Photo: Ante Cizmic/CROPIX
The Croatian national handball team has jumped through all the necessary hoops to make the Euro 2012 semifinals. Their prize: a date with Serbia Friday night at 2:15PM(ET) in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. With a win, Croatia could be well on their way back to handball prominence after weak campaigns in recent years. The 23,000 capacity Belgrade Arena will be rocking with home support, however, it has been reported that 5,000 of Dinamo Zagreb’s faithful Bad Blue Boys will make the trip to Belgrade to root on the Croatian Cowboys.
UPDATE: NO CROATIAN FANS ALLOWED INSIDE THE ARENA FOR THE MATCH!
With Croatian fans having limited ticket access, many who decide to travel to Belgrade will surely watch the game at bars around town awaiting the final result. During the tournament, Croatians in Serbia have already reported numerous incidents with large rocks being thrown through their car windows. Hopefully the violence stays at a minimum Friday night.
If you are trying to get into handball, watch this heated match between Serbia and Croatia Friday night, and you will become a fan for life.
“Serbia is very strong, but not better than us.” -Croatia backup goalkeeper, Venio Losert
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Bye for now
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I like what you guys tend to be up too. Such clever work and exposure!
Keep up the terrific works guys I’ve added you guys to my blogroll.
@Ziva:
I think people want a regional league with Slovenia, Austria and Hungary. Unfortunately, Serbia would be part of the equation.
Realistically Hajduk and Dinamo would be the only Cro teams in this hypothetical league. Torcida and BBB would not be hospitable to traveling Partizan or Red Star fans.
Dinamo and Hajduk would face stiffer competition, but I suppose it is irrelevant since they seem to sell players as soon as they can.
@Ante Kvartuc
“What’s a Serb gonna say? “Rememeber when we beat you in handball?” Dude we crushed you in Belgrade in soccer and prevented you from once again imploding at theworld’s largest sporting event,,,,”
Yes! That is what I am talking about right there! Exactly.
It trumps it easy!
Serbians will put this in our faces and euro 2000 that 2-2 draw which is still the most painful result. Whatever i am angry because we lost i hate this feeling since 2005 a final or semifinal loss frustrating.
@ Wallace
I follow Tennis on a year-round basis. I’m not rooting against Djok because he’s a Serb, I’m just rooting for parity (regarding Tennis). Tennis is an individual sport. Like Kranjcar said…they really do play for themselves. I don’t want him to have another run like he did last year, it won’t be as fun watching as he is now a completely proven player. You have to see Djok in the same light as Federer and Nadal (within the last year, not career)….Federer and Nadal finals were boring me. Same shit, different tourney. i’m glad Djok mixed it up. However, I always root for the Croatians and for underdogs….hence Nadal tom night (albeit only by a hair)….
I’d like DelPo to get back into the top 6 as well….
But I did want Djok to meet Murray last night. Something really bothers me about that Scottish Screech look-a-like…
still…people forget handball and water polo tourneys….CRO beating Serbia in their house during WC qualifying trumps Serbia winning a Euro waterpolo, handball championship with Djok winning ANOTHER Aussie title…
The shit talk would not stop for years…you know what I mean?
What’s a Serb gonna say? “Rememeber when we beat you in handball?” Dude we crushed you in Belgrade in soccer and prevented you from once again imploding at theworld’s largest sporting event,,,,
I’m at work and got off topic (took me 45 mins to write this)…but u get my drift…anyone with me on this???
@ziva,
No implosions today…most still learning the sport. you were incorrect.
Golden ok ali they should have saved 5 clean shots saved that went in that i remember whatever you cant blame goluza for this like last year in sweden. This is all on the players and Balic i still nebo i zemlja to duvnjak. Also only in croatia a 30 year old player is old Spoljaric Sulic should still be playing GOBAC IS THE MARKOVIC OF CROATIAN RUKOMET. Mihovil alot will cjange by 2013 thats what i wa thinking any way Olymics 2012 and euro 2012 looking foward!
@HNK
The reason our golmani was terrible, because our obrana wasn’t doing their job. Alilovic and Goluza got into it with Duvnjak over the course of the match.
Napad fell apart in the second half because Serbia tightened things up in the middle. Just as they did against Spain, everything down the middle. Doesn’t work.
@HNK DALMATINAC CRNO
“March 22 game 2013 i along time from now.”
That’s fine, I can wait. 🙂
@ Denis Our obrana was fine today our napad and golmani were atrocious awful Za Kurac parden my language. You cant miss so many zicers and balic lsing 4 balls in key moments when it was still close game. March 22 game 2013 i along time from now.
Wallace is ok in my book. Everyone is quick to jump on him.
I blame this loss on Ivo Miljanovic because he jinxed us! Haven’t you learned anything from Ante Kvartuc? Just kidding Ivo, I dont “blame” you, but learn from the great Ante Kvartuc.
Our defense was terrible today. You can’t blame the keepers, because our defense was swiss cheese today. Serbia’s keeper was standing on his head.
I could care less if Serbia win the “triple” on Sunday or not. The only thing that I know and care about is that we will not win the triple.
Tennis: Just like Nadal has figured out Federer, Djoko has figured out Nadal. No chance Nadal defeats Djoko, unless there is an injury.
Our tennis sucks right now, while Serbia is on the rise. For us smaller nations, its like the stock market. We compete every five years or so. 2001 – Wimbledon champ-goran, 2006-Davis Cup champs, 2010-Indian Wells champ-Ljubicic… mark your calendars for 2015..
Waterpolo: We always compete, won the euros last year. A little bad luck this year, and one bad half against Germany cost us a place in the quarters.
Handball: at worst a 4th place finish, cant complain too much.
Basketball: Besides soccer, I cant think of a team sport more popular worldwide. The world has gotten better. In ’92, there was no Argentina, Brazil, France, Turkey, Germany. Every 10 years we will make some noise.
Soccer: cant complain, qualifying for tournaments.
I think Tennis could be a little better since we dont have anyone coming up in the juniors and ljubo/karlovic are way too old. Besides that, I cant complain about any of “our” sports.
Ziva, ajde doma. Vecera je spremna. Ajde brzo. Niti jos jedan ric!
What a bummer. That may have only been my 3rd handball match I’ve ever watched (who cares), but I’m pissed. It hurts to see us lose in any sport to Serbs. I really enjoyed watching this sport though. Glad I got a chance to. What I did like about the game though was how the players treated each other. It was good to see both teams treating each other with respect. There was a lot of hand shaking after every foul. Maybe one day the fans will be to do the same… ha….
I NIKADA TI NECEMO OKRENUT LEDA MI
MI HRVATI!
VOLIM TE HRVATSKO!!!!!
Well when you miss those chances and our golmani were very bad this is what happens its very difficult serbia is not a rukomet nation and they beat us fair i didnt see anything wrong with the ref thats wat happens when Mirko is off and old man losert plays, What ever i hope Dankska beat them i hope nadal wins sunday and that serb dont win in waterpolo. This is just funny next year around this time hype will begin for our WC 2014 qualifying match oman imagine we lose those games to serbia OMG>
Let there be confusion. I am anti-serb and pro-hrvat.
Ziva istina out
Thank God I’m at work and couldn’t see the second half.
@Ivo_Miljanovic, I’m not Harrison. Harrison says he don’t give a shit about water polo and handball results; all I ever said was that I thought (mistakenly, as other posters have pointed out) that handball was not a popular sport in Croatia years ago. I got that impression from an article I read in a U.S. news paper I think it was 8 years ago during the summer olympics. Also, I asked if Croatia can still quality for the Olympics in Water Polo, and no one gave me an answer.
@Ante, you’re really rooting for “Rafa”? the guy picks his ass constantly in front of the whole world. Djokovic didn’t start any wars, he didn’t kill anybody, and he’s not anti-Croat; being pro-Serb doesn’t make one anti-Croat, just like being pro-Croat doesn’t make one anti-Serb. Nor does not being anti-Serb make one pro-Yugo, get it?
I hate serbs
It’s cyclical….
We are still better than them in handball. Look at our results over the last 15 years. We get to the SF of most events. Our juniors always place in international competitions. In Handball we are fine.
Basketball….I don’t want to get deep into it, but a lot of it has to do with the savez and coaching. Serbs were always considered better basketball coaches during the Yugo days. Not sure why, but its no fluke we have not done much in basketball since the guys who were brought up in the yugo system (Kukoc, Petro, Radja, etc..) stopped playing. Better development.
Water Polo….edge goes to the serbs. But we always compete for medals
Tennis…..again, cyclical. Go back 5 years and the serbs were nowhere.
We can point at other sports, like soccer, and our results have been more impressive. So, it varries.
Either way, you should all go to bed each night thanking Isus you are a hrvat and not a serbo.
Everything quickly goes upside-down 🙁
The reality of the situation is that our biggest stars are aging and past their prime. Balic at one time was considered the best player in the world and now exclusively plays offense. Vori was a top 5 player in the world and he’s 31 years old. Cupic has down a decent job picking up the scoring load the guy has 9 1/2 fingers. I’m not surprised we lost to the Serbs but pissed nonetheless. This Sunday is a day I’ve been fearing for a while. The Serbs have been getting stronger in most sports (tennis, basketball, etc) while we are regressing in most. That gives me a knot in my stomach more than anything.
apples and oranges….handball has nothing to do with soccer qualifiers, but i get your point.
at the end of the day, this is what we should all walk away with……thank your father for supplying your mother with croatian seamen and be grateful that you came out of a croatian womb.
the difference was in goal. We couldnt buy a save in the second half while their goalie stood on his head
Waiting for the board to implode with idiotic comments by people who just watched their 3 handball game ever…..sometimes an emotional home crowd and a hot GK can carry a team; the serbs have shown that this tourney.
I don’t think I will be near a TV or computer on Sunday because the serbs will be celebrating as they will win gold in handball, water polo and Djokovic will win the Aussie Open.
Took Croatia 5 minutes to score to start the second half and they only scored 8 goals all together after the restart. Serbia put up an iron wall. Good for them.
Woulda been nice to beat them in BG but I’ll give them handball any day to crush them in Serbia during WC 2014 qualifying.
Vamos Rafa!!!!…
I pray to God that the Serbs don’t pull the Triple on Sunday….Djokovic,water polo and handball….
Home field was their biggest advantage.
The difference was the goalkeepers. Their guy is better.
I’m sick to my stomach.
That’s alright, we will take care of them on March 22 2013!
Doesn’t look like it will be our day……as expected, tough to play in that type of environment in BG. I firmly believe we have the better team (we would 7 or 8 times in a 10-game series), but the serbs came out strong in the 2nd half and we helped them by missing a few ziceri, plus their GK was terrific.
A good showing in the tounrey, just sucks we lost to those animals
14:13 Halftime…….
back and forth…. have a feeling it will go down to the last minute. Been a long time since I had butterflies in my stomach.
I am tired of reading these nonsensical posts from Harrison (aka Wallace). If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. Shutty. Go play baseball.
And yes, Croatia will win this. Sick of all the crap happening around this match.
French refs. Could be interesting. Fair so far.
great stream if anyone is looking for one – http://www.lshunter.tv/index.php?option=com_lsh&view=lsh&event_id=79435&tv_id=364&tid=27049&channel=0&tmpl=component&layout=popup&Itemid=327
Boos and jeers throughout the entire national anthem
Nice work setting up the link! Can’t wait to watch, first handball game ever.
LIVE STREAM:
http://www.ehf-euro.com/
Ziva…it was 97 (Partizan-Dinamo)
Dude I cracked up out loud at work watching Stjepan Spajic throw up the hail. LOL…classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbPTHXoYFmg
I’m sure some of you guys are reading the same live updates from the border and in BG that I am.
The one good thing………this is all the proof I need that there should never be a joint soccer league with those animals. If you can’t travel freely into another country and have to show a voucher for the game and need full-time police protection to travel, then these matches are not worth playing.
Some of you guys may remember the name Stjepan Spajic……For those who don’t know….sram vas bilo, go look him up on google. That guy was man. It was either Dinamo-Partizan in 97 or Cro-Yugo in 1999 (I cant remember), he went to the game in BG. Hopped in his Mercedes in ZG, drove and parked his car right in front of the stadium in BG and upon arrival said “rodo, evo me”.
How someone can rag on Croatian handball is beyond me…but whatever.
Report out of Serbia on the violence. Are we really taking out mascots….mascots?!?!!? White Eagles in fact.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15698725,00.html
Ma kak ne vidis da tip provocira? Pusti ga, vidis da nema pojma.
go to hell……Yeah, ist rukomet. Might not mean anything to some of the new-born hrvati, but it means a lot to us who have watched this sport for a long time.
Go back and look at who won the first Olympic gold medal for an independent Croatia.
couldnt care less man! win or lose, i dont give shit. Its rukomet for fucks sake. Who outside of handball fans will know about this? no one thats who.
Just got a call from an unnamed source near the border…
Some of our fans have gotten through but the majority are being turned back if they do not have tickets.
Looks like a war zone. Every single fan is being patted down and media aren’t allowed to take any pictures.
God, I wish I was there right now.
U BOJ! U BOJ! ZA NAROD SVOJ!
There will not be many of our fans at the game. All this talk about 5,000 fans coming is nonsense. It won’t happen.
I heard Torcida is coming to town as well. I would give Croatian fans as many tickets as they want. It’s better to have them in the stadium with security than on the streets left to their own devices. There will be payback for those torched audi’s. Ajmo kaubojiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!
Learn to read Croatian more, for all your news, sports, gossip, rumors and nude djevojka dana. http://sportski.net.hr/rukomet/page/2012/01/26/0737006.html
Ziva,
Be nice. I myself started watching handball during the 2004 Olympics. I didn’t know what the fuck it was. Something like cricket or baseball. Most guys on this site are just being turned onto it. That’s what we’re here for after all.
If someone watches the match (even if they just got into the sport) they can comment. Handball is all discipline, patience and using intensity at the right times. It’s doesn’t take rocket science to see what’s going on.
I know what you’re trying to do with that last comment, but this blackjack table doesn’t take insurance.
Pretty cool seeing everyone getting into handball fever, but wondering how many will come on here tomorrow in case we rule and spout off about what went wrong when in reality the same people have maybe only watched 10 handball matches their entire life.
Either way, hoping for the best tomorrow.
More news out of CRO:
They’re saying 5,000 police officers will be deployed in riot gear for this match. It’s gonna look like LA after a LAkers championship.
Yea, I read that too! NO Croatia fans allowed in the arena to watch the game? Really?
…and yea, they reduced the attendance to 14,800 for “security reasons”.
http://english.blic.rs/Sports/8393/Win-against-Croatia-for-medal-glory—London
I’ve been watching Croatia in the handball championships free online, including every game for these ones, but I’m keeping those a secret so they don’t get overstreamed. The Serbs are trying to reduce the fans to the game to about 18,000, they say for safety. The Croatians are the ones who wont be going, Srb fans are saying there wont by any Cro fans in the arena. This is the latest on that story. http://www.suckdude.com/
For all you who get YOUTUBE blocked at the office, and are for some reason allowed to access twitter…..we’ll be doing live match updates there too.
If 5,000 of our BBB fans go, I can’t see anything but trouble starting. We already got kids throwing up all kinds of shit on Facebook like ” Srbe na vrbe”. Imagine what 5,000 drunk BBB members come up with while they are sitting in bars scattered throughout Serbia. Win or lose, one side is going to be unhappy.
Aside from the stupidity, we need to do a couple things:
1. Focus for 60 minutes.
We can’t have a lapse in concentration like we’ve had against the French and other teams we’ve gone against. It’s always a problem for our teams, and our mentality is usually what brings us losses.
2. Attack from all sides
Never went to the wings until it was too late in the 2nd half, and ended up losing. Nuff said.
3. Alilovic
Guy is a monster and our emotional leader. He has to keep his head up even if we are looking out of it.
Other than that, let’s light these mofos up.
@Jersey Cro:
Thanks for the info and the link.
Nogomet is number 1 but rukomet is a 2nd by far in croatia great sport to play and our handball team is great starting from 2003 and still going strong ZA BEOGRAD ZA BEOGRAD AJMO PAKLENI IDEMO DO KRAJA!
na livescorehunter imas linkove za sve sportove,pa tako i za sve utakmice s EP
I almost want to take off of work for this one. ANYONE HAVE A GOOD LINK TO A LIVE FEED??
every game is being steamed on youtube or the official site of the tournament
http://www.ehf-euro.com/SRB2012
Where can we find a link for the game? Never tried to find a handball site before.
so whats all this talk about a regional league when there are already fears 24 hours before the handball match? Some people who support this regional league are very naive.
I personally don’t think anything major will happen as long as the players on the court don’t do anything silly. Outside the arena, who knows
Cant wait!
WE MUST WIN!!!!!