Croatia’s luck finally ran dry as they were defeated by a very impressive Denmark 30-24. After playing exceptional handball in their first seven games, the Cowboys defended poorly and gave the ball away on too many occasions in a highly physical game. They will play for the bronze medal tomorrow against Slovenia at 1 PM EST.
1st Half: The Danes got off to a quick start and went up 6-1 to put Croatia in uncharted territory for them. Croatia’s shooting was poor and they had no answer for the attack of Denmark as Mirko Alilovic was not up to his usual standard and Denmark’s keeper Niklas Landin was exceptional, saving six of Croatia’s first eight shots. Croatia began to find ways through Landin and was able to keep Denmark from pulling away, as both sides played extremely physical and picked up 2-minute suspensions. Croatia lost Drago Vukovic for the second match in a row as he went down with an ankle injury in the 24th minute as Croatia trailed 11-7. Despite the lack of defense and multitude of turnovers from Croatia, they went into the half still in the game, down 11-14.
2nd half: After trading goals in the first few minutes, Denmark went on a 3-0 run to pull their lead to 19-14. Despite being outplayed, Croatia kept the deficit in the 3-5 range as they held on to their championship hopes. Croatia began to show their frustration with the refs and the scoreline as they turned the ball over needlessly and picked up silly suspensions. With ten minutes to go, the deficit was three with Denmark up 23-20. The Danes scored the next three and led by six with only six minutes to go, effectively ending the game. Damir Bicanic led Croatia with six goals, with Domagoj Duvnjak adding five. Ivan Cupic was shut out, as he missed his only three shots in the match.
Slavko Goluza: We lost a lot of energy in the quarter-final against France. We were not in the shape we should be. As everybody saw, we had a bad start. And Denmark seemed to get all the bounces. Today we faced an incredible Danish team and they punished every mistake we made. Now we have to get this match out of our head to face Slovenia and win the bronze medal.
Igor Vori: For the third time in less than one year we lost a semi-final. The first ten minutes summed it up. In one Danish attack they got three rebounds. But if we finish this tournament with a medal we can go home with our heads up high. But Slovenia did not reach the semifinal by luck. They have played a very good tournament. We have a lot of respect for them. But we also have played a good tournament. We are on the right track with a lot of players just 19 or 20 years old.
Jarac,
You have seen a handball court and not realized it. Ask yourself how many time you have passed an outdoor court where people people play soccer/mali nogomet or futsal. Well, that is also a handball court.
The sport is huge in Cro. More popular than water polo, tennis and I think even more popular than basketball at this point in time in Cro.
I have never seen a rukomet court in croatia, I am from dalmacija and I have seen basketball courts, soccer fields, mali nogomet, clay tennis courts, water polo nets, but never rukomet court? Does the average kid play rukomet in cro?
Yea, the handball guys. I really don’t know much about the sport, so excuse my ignorance. How long do these players typically compete before burning out? How much does the typical player make?
Who, the handball guys?????
The top players can get salaries in the $250,000/ per year and more. Some of the top players in the world have made around $400,000. Most of our players who play outside of cro easily make over $100,000 per ear.
Man ziva u’ve been to uptight lately, forgot to hit the sarcasm key, ps i am curious as to how much these guys make. Anyone know?
Ante B. is a hero just like Gotovina.
or Ante B(iff) 🙂
@Colin
I watched the broadcast on beIN Sport, worst commentating I have ever heard in any sport ever. Literally I think they hired a couple of clowns off the street. atrocious
@AnteB aka Biff
I think we got a new nickname for ya! hahaha
Picigin its not the dalmo version of handball. Who the hell told you that. You know what the dalmo version of hahndball is……..handball (assuming dalmos can wake up for it)
This is why ivica is my number one pick to have a beer with. For tthe smalll pop we are great at sports.
NfL super bowls..we have more than two. Even if they are american born our blood runs through bellicheck ninkovich and diehl
Nogomet is an obvious win
Waterpolo and handball unreal
Nba petrovic kukoc raja
NHL kopitar is a slovenac but I root for him..sakic two stanleys
@Zach
I think your referring to the american version, aka dodgeball, now thats a good game. While in croatia, I’ve played the dalmatian version or rukomet, picigin.
It’s waterpolo minus the water.
I played in gym once 🙂
Honest question to all u rukomet lovers, how many of u have actually played a game of rukomet?
@Ziva
I don’t know which I hate more baseball or handball, both sports to me suck. But I mean if I had to be a handball player or baseball, I would pick baseball, sit in the outfield hanging out while getting paid a few million or more, maybe even sneak in a sip of beer. By the way out of curiosity, are these handball players making good money, or do they need to work a normal job after season ends.
I didnt catch the match, so I can’t comment on how they played. A couple of things. First, I didnt like the way Croatia celebrated the win over France as if they won the gold. I’m pretty sure that we continued the celebration after the match. Second, Denmark is not a decent side. Denmark is still undefeated and are a great side. Third, Spain took the easy route and now find themselves in the final. Croatia loses to Spain in group stage, Croatia faces Denmark in the final with at least a silver medal.
As far as not being mentally strong, I disagree. Sure, we are not the Germans, however, no one is like the Germans. we suck at penalty kicks, yes, this is true and this is 100% mental. The greatest player ever in my opinion, Diego Maradona missed pk’s too.
From the report, I take it that Denmark was just better at the end of the day. Turkey in 2008 just got a lucky break.
I’m proud of my boys for not flopping against Spain to make the final and finally beating the French. Denmark was just a better side in the end.
@ Ivica
Actually we did choke in 2008 or call it unlucky. The fact we beat Turkey in 2012 means nothing and by the way Klasnic did score in 2008. It was the go ahead goal until Turkey equalized. Ante B. does make a valid point. I don’t like it but some truth to it.
If anyone cares, Ana Konjuh won the Juniors doubles title at the AO last night and is playing in the singles title match in about half an hour. It’s on Laver so it’ll be streamed
Ivica…….greed and well said.
@Mr. Black
Croatia, France, and Denmark are the three best handball nations in the world right now. Spain is a close fourth, and they are the home nation in this tournament.
Croatia was just unlucky that they had to face all three of these teams on route the the final, and still went 2-1 against them despite some key injuries. Not disappointed at all in our squad, but I’m still bummed out because I’m selfish and I want Croatia to be first in everything always.
Ante B.
I really think it’s the dissapointment talking. We got to the semi finals but Denmark was just too strong. I don’t think we’re mentally weak.
As for the Serbs in our soccer game, I agree. If they score 1-0 against us, it will be very difficult. But I think every team in the world would have a hard time beating the Serbs when they’re 1-0 behind. We should be realistic. Hrvatska did great this tournament. We did beat the French but Denmark proved to be stronger. They will probably win the final against Spain too.
LOL @ everyone eating up Ante B’s comment
No offence to Ante B, he’s a good poster, but his comment is just a prime example of how messed up and unrealistic our expectations are in sports.
So, we’re a mentally weak sports nation who will always come up short? A Euro2008 fluke by Turkey is the example given?
We had no striker in Euro2008 and somehow we smoked Germany and Poland with our B team to top the group with 9 points. We dominated the game against Turkey, but who’s gonna score? Clumsy Olic? No-name Budan? Recent kidney transplant Klasnic?
It’s a wonder that team did as well as it did. I don’t consider that a choke tournament at all. Turkey somehow had Allah on their side in that fluke tournament. Look what happened when we drew Turkey in Euro2012 qualification.
Fact is, we have a population that is the size of a city and somehow are top-3 winners in popular sports like handball, waterpolo, tennis, soccer, basketball, skiing, etc. All this despite the fact that no money goes to these programs and each federation is littered with corruption and nepotism.
Even when the talent is not there (ie. World Cup ’02 and Euro2004), they still somehow qualify and remain competitive. That’s unbelievable and the complete opposite of a mentally weak sports nation.
@ Ziva or hot dog eating contest
@Jarac……sure buddy!!!!! Go watch your baseball.
@ ante B..
Points for you!! Great Biff reference and VERY true!!! Not closers.
To me growing up in croatia its Nogomet,Kosarka,Vaterpolo,Rukomet, Tenis,(Hockej in zagreb), and athletics
@Ante B
Look at it the other way. The Serbs go up a goal, on the road, and have to defend the rest of the game. I don’t think they defend very well so I wouldn’t worry, It would just light a fire under our ass!
@Chupe
The NFL most definitely is! It’s probably the most physically demanding sport there is. There’s a reason they only play 16 games. The league would love to add more games but teams already struggle to stay healthy all year.
MLB on the other hand… It’s more like a game. I mean what other sport could you play almost every day (sometimes twice a day) for nearly 8 months?
@ Jarac and NFL and MLB are real sports?
@ Ante B correct thats our mentalitet croatia in very sport is like that i would not be shocked if we lose Sammir to play 100000000000000000000000000 Posto agianst serbia yes i didnt forget about sammir i am against it
who cares about handball, its not a real sport anyways.
Also Jordan is th Balic of Basketball not vice versa! EJJJJJJJJJJ
Fact: if we go down early against Serbia in March, we won’t mentally recover and we’ll lose.
Mark it.
@ Ante B we are not a power house in soccer thats a different prica Rukomet Varerpolo are we are the germany brazil spain of soccer in that sense and i expect that we will be top in this sport for next 10 years
@ante b…..good analogy. That is why we need some dirty players. Taking your example a bit further, we need guys to take that dress off and force themselves on the girl. no is not an option……LOL.
@Ante B
Fuckin Biff, I hate him.
Guys,
Pa u picku lijepu materinu when will you grasp that Croatia is one of those teams that will always be good enough but chokes when it matters. Yes, we have gold in rukomet, vaterpolo, skijanje etc but we are a mentally weak sports nation. Prime example Turkey 2008.
We are not closers. We can get a girl to prom, get her in the car, take her dress off but then Biff comes in and takes her. Terrible but typical.
Hats off to Mirko if he didnt play we would have lost by 20, Goluza go to the kafic in spain ask for uno Kolac i bijelu kavu hahaha and then order some sweedish cheese hahaha and Gobac and just get diabites
Cupic had an off night, but credit the Danes. They didn’t allow Cupic to get off and then forces everything into the middle.
@ Ziva yes you right i like this team we just need to play smarter and were are the wings remember when Dzomba Kaleb Sprem Zrnic would score only horvat was good Goluza is a kreten and always mentions generals and religion focus on sport like Lino Cervarhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR04Q8HgCRg
Keep in mind. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter other than some Pride and immediate satisfaction.
I live in CA, but love Croatia, it’s people, everything, it’s God’s country. Now that being said, the boys losing in Handball doesn’t really mean shit too me, but us joining that POS EU does.
I’d like to move back in the next 5 years, but the direction the countries socialist politicians are taking it don’t seem to make that possible, and that brings a tear to my eye, not a loss at handball.
.
@chupe……those guys were great, but go ahead and play that team in a tourney setting where they would have to play 8 games in a 13 day span. No chance they would have the legs to compete.
Bad combo today…..we scored an emotional win on Wednesday and it’s tough to come back and play two straight great matches, we had injuries and Denmark had the memory of the Olympic loss to us…..
Drago complaind on some ref calls and went crazy when we missed and strted to baliti nesto bla bla bla, man
@ Ziva yes Balic has been in semi final losses but those games the refs cheated us this was just a joke and if he called Balic and we still need Metlicic in my opinion kopljar is an ass also rememer Bunttc was out that was big loss
@Josip B…..what is wrong with you….can’t take a joke. If it makes you feel better I can send you a text or a tweet that will inspire you to seize the day.
for everyone complaining about Balic(and I wanted him on the team), he has also been on this team in past semifinal losses.
I’d be surprised if we can get up for the Slovenia game tomorrow.
Can anyone confirm if Drago Cosic is alive.
Alteast we were not Pitcke Like Spain we went the strong rout Spain pussies lets go Denmark sunday
heres one excuse of many
Prema najnovijim informacijama, Domagoj Duvnjak igrat će pod temperaturom. “Liječnici su nam rekli da Domagoj ima temperaturu, ali da ništa nije zabrinjavajuće, pa ga očekujemo na onoj razini kao protiv Francuza”, rekao je Jović. Index.hr
iznad svih gobac,goluža amateri. Balić kralj
the calls werent going our way
There goes one of your “posters of the year” again Croatian Sports. Ziva you F’n troll
@ Zach Vukovic was a big loss Kopljar suck did i mention that, and Bicanic was ok but there will never be a lineup of Sola/Matosevic/Losert attack Metlicic Dzomba Kaleb Balic Vori Lackovic. defense wizards Spoljaric Dominikovic Sulic Valcic everything good comes to a end o wait a minute they all still play GOBAC JEDI GOVNO
@Ziva, STFU
Gotovina is so ashamed of this game that he has admitted guilt for oluja and wants to go back to jail
I wasnt buying goluza system anyway Kopljar hahah give me Metlicic any day please PANJ! i wasnt a homer after France game so i will say goluza is mr Bronze and lino cervar was mr GOLD
Gotta move on and focus on the 3rd place game now. Evetually the injuries would catch up to us. Probably wouldve still lost with lackovic and vukovic
That was I.
Picke su se predali totalno, where was their pride? I think they left everything against France and as usual fucked up mentally. They didn’t look past France.
Should be a good match against the Zlovenci.
@Ziva – Doesn’t take an expert on the sport to see what went wrong here.
Game over!!!
This was just bad game for everyone and they put all power into france game
I’m not watching the cro feed……is the cro announcer making excuses yet?
Last play was huge. Could have drawn within 2, instead we miss and give up a goal on the counter. Down by 4
Man our defense sucks.
I’m waiting for the post game comments by the people who never watch handball so they can explain to us what went wrong.
I’ve seen enough
At moments like this I miss Balic……he would cursing everyone at this point in the game
I think the true identity of ziva istina was revealed to the team prior and they are still in shock hahah
The reason we are playing worse than wednesday is because of the text message the team received this morning. Instead of Gotovina sending a text this time, the team received one from a bunch of Serb generals. It has totally thrown the team off.
Maric definitely a bright spot
We are lucky to be only down by 4 at the moment
Cro need to speed the game up. They look slow motion compared to the Danes on their fast breaks.
no shame in losing to Denmark. The beating we gave the in the Olympics by 11 goals was a fluke.
Missing Lackovic is really hurting us right now. This is a young team and many young teams have growing pains.
Starting where they left off…
A bunch of donkeys tonight
If these BeIn announcers call Denmark “Denver” and Croatia “Serbia” one more time, I’m muting the game for good.
Not watching the game, only following Zach’s coverage…but shit…being down by 3 goals at half after that is great! Invite Balic in for a halftime pep talk!
3 points down. We still have a chance. Alilovic has been great so far but more players should step up now.
its only a 3 goal game……we came back even with all our turnovers, two long balls for no damn reason and 3 PK goals….i would say within 3 is an accomplishment how bad they played. Croatia got the 2nd half
BIG last minute
These turnovers are KILLING us. Gotta control this more. Man..
Alilovic blocking shots like crazy, but the rest of our team looking softer than Italians and getting hurt every 30 seconds
Losing Vukovic was definitely not good. Ball has been bouncing Denmark’s way this entire first half.
Is that our 4th man down so far?
He hit him in the nuts!
http://sportska-tv.com/darquo/
Best announcer in the game.
If we are within 3 at the half, we have a chance. If not, someone tell gotovina to send another text.
^^THANKS
They look like total shit today…..horrid start, cant even get a good chance on net
http://www.profreetv.com/index.php?content=watch&tvid=289
Now up and running in HD quality
@CroatHrvat
If you have an ad-blocker you have to disable it. The quality is really bad anyhow compared to the other streams
BeIN sports channel has it broadcasted live right now for those who have it. Not the most experienced announcers, but good coverage. Slow start for the Kauboji…. Yikes.
Is it just me or is the Tashport one not working?
hvala brate
The Tashsport one should be
any streams in croatian/hrt2?
Spain through in semi #1
got $200 on cro -1…..lets go boys
The message from Gotovina:
“DRAGI PRIJATELJU, DRAGI MOMCI, VI VECERAS BRANITE NA PARKETU BOJE DOMOVINE. ZNANJA I SRCE IMATE, SAMO HRABRO DO CILJA. S VAMA SMO ANTE GOTOVINA I OBITELJ”
Rest assured if I received that message from the General before a game, I would run through five cement walls.
IZNAD SVIH
HRVATSKA
@CHUPE
Since we were conquered by Hungary should we go around saying we are Magyars? Its a shame that someone tries to be somethig they are not.
cool
time for a danish smashing
ha now there is over 100 votes that croatia will won, well denmark is no joke. Also idk how Croatia has been winning with so many of their starters out with injuries this is amazing if they win it all this will truly be an epic moment forever and they sure have tons of youth for the future n there is no slowing down after this n getting eliminated by france n other teams going to the finals every time
Be in sport has both semi finals i want croatia slovenia balkan derbi
As a Frenchman, I’m very happy Croatia beat France, I’m sick of Africans going around pretending that their French, who are they fooling? not me. If theyre French then Napolean was Japanese.
Forgot to add Bicanic has been great replacing Lac.
Alilovic needs to play like he has the wing Nincevic Cupic need to defend and score counter, Kolpjar needs to shoot more and have confidence, Vori and Musa be good, Duvnjak needs to perform like he has this tournament, Vukovic Gojun Kopljar defend like the have and i hope we win 25-21 Nasi!
Great win!!! 2 more to go!! AJMO NASI!!!!!!!!!!!!