism by sticking up for your country before the match even begins and not hide in hope for a win like the basement mold you are, the match is over and you can return back to where you spawned and until then come out when you’re team plays quality football, don’t worry I’ll wait.
On a side note, what more did you expect when coming to a pro Croatian sports website that is playing a team that plays an ugly game of football? (unfortunately happens to be yours). I congratulate you Greeks on your win against us but don’t let it get to your head, as the game was arguably handicapped from the beginning. home game, Croatian national team in need of new coach and tactics, not to mention when you have the ref playing to your favor, should have ended 1-1 to say the least.
By the way Denis when will the forums be up and able to register.
“To the Greek fans, show a little more class & patriotism by sticking up for your country before the match even begins and not hide in hope for a win like the basement mold you are, the match is over and you can return back to where you spawned and until then come out when you’re team plays quality football, don’t worry I’ll wait”
wait for what? a rematch? bring it on. I hope you make the Euro so we can get that rematch. Spawned? We were spawned thousands of years before your country existed. so I do not know what you mean here either. shto je bilo kode be? (cant spell well but I am trying here). wonder how I know some of your language Hrvat brat? well part of my relatives come from Bitola. so, Zhivele velika Grcke-Makedonjia.
see you maybe in 2012
@4august
“They will get the result they need against Georgia and then go on to the Euro next year and be a serious threat to go far.”
You will beat Georgia, that is for sure!
A serious threat at the Euros????? Not going to happen. You have to try and score and play the game as it was meant to be played. Not all huddled around the goalie for 90 minutes waiting for corners within the last 15 minutes. Euro 2004 will never happen again for you.
You beat us. Fine and congratulations! But don’t come on this board trying to exemplify how great a team you have because nothing can be furthur from the truth!
Hey I never said we are a “great ” team. but we are a solid team that can play with the big boys. and will Euro 2004 happen again? maybe , maybe not. But if it does in my lifetime, it will be # 2 for us.that solidifies us having great history. that is for sure.
and being huddled around the goalie…. maybe in 2004, but again. we won the Euro that year so that game plan worked then. I dare for anyone else to try and win a Euro with strategy like that. Not going to happen.
as for yesterday, the game was a stalemate until the half (and Croatia did play slighlty better at the start of the game) but halfway into the the 2nd half it was all Greece practically. and by the end of the game, Greece just passed the ball around and waited for the final whistle (after those 7 ridiculous added minutes). The game was a lock when the 2nd goal came. Now its time to move on to the last game. That is still important for us as is probably for you. the only way you get first is you guys win and we lose. Tied in points gives us the edge of course.
@ Bobby V: Well said. With the way the match was getting very chippy (and Webb was handing out yellow cards like candy), its not a bad move to sub out Eduardo and Jelavic to avoid a red and playing with 10. at the time, match was still 0-0. 3rd sub had to be used for Corluka and his injury. so i have no issue with bilic’s use of subs. if one of those guys had gotten a second yellow, this forum would erupt at bilic’s stupidity for not subbing the guy off. so you’re damned if you do…..damned if you don’t.
sure he deserves some of the blame but the players are out there, some of them lacking hustle and desire. did you see our defence on the 2nd goal? pitiful, with defenders doing shit all. i thought the casual, slow walk in the 80th minute by krancjar to take a free kick (when we were down 2-0) said it all. no sense of desire and hustle….just a bunch of guys feeling sorry for themselves. as many people on here say, we are not a top level team (i.e spain, holland) so when the guys decide to have brain cramps on defence and not hustle their guts out, results like this will happen more and more.
we still can get through to the finals in june but let’s hope for an automatic pass through on tuesday. otherwise, the playoffs will be fricking nail biting
and again, the “boring” football you are all commenting on was a brief period in our history. but hey it worked and got us a trophy! Now go get one for yourselves if you can. We are working on our second already.
but just for excitement , here is a legendary player of our past. he doeasnt seem to playing defensive football on this clip. so please…. those comments are meaningless to us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8maFSQJgypE&feature=related
and here is Saravakos. a classic player who knew nothing of boring football. He was all attack attack attack. so I really dont know where you guys are going with this ridiculous “boring”. the word you should be using is “Better”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=IfA-fkJzESI
just another note for all the Croatians who can only comment on Greece for what they have achieved in the last decade. Greece had qualified for the Euro back in 1980 when you were still not a nation. Even then we took on powerhouse nations like the Kaisers Germany and Cruyffs Holland the defending champions Czechoslovakia and played them all well.
Trust me on this. Greece was ready for this game. and the comments that Croatia was going to come out of Athens with a great result really got them crazy.
It will be a waste if many of current strikers of decent level and attacking midfielders(including MODRIC) do not have a chance to perform in big stage….
This current crop of strikers and midfielders are definitely stronger than the previous crop, apart from kovac brothers…
for all the Croatians who call Greek football boring. I doubt you ever had a moment like this in your history. This is as exciting as it gets in the whole football world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQj5HjEzK54
and this is not the same defence minded team like the Otto era. Santos believes in attack. The main fault was that Croatia thought Greece would settle for the tie. bad mistake. and then Greece attacked like there was no tomorrow in the last 20 minutes. I hope you guys make the Euro because I am confident with the Greek team now. They will get the result they need against Georgia and then go on to the Euro next year and be a serious threat to go far.
In this last decade Greece rules the Balkans and all of Eastern Europe.
and the guys your hooligans tried to fight before the start of the game were the Legions of the Golden Dawn. The Nationalist Fascist party members of Greece. good luck winning there too. They are hardcore people who wont take crap from anyone.
Great job with the site. I really enjoy it. I think its a poor decision to let bilic go before the latvia game. That kind of turmoil can’t be good in a most win situation. There is nothing that a new coach can do in the next 48 hours to change the mentality of the team or formations that would make that substantial a difference, especially against a subpar opponent. The chaos would ultimately be more a detriment to the performance than a positive. Over the long haul, I’m usually not a fan of putting too much weight in what a manager does in soccer but it does appear the team has become stale. If we qualify after Latvia, I think it’s definitley time to look for a new manager and the timing would be right as we’d have a long time and several friendlies prior to euro 2012. If we don’t qualify and need to go to playoff, I think its more of a coin toss. I’m still not sure how much more a new manager could do in that time period to make a substantial difference and the turbulence with the change could cost more than its worth.
Can someone please explain to me why the game was not postponed or abandoned? Someone lost a finger, a molotov cocktail was thrown. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq4_RVBptyE&t=3m40s) – Thank God it never hit anyone! But yet the game is still played!
When you look at the Italy vs. Serbia game it wasn’t as bad in terms of violence. If it had been us doing what happened yesterday we would have been banned for life, or something far more severe in regards to the penalty is concerned!
@ziva learn how to read and interpet I did not say bring him into coach BUT to bring him into sh ow how it is to have heart and pride to war the checkers not like these brats so ziva pick a new name because it’s ziva istina that you can’t comprehend and evaluate sentences and umm did you forget bilic and boban were on the same team ahahahaha ZA Dom SPREMNI to je ziva istina
The only intelligent move left to play is for bilic to be given the arse. It is a few years too late, but logic must prevail, this latest fiasco just shows how incompetent this man really is, and it just proves what i have been posting about him for the past couple of years to be true, those substitutions were so off the mark, the game plan flawed, its as if he set them up for failure. Its also true the players showed no pride or desire to win, but if the coach cannot get the best out of his playing group, then he is not the right man for the job, plain and simple, and needs to be replaced NOW!
The really sad thing is he and the igraci are depriveing themselves of the honour of representing their country on the grand stage, the joy and memories of participation of such an event, their place in the record books, and worst of all, depriving the fans the joy of and that feeling of pride that tingling on the back of our necks when the national anthem starts to play before a match at a tournament as big as this one.
One day this group of players when they are too old to represent they will know the pain of letting the opportunity slip by them. Until then we must bare the shame of not qualifying.
I knew the result was going to be bad, not because i dont believe in this playing group, but because i dont believe in bilic and his game plan and lack of football wits, that is why i knew we were headed for doom. We all should know him well by now, we all should know he has no cards up his sleeves, and no pulling rabbits out of hats, so if we can read him like a book, its no wonder other coachs can do the same.
I pray to God kranjcar is not apointed coach if bilic does get fired!!!!
Ziva istina, its one thing to expect to win everygame when youre a average side, and its a one thing to play lost like we do! Their are a tone of average sides that have more of a identity than we do! This team is capable of more than what is shown! Anyone who thinks less is wrong! They dont have to win everygame cause their not spain nor italy or france but their better than the level of COMPETE that they show!
This team is simply lost! And weather bilic is a good coach or bad coach dosent even matter! If your players arent responsive to your tactics and their compete isnt their, then its a time for a change! since we dont have a real leader amongst the players you need one in the coach, I tuely bleieve this current squad, in the dressing room is lost! Hondurous would have played better yesterdAY THAN WE DID! This squad is better than this! Like i said yesterday not mad that we lost mad the fashion of the loss!
Ziva i dont recall reading any perdications from you before the game! But then you bassh everyone who predicted a croatia win! Ya was it silly for those people who did predict croatia winning 2-0, but who cares! But at the same time its easy to be the general after the war also!
@Jack Yes Corluka was the best player for Croatia yesterday. He made several good moves on players and looked confident. Corluka is slowly growing into a trustworthy player for Croatia.
On a crazy note, but wow Croatia has actually a nice chance to qualify through 2nd place. I don’t think Sweden will beat Holland so if Holland can win by two goals then that will help. If Portugal or Denmark beats each other by two goals that would be lovely. You put Sweden at +6 and Portugal or Denmark at +6 then Croatia puts in some goals against Latvia (THEY BETTER!!) and go to like +7. Holy crap somehow we are in the Euro Cup.
More often than not I agree 100 percent with ZIVA ISTINA. Again, he speaks the truth. I am a firm believer in the quality of this team. There is a quality which I believe a competent manager would be able to harness. The fact remains, and this can not be disputed by anyone. Many of our players play in top leagues, are thought of highly by opposing managers within those leagues. THERE IS QUALITY. I believe that many of them have tuned Bilic out ages ago, he has lost that dressing room long ago. Add to the fact that his insistence to run Eduardo and Mandzukic in the midfield is always met with disaster, yet he insists on ramming that formation and tactical set up down our throats.
As for the subs – Part of the problem again falls on Bilic. I have no qualms with Kalinic. When he scored 4 goals in 6 games nobody was questioning why he was being sent on. That was not to long ago either. Strinic is our best option at LB, unfortunately. I would have gave Manuel Pamic a look. I was also clamoring for Vida to get a shot at CDM long ago, back when he was in Osijek! If we did not start the game with 3 strikers on the field, perhaps we would have had more to chose from when the time came to make a sub.
Boban is an idealist, always has been. He would never be affiliated with the outright corruption and incompetence which is Croatian Football. He has a sweet life in Italy, he makes his t.v. appearances. shows up on Gazzetta Dello Sport every now and then, why leave?
For the most part, I agree with Ziva Istina. Most of you guys should expand your research and think with your heads and not your hearts.
Hellas – Nothing more pathetic than an opposing fan that has to infiltrate a supporters website to gloat. Are you 19 yrs old? Like I have said to many people who brag. I celebrate Croatia’s victories and accept our loses. I do not act like a child and start talking nonsense on opponents websites like a petty school girl. All the mental energy you wasted to A) Find this site and B) Take the time to formulate your thoughts C) Put them down on the blog for all to see – WOW, complete waste of time on your part. All of it just to brag? Dude, try and go get laid. However, if this is how petty you are and this is what you do with your free time, no wonder you are trying to seek out Croatian men to talk to and aren’t with a chick right now.
Off to the island of Mykonos with you. You can partake in your classic ancient Greek pastimes with other men.
@ Denis S and Ante K – Buddy, I am back! Denis, did you finally read those articles I sent you?
@ Ziva Istina – “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds” – Albert Einstein
Also, last funny observation. Did anyone else see the Bilic post game interview on HRT2? He claimed we dominated the first half. Silly Bilic, the Greeks gave you the possession because they were intent on hitting you on the counter. They conceded the lions share of possession but also knew they would only do so as long as you did not threaten their goal. Bilic admitted that he knew the Greeks wanted to play on the counter, and then has the nerve to claim we dominated. I was almost as annoyed as when he claimed we would play like my childhood club, Barcelona.
I don’t feel that all the criticism of Bilic is warranted. All we needed was a draw, and sloppy lazy defending let us down twice. I blame individual players for this loss.
I don’t like Howard Webb or how the Greeks “play”, but we lost because players failed to defend on the handful of Greek chances.
Perhaps we need a new coach, to motivate the players, but that is another issue. LVanG was mentioned in this forum, but I am sure his salary demands would bankrupt the HNS.
On a postive note. Does anyone else see Corluka improving with every cap?
Boban???????
LOL…..oh man, if Bilic was or is unqualified to be a coach than what is Boban?????
Half this team does not remember watching Boban play. There is a reason Boban has no involvement with the savez. Denis and the others boys who run this website, if you ever get the chance to interview Boban ask him off the record what he thinks of people like Markovic and other affiliated with the savez. He will never answer the question on the record, but you would love his reply off the record.
some of you guys make me laugh. I really enjoyed reading the comments this morning and the meltdown after the loss.
to the person who said I am out of touch…….really???? I have been telling you for the last 18 months that we are an average side and to expect games like last night. This is no Monday morning QB from me, I’ve been bitching about the quality of this team for a while. the coach is part of the problem. PART of the problem. Not all of this is with Bilic.
Zalosno protiv grci gubit tako yes I’m emotional and the game brought tears to my eyes but come on we need a damn leader with heart to yell and show these lads what it’s like to go to WAR bring in ZVONIMIR BOBAN to show them this and what it means to war CHECKERS I am truly ashamed and don’t know if I could even watch them next game
The problems weren’t necessarilly who got subbed out but who got subbed IN. Kalinic over Klasnic? Perisic ok… And Vida when already down a goal? I realize vedran was hurt so wanting to keep four defenders but that’s not helping us earn a draw and Klasnic not seeing the field is terrible
The more time goes on the more I will be shocked if Bilic is the coach still in November…
There is are articles in Croatian news that Slaven Bilic will be looked over something like that.
Yesterday an anonymous posted a link
http://www.vecernji.hr/sport/nogomet/ekskluzivno-markovic-vl-potvrdio-da-ce-smijeniti-bilica-clanak-334055
and Jutarnji has some to. This link is about Bilic talking
http://www.jutarnji.hr/slaven-bilic-nakon-utakmice-grcka-hrvatska–neka-hns-onese-odluku/979560/
Just a quick comment on the subs – Bilic’s strategy was to take out anyone with a yellow card (Jelavic, Eduardo) to cut back the possibility of playing with 10 men and then had to sub out Corluka after he was injured. Don’t remember him playing it that way before.
I have gotten a facebook comment about the possible firing of Slaven Billc done. DOES ANYBODY HAVE A LINK ABOUT THIS!!?? If anyone does, please send it here. This is ground breaking news if this is true. It’s good that Croatia is looking into actually doing well in Euros. They don’t want to not qualify for a 2nd major tournament in a row. If they sack Billc now, then that show they care.
@Ziva Istra your out of touch, which isn’t the first time. Do you want to qualify? Do you want to miss a 2nd straight major tourney? You have to take action now, even if he’s just interm. Billc has proven time and time again with head scratching decisions. He’s clueless and just doesn’t get it. I’m no Mladen Petric lover, but how guys like Kalinic get on the team before him is absolute crap. It’s funny because I can see Kalinic even starting Tuesday which makes me absolutely SICK of this team.
Hey @Andrej, I got to admit I do miss Pranjic a bit. Strinic is decent, but wow he is really bland attacking. His balls are usually average and has zero dribbling ability. I don’t know if he has a future for us, but he can defend so yay.
@Hamilcar A playoff will be exciting really? Really, yeah will see how exciting is when were watching the Euro Cup in June with no checkers in it. This is dangerous, intense games that will take place in November if Georgia doesn’t pull off a miracle. (BTW if Georgia wins on Tuesday, I may find a Georgian resturant and give them 20 bucks to give to their country). As for playoffs, yeah it sure won’t be fun. I’m dreading it already. Hopefully Croatia draws Estonia or TURKEY (Now that would be fun). Oh wait Hiddink vs Billc…god help us.
So yeah please someone send a link about possible Billc sacking.
Allen a link in Croatian was posted above, but here it is again:
http://m.vecernji.hr/sport/nogomet/ekskluzivno-markovic-vl-potvrdio-da-ce-smijeniti-bilica-clanak-334055
Seriously speaking, what has bilic done to deserve his position as coach? We do not need to consider greece match
Look at what the NT has done for past few matches
Away at georgia: They lost to georgia with a last min goal without any urgency in attack and penetration throughout whole match….
At home to georgia: THey still lack urgency in attack, despite being a goal down…Fortunately, there is a 3min moment of magic from the subs. which bring in 2 goals
Against Malta, still concede a goal to malta and allow malta to dominate some periods of the match
Against israel: Oh dear, conceded a goal…never look threatening…needed a modric wonder goal to equalize the score…there after, only after ben taim got sent off, did the NT manage to dictate the play and score another 2
We have no leadership out there on the pitch and it shows.
As much as I cannot stand the guy the Greeks have Karagounis. He brought leadership to the game yesterday for the Greeks.
Also, we should have attacked more and played a more attacking style. By attacking the Greeks the crack in the armour will eventually appear. It almost did in Zagreb and it would have yesterday in Greece.
Can we play that game again? 🙂 Wow that was frustrating!
Let’s look on the bright side now that it’s a new day, clearly this team needs more work together so maybe we shouldnt be so down about the playoffs, it will give the guys more practice and game time together… Whomever the coach is
@Denis you are so right about stopping Modric then stops pur teams. Our losses always go like that, teams putting one or two big guys on Luka and beating him up physically and closing down on him instantly once he has the ball not allowing him, and therefore us, to do anything. But wtf is Bilic doing having Him play so deep?!?
Bilic made huge errors with the players and subs selected
Kalinic, jelavic, mandzu and lovren shouldn’t see the pitch until garbage time or friendlies… Maybe Jelavic
Klasnic, rakitic, petric, olic, perisic are all better. Obviously no Srna hurts, even if some of you were happy he was missing. But look at the back four if he starts, strinic, simunic, corluka, Srna… No lovren and therefore no two goals for Greece!!! That one hurt us having to play lovren
Bilic is obviously over his head and he’s been given more than a fair chance but it’s time for us to move on
Let’s look on the bright side now that it’s a new day, clearly this team needs more work together so maybe we shouldnt be so down about the playoffs, it will give the guys more practice and game time together… Whomever the coach is
@Denis you are so right about stopping Modric then stops pur teams. Our losses always go like that, teams putting one or two big guys on Luka and beating him up physically and closing down on him instantly once he has the ball not allowing him, and therefore us, to do anything. But wtf is Bilic doing having Him play so deep?!?
Bilic made huge errors with the players and subs selected
Kalamic
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time to turn in. I didnt even get through half the comments. Good stuff out there. Yes, some of you are emotional. However, all in all some really good stuff out there. We’ve grown a lot over the years.
Thanks to everyone for turning out today at Alpine Village. I counted 48 of us. Some of you skipped the bill after running for the exits. I wont mention any names(Fistonich)
@Franjo Tudjman
“This is shocking….Greece is playing as if they’d be content with a 0-0 tie. Their fans are starting to whistle.”
I wasnt shocked. Not one bit. Strategy. In the end its just how we are as a people. All the inteligence in the world. All the talent in the world. But naive, easily fooled. (Not you personally, but Bilic 🙂 )
@ja sam
a ti si. A di si jebote? Sta nisi dosa u Alpine Village?
@AZ
“but you must remember.they tend to score in last minute”
strategy. Like a dog playing dead.
@Mishko
“Is it just me are the Greeks trying to kick our boys in the nutz?”
Where were you today? Missed that strudel. You jinxed Croatia.
“Kalinic in? WTF, bring in Klasnic. This pisses me off.”
I agree. However it wouldnt have made a difference. Neither would have got service.
“That’s it, here comes the bus”
no bus here. Not needed against this offense. Bilic was all figured out.
@Ana
“looks like a game of dominos out there, ppl going down every 5 seconds”
hahahaha.
“poor modric is taking a beating”
Greek strategy. Shove a stick up Modric’ ass, Croatia have nothing offensively.
@goldenchild
“As much shit as everybody talks about Vukojevic, he’s been one of the best today.”
I disagree. He was nowhere to be seen. If Niko Kovac was in his place the Greeks would not have scored. However, that is a lot to ask of Vuki to fill those shoes.
@Croat
“WHY PUT IN VIDA!!”
I agree. Not now. Too late.
@ziva istina
“We have good players, but no studs that can carry a side on the road.”
I agree with your assesment that we are an average side. However, soccer is a team sport and studs mean nothing. Look at Argentina. All studs. No game. England of 2008. All star squad. No game.
A great team of 0 studs, beats a team of studs without leadership and coaching. McClaren vs. Capello.
“They deserve to win the group…..in two games against them we have not scored. The better TEAM (not individuals) won.”
I agree. Not “studs”.
“Then again, the formation had nothing to do with the goals we gave up. The first goal was a fluke and Greece won the second ball. The 2nd ball goal was bad marking.”
I agree. Well said.
“Remember, just listen more of me and little less of yourself.”
haha. You’re a bastard. But your fico score is high with us.
@Michael
“That loss to Georgia will really haunt them if they don’t make Euro 2012.”
Our entire campaign sucked. We dont deserve to qualify bottom line. Neither do the Greeks. They will finish 3 and out.
@JP
“dirty Greeks done dirt cheap”
hah. Yes sir. Nothing unexpected.
@Deno
“way to go jinx the national team…would of never happend if you changed the web site!!”
haha. As if Croatia had a wonderful qualifying campaign and just missed out because of one bad game. Look at games vs Israel, Georgia and Greece. A little bad luck and we finish third.
@George
“Those mercedes benz’s that the russians gave us for beating England in 07′, let’s give em to the Georgians if they get a result next week.”
hahaha.
Josko balaban
“Apparently bilic is considering re-calling prosinetcki for the Latvia game. Prosinetcki claims he has 90 mins left in him.”
hahahaah
@Ali
“This team that has represented Croatia for the last 3 years is not worthy to be taken seriously in world football. There are no fighters in the team, there are no leaders, they are a team of lightweight half-decent technicians. ”
a little harsh but I agree. However, with the right coach, he can turn boys into men.
@nepoznat
“Lovren at partial fault (1) and total fault (2) on last 3 goals against Croatia and he cost us 2 games single handedly!
WTF Is Bilic doing leaving Killer on the bench and bringing in Vida with our final sub?”
good assessment. I agree.
@bobby V
“Both teams should be ashamed of themselves – one of the worst matches I’ve witnessed in 45 years. Fake injuries, diving, stalling, cheating, dirty tackles…..”
Line of the night. Well said.
@Ante B
““None of them ever recovered from the Turkey loss. Hell, we as a nation, home and abroad, haven’t recovered.””
I disagree. Croatia at Euro 2008 was like an ugly dude landing a hot chick. A fluke. The ugly dude gets cut, depressed, then recovers after a few months, a few years, whatever. The dude recovered.
Croatia should have recovered after England bitch slapped us back to earth. We still think that we can land that hot chick, because we experienced quarterfinals. We fell like all we have to do is show up. All of the pregame interviews had players saying “I believe in croatia, I believe in us, we are better.” Thats how they really feel. Its great to have confidence. But confidence can only take you so far.
@goldenchild,
“So changing from, “throw the tank in front of net” vs a strong attack is not going to work as they’d like to in the matter of one or two games. ”
As shown today, the Greeks didnt need to do that. Bilic anticipated an all out attack and target practice for Jelavic and Eduardo. The bluff and joke was on him.
@Allen19
“Jelavic after all the misses and disappointing performances will finally score.”
I dont blame Jelavic as he didnt get the proper service. However, its never good news when I asked myself after Eduardo and Jelavic were subbed: “there isnt anyone out there that will score for Croatia if the Greeks score”
@JP
“If it were up to me, there’s no way Jelavic even sees the field”
well, it didnt matter. Jelavic or Kalinic same shit. Without service, you could have had me up there. Same result.
@Colin
“This looks good, except can Vida play in place of Lovren?”
This might have saved Croatia today. Good call.
@Korculanac
“Any starting 11 featuring Vukojevic is a katastrofa. He does nothing well. Expecting him to be the next Niko Kovac was a lot to ask. But really enough with this experiment. I’d love to see Domagoj Vida get the responsibility as the defensive bone crushing mid.”
Good call. Like I said in the past, you Torontonians are on a higher level.
@Ivica
“Simunic has a terrible history of singlehandedly choking in big games for us. It seems to happen in every tournament for Simunic.”
True, but Simunic played well today.
@Vlad
“I dont get how manzo starts ahead of peresic, esp when that position is more suited for perisic! Also not a fan of vukojevic starting!”
Good call. I’m with you. I figured, Mandzo ok a chance because of experience over Perisic. Nope. However, I also liked a sneak surprise attack of Perisic off the bench. Kind of like that sixth man in bball that comes in with a surprise attack on tired legs.
@Mark
“Greece 2-3 Croatia”
dude. Who would score all these goals for Croatia? Mandzo with 3 “Ivica Olic goals” ?
@Andrej L
“I just hope Vukojevic doesn’t start. Let Badelj or Rakitic play beside Modric.”
agreed on Vuki. Rakitic-Modric-Kranjcar can not all play together. So throw Kranjcar on the bench? Also, Rakitic is not 100%.
@Shinobi
“greece exells in these situations, and im afraid it will be a greece win today, i think they will win by the barest of margins. I hope im wrong, but its my prediction.
Greece-1__Croatia-0”
winner winner chicken dinner!
@Bobby V
“Both teams should be ashamed of themselves – worst soccer match I’ve witnessed in 45 years. Fake injuries, diving, stalling, cheating, nasty play”
Well said. Both teams deserve to stay home. Weakest group in qualifying. Weakest performance by top two teams in any group.
Dont get me wrong, I’m a huge Bilic fan on and off the field. He did what he could. However, the inexperience and lack of discipline cost him in the end. Euro 2008 was a lucky run. Everything went Croatia’s way. Bilic needs 5 years of league experience before he gets a shot at the national team.
Miroslav Blažević, Mirko Jozić, Otto Barić, and Otto Barić all had experience before taking over Croatia.
I’m tired of this excuse of “the HNS doesnt have the $$$.” All of Croatia is in debt, what will another million euros do? Lets get someone in there with experience. Croatia suffered since 2006. Bring in Van Gaal. He would shove a stick up everyones ass, not be a players coach like Bilic(turning the national team games into a vacation for the players), and will not be influenced by others(Mamic, Hajduk, Dinamo, player transfer bonuses, fielding useless players to bump stock, etc etc).
Just like Goldenchild mentioned in a previous post, I just want to point out the fact at how many comments there are on this post. Take a look at the post. There’s nothing there but a picture. All we need is a picture and prva generacija takes over. Its like one of Miso Kovac’ concerts. He sings half the song and the audience sings the other half.
You know what the hardest part about this job is? Writing a post game summary after what we just witnessed. First, we had two Greeks at Alpine Village jumping, clapping and hollering after both Greek goals. First ‘blink’ reaction was go over there and beat the fuck out of these guys. Then after I took a deep breath I remembered that they are both nice local San Pedro guys and their team just scored and that is that. Even though it hurts, glad to have them aboard.
Second, I felt like I saw the game happen before it started.
“I don’t think that Greece will play all-out-attack for this one. They will jump on Croatia in the first few minutes of the game, then sit back, look for Croatia to open up then jump on us again.”
halftime 0-0, just as planned by Slaven Bilic.
“The Greeks will try to sneak one in early in the first half, then open up a little more in the second half. Jelavic will miss a couple sitters and Modric will hit the post. It will be a dull and boring match.”
Once again, first half went as planned. However, Jelavic never got full service, never had a chance. You cant blame him. Eduardo and Mandzo were out of position you cant blame them.
Bilic knew that the Greeks would open up, but he didnt know when. The first 25 minutes, same Greeks, besides that one header straight to Pletikosa on a counter. Could have easily been 1-0. 70th minute still on pace. …..
Greeks get the signal from the manager, catch Croatia sleeping. When you are on auto-pilot mode for 70 minutes, you doze off. Human nature.
Bilic failed to match the greek intensity in the second half. The Greeks were not the same in the first half as they were in the second half. The Greeks dont want a goal early in the first half, and then bunker for an hour. they want a goal in the 55-70 minute, bunker for 20 minutes and go home.
“For the first time in a while, I like the formation. I would have preferred Perisic starts, however, Mandzo does have more experience. Perisic can always come in at halftime – 70th”
Just like Bilic said post game interview “on paper, I still feel like I chose the best players.”
I almost agree as I would have thrown in Vida for Vuki and Perisic for Mandzo, but those are all minor changes.
The Greeks know that to stop Croatia’s offense, just stop Modric. They had a guy up Modric’ ass all game. He must have been fouled a half dozen times. No Modric, no Croatian offense. Now all the Greeks have to do is get a lucky goal with Croatia on cruise control. Thats what happened.
Bilic was wrong on the subs. Took out Eduardo and Jelavic before the first goal. Lets say Greece scored. Who will score for you Slaven?, Mandzo? Midfield had no life. So what if Eduardo and Jelavic had yellows. Greece scores and you are out of options. Slaven gambled and it bit him in the ass. Then throws in Vida after the first goal. For what? to preserve the 1-0 defeat? Bring in Klasnic. defense for offense at that point. The greek coach changed his strategy in the second half and Slaven stayed the same.
Not for one minute did I think that Croatia would score. And after Greece scored with Eduardo and Jelavic on the bench, that was game.
Bilic’ strategy almost worked. However, just like in chess, you have to read your opponent. This is Bilic’ biggest weakness since Euro 2008. He failed to read England, Ukraine, Georgia, and now Greece. Fernando Santos fucked around in the first half to see where Bilic was going. Then he flipped the switch. Played him like a flute. Bilic at halftime was probably, “bravo decki. Samo polako. Trebamo imati strpljenja. i kad se otvoru onda na njima.” Problem was, Croatia was flat footed and didnt know what hit them on the goals after sitting pretty in cruise control for 70 minutes, and had no answer on the offensive end after playing, calm, kick the ball around, waste time football. Bilic should have known that this would not last 90 minutes.
bilicu jos si uvik legenda u moje oci!!!
if you think bilic should get fired youre a fool. look at our players!!!! who starts for their club? maybe 4 at max.
Plain and simple guys Hrvatska shit the bed today and didn`t play anywhere near the level of soccer they are truly capable of. Its time we get a coach that has a variety of tactics in his play book not just defending tactics. Lets bring in Boban, pride,fight and tactics to the National team.
@ Hellas40
I love how your a big tough keyboard warrior on here. I guarentee your one of those guys that hide under a table when fights start. Anyways congrats on the win, we gave it to you free of charge. Ok you can go back to watching your hero Telly Savalas in Kojak.
If Cico Kranjcar gets selected as national team coach again IM GOING TO FUCKING KILL MYSELF
How do you guys feel about a foreigner as coach? There are both many pros and cons but there will be no politics and nepotism!
I’ve been through about 100 of the comments so far, and I looked at my scroll bar to see how close I was to the end…. looks like I was only halfway.
Thanks for all the feedback everybody. I know the loss was terrible, but it’s great to see everybody chiming in.
@Allen19, relax, a playoff will be exciting, something to look forward to, two extra games in November.
I don’t understand how Rakitic doesn’t start; I would think Bilic would find a way, a formation, the proper tactics to have Rakitic and Modric both starting. It seemed that Modric was playing more deep than forward; I’ld like to see Rakitic playing that role and have Modric up front supporting to the striker. Maybe I’m off base here as I’m just learning this sport, but I watched several Sevilla games last year and Rakitic’s game is smooth; he and Modric commanding from various different locales in central position would be extremely formidable for other teams to contend with, no?
I guess my prediction was correct, that the greeks would come out victorious. Man it pains me to lose to such a poor quality and talentless opposition, even thou they are a well drlled unit and who are the ultimate opportunists when comes to scoring goals. But i knew that bilic’s tactics to go their for the draw would be our demise, you have to go for the jugular when playing these schmucks, just like sweden and south korea did at the last euro and world cup respectivley. When you go for the kill with relentless intention you can expose these bums for what they really are, instead of playing into their hands with cautious tactics and a fear for their counter. Mr. bilic your time as national coach is well and truely up, its time to own up to your mistakes and leave the wreakage you have caused, so someone else can salvage the mess you left behind, and start to rebuild something that resembles a football team.
Guys,
Mr Greek is logging into this site to provoke you…why let it bother you…he is just upset that his country is in utter chaos, financially broke, etc…this is the only glory that Greece now has…tourism is dwindling…they cry to the European union for help…they are hopeless on their own…so please have a heart for this poor uneducated Grcka loser…heres something in Greek for you, “Thelo Pipa, apo piso” which translates to go suck a dick and take it up the ass…isn;t that what you guys are known for? I was surprised that Greece didn’t “come from behind” for the win…now go eat some Gyros and hopefully you choke on some kalamata olives…fuck now I am getting hungry…
🙂
I think everyone nailed it on the head. I’m just speechless but whatever I don’t get really mad after a while. I was really infuriated, I was cursing a lot but whatever. I’m just sick of Billc and his stupid subs. Rakitic should have came on once Greece scored. Vuko needed to come off right there. It’s just frustrating and I’m just so done. I probably am missing the first qualifier in this campaign Tuesday just out of pure disgust. No way Greece loses in Georgia. A draw maybe, but no way in hell would they lose. Jelavic is pretty garbage, I’ve lost all faith in him. Niko was pure garbage and this is from his biggest supporter. Corluka was the man out there, he really impressed me. This team is a mess, how we got in first pot I still don’t know.
As I eluded to on previous posts, Bilić once again chose to start a defensive midfielder in a game against a team that plays bunker. Kranjčar took a total of 15 corner kicks/free kicks today and not one of them was quality. Bilić wants to keep talking about “domination?” Has he gone totally dellusional? 1 legitimate scoring chance and that’s domination? Just because we controlled the ball on our half of the field, that doesn’t mean we dominated buddy. Goran Vlaović said it best in this video.
http://www.hrt.hr/index.php?id=37&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=133134&cHash=91f4c5e26c
According to soccernet
Group F
Remaining fixtures
Tuesday: Georgia v Greece, Malta v Israel, Croatia v Latvia
• Group table, results and scorers
Able to qualify: Greece, Croatia
Greece’s 2-0 win over Croatia was monumental for coach Fernando Santos, as now they need just a point in Georgia to make the finals on head to head. Croatia must win at home to Latvia and hope Greece lose. Greece drew 1-1 at home to Georgia a year ago.
Hellas40,
Dude, the world cup is a much bigger event than the euro cup. Ajde u pizdu materinu jebeni grci dobicete po picki kad vratimo u athens.
Bog I hrvati
@Jack ; good point above about Gekas as well – damn, moja stara baba is taller than he is – how does he even have a chance to pull off that header?
….and any other referee would have red-carded their goalie for what he pulled against Jelavic.
@Bobby V: You nailed it.
Samaras is the only player on that team with class – the rest of them, especially Karagounis, are a bunch of women…. more interested in drama and theatrics – the last 20 minutes was like watching “The Real Housewives of New Jersey”.
Ugh, why do you guys feed the troll?
OK here is the difference between Greece and Croatia. One team were CHAMPIONS and the other team are LOSERS.
Which one would you be prouder of??
Since Euro 2004…….off the top of my head I’m pretty sure we beat Ukraine in Ukraine, something you guys couldn’t do to qualify for WC2010. You guys came up with 2 draws right??? NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!!!
Refs, luck, excuses excuses………Let me make this clear sweet heart TWO GOALS TWO GOALS TO NIL NIL NIL.
END OF STORY!!!!
Here is another stat. ONE EURO CHAMPIONSHIP.
EAT IT!!!
As I read more of ur comments I realize wot a wanker cunt u r!! Enjoy ur pathetic time on this rock & why duznt ur once great country borrow some more $ from the rest euros
Hellas 40 – so you come on to a Croatian Sports website to tell us that our 1998 team was overrated, laugh at us for losing today’s match, call us gypsies and tell us to eat shit? really?….shouldn’t you find a Greek soccer site to write your drivel?….or maybe you should be helping your dad shovel goat shit or go suck some Serbian dick.
@Hellas40
“Your honestly gonna count the game vs Holland. It is a dead rubber, the most pointless game in world football. Who cares about 3rd vs 4th???? Holland didn’t”
As I stated previously. When is the last time you beat the Dutch? Especially at a World Cup for a medal. Don’t tell me the game does not mean anything. In football/soccer it is pride. Pride is everything..
“Im offended when Croatian posters above call my team garbage, boring, etc. etc. yet we keep you scoreless over 2 games and thump you 2-0 in the biggest game of the campaign.”
Your team is boring. You should not be offended. You should do something about it. I would not be able to look myself in the mirror playing sports the way you guys do. “Hey coach, can we go past midfield now?” “No, not yet!” “But why?” “Because we don’t play football/soccer, we play a different game. It is within the rules but we can have no pride trying to score goals from open play.” LOL
“If WC98 is your saving grace than you guys can have it.”
I was in Portugal when you guys won Euro 2004 and you could see the stacks of bullshit around the arena and around every game you guys played with the BS luck you guys had. What have you guys done since? Like seriously? You beat us once in this campaign. Big deal! Look at the teams we have beaten since 2004 and than look at the teams you have beaten after Euro 2004. It is not even a contest. We have better players and a better team. Was it reflected today. Nope. But that is ok because I can look in the mirror knowing we are not losers that sit at midfield and wait for corners and an need incompetent refs to win games for us.
“Like I said thanks for coming, hope you enjoyed those two great worked goals. Losing is not fair but someone has to do it……thanks Croatia”
Great worked goals! LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Friggin hilarious man! LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What color is the sky in your world?
Oh dear..its unlikely greece will relinquish top spot…
Lets hope croatia will secure best runner spot to qualify automatically….we need sweden to lose to holland and denmark to lose to portugal at home, assuming we beat latvia…is that possible???????
@Hellas40 : Go to GreekSports.com.
PS: It is easy to be a snarky douce tough guy, when you don’t use your real name.
Great job on the site gentlemen…I have been frequenting the croationsoccerreport site since the Prva generacija built it…so it is nice to finally enter my own post…
I have watched Croatian soccer really deteriorate over the years. After the war, croats played with the fire that they earned their nickname for…”Vatreni” …however it seems that the players are too relaxed, overpayed and play with little to no passion.
The two biggest losses to the Croatian national team over the last few years were the Kovac brothers, those guys were true leaders that Croatia has lacked since they left…they played with heart and passion and got the job done…both Srna and Simunic are not leaders…
The tactics by Bilic today were horrible and in fact have been horrible for this whole qualifying competition. Why is Domagoj Vida not starting in the heart of the defence? He has been Dinamo’s best player and was the best player on the pitch against Real Madrid…our defence really needs to be revamped as it is looking scary right now…also our forwards cannot score, which doesn’t help…Jelavic needs service in the air where he is strongest, yet he got diddo…Kalinic has been a disappointment and the one player who would have likely scored is sitting on the bench (Klasnic) Yes he is old, but he is one of the only natural true strikers that we have on the team…
It also doesn’t help that most of our starting 11 are either bench warmers on their clubs or they play for Rostov??? Really??? Are we hurting that bad??? Why not Kelava in goal?
Anyways…I can babble on about the National team’s problems for hours…aside from the poor comments from the Greek fans (above)…I cannot say anything bad about them…they won fair and square, yes the Greek game is an ugly one to watch, but it works…furthermore, it is the Croatian defence’s fault for leaving the Greek players with so much room…if Kovac brothers were playing…they would be inside the Greek players jerseys becuase they would be covering them like white on rice…
Congratulations to the Greeks today, but here I will go out on a limb and predict the following: Greece will lose 1-0 in Tblisi against Georgia and Croatia will beat Latvia 2-0 at home, putting us directly into the Euro.
However in all honesty, perhaps if Croatia did not qualify, it would be better so that I don’t have to watch the embarrasing tactics and soccer that Croatia has been playing…especially against quality opponents…
Again great job with the site gentlemen…all the best…
Martin
No one cares about 3rd dude. How many ppl do you know go around boasting about a bronze medal. Coming 3rd in something dont mean shit.
Only one position matters and that is FIRST!!!!!
If WC98 is your saving grace than you guys can have it. WOW WEE Croatia beat Japan, Jamaica, and Romania and not to mention a 10-man German team. What an achievement???
Like I said thanks for coming, hope you enjoyed those two great worked goals. Losing is not fair but someone has to do it……thanks Croatia
’04 Greece team was the worst team (in any sport) to win a championship that I could ever recall! We did beat a little country called Holland in ’98, and we were the only team to score and hold a lead against the eventual champions France. What the fuck do Greeks know about soccer anyway? I doubt you’ll ever be called the Brazilians of Europe the way you play the game…
I noticed a few Greek fans at the game wearing Spartan helmets; makes me wonder if these people actually believe they are related to ancient Greeks. To me, this would be just as dumb as Croats or Italians wearing Roman warrior helmets. Just because people today happen to be living on the same geographical area as people of 2000+ years ago, doesn’t mean they are the same people; are modern Americans the same people as those living in America just 700 years ago? And speaking the same language doesn’t really mean much either: thru-out history, conquerers have often adopted the language of the conquered.
You see, Alexander the Great (Iskander) was an annexing multiCULTist much like Caesar, both sowed the seeds for their respective nations’ destruction thru their empire building. First, Rome conquered Greece, then when Rome fell, various Germanic and Slavic tribes ran roughshod thru Greece; Byzantium (or the Eastern Roman Empire, the last vestiges of Greece & Rome) also became a multiCULTist empire and therefore a hollow shell, which the Ottman Turks conquered and become overlords of for 500 years. The Romans, the Ancient Greeks, the Persians, and the Ancient Eygptians are gone. All nations are made by immigration, all nations are destroyed by immigration.
Other than the constant flopping, I don’t care how the Greeks play. We know they play a defensive flop-fest. We need to cope accordingly.
Lovren let a skulleted midget score on an open header. Perisic got caught ball watching, and allowed a decent player an open shot from a great spot.
I am surprised that no is comparing Srna to Perisic.
Your honestly gonna count the game vs Holland. It is a dead rubber, the most pointless game in world football. Who cares about 3rd vs 4th???? Holland didn’t.
I agree with you, Croatia has better individual talent, but a TEAM is what wins matches.
Im offended when Croatian posters above call my team garbage, boring, etc. etc. yet we keep you scoreless over 2 games and thump you 2-0 in the biggest game of the campaign.
And to add that Croatia’s efforts in 98 come close to Greece’s triumph in 04 is just a joke.
Please boys take the loss like men and stop whining. Greece deserved this win and deserve top spot in this campaign (as long as we dont self destruct vs Georgia).
Enough said.
@Hellas40
“Croatia 98 better than Greece 04???? Give me a break. Apart from Germany who did you guys topple???? Football heavyweights Japan, Jamaica, and Romania. Thats it buddy.”
You are forgetting Holland. When is the last time you beat them?
“The world knows who Greece beat to claim there silverware (something that Croatia has NEVER done)”
We collected a bronze medal in 98 and it is not tainted like the trophy you won in 2004. Pure BS !!!!!! No substance and no beauty to be found just pure BS and luck.
“Just admit you were beaten by the better team today, plain and simple. 2 games vs Greece and you guys scored ZILCH!!! You cant win when you cant score.”
I would never admit to that because it is not true. You won the game no doubt, better team no way! “Hey guys! Let’s all play defense and maybe one day at our soccer camp after playing defense for two hours we can try corner kicks because that is the only way we can score!”
You have such a great economy by the way. 🙂 Now run along and go give Webb his insurance money.
The last two posts were by the same person I bet. Greece is top of the group b/c they earned it; tho Croatia undoubtedly has better individual players, either Greece is just a better team right now or a bad match up stylistically for Croatia. And Croatia also beat Netherlands in 98′ and scored the only goal in open play against the home team – France; this of course in addition to the win vs Germany.
Croatia 98 better than Greece 04???? Give me a break. Apart from Germany who did you guys topple???? Football heavyweights Japan, Jamaica, and Romania. Thats it buddy.
The world knows who Greece beat to claim there silverware (something that Croatia has NEVER done)
Just admit you were beaten by the better team today, plain and simple. 2 games vs Greece and you guys scored ZILCH!!! You cant win when you cant score.
So thanks for coming, Hope you enjoyed the sights in Athens, especially the ball hitting the back of the net TWICE.
HAHAHA LOSERS!!!!!!
@johnny P
“As for the better teams that greece have beaten i could remind you a match with Spain. Spain-Greece 0-1 (2003) Of course there are others too.”
The Spain team in 2003 is nowhere near the quality they are now. They were good, that is for certain but not even close. Who else have you beaten? And don’t resort to 2004 as I mentioned previously. You won’t be able to come up with another team. That is for sure.
I really would like to know how you guys can be proud of the way you play football/soccer? Ok, you won the game today, sometimes you win sometimes you lose. However, the style in which you play can never be called beauty, class or something to be proud of. If all teams played the style of game in which the Greeks play, I would never ever watch it. It would be like, “hey come on let’s go watch the Greeks play defense!” “This is great!!!!” “This is awesome!” There is no flair, no buidlup, no desire to score. Just to defend! Wow, that is super.
Please don’t give me the usual, it is boring but we get the results BS. You won today because we helped you win, and Howard Webb gave the final stamp of approval to drive it through.
Our 96 and 98 teams would have destroyed your Euro 2004 team. Any day of the week. And, our result in 98 was a much bigger accomplishment in my opinion because it was on a World stage, and we did not resort to tactics that show absolutely no effort in trying to score a goal. In Euro 2004, your team stuck all the players behind midfield and waited for a one shot deal and a one chance corner kick and it worked. A friggin miracle! It will never happen again! If we would have played a normal strategy today, and there is a normal ref on the field, not a freak, there is no way you win this game!
We will meet up again, and than we will see what happens. Your team is so over rated, boring, and aesthetically so revolting it is unbearable.
Come on guys, let’s play soccer today. Ok, I am going to try and score. Not me, I am Greek I am going way back there to defend and wait for a corner kick 50 minutes later. You know you got every break in the book today. So lucky it is amazing! Enjoy it, that is the best you are going to get. Euro 2004 was a miracle and will never happen again! Oh, and before I forget, it was really classy coming to the game today with all your Chetnick buddies! Way to go, once again something to be proud of. Last but certainly not least, you have the best looking team in the world. Are they all models???? Not !!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!
I miss the celebrations Slaven Bilic would do after we would score a goal and how the players would scream out their lungs when they score, in Euro 2008 like the time when we beat macedonia with Srna’s freekick and Eduardo’s finish. Players running after Srna to celebrate, Srna screaming and how Bilic celebrated after Eduardo’s goal.
IvicA i completely agree with you that Croatia has players with really great quality and skills. This is why i said before “…as a team.”
I didnt say that Greece is a super team. It isnt of course. Our team has a good defence. And we try to use this advantage for our benefit. All i was talking before is that we fight in every game with everything we have. It might not be pretty sure but it is a way to deal with a team that is better.
My only problem is when i read msgs with a lot of arrogance. (Mostly from Croatian fans in other forums.) The biggest mistake is to underestimate your opponent.
If you are going to fire Bilic i rather would let it wait until the campginan is done…
Eat shit Croats!!!
2-0 Baby!!!! All this talk of beating us comes to nothing. Quick pointer: you must score a goal first to win a game.
HAHAHAHA LOSERS!!!
With a win against Latvia we can still qualify directly as the best second place team.
@ Johnny P
Johnny, you cannot look at Croatia’s roster and Greece’s roster and tell me that the quality is comparable because it’s not. Your star players play in 2nd division Bundesliga whereas these Croats are key players on many of Europe’s top clubs.
The difference between the two is that Greece has built an “identity” with their gameplan that they stick to. They rarely change this playing style which limits the exposure to their weaknesses, and as a result, they have overachieved. I agree with you that it is clever, but I also sympathize with people who don’t agree with the playing style.
Croatia is a team filled with enough talent to have topped this group, but is hindered by the constant changes to our roster on a game by game basis as well as our playing style. Losses like this are inevitable when you don’t play your style and (mostly importantly) stick to it.
I like this new site a lot by the way, good job. One thing though, I’d rather see the comments in reverse chronological newest first. If Bilic gets sacked this weekend it won’t be any surprise this team needs a refresh, we have some top players in top leagues and we don’t deserve to lose to garbage Greek football.
yes it was the ref the problem. and the weather too. And the stadium also wasnt in good condition for your aces to play. Just think that you might not be sooo good as you think you are as a team.
i dont like talking big. But…as a greek today i saw all your msgs and many of them were… we are 10th and they are 323th. We have much quality and they dont, we this…we that… Or comments like….Greece doesnt play “good” football. Actually you call it destructive. Someone else might say clever too. The game was a well organized trap and you felt right into it. 1st half was safe play from Greece and second was the speed up. All i see is that you only got a draw and 0 goals from 2 games. Well done.
As for the better teams that greece have beaten i could remind you a match with Spain. Spain-Greece 0-1 (2003) Of course there are others too.
Simunic is crap….I don’t understand why he is still on the team. There is a reason Vida plays ahead of him at Dinamo, and there is a reason why he hasn’t played one minute at Hoffenheim this season and most of last season. And he’s the captain??? WTF
And why is he pushing Kalinic so much??? Come on I would have given Klasnic a shot…well Olic is coming back next week let’s see what he does (although he won’t get much playing time at Bayern right now)……..bottom line is this game was horrible everyone played like shit and we don’t even deserve to go to Euro if we play like this………….sramota!!!!
Man, just reading all of the comments above.
The only conclusion I can come to is that ziva istina is a jerkoff, lol.
Jersy Cro said:
“Croatia, in about 3-5 years will go down the same path as Bulgaria and Czech Republic. With the way our coaching at youth levels is going and how poor our league is outside of one club, it is bound to happen
Dinamo Zagreb is pretty much feeding 70% of the NT and the other 30% is a mix of diaspora (mostly them) and the other clubs”
Nah. You’re not factoring in the fact that EVERY talented Croat goes to play for Dinamo and Dinamo alone. Every Bosanac (ie. Kovacic, Lovren) and Dalmatinac (ie. Modric, Vrsaljko) has placed Dinamo ahead of teams like Hajduk on their preference list. They do so because Dinamo is the only CRO team that manages to appropriately identify quality talent, develop them, and sell them to top European clubs (making all parties happy).
Hajduk has let a ton of decent players slip through their ranks for nothing (ie. Perisic, Jelavic, Lakic, Prso) and these guys had to resurrect and develop their careers at bottom league clubs in countries like Austria and Belgium to get where they are today. Hajduk’s youth team program has deteriorated. I hear horror stories about families having to pay to see their youngsters play and potentially promoted. It’s a disaster, and I fully understand why all the talent funnels itself to a team that acts at least in only a semi-corrupt fashion.
Croatia will always have talented players. It’s part of the culture and the genetics. They, along with the Montenegrins, have always produced the top technically gifted players in the region. They just need to make like the Germans and capitalize on every ounce of quality they have (much like the rest of the country).
Corluka speaks the truth about Webb
http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/3396/euro-2012/2011/10/07/2700944/tottenhams-vedran-corluka-slams-referee-howard-webb-almost-every-
@Jack Vrankovic
“@Ziva: You must admit that Webb is a problem. I watch a lot of games in which, he calls one sided games. He is one of the main reasons I feel the EPL is overrated. Brits seem to love him, but he seems inconsistent at best.”
Webb was not the only reason we lost but he sure did help! He played right into the hands of how the Greeks play their “game”. The Greeks could not have asked for a better ref for this game. That being said, we should have had a better game plan and attacked rather than sitting back which back fired. Webb is garbage!!!! Plain and simple. Controversy in every big game he officiates. Something is really wrong if that is the case!
Regardless of coach, we have to sort out our strikers and central defenders. Simunic and our old guard strikers aren’t getting any younger. I hope Kalinic, Jelavic and Manzo get up to speed quickly.
@Ziva: You must admit that Webb is a problem. I watch a lot of games in which, he calls one sided games. He is one of the main reasons I feel the EPL is overrated. Brits seem to love him, but he seems inconsistent at best.
http://globalgolaso.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/a-hellenic-pillaging-brought-to-you-by-howard-webb/
After realizing that the site showed up on croatiansports.com it was a pretty good feeling. Thanks for reading and as far as the match itself is concerned, it goes to show how much we miss a Niko Kovac in the side. We need a proven general. We need someone with character.
As far as the violence is concerned, that was terrorism. We get fined for simple phrases/chants that are misunderstood as being extremist. To be honest, the players should have refused to play under those conditions. Serbia didn’t do much worse at Italy last year and yet that was an automatic forfeit.
Vecernji List is reporting Bilic COULD be sacked over the weekend, the HNS will hold an “emergency” meeting
Apparently Bilic has been sacked!
http://www.vecernji.hr/sport/nogomet/ekskluzivno-markovic-vl-potvrdio-da-ce-smijeniti-bilica-clanak-334055
Bilic must go been saying this forever! Basiclly we played with our B team in my mind! this team is done i know there not a great team to begin with but still there not this bad, im not mad we lost im more mad of the lack of fight! Everygame is the same! changes must be mad if im at work and keep fuckin up i get fired welll bilic it’s time to get fired! People can say all they want about croatian football how its not as good as 98! Listen this is the best squad the last 6 years weve had since 98 and we could miss our seceond tournament with a relative easy group! Also weve had teams with alot less talent play better and qualify back in the day baric years jozic years look at those squads and you ask how did they even compete! Never im my life have i seen croatia look so disorganized on the field like in the last year!
I think its time for the Prosinečki era to begin!!!
what a let down! i figured greece would score once but that second goal free header was crap (and that doesn’t count the other free header greece had that went right to stipe). never thought i’d say this when i got up this morning but i can clearly see a path where we DON’T qualify. our hope for best 2nd place and automatic qualification exists but not probable because it requires portugal winning by a few goals, sweden losing and us winning by a few goals. if that doesn’t happen and we head to the playoffs, i would worry about playing teams like montenegro or ireland. montenegro had two draws against the english…..damn better than we did against them recently! if we can’t score in georgia or 2 matches against greece, i don’t fill with confidence in a playoff scenario.
however, this could all be for naught and we go straight through if georgia knocks off the greeks for us (hey they did it to us…..why not to the greeks?)
bilic will stay to see this thing through, wherever it ends. he ain’t going anywhere til either nov (when they could fail in playoffs) or july (after euros are done). until then, he’s our guy.
btw, if greece ties and cro beats latvia, we will finish equal on pts BUT greece will finish first because the first tiebreaker is head-to-head (not goal difference). so a greece/georgia draw does nothing for us. read this on the uefa site.
Who ever helps Croatia qualify, gets Mercedes Benzes from the Russians!
Croatia must be in BEAST MODE against Latvia!
If you want watch this, Jarni talks about Croatia how he is cofindent that Croatia will rise again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-FbWXZ7GHE
Great work Ali! You did more calculating than me. However, remember when England had nothing to play for against Ukraine except for a perfect record? Hopefully, the Dutch fair better.
What if Croatia and Denmark wind up being tied on points and goal differential, what’s the next tie breaker? total goals?
http://www.jutarnji.hr/jelavic–grci-su-nas-navukli/979457/
http://www.jutarnji.hr/slaven-bilic–nedostajalo-je-hrabrosti/979447/
First link is Simunic talking, one quote that he said was ” if we play like this against lativa we wont win” something like that. The second link is Slaven Bilic talking
The under 21’s are useless but the under 19’s and 17’s are doing well. Perhaps there is hope for the future.
@Jorge
I completely disagree. Sweden are very likely to lose to Holland, Holland have won 9 in 9 and had a perfect record for the World Cup as well, Sweden should be ruled out and would stay on 15 points. If Portugal win, Denmark will no longer be +4 ahead of us, so they will either be +7, +6, +5…meaning all we have to do is beat Latvia 3-0 or more at home, which is realistic as we beat them 3-0 away from home. If Portugal beat Denmark and Holland beat Sweden we should be the best second placed team.
Mark, while i admire your optimism… there is nothing i have seen over the last 3 years that would make me think anything would be different if we got to the tournament. The players play with no confidence, they play scared. The 2 games against England, against Ukraine, both Greek games, they look like they have no ideas other then to pass the ball around untill they lose it. We need to change up our system and that cant happen until Bilic leaves.
Thank you!
I looked at the link Bobby V provided; the chances of Croatia getting automatic qualification via ‘best second place team’ is slim and none. Denmark is on 16 points, Sweden has 15, Croatia has 13 (as the 2 wins [6pnts] against last team dont count). Even if Denmark loses, they are +4 ahead of us in goal differential; and Sweden is also +4 ahead of us in GD. They don’t even count the goals you score against the last place team in your group. Now, I haven’t looked at all the calculations like a last place team changing when all is said and done, etc. Barring a Georgia miracle, we’re going to a playoff.
Actually replace Serbia with Ireland.
JerseyCro,
Again, you are regurgitating what has been said since 1998. Croatia has prevailed since then. Just because we lost a crucial game doesn’t spell the end of all Croatian football. We have great players and potential for the future. Plus we are still in a great position to qualify. Teams lose, you know. Please keep perspective.
@Croat
If they draw Croatia would most likely have to play either Bosnia, Ireland, Montenegro or Belgium with the home match being in the second leg.
Ah, thank you!
Croat,
Croatia will be in the play-offs to qualify for the Euro for sure! The only question is, will they qualify directly as the best second placed team.
Croatia, in about 3-5 years will go down the same path as Bulgaria and Czech Republic. With the way our coaching at youth levels is going and how poor our league is outside of one club, it is bound to happen
Dinamo Zagreb is pretty much feeding 70% of the NT and the other 30% is a mix of diaspora (mostly them) and the other clubs
If Portugal and Denmark draw and Croatia get second place does that mean Croatia doesnt get a chance to make it to euro?
Ivan, how we play in scrappy qualifiers doesn’t necessarily reflect how we’ll perform at a major tournament.
We are going to witness a crime on Tuesday night. If Portugal and Denmark draw on Tuesday they BOTH qualify AUTOMATICALLY regardless of any results in other games from other groups. Rush to the bookies and put your money on a draw there.
This is assuming Sweden do not beat Holland.
This was pathetic. The only question should be do we replace Bilic before he gets on the plain or after it lands in Zagreb. 100 million dollars worth of players on the roster yet we can only manage 1 point in 2 games against the Greeks and lose to Georgia. Replacing Bilic now is our only hope of accomplishing anything if we get to Euro. Going into Euro in this form will just be a waste anyway.
Bobby V, that is was people have been saying since 1998. I couldn’t disagree with them and you more. We have great players and lots of promising talents. Just because we got our ass handed to us doesn’t spell doom and gloom for the future. We will probably still qualify and this loss will be forgotten.
Can’t get rid of the older players because there are no talented youngsters ready to replace them. We have hit the end of the line….still, a fantastic run compared to other small countries. Croatia will slip out of the top 10 and become much like the rest of our balkan neighbors, talent wise, for the foreseeable future….as passionate and proud we are as fans, it will be very difficult to adjust.
Okay, you guys need to relax, it’s just soccer. I’d say Modric with his play at tottenham (leading them to first champions league spot in their history) has “recovered” from the Turkey loss; I’d say Olic being high scorer and leading Bayern to Champs league final “recovered” from the Turkey loss. Relax, it’s just soccer; and on that note, you’d think with all the various possibilities of Croatia still making the euro12′ tourny (including already securing a playoff), they’d a played more aggressively and loosey goosey looking for goals from the very beginning.
If i was Bilic, i would not step down. he has a valid contract. Make the savez fire him so he can collect the money he is due.
Plus, if you were to fire him. The new coach would not have the team until a few days before the playoffs start. It’s not like he would have a few games to try some new things or players.
This was ugly, but the last 2 plus years have been ugly. So, no surprise.
We deserved the loss, but what really pisses me off is the Greek fan that was trying to blind our players with a green laser the entire game!!!!!!
Rough calculations… Croatia qualifies:
Need a win (to get to 16 points) + Sweden to not win (which leave Sweden with either 15 or 16 points) + Portugal/Denmark to not finish tied (a tie will give them both 17 points) + Croatia needs to finish ahead in goal difference against all 3 (Sweden + Den/Port).
In the games that matter to the tie-breaker, Portugal are +11 (5-2 right now vs. Iceland – could climb), Sweden are +8, Denmark are +8 and Croatia are +4.
Croatia will most likely need to score 5 goals vs. Latvia.
Best case scenario on Tuesday – Croatia win 5-0 (16 pts, +9), Sweden ties (16 pts – +8), Portugal beats Denmark 1-0 (Denmark stuck on 16 pts, goal difference down +7).
if Sweden ties… then we only need to catch the loser of Denmark/Portugal… meaning we hope for a shit-kicking one way or the other.
Worst case scenario – Sweden game is 3-0 Holland at the half while Portugal and Denmark are 0-0 and Denmark/Holland pass the ball around for 45 mins to both get to 17 points and both qualify.
You mean Cico Kranjcar??? i thought you ment Ciro Blazevic
OR NEITHER LOL
Johnny Grbic hit the nail on the head with “We just have to accept that the Bilic era was over after the Turkey heartbreak”
I would extend that even more to the players themselves. None of them ever recovered from the Turkey loss. Hell, we as a nation, home and abroad, haven’t recovered. There is no more heart there like there was back in 2008. We can also add that we don’t have a strong captain like Kovac.
Bilic out, Cico seems like the next choice in. If he decides not to take it, maybe it is time to hire Kovac. Do any of you think Bilic will step down after this loss? Or will he be sacked?
Greece are indeed a crime to football, but we are a war crime.
I guess I should put my Poland/Ukraine flights on hold. This is getting a bit much. Had to scrap 2010 plans, even though I had tickets to the games, now Poland/Ukraine is a 50/50. Would hate to have to forgo a trip to Brazil. At least Euro 2016 should be promising, given that they are expanding to 24 teams for that tournament……
The more immediate question is, do we get a new coach before the playoffs or do we still stick it out with Bilic? I think the time for change is pre-playoffs. Bilic is out of ideas and has lost control of this ship. The time for change is now!
I didnt like the diving today from us… one light hit and the player goes down. I think it was Vida near the end he was chasing the attacker down the wing and barely got hit and went down to easy, it wansnt a foul by the way.
If you want to read this
http://www.jutarnji.hr/grcka—hrvatska–pretuceni-i-porazeni–grcka-nas-matirala-u-dva-poteza–hrvati-miljama-daleko-od-eura/979407/
Both teams should be ashamed of themselves – one of the worst matches I’ve witnessed in 45 years. Fake injuries, diving, stalling, cheating, dirty tackles…..
I’m sure iIt was Serbian fans who started the flare up at the beginning of the game – their flags were all around the stadium.
Ziva, from one of your posts above, you don’t have a clue as to how the best second place finisher is deterimned, do you?
Here is the link, check it out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:UEFA_Euro_2012_qualification_(2nd_place)
For groups with six teams in them, you don’t count the points you earn against the last place finisher in your group, who can change up until the qualifying is over.
@ziva istina
“Losing at Greece is not the end of the world. Greece has beaten better sides than us, so no need to be shocked by this loss”
What team has Greece beaten that is better than us? I asked this question before and you did not answer. Please don’t include Euro 2004 teams.
Ano “I think head to head is first goal differential.”
haha, I think your right, head to head is first tie breaker, so Georgia would have to beat Greeks outright assuming Croatia beats Latvia.
As for Sweden at Holland, Holland have nothing to play for except pride.
I know this is not the right time to ask this question, but what are our chances of finishing the top second place finisher and qualifying automatically?
We just have to accept that the Bilic era was over after the Turkey heartbreak, it peaked with the Germany win and everything that’s happened after that is just salt in the wound. There’s no use living in denial. We need a refresh even if it comes 3 years too late. I have a terrible feeling that this run is going to end in disappointment, yet again and I hope I’m wrong.
It’s depressing to think that I’d rather take dado prso than kalinic. Kalinic is a crime against Croatian football.
It’s actually amazing we’re still ranked top 10 in the world with performances like this, wasn’t that a free header from what like 8 yards out?
Everytime I think we hit a new low, we hit another lowpoint:
1. England game #1
2. England game #2
3. Ukraine game #2
4. Georgia away game.
5. Greece away game.
Now is the time for a shake-up, starting with Bilic. We need new blood and ideas, just like when he took charge of Euro 2008.
You know you’ve hit a new all time low when you lose to greece.
Lovren at partial fault (1) and total fault (2) on last 3 goals against Croatia and he cost us 2 games single handedly!
WTF Is Bilic doing leaving Killer on the bench and bringing in Vida with our final sub?
The question is when to fire Bilic? before the playoffs to give the new coach some time to work before the tourney next spring?
Bilic will get his share of blame and rightfully so. This formation was a disaster. But, that is what a coach does. In previous games he made the correct call, this one not so much. Then again, the formation had nothing to do with the goals we gave up. The first goal was a fluke and Greece won the second ball. The 2nd ball goal was bad marking. Take your pick with Lovren or Simunic
But, some of you guys have no clue when it comes to soccer. None. You want to blame Bilic for using Kalinic. I don’t value Kalinic at all, but the last two qualifiers when Bilic put him in, the fricken kid produced. You don’t want Strinic??? Who else is there at that spot. Pranjic has not played at all for Bayern.
Losing at Greece is not the end of the world. Greece has beaten better sides than us, so no need to be shocked by this loss.
This moves us closer to a playoff against BiH or the Serbs. I am assuming they will do draw and have seeded teams aagainst non-seeded teams. I would think both BiH and Serbia would be unseeded. So, we might have a 1-2 chance of playing one our Balkan brothers.
Remember, just listen more of me and little less of yourself.
With the players we have and the results we get, that’s underachieving. Greece is just not a good team, we should be up on them at least 1-0 in these types of games. They had no corners for what 70 minutes? They were doing nothing.
Positives: If Sweden lose to Holland and we beat Latvia we are through without the need to play a play-off as we would be best ranked second placed team.
Negatives: This team that has represented Croatia for the last 3 years is not worthy to be taken seriously in world football. There are no fighters in the team, there are no leaders, they are a team of lightweight half-decent technicians. We have no established goal scorer. Jelavic is brilliant at Rangers but can’t find the net in a competitive game for Croatia. Mandzukic is hit and miss, Olic and Eduardo are past their peak due to injuries, I don’t have any time for Kalinic and Petric doesn’t appear to be upto much either. It is worrying when your leading goalscorer is a midfielder who is not getting much game time at his club. The under 21’s are useless, I just don’t see where the future of Croatian football lies.
no game without captain Darijo
Apparently bilic is considering re-calling prosinetcki for the Latvia game. Prosinetcki claims he has 90 mins left in him.
If only we had Bosko….
I meant “our wins have been un-inspiring”.
I think head to head is first goal differential.
Too bad we qualified already for playoff. don’t i can stomach two more games like this.
ever since the turkey game, our wins have been inispiring and our losses have been brutal.
i don’t recall being satisified with any of our games in the past 4 years. two bad losses to England, two ties against Ukraine, loss to Georgia, tie/loss to Greece, a bunch of sloppy 1-0, 2-0 wins against lower ranked teams, and throw in some second half comebacks.
today’s line-up made little sense to me.
Strinic – i’d rather have an out of form Prajnic then Strinic.
Manzo – does not belong on the pitch. He is a poor man’s Olic. And his mouth is going to get us in trouble one of these days.
Jelavic – does not partner well with Eduardo.
Kalinic – shouldn’t even be on the team anymore.
There was no player out there doing anything to get the boys going.
What a wasted opportunity.
@Johnny – What do you base us being underacheivers? If anything, we have overachieved in recent years.
4.5 million people, poor economy and a horrible league. Considering we’ve only not qualified for 2 major tournaments in 15 years, I would say we’ve been rather successful.
Those mercedes benz’s that the russians gave us for beating England in 07′, let’s give em to the Georgians if they get a result next week.
sramotile ste nas svi
ZBOGOM BILICU!
With Sweden’s win today they jump into the spot as the best 2nd place team, but they play Holland at home on Tuesday. They have 21 point right now.
We are tied with BiH as the 2nd-best 2nd place team, but they have France on Tuesday.
Not sure on the tie-breakers, but if BiH ties or loses and Swedan also loses, we would be the best second place team. This is all assuming if we advance
2nd place is already secured, if we win and greece tie, both will have 22 pts with Croatia having a superior ‘goal differential’ – is goal differential the first tie breaker?
Our national team, SUCH underachievers, I don’t understand it.
way to go jinx the national team…would of never happend if you changed the web site!!
@ John and Marko
We’re in second place, but if Greeks lose or draw with Georgia (and we beat Latvia), we have a chance at first place again.
So where does this leave us in order to qualify?
Do we have any chance at finishing the 2nd best team?
Oh well, a loss is a loss… Let’s look forward to Latvia and hopefully finish better in the future.
WE EVEN HAD 7 MINUTES TO TRY TO TIE THE GAME !!!!!!!!!!!
dirty Greeks done dirt cheap
If Croatia beat Latvia & Greece tie Georgia, both would end up with 22 pts; is goal differential the first tie breaker?
That loss to Georgia will really haunt them if they don’t make Euro 2012.
In our last 6 qualifying matches vs mid to top European opponents, we are
0W, 3D, 3L with only 2 goals scored…….
This is not a team that win Euro. With how the seedings would be for Euro 2012, there are likely going to be 2 groups of death.
NICE NOW WE ARE GETTING OLEEED WOOOO LOL
Didn’t say Webb had anything to do with the result — just bad karma. plus, he shouldn’t be doing this game anyways, given his history with croatia (and bashing of croatia post-2008 world cup).
It’s as if we’re playing with 8 men. No one is moving.
maybe we can be seconds best and qualify
by the way, to all the New Yorkers. Are you still going to “rub it in” to the Greeks in Astoria?
If today the plan was to defend bunker and dive…. its dispapointing… the diving part specially. Even Kranjcar was dived once i didnt like it. Also after kalinic went off and we had that freekick.. it seemed like a girl kicked it becuase it didnt go high or had power…
And what did Webb have to do with this game?
sure, its the refs fault that we lost. comical!!!
Greece has been doing this for almost 10 years now. They play ugly, but they get results. No shame in losing to them in Greece. We are not Spain, Holland or Germany to expect to win every time we play.
They deserve to win the group…..in two games against them we have not scored. The better TEAM (not individuals) won.
I don’t always agree with you. but well said there…
I was one of the 27 votes who said Greece would win. Did not like the mentality of the team going into this match. The lineup doesn’t matter if the coach decides not to let them loose
if anything the formation and placement of players was bad. doesn’t help we looked completely out of ideas for the game either.
Well, glad you find this amusing…
board implosion has begun……
laughing at all the geniouses who were fine with the line up before the match and now have become “smart” all of a sudden.
see, if you guys would listen a bit more to ziva istina you would know that we are an average side. Just who has shined for us today on the field. Big time players show up when on the road needing a point. We have good players, but no studs that can carry a side on the road. We win as a team and lose as a team.
At least a have a good laugh from all of this.
Assigning this game to Webb didn’t help either. Had a bad feeling this game wasn’t going to end well.
by 2-0 eariler i think they ment Greece 2-0 Croatia
Everytime we play to draw, we loose. That simple, u need to play to win! PS why do we had more corner kick chances and nothing. The Greeks get one and score a second and score. That is the problem with Croatia, we cant finish when given the opportunity.
Well, that does it.
And people think we’re a top 10 team in the world?
WTF WAS THAT, were just handing them goals
2-0. seriouisly.
The line-up today made no sense.
Lovren is killing us.
well that was fun
2 – 0 we suck.
the dont even deserve top 50 of the world
Another goal… wow.
@Ziva – you take your logic and you can go elsewhere
Why couldnt we score atleast 1???
WHY PUT IN VIDA!! .
ready for the board to implode in 3.2.1……
typical greece goal from garbage.
laughing at all of you who were claiming at a 2-0 and 3-0 win. Not against the greeks and not with our roster on our of form forwards.
time to start the bilic must go rants….
TODAY THE PLAN WAS TO BUNKER JUST LIKE GREECE I THINK.. LOOKS LIKE IT, BUT ALSO EXPECT TO SEE SOME DIVING IN THE FEW MINUTES TO CUT DOWN TIME.
i don’t believe this shit. the greeks are going to be flopping like crazy the next 15 minutes.
WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As much shit as everybody talks about Vukojevic, he’s been one of the best today.
Uninspiring performance…..hope their goal brings us to life.
croatia plays like shit, bilic time to go
That’s it, here comes the bus.
poor modric is taking a beating
Kalinic in? WTF, bring in Klasnic. This pisses me off.
fight breaks out haha, im just waiting for us to beat each other up, we clearly dont like each other by the looks of things
THAT GOALKEEPER
WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT
Holly Shit andrews link is working!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANKS EVERYONE!
http://soccerjumbo-lipton.blogspot.com/2009/06/channel-7.html
haha, here’s the link
It’s in English and works –
Perisic in for Eduardo? Is he playing alone up top?
Im at work…cant download on to my computer…..but i see the stupid commercials!!I just cant see the game!
I’ve not had a problem with it all match. If the link goes down for you click any of the other links near the top and you should be alright.
@DinamoDennis
try downloading xvideo, the link that andrew sent started to work
http://galleries.securesoft.info/864f91c8be/854190c3b918?m1vcjhbpqo
ESPN3 has all the euro qualifiers for free, espn3.com
http://www.firstrowsports.tv/watch/84635/1/watch-greece-vs-croatia.html
Pay attention people
looks like a game of dominos out there, ppl going down every 5 seconds
anyone have any other live links the one andrew provided doesn’t work anymore
i can’t find one working livestream… anyone??
both sides play sucky, not even 1 good action.
Also Kranjcar is having a terrible game.
I think he’s barely touched the ball.
Dave, I’m watching on this link, but it’s half time.
http://www.firstrowsports.tv/watch/84635/1/watch-greece-vs-croatia.html
Worse tactics from us ever. It’s one way traffic, it’s predictable, and it’s frustrating.
Fire Bilic
Is it just me are the Greeks trying to kick our boys in the nutz?
You will never what happen in the end…greece appear to playing 0-0…but you must remember.they tend to score in last minute….,maybe they trying to save energy till the end…
Over 30 people at Alpine Village watching the game!
Why dont any links work for me?!!!!
Jeste picke……Jager shots?????
Ajmo decki, malo konjak
That Greek sheep pounder INTENTIONALLY through that elbow.
20 guys watching the game with CSR at Alpine Village. Jager shots were consumed at the start of the game by everyone seemingly a new tradition which started at Scorpio in NY.
This is shocking….Greece is playing as if they’d be content with a 0-0 tie. Their fans are starting to whistle.
Hvala Andrew!!!
Thanks Andrew.
http://www.firstrowsports.tv/watch/84635/2/watch-greece-vs-croatia.html
Flares seem to have come from our side first and then theirs.
Looks like (From what I gather) was both sides……..
Are the flares our fault? I can’t see the stream.
any have any free strams or links trying to catch the game at work
I think that’s a record, even for our fans.
Match already delayed due to flares………….
Hi!
Any link please?