Croatia defeat Latvia in their Group F finale, await playoff draw on Thursday
It was a much smaller crowd at Alpine Village Tuesday for the Latvia match as Greece took the sails away from many Vatreni fans in the Southern California area. But that doesn’t mean we were short of personality. The fans cheered every goal against Latvia like it was a World Cup final with everyone’s eyes on the score of the Greece-Georgia match. The Croatian contingent was lifted with the news of an early Georgia goal but could only sit in silence with the report that the Greeks equalized and went ahead with two late goals. See you all for the playoffs in November.
@ts
We understand that the offense has its share of problems, as it’s pretty highly evident. Even though we’ve scored a good amount of goals, we should be looking more dangerous.
On the other hand, the defense still needs work. I can agree that with the lack of offensive prowess, that puts more pressure on our defense. But at the same time, when you’re up top and you see our defenders’ legs shaking in the back, it doesn’t help. The reason why our offense was so great in the past, was because of formation (yes probably), but it was also because we had a motley crew for our back line. If guys tried to beat the brothers, they’d be on the grass the next minute. They provided a sense of stability in the back and provided another option for attack on both sides.
I get what you’re saying, but everything needs to improve, not just our offense.
The one thing that really scares me (and most teams about this draw) is how we will have potentially 2 groups of death.
Assuming all the seeded teams win their draws, based off current rankings
Pot A: Spain, Holland
Pot B: Portugal, Germany, Italy, England
Pot C: Croatia, France, Greece, Russia
Pot D: Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Czech Rep.
Ukraine will not be a pushover.
Everyone on this site keeps ranting on about defence. Guys – study the other top teams qualifying. We are not that bad. I think all this ranting has probably made bilic obsessed with defensive play.
IT IS NOT THE PROBLEM. MF AND FF IS COMPLETELY DISFUNCTIONAL WITH EACH OTHER. CONSTANT CHANGING
FORMATIONS AND PLAYING PLAYERS IN DIFFERENT
POSITIONS IS KILLING OUR TEAM.
This is bilic’s biggest mistake. And second trying to be too clever on key games.
Good idea start a complimentary dating site. Keeps things a bit more interesting. Cant solve bilic’s problems all the time.
back to bilic – fair dinkum, the guy needs to relax and and stop trying to split atoms. It is just football. BILIC – LISTEN TO ME STOP OVER COMPLICATING EVERYTHING. GET BACK TO BASICS. CROATIA’S PROWESS IS ATTACKING MF 3 5 2. WE ARE NOT ITALY – IE/ MANUFACTURING A DRAW. I’VE BEEN SO DEPRESSED LOSING TO GARBAGE TEAMS LIKE THE GREECE. STOP SUFFOCATING OUR MIDFIELD
WITH YOUR DEFENSIVE TACTICS.
The worst that happened was a loss. Why not play for a win?We would’ve have been no better or worse for it.
Croatia went to athens to play kick to kick. Greece got 2 low percentage goals. Why not play for a win? WTF it’s so simple. We keep losing to shit b/c Bilic wont let Croatia play.
What Ante needs to do is leave some action for poor old Denis LOL. Next video Ante should do a favour for Denis and hook him up with one of those ladies!
When is the Croatian dating site going to be up?(LOLOLOL)Im sure you guys will have more than 50+ people!
The defence is the problem too. Look at Greece’s first goal last game. The guy was wide open. Nobody on the Greek team is good enough to require double-teaming so why was he left open in front of the box. The whole team is fucked up.
To dennis and ante – If i were you two, i would snare those 2 lovely croatian girls – Crystal & Kristina!!! Absolutely beautiful.
Defence is not our problem. have a look at croatias goal difference with other top teams in groups. The problem is disorganised midfield and forwards. Bilic shows classic symptoms of having lost the plot on key games. He’s tried so many different combinations and tactics that he’s confused himself. He needs to get back to basics. That is 3-5-2. Croatias strength is MF!!!
Stop playing this lone striker BS. Dudu FF with Klasnic/Peresic. Subs Olic, Jelavic or kalinac. MF CM Modric with rakitic and Kranjcar/Badelj. Behind them Srna and Vuko.
Usual back 3 with Pleti is fine.
I had a cousin from Croatia bring up an interesting point to me:
Mamic obviously has the most power on the board, from the looks of things. So basically, what he says goes.
Mamic says Bilic is going to stay, Bilic is still here. Just a few weeks ago, Mamic says it’s time for Sammir to join the national team. I hate to keep bringing this up, as it’s been hashed out in the past, but how many of you think this is actually going to happen.
Mamic would love to get more money out of Sammir.
Everybody is frustrated with our forwards.
Mamic could technically say, bring in Sammir or it’s your job.
I hate conspiracy theories, and nothing written in stone, but I could see this coming to fruition more and more now. Scary to think.
Tom, you’re right about the shut-outs against Greece and we also beat other teams more convincingly than Greece. There’s something wrong with Bilic. He should do everyone a favor and retire. I’m sure a minor league coach can do better. Why is the team even called Vatreni with such performances? Spain and Germany have the real fire. They bring their A game no matter who they play. On paper, we should have greased the whole group.
WIll anyone have links for the draw?
if you have cable tv it should be on one of the espn channel
Draw is @ 7am eastern time tomorrow.
ps. hook me up with Krystal’s # :p
Golmani Kresic Kelava Pletikosa
Obrana Carli, Andrej Mijatovic kapetan Herthe Berlina, Vida, Lovren,Strinic,Pamic, Simunic
Vezni- Srna Perisic Modric Raketa Kranjcar Ilicevic Badelj Sammir (salim se) Vukojevic Kovacic
Napad Eduardo Petric Olic Klasnic Vukusic Mandzukic( svi mu eru ali je ok)
@TGC
“So I know some people may disagree with me posting this, but wow.
Vidic misses a penalty to tie the game yesterday, and ends up retiring because of it. He says the older generation is letting the youngsters come in and try to take the team in a better direction.
http://smtdaily.com/2011/10/manchester-united-defender-nemanja-vidic-retires-from-international-football/
Some of our older players should take note of this.”
He will not retire. He will be back to play against us 100%. He was all screwed up/pissed off from missing out on the Euros and missing the penalty kick to tie the game. They will bring in a new coach and weed out the deadwood and he will be back. I would be shocked if he retired before the WC 2014 qualifiers! He is a solid defender no doubt, but highly over rated at the same time. Stankovic retired for sure, and if Vidic wants to join him that is fine with me. There goes your leadership right down the drain. Not that we have any leadership either! That being said, if he does not want to play against us in the qualifiers that is fine with me. 🙂
Big draw tomorrow!!!!! The team I would like to avoid the most in tomorrow’s draw is Montenegro. They have solid strikers and they will give us the most trouble out of the four teams in my opinion as our “D” is incredibly shaky right now. Bosnia looked very sharp against France yesterday as well. My order of best to draw to last would be:
1. Estonia
2. Turkey
3. Bosnia & Herzegovina
4. Montenegro
Any word on the severity of Kranjčar and Ćorluka’s injuries?
Kranjcar wont play playoffs and Carli is a question mark until the game! vecernjilist and sportske novosti have info
Ma dudududud nema nam pomoci!!!!!!
I’m Better than Bilic, of Course.
4-3-3 is Croatian team’s soluition
GK > Kaleva
DF > Vrsaljko, Lovren, Corluka, Strinic
MF > Srna, Modric, Perisic
FW > Eduardo, Mandzukic, Jelavic
notice:
1.Kranjcar/Rakitic will be ok to put 2nd striker
2.Strinic has flexiable move
3.no Simunic of course
Greece surrendered 5 goals in the qualifying round. Every other team in the group — Georgia, Latvia, Israel and, yes, even lowly Malta — found a way to score against the Greeks but Croatia was shut out in two games against them.
I don’t claim to have all the answers but I will say it simply shouldn’t be as difficult as we make it to generate goals.
And with our suspect defending at times, there is simply no margin for error.
So I know some people may disagree with me posting this, but wow.
Vidic misses a penalty to tie the game yesterday, and ends up retiring because of it. He says the older generation is letting the youngsters come in and try to take the team in a better direction.
http://smtdaily.com/2011/10/manchester-united-defender-nemanja-vidic-retires-from-international-football/
Some of our older players should take note of this.
We attacked Latvia different than we usually attack. You need balance in attack both through middle and through wings. Sure this game we were more on the wings but when the eff have we broken a team who parks the bus down the middle? I can’t recall us doing much damage vs teams down the middle that dont come for the win.
Its to congested in the center. Rakitic, Kranjcar, and Modric in the start? Where is the movement? Nowhere! Srna the only player who brought something different to the game and Strnic did to but he can only do so much from LB. We saw what Perisic can provide and that is a complete different dimension to our game!
Dave, no offense but I just ask how you expect to break teams down outside of putting some balls in the box…? WTF has this team down in previous games trying to work it down the middle to make you think that something will work playing in that sense? I have seen nothing…I didn’t see this as a wonderful way either but at least the ball kept moving and it wasn’t a game of chess with slow passing down the middle only to be stopped and cleared or passed backwards. With Perisic and Srna we don’t have to concentrate on playing wings but at least are given another dimension of attack unlike when we play strikers as Mandza and Dudu on wings and get no width what so ever. Or when we play Kranjcar or Rakitic who anyway move right to central position and we dont have overlapping defender like Pranjic who can make up for the lack of width.
This side cannot have Rakitic, Kranjcar, and Modric in at the same time. While all move off the ball none are going to make the runs….all will play more central and while they are really smart there simply is no width and no speed in this side. I do like all 3 but sadly 1 at the very most 2 can play at the same time and Modric is the auto pick. I dont care for how anybody feels about Srna because when he is at RB we have nothing going for us at RM and this is where he should be playing as he is much better player at midfield than he is at defense.
this team doesn’t have continuity. I agree we were more agressive against latvia, saw a better effort but i did not like how wer only attack through the wings and through crosses. It like us praying of the those balls hits a forward. I’m also not to big of a fan of strinic, i know we don’t have any better but his too obvious in what he does, so one dimensional just like croatia game plan
@Tom
I agree with you. Not impressed with the way we play.. I can’t say to myself that we can guarentee a win against any of the non-seeded teams. :S
I’m sorry but the way Croatia’s playing, no team in the draw gives me comfort. The fact is, we are susceptible to getting beat by anyone and every game, no matter who we play, is gonna be a struggle.
i owe Ante a drink for this, but first he needs to grow his hair again. Not a fan of the buzz cut pal.
Ante just moved up in the rankings a bit out of my favorite CSR posters, thanks for the shout out buddy. 2nd straight one wow I must be cool or something!!! Where was Golden Child, we need him in it.
I am coming to Cali this summer and being the star of the show. Great batch of women though, happy to see them into it.
Anyway finally official pots are in. Colin no need to worry buddy, Ireland is in Croatia’s pot. You will be fine so no worries. I am pissed Czechs got seeded, they seem weak in my book. Montenegro seems like a threat, I would hate to play them. Bosnia scares me the most, they are red hot and have some serious quality in their attack. Turkey is interesting, I would love to play them for revenge and because their talent isn’t the same what it once was. But Hiddink vs Billc, my god what a mis match. Estonia is the dream draw of course.
Terrible jersey Svircicu
playoff draw seedings are official. switch turkey for ireland in the poll and we got it all ready. bring on estonia!
though we are capable of beating all 4, i worry about bosnia.
dzeko is an actual striker who can change the game when he is on…..we lack that consistent firepower up front.
montenegro is beatable but would not be easy.
turkey (though i would love some revenge) would be a bad draw because i worry our boys would lose their heads and be trying to re-play their q-final from ’08 instead of staying calm and cool and focusing on the game at hand.
estonia (goes without saying) would be a dream draw.
nice job on the video guys. love the female content and the tough questions being asked…haha (it felt like an interrogation when denis was asked to clarify his comments)
see you all at the playoff draw tomorrow
Do you like 4-3-3, here you are.
________
l l
Kaleva
Vrsaljko Corluka Lovren Strinic
Srna Modric Perisic
Eduardo Mandzukic Jelavic
Nice little video. Ante is finally getting some action. I am once again at a loss of words as Bilic stays on. Great to see Frane Sosic in the mix. Adriana, Kristina, and Krystal came to play. Nice little turn out. We showed Croatia-Latvia, Germany-Belgium, Spain-Scotland, Netherlands-Sweden, Portugal-Denmark today.
@Miro,
You are all over the place buddy. Mario “can only score five feet from the goal” Mandzukic? No room for Eduardo on your Dinamo squad?
Hahahahaha. Good one Allen.
3-5-2
GK >:Kaleva
DF >:Corluka, Lovren, Strinic
MF >:Srna,Modric(CM),Vuku(DM),Kranjcar(CM),Perisic
FW >:Mandzukic,Jelavic
glad to see you guys are getting more girls in these vids (im sure the majority of guys on this site dont mind either lol)
i agree with denis, bilic has got to go! if were gonna b stuck w. him, which we wil be (they should of got rid of him years ago) i at least wanna see him play a 3 5 2, this 4 4 2 crap hasnt been working and isnt going to start magically working either
also give someone else a crack, as long as mandzukic is gone (i honestly dont know how he ended up on bilic’s favourites list that he seems to pick from)
(GK > Kaleva .^. (DF > Vrsaljko, Lovren, Corluka ,Strinic .^.
(MF > Srna, Modric, Badelj, Perisic .^. (CF > Mandze, Jelavic .^.
Anyone but Ireland… That raises the tensions a bit in my household. And am I the only one who is shocked Klasnic wasn’t subbed in for Mandzukic? I guess in the long run it didn’t matter, but I was hoping for some playing time for him. Wutevs. If they keep playing the way they have been, they might as well put me out there. Sure couldn’t hurt.