Play-by-play and Game Report, Written by Peter Radman
Croatia defeated hosts Slovakia 2 – 1 in a hard fought game played in front of a full house. The game was played in Zlate Moravce, Slovakia, the home park of FC ViOn. After a 2 – 1 victory over hosts Cyprus, a match which also avenged a shock 2 – 0 loss months ago, the young Croats have taken full control of their group. Ladić and his young men now sit alone at the summit, 2 points clear of Slovakia, 3 points clear of rivals Serbia. Before the match, Ladić and his young squad seem to be in a bullish mood, many claiming they were going to Slovakia for the victory. The ridiculous 11 hour flight the youngsters had to endure from Cyprus did not damper their spirits, or those of their Manager. Ladić, as if being given a new lease on life with the arrivals of former senior team members Nikola Kalinić and Ivan Rakitić, deploys a squad which seems to be the deepest the Croatian Under-21 program has seen in years. Ladić sends out a super attacking line up composed of Keleva – Vida, Lovren, Maloča, Jozinović – Jajalo, Badelj – Oremuš, Perišić, Rakitić – Kalinić. Kalinić is once again being deployed as a loan striker in what appears to be a fragmented version of a 4-5-1. Regardless, with the fire power and technical ability in that midfield, this is still a very attacking lineup. The fact that this game is being played away from home shows that Dražen Ladić has total faith in his talented squad.
REMEMBER THIS FACE, DOMAGOJ VIDA
The beginning of this match is quite sloppy, it’s rugged, and both sides appear to set a physical tone early on. This is evident in the midfield where both sides are reluctant to give an inch and want to establish a physical presence. Ivan Rakitić appears to be the outlet man very early on. Many look to Rakitić to be the maestro in the midfield that will relieve the pressure and find Kalinić with a killer pass. The first real chance falls to Croatia on 4 minutes. Pericar fouls Kalinić 25 meters away from the goal, Ivan Rakitić steps up and takes a free kick that is deflected out for a corner, missing the net by a few feet. This would just be the beginning of the chances that would fall to the juniors. On 13 minutes Mirko Oremuš begins what will be a very encouraging day for the young Hajduk wide man. Great play down the right hand side eventually frees up Oremuš, he cuts down the right flank to the right byline, and a perfect low cross finds Nikola Kalinić 2-3 feet away from the goal. With two men draped all over him and taking him to ground, Nikola sends his shot terribly wide. While he was under duress, those are the ones you have to finish, should have been 1 – 0 to the young Croats.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Later, its great linkup between two stars of the match, Domagoj Vida and Mirko Oremuš. The two combine well with a nice little one-two combination, Vida charges up passed half as if he is playing RCM and hits Kalinić with a nice through ball. Nikola cuts in from the right flank, heads towards the box and patiently waits for a run to be made at the top of the box where space is there for someone to make a push from the midfield. Ivan Rakitić is the one who spots what Nikola was trying to do, but, sadly, is adjusted to have fouled his marker. The ball went terribly wide anyways. On the 26th minute the usual suspects are at it again, and again the action is down the right hand side. Oremuš is trying to hold up the play and also take on two defenders; Kalinić is running in to support. The ball squirts free off Oremuš and falls into the top corner of the right hand side of the penalty area. Domagoj Vida charges in like a bull seeing red and is fouled by a poor Slovakian tackle, PENALTY!! Ivan Rakitić steps up and takes a penalty which is hit with no real purpose or venom. Young Rakitić must learn that all penalties must be taken like you are down 1-0, final minute of injury time in the World Cup Finals. Only two minutes later and its 1 – 0 to Croatia. Milan Badelj has a nice little Barry Sanders impersonation; he quickly shuffles between two Slovaks and finds Ivan Rakitić. Ivan turns up field and hits Nikola Kalinić with a beautiful pin point through ball. Nikola takes the ball in his stride and tucks it between the legs of the falling and on rushing keeper from just outside the penalty area. The game could have very easily been 3 – 0 at this point. In the 36th minute, again, Rakitić is involved, this time his shot goes wide of the mark.
NIKOLA KALINIĆ GOT CROATIA ON THE BOARD IN THE 1ST HALF
The Slovakians try and get themselves back into the game, but, sadly, the only thing that seems to work for them is when they charge down their own right side. Goran Jozinović had a terrible day at the office, at this point he is probably the only person that wants the referee to blow the whistle for half-time. Nothing seems to be working for the young man, routine passes are going wide and he is being beaten for pace at every opportunity. Much like in the senior team, LB looks very shaky on this day for the young Croats.
Towards the end of the half, Mario Maloča is given a Yellow card for using his hand to touch the ball. It appears as if Mario is making a turn and doesn’t really assume the ball will bounce as high as it does. Regardless, your hands have to be by your waist, not in an unnatural position. That will be a yellow card ever time. End of the First Half.
THE BOSS WAS THERE TO WATCH THE YOUNG GUNS
The second half begins with a bang! Once again it’s young Goran Jozinović being victimized at LB. The Slovakian wide man easily passes Goran and sends in a weak low cross 3-4 feet away from the goal. In my opinion, either Mario Maloča OR Ivan keleva should have charged a cross that was hit with such little pace. Jakub Sylvestr puts the Slovakians on level terms and also scores one of the easiest goals of his life. Either the half time speech or the tactical substitution seems to be having the desired result for the Slovakians. They are now taking the game to Croatia and seem to have finally understood that Goran Jozinović is the weak one in the pack. Quite comically, Dejan Lovren can be seen shouting at Jozinović to cover his flank and get his act together.
On the 60th minute Krešo Ljubičić is brought in for Mato Jajalo. Jajalo has worked hard in midfield at this point, helped protect the back 4. On 72 mins, a bit of a surprise move. Dražen Ladić brings on Dejan Školnik for Ivan Perišić. Sadly, Ivan did not have allot of time on the ball. However, when he did, you can see the young man is extremely comfortable with the ball at his feet. Školnik, the young man from Maribor in Slovenia enters the match like a man possessed. He looks confident and assured down the left hand side, making 3 runs down the flank and looking dangerous each time. Just like Perišić, the young man looks very comfortable with ball at his feet. You can now clearly see Školnik methodically plotting his course up field with each run. The young man keeps his head up at all times and is trying to expose gaps in the opposition armor. It is the young Croats that look like the will come closest to winning this match. Ivan Keleva is called upon to make a save off a free kick late in the match. Aside from that, it has been speculative long shots and forays down the right to expose Goran Jozinović.
RAKITIĆ PENALTY MISS
On 86 minutes, Croatia takes the lead 2-1. Once again, it should come as no surprise who the danger men are; it is the same 2/3 that has caused the Slovakians all kinds of problems. Nikola Kalinić is running with purpose down the middle of the park, he has Dejan Školnik to his left and Domagoj Vida to his right. The four Slovakian defenders seem to care very little for the Croatian wide men and are concentrating on the Croatian forward who seems to be teasing the Slovakian rear guard with his close control. Just as the Slovakians begin to realize that they are in fact “Defenders!!” Nikola uses a daft little touch with the outside of his right boot to send a great little weighted through ball between two defenders and finds Domagoj Vida who steamed in from RB, held his run wonderfully so he wasn’t offside, his first touch is perfect and his second is a poke over the rushing Martin Dúbravka and gives the Croats a 2-1 lead.
IVAN RAKITIĆ THANKING FANS FOR MAKING THE TRIP
The rest of the match is not without incident. Mario Maloča is given a needless Yellow card late in the game and the Croatians are reduced to 10 men. At this point, the Croatians have already brought on Tomislav Barbarić for Nikola Kalinić; there were plenty of defenders to preserve the lead. The game ends 2-1.
Aside from Goran Jozinović, who had allot of terrible moments and a few bad decisions from Mario Maloča, this was a great display away from home to seize control of this group. I believe that Oremuš and Vida showed a great desire and understanding of one another down the right. Nikola Kalinić worked incredibly hard up front and on his own, one look at the strikers’ muddied uniform as he left the pitch on 90 mins and it was evident that he took his fare share of abuse today. I don’t care for how deep Milan Badelj played today, this is a creative player and his talents are wasted when he plays that deep. If Perišić does in fact get the call up to the Senior Team, Milan Badelj and the Croatian Under-21 team would greatly benefit from seeing the young Dinamo maestro being able to take on defenders and send in killer passes. Man of the match has to go to Oremuš, Kalinić and Vida.
Thanks to Zach G. for the videos.
I have mentioned Vujičević before, as well as the youngster at 1899 Hoffenheim, Boris Vukčević. As for Bodul, we will have to wait and see with him. He was on the bench yet again today for Sparta Rotterdam. I wish people would stop assuming that just because a player plays out of Croatia that he is somehow better than those inside the country. Players are held in Croatia for a variety of reasons, the club wants to sell them when their value is at a high, their agents may be obstacles, work permits, they play for a club that isn't taken seriously. You can go on and on. Plus, when they are still in Croatia you will see that hunger in them to try and impress the outside footballing community. I am all for the best be called up to the National team. Just looking at this game against Slovakia, our Goalie, entire back 4, almost the entire starting team other than Perisic and Rakitic began this campaign with teams in Croatia. Jajalo and Kalinic transferred in the summer, the first game was played just after last spring.
They should totally give Dario Vujičević , a try in the U21 team , he is a (semi) regular in Fc Twente ( Holland ) and Twente is ranked first right now , if anything he probably better then most of these HNL guys .
Also Darko Bodul might be worth giving a try .
Great report Peter!
@Peter Radman
Wow I am impressed.
I caught the last 20 minutes of the match here in Zagreb. This team can make some noise if they learn how to convert their penalty kicks.
Great work. Great to have you with us. If you are interested, you should be our U21 writer.
This is an old article, but I figured you may get a kick out of it.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_3070389,00.html
Vida turned down an offer to play for Liverpool. I remember him saying "I'd rather be a starter in Croatia, then a bench in england"
@Boris
You're right I did consider the grouping you suggest, but by my rough calculations there's about a 1 in 400 chance that it falls that way. But then again, stranger things have happened.
On the other side, there's always a decent chance that one of those teams, falls in our group.
@ Petar Radman
Excellent report! You're absolutely right, this has got to be one of the most talented U-21 squads we have fielded in years. I think Kalinic and Rakitic understand that the move down to the U-21 level was for their development for the future, and boy this addition has really payed off for Ladic.
I'm looking forward to the rest of this qualifying campaign.
@ Boris
Thank God we don't have to play the Englezi again in another qualifying campaign. Time for a change in opponents to shake things up.
I pictured this group (as did most of you) as soon as I read the teams in each pot:
Croatia
Serbia
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Slovenia OR FYR Macedonia
Montenegro
…throw in a minnow like, I dont't know, how about Andorra again 🙂
Highly unlikely, but this group could actually happen.
Croatia gets a top seed for Euro 2012 qualifying:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=700875&sec=europe&cc=5901&campaign=rss&source=soccernet
and as for Rakitic that man has as much heart as any player ever to wear to Croatia soccer jersey. He will play for us for any game regardless. I really hope he leaves Schalke 04 for a club where he can get 1st team play he is rotting on that squad. He needs to go to Italy I think he could fit in well there.
I thought we played great yesterday very promising team we have here. Our back is still shaky at time but they with stood what they needed to. I think with Kalinic and Rakitic the other U-21 will be motivated to learn because they have already accomplished moving to a bigger league. They play better as a team then our National team.
First, when we do bring Rakitic back to the NT can we play him in a postion that "he likes" not just throw him on the field he is promising player.
As for our CDM problem I dont understand what happens to Vukojevic when he plays for a NT. I watch him in Dinamo Kyev and he does so well most games.
But overall we have a promising U-21 squad coming up and much to look forward to.
Re:Radman
Maybe you should take over covering all the Croatia Under 21 games from here on. If not you can have control of the HNL1 games between mid december and january if you want 🙂
Just wondering , where do u guys watch these matches ? i cant seem to find any streams .
Yes, as Croatian fans we have been on some hard times since that loss to Turkey. Yeah, I brought it up, we were all thinking it. While its great to see some nice results for the kids, lets try and keep our expectations realistic. I know I will try to. I dont know if I can handle any more disappointment when it comes to Football. Hopefully these kids can build off some nice International results and allow them to translate that to their respective club levels. I always warn against complacency, as DinamoFan mentioned, there is still some tweaking that can be made
Best soccer news i've seen in awhile. It's always nice to see the next generation of our national team showing so much promise.
Nice report Peter!
It's nice to see that we've got some talent in the pipeline. These matches/tournaments are exactly the places that you learn and make your mistakes, and thus I think that Kalinic and Rakitic in particular will benefit spectacularly from the playing time.
On a somewhat more subtle level, I think it's also important for players like Kalinic and Raki to understand that they can "dominate" players that are their own age.
Anyway, nice to know that we've got some talent in the cupboard.
I am just being honest. The play of Jozinovic was there for all to see. I think we can all agree that he was the worst on the park. I never 0nce said that he wasn't of the caliber of a Croatian International. He must have been in that squad on some form of merit. I don't watch Zadar play, so, cant really say what kind of League player he is. Even going forward, I am not saying we have to throw him off the team or put him on the bench. From everything I read, Lovren had a pretty poor game against Cyprus. I wasnt able to watch that game, so, I am just going by match reports or interviews given by Ladic. I think we have to be very patient with these young kids and realize they will make their fare share of mistakes. I will judge them on how they react to those mistakes, do they learn from them? Going forward, Maloca will miss the next match through suspension. That being said, we will have to count on Lovren, Vida, Barbaric, Tomecak and Jozinovic. Hopefully by then a new candidate emerges as a prospect in defense. We are all trying to solve the Luka Modric dilemma, what do we do when he is not available? However, it is our current problems along the back line and CDM which are the most pertinent.
I watched most of the game yesterday and I was really impressed with the way these guys played, especially after giving up the goal. They were still able to settle the play down and move the ball around without panicing. Seems to me people are blaming Jozinovic for a bad game; and he did play poorly. But, I will give him the benefit of the doubt here, I thought he was one of our better players in the match against the serbs. Who knows, maybe the #16 for Slovakia (I think it was their #8 that caused all the problems) is a stud. Either way, very good result
yeah a good report this. Side could still do with a little more tweaking. Its disappointing to not see Kramaric alongside Kalinic. I think Jozinovic can also be replaced by Lovren, with Barbaric in centre alongside Vida. Was also missing Tomecak yesterday. I don't want to sound like i'm picking on Hajduk players cos i think Duje Cop could be in this squad too, but i didn't think much of Kreso Ljubicic. He put in quite a scruffy performance. A lot of wasteful touches and unneccessary fouling. Theres a few guys on this side like him, Maloca, Keleva, Jozinovic who don't appear as though they'll be anything more than HNL1 players. Rest of side is good, but could be altered in places.
I have to thank Peter Radman for his play-by-play today. I was at work while our youngsters were taking on Slovakia and felt like I wasn't missing a beat. Thanks for all the timely updates through our comment boards here on CSR and happy to see you finally on the board with your first post!