On May 30th, FIFA released a wonderful documentary on the Croatian National Team and Croatia’s rise to becoming an independent nation during the 20th century. The documentary covers everything from the war in Croatia in the 90s, Boban’s kick at Maksimir, and the 3rd place finish at the 1998 World Cup for the Vatreni – their first ever World Cup appearance.
A truly inspirational story highlighting just how amazing it is to be Croatian. This is a must watch for you and your family.
It can be streamed for free on the FIFA + website. A link will be provided below:
I’m guessing that there are not a lot of comments on here about the documentary since most of the posters here were still young kids or not born yet???
POSITIVES
1) From a political angle, they did a good job of covering all of the events that led to the creation of the country….even covered the Borovo Selo massacre. Who thought that a FIFA produced event would go there?
2) A lot of interesting tidbits came out. Example: I never knew that the US National team reached out to Croatia about playing their first post WWII match in 1990 in Zagreb. I always assumed Croatia reached out to them.
3) Never knew that Boban and Stimac were kicked out just before the semifinal match during their 1987 Youth World Cup run since they came back to the hotel at 6:00 a.m. after a night with the ladies. Their story is that other players stormed into the coaches office and said if they’re going that they would also leave, so the decision to remove them was rescinded. Wonder how much they exaggerated about the latter part.
4) Never seen behind-the-scenes stuff during their magical 1998 run.
5) Both English and Croatian subtitles during the entire 2 hour event.
6) WAY too many to list here….watch it 🙂
NEGATIVES
1) The “Croatian” female professor claimed that Serbs were 1/3 of the population of Croatia prior to the war. Obviously untrue and not even close (1/3 is the percentage the Serbian army controlled at one point in the war, so she may be confused). You can tell she is still a “Yugoslav” (as is her husband) and would have preferred the country never fell apart.
2) British announcers are telling our history. Yes, I understand they’re trying to appeal to a broader audience.
3) We got teasers about Boban’s performance during the France semifinal but no real closure.
Rumors back then were he might have been injured (including some nefarious ones I never believed). Stimac claims Zvone had a fever and was not going to be playing. Boban said he was still physically exhausted from the Romania game a few days earlier and no mention of a fever (his version seems more plausible). Stimac claimed Boban asked to be taken out at halftime and Ciro wouldn’t have any of it. I wish we had heard from Blazevic to get his take to hear his version. Boban was a non-factor in the biggest match and lost the ball to Thuram, so we’ll never find out the real truth since it was a long time ago.
Well timed article and video given ukraine winning today in Scotland. A lot of resemblance to Croatia struggle and the morale boost soccer gave. Ukraine faces a much harder opponent on the battlefield but still looks likely to remain un conquered with the battles of kiev and kharkiv lost by the Russians
Glad you’ve enrolled @thetruth to the Azov Regiment. Good for you. You finally found truth
Mi Hrvati!
Can we take one import Italian goalie and just say he is from pula or something
If France can steal every African we can make one exception
I’m not talking about a sammir situation;)
Cilic defeats Rublev in 5 to make the SFs at the French!
Awesome
I’ll watch it eventually.
Does it have any of that “we are a small country” beta male loser mentality?
It’s the only thing holding Croatia back from winning multiple World Cups.
Well…that, and Livaković
If anything it just shows how the Croatian mentality is what got us that far, and what will get us even further in the future.
I don’t think that is a beta mentality, Croatia is a small country for European standards. On fact there is German Bild magazine article which argues that Croatia is the best sporting Nation based on its population size, it’s success, and how much money as a country it had the ability to spend per head in sport. So actually, we can safely say it is a stat and not simply based on an emotional bias. I shared the link in another thread under Modric and the Streak. You should read it.
Croatia is (hands down) the best sporting nation in the World when you factor in population size and money invested in sports.
Croatia is usually last in both areas when compared to other tournament teams. For the longest time, they were also dead last in coach’s salary too. They finally increased it these past five years (for football only).
But my point is, that we should never be satisfied.
We were screwed in the WC2018 final, but that’s okay…because 2nd place is good enough for Croatia.
There is a lot of that.
I remember seeing some little banners sold on the Splitski Pazar back in ’98 saying things like “brončana medalja, je naša zlata medalja”.
I hate this mentality that exists with a lot of people (mainly those raised in communist Yugoslavia, where achieving is not really something you should aspire to do).
Belgium is also a small country, and never achieved anything in football…and you didn’t see them so hyped about finishing a best-ever 3rd place at the last World Cup. Because they wanted first place.
It might take another generation to wash away the stink of those who were raised with a poisonous Yugo mentality.
Gotta continue to be proud of what you achieve, but never accept 2nd place as good enough.
We are not the best sporting nation on earth @Maminjo based on per capita.
That title belongs to Uruguay.
You being serious?
How do you figure?
The Belgians had a huge celebration and parade in their capital after the World Cup 3rd place finish what are you talking about?
Maminjo, I can appreciate the idea of wanting to aspire and achieve more and going for gold. This is understandable, but to downplay their success and not appreciate how far Croatia came in that tournament, or 98, despite the naysayers. I don’t think that on that level this negative mentality toward a silver or bronze medal is good either. It has nothing to do with Yugoslavia. It has to do with being gracious in defeat, and understanding that achievements like silver and bronze are worthy achievements in their own right. I was 8 when world Cup 98 happened and it was difficult to accept the loss against France then, it was even harder in 2018 because a revenge match seem justified. But in the span 20 years to achieve those two medals is not scoff forma nation of Croatia’s size is nothing to scoff at. All your doing in the end is enabling those who Croatia down, just remember that.
Budi ponosan Maminjo!
Enabling this who put Croatia down rather.
I seem to have a hard to writing things down with these big thumbs lol. I was in grade not 8 yrs old at world Cup 98 rather. Lol, sometime I feel like a medieval person in a modern world lol.
that small shit country drives me nuts .so gayy ..
It was a good watch, but to the above point, it hit on a lot things we’ve heard about tied to the war, the DZG-CZ riot, etc. Wish they delved deeper into the team dynamics, relationships, etc.
Definitely a good watch.I just wish they delved more into the soccer side of things, it seems like they spent the majority of it on the war.
Entertaining to watch none the less.
More war than I thought FIFA would go with. 80% war/20% soccer. Wish they would have got more Modric, Perisic, Rakitic interviews from 2018 saying what the 98 team meant to them.
All the feels. Well done FIFA.
I’ll say it one more time…it’s special to be Croatian. It just is.
It’s a touching story to witness this. I wasn’t even born yet when they reached that milestone on that World Cup debut. It was a miracle and privilege to see them play as underdogs in the England semi final match and win. I don’t get my expectations too high for any tournament. I’m just anticipating a better performance than the last Pan European championship. We’ve got an easier group than Euro’s in my opinion. I’m just annoyed that the Western media describes our national team as “older and used up”. Meanwhile, our oldest player Luka Modric is better than other midfielder on either Belgium, Canada or Morocco. I’d perhaps but De Bruyne close to his level. Nevertheless, we punch above our weight at numerous critical matches and made so many fond memories and moments they’ve created for us to cherish. Also, one of our other best players that is 34 is going to a better league and has had great season with Inter Milan. Perisic had 8 goals and 7 assists. More than any other Canadian and probably in the same stat category as the Belgium and Moroccans. I just can’t wait for the winter time even though the tournament tradition has been alternated significantly climate wise and by time zone. It will be a joy to watch the games though inside and maybe outdoors if he weather isn’t too cold in late November. Anybody been keeping up with nations league news? We’ll have a exceptional amount of opportunities to prove our talent is still capable of competing with Europe’s best. 7-8 matches to be played prior to the World Cup. Denmark and France will be difficult. I’ll be satisfied with a draw and be surprised if were able to capture a win as a underdog against France. I’m willing to bet France drops points to Denmark. Austria is mediocre and besides losing to Italy 2-1 in extra time, non-impressive since that match. I’m predicting a second place in the nations league group. We’ve finished bottom or almost last the past two times. Time to improve and get a better result standing wise. Ukraine to win 2-1 against Scotland in extra time tomorrow too. Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦
https://slobodnadalmacija.hr/sport/strani-nogomet/napustio-rusiju-filip-uremovic-novi-igrac-berlinske-herthe-1197120