While one Croatian made his first ever appearance for the ‘Vatreni’, another made his record 100th. Yes, Dario Šimić finally got his record 100th cap; making him the first ever Croatian to reach the century mark. I think it’s a great way for Šimić to go out. I don’t see him starting anymore games as World Cup qualifiers start within a month or getting any playing time coming off the bench. Šimić has been with Croatia since 2006; and a 12-year international career is seldom seen on the world level. Only the great can make it to 100. We praise you Dario for making it this far and sticking by your country through the highs of winning 3rd in ’98 to the lows of not getting out of group stage in numerous tournaments thereafter.
As Šimić’s career winds down, we say hello to a new Croatian defender, Ivica Križanac, who symbolically replaced Šimić at halftime. Križanac is a 29 year-old Split born defenseman who is currently playing for reigning UEFA Cup champions, Zenit St. Petersburg. He will be a good player to have in Croatia’s arsenal for the upcoming qualifiers. It’s still too early to know if he will have a starting gig with the national team, but you can count on him coming strong off the bench.
Dario Cvitanić was no where to be seen, but don’t worry as that was in Bilić’s plans from the beginning. Bilić has said that Cvitanić is not yet in the form he would like him to be as he now has to convert to a European style of football. Bilić has also been heard saying that Cvitanić will not be used for the Kazakhstan and England qualifiers in September. We’ll see what happens as Bilić is known to be a cunning coach who knows how to play psychological games on his opponents.
With all that news, Croatia still had a friendly in Maribor, Slovenia today. It is their only friendly before qualifying starts against Kazakhstan on September 6th in Zagreb.
Here’s a list of all the starters with the subs that replaced them:
HRVATSKA: Pletikosa (45′ Runje), Ćorluka, Šimić (45′ Križanac), R.Kovač, Pranjić, Srna (81′ Pokrivač), Leko, Kranjčar (19′ Vukojević), Rakitić, Petrić (45′ Klasnić), Olić (85′ Vejić)
It’s all pretty basic stuff for our team except for the fact that Runje replaced Pletikosa at halftime. Sure it was only a friendly and Pletikosa had a fine Euro 2008 campaign, but the way he’s been playing for his club team, Spartak Moscow, has been embarrassing as of late. If he continues this; and remember that he’s never played bad for Croatia, I good see a changing of the guard in goal for the ‘Vatreni’ soon. Runje was lights out in the Poland match at Euro 2008 and showed he is also deserving of the job.
Off to the game!
Croatia was down to Slovenia at 2 different points in the game. Slovenia scored a quick goal out of the gates in the 4th minute only to be leveled by Ivan Rakitić in the 37′. Slovenia then scored again in the 59th minute just to have Darijo Srna convert a penalty one minute later. With another poor friendly result looming for Croatia, Ivan Rakitić put the game away in the 64th minute with his second goal of the game. Let’s hope he can keep that going. Croatia ultimately won the game 3-2 and saw a new face in the making. (I apologize for the quick analysis as the game was unable to be seen in the States.)
Qualifiers coming up!!! Should be another fun one against the Brits!!!
Rob can you help me out
where is the stream for hrt2 ???
correct me if i am wrong….didnt you just get back from there???
From various newspapers and internet sources, Croatia pretty much dominated this match. However, there were stints where we fell asleep to allow two goals to squeak by.
I am looking forward to Dario Cvitanić in the red and white one day. Bilic knows exactly when to introduce the kid. Why start him against Slovenia and put all this pressure on the kid? Why start him over Klasnic, Olic, and Petric who gave years to the vatreni?
Bilic will ease Dario Cvitanić into the lineup, so no one gets hurt(Dario Cvitanić, players, media, etc)
I am looking forward to the qualifiers. A little voice inside me is saying, “Fly out to Zagreb…find a cheap flight…Hrvatska te zove zove..”
I saw some of the highlights and I don’t think we played too bad. Obviously letting through 2 goals against Slovenia isnt amazing but one of them was a penalty and it was only a friendly.
Rakitic is definately a star in the making. Hopefully he will make it to a big club in the next couple of seasons.
I’m really looking forward to the qualifiers and I think we can definately beat the English.
Rob, When i was in Croatia, the news said that Robert Kovac is staying with the squad so hopefully that is correct. Didnt hear anything about Kranjcar injury but hopefully he is alright aswell.
I managed to catch some of the game on streaming video online, missed about the first 20 mins. Does anyone know if Kranjcar got hurt? Saw a highlight of him (he appeared to be limping) and he got subbed off rather early.
Over all, a typical Vatreni showing in friendlies, we usually don’t do so hot in games that are meaningless. For what it’s worth, Rakitic is set to really blow up and become a star in my opinion. Look for big things from him during qualifying and ultimately the World Cup.
Ideally, I would like the line up to look something like this (at least until both Kovac’s retire, and Cvitanic is on board).
When Eduardo is healthy, I would go with something like this:
Eduardo
Rakitic
Kranjcar Modric Srna
Kovac (Vukojevic)
Pranjic Simunic Kovac Corluka
If R. Kovac leaves (and Bilic prefers to stay with the traditional 4-4-2), move Corluka inside, drop Srna to Corluka’s spot, move Rakitic to Srna’s midfield role, and take your pick for Dudu’s partner up front.
My $0.02.