Croatia Bow Out in Proud Fashion

White supremacy???? This is football and as I recall the best player to ever play the game was black, for those that remember Pele. No justification for any fans of any country to be throwing bananas on the pitch or making monkey chants show complete and total ignorance and disrespect towards the human race as a whole. The comparisons made above are apalling and revisionist history. The few fans that participated in these ugly aggressive acts have done damage to their respective countries by showing intolerance and hatred for anything or anyone different than they are. Small minds are prone to hatred and need to be punished for spewing their racist philosophies. Annihilation by assimilation????? What a fear mongering racist chant that is. This small minded twit should be removed from any conversations on this site and I ask the moderators to take action immediately. I’m sure this person will respond with more hatred because all racists are predictable in their warped propaganda of hatred. They need to be pointed out and made an example of in all existing societies. They are a cancer to humanity. Shame on you. Let’s talk football and not the justification of race hatred. To the moderators: Please eliminate HAET NOW!

Haet throwing a banana or making monkey sounds at a black player is just plain stupid by any fans. Enough said.

Saying “don’t bitch and moan” to someone who’s giving analysis on the officiating, is nothing but a cop-out. It’s the same as calling someone a “raaaciss” for telling the truth. Some of you trained-dogs have been beaten to believe ‘the truth is no defense’. Have you read Animal Farm?

On a side note did you notice when the issue of racism comes up in the media about Croatia the headline reads Croatia being investigated for Racism. When Germany does it they are being investigated for “improper conduct.”Not that im justify racism because im not, but you can clearly see the double standard in the headline with how the same charge is presented to the public when its a small country like ours vs a big country like Germany.

you know yesterday i was ok at least the boys played hard and showed what we are today im just fucking pissed… must be a mourning process
but fuck me uefa and all will get what they deserve as like anyone else who has fucked with croatia before
let them rig euro cause we don’t need it we will be world champs soon enough!!!
thanks again to this site for allowing us to vent and support our boys, great job guys

Look at the tournament guys…

There’s been one penalty call on Day 1, and not one since. I’ve watched nearly every minute of every match thus far. Refs are calling super-conservative games. Too conservative in my eyes.

Yes, that foul on Keane should have been a penalty. Yes, that Corluka shirt tug also should have been a foul. But it seems like these calls need to be blatant for a point to the spot.

This has been the most talented tournament in the history of soccer. Groups B-D have been stacked with talent and most games are only being won by a single goal. Look at Germany, 1-0, 2-1, 2-1. Spain, 1-1, 4-0 err Ireland and a late gimme goal vs Croatia for 1-0.

These games are as tight as can be and a penalty call can change everything.

To balance this out, I see referees calling every little touch at midfield a foul to compensate. Three or four fouls and the yellow comes out. Re: Srna yesterday.

The refs are being consistent with the tournament, but not consistent with typical refereeing of the matches.

Let’s see if it opens up now that we’re in the knockout stage…I still got Germany winning the whole thing.

Funny how the only 2 red cards and penalty kick were given out in the first 90 mins of the tourney and now refs are missing easy calls.

UEFA have their dream matchups…

Where’s KING BRONK?!?!?!

I agree Jarac. The calls were pretty bad but what do you expect were underdogs going up against champions. I don’t like to be pissed at the refs especially with that Rakitic mess. I had flashbacks of Olic missing against Turkey after that.

@ Ziva, Sydney

Ziva on the money once again. The man does his homework.

Here’s how the first few games of Euro went:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/06/espns-euro-2012-soccer-draws-strong-tv-ratings/1

Euro games in America are drawing the same audience as a baseball game in June. Not that big of a deal. Agent Argentina, who is currently in buenos Aires, recently told me that Euro 2012 games are not on basic TV down there. You have to stream the games or have a special direct feed…something like DirecTv in the States.

So there ya go…

@Sydney Jure….you are worng about the TV ratings in N. America. It doesn’t matter who plays for the TV ratings in N. America. They are so small to begin with here that it virtually has no impact and the number is minimal. Yes, teams like Eng and Germany will draw larger numbers than Croatia or Denmark, but those numbers are still low. At best the Euros will draw a 1.2 or 1.3 for the better matches during the tounry. The final may get up to a 2.0. ESPN doesn’t spend big time money for this event in the first place.

As I post Ukraine are denied a goal that clearly crossed the line by a ref looking on from 2 meters away. There is after all a huge English following around the world(tv ratings)$$$$$$$$$$$$

Zivot ide dalje ali jebo majko Platiniju i Uefi picke ciganske let them have their mouth watering 1/4 i will not be watching any more euro 2012 is over for me fuck them, Such a waste my God imagine Mama boy Ronaldo getting fouled like Mandzo did and the pull on carli, What bothers me most is stupid idiots will see croatia getting 6 yellows and they will think Spain dominated us and we played dirty and Spain got a deserved goal for 1-0 once agian jeben mater Markovicu i platiniju ciganska braca Triba vas sve u UEFA poubivati mrtvu vam majku jeben smrdliju.

Guys, check me out on world football daily. They will have a live show from 10-11am (PST)(Los angeles time)… I will be on the show at 10:30am live..

click on the “on air” button

http://worldfootballdaily.com/
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is it fair, no, but thats life

Imagine before you’re about to play in a game the ref tells you: “listen, they are better than you, so we’re going to give ALL the close calls to them, life isn’t fair, good luck!”
What happened to “level playing field”?
But I’m supposed to “tolerate” my kid being discriminated against because he’s white (affirmative action, protected “minorities”, employment quotas, mass foreign-race immigration and “assimilation” for EVERY and ONLY White countries, etc) so as to “level the playing field” (i.e. tilt the playing field)?
Why did Croatians “bitch” for a thousand years for Independence? Why didn’t they just “tolerate” their overlordship?
Some of you have wrong meanings of words.

This is interesting. Check out this game that Stark refferred in November, this time it’s Portugal vs. Bosnia. Maybe he just hates the former countries of Yugoslavia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HcafLtUp96M#!

How was allowed to ref another match is beyond me after viewing the video I posted.

.

@Armada

But what can we do for these games with Serbia. I would hope there is a massive police presence. Serbia’s team has really fallen since the world cup. Does anyone see them as a serious threat in the group?

The fine has come in 80,000 euros thats it. LOL I thought we would be fined with a point deduction somewhere in the future.

In the end, I’m proud of how the team played. Luck/reffing could’ve been on our side some more: calls against us: no penalty call for jelavic vs italy, light foul call to set up pirlo goal, mandzo takedown vs spain, corluka body slam vs spain, no offside on spanish goal vs calls for us: no penalty call on schindenfeld when he ran through keane in the ireland match. I can’t help but keep imagining what could’ve been if rakitic would’ve made that header and how it would’ve been a historic win, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes. the team showed they can hang with the best in the world, Bilic was impressive as a coach throughout the tournament and in the playoff with turkey, the team showed fight and heart (especially the backline who was the big question mark. props to schindenfeld and pletikosa for both putitng in very good tournaments I thought, and strinic for stepping up). perhaps most importantly, I think there is potential for future success. This core group (with the exception of maybe srna) has at least another 6 years to go with mandzo, jelavic, and perisic still coming into their prime. Our biggest question mark was our defense which was in a transitional period and should hopefully only get better with the maturation of lovren, strinic, and vida (possible additions of vrsalko down the road could help as well). To me, one of the biggest questions marks going forward may be who will be the next goalie. I was really impressed with pletikosa this tournament and I think goalies do have a longer shelf life than regular players so he can continue to hang around for a while, but eventually there will need to be a plan b

@Allen:

I am glad to see you are so positive. Keep it up.

I’ll start planning my trip!

Man, people felt so bad for me at the bar after that loss, I got more free drinks than a naked model would have at a bar. I’m gutted, but we still had a hell of a showing. Everyone I talked to about Euro today is just raving about how our guys did, especially against Spain. Mandzukic was a thrill to watch and I hope some people have just a little more respect for Pleti now. So, who’s going to any of the WC qualifiers?

@all who are bitching about the referees

Listen this is just the way it is. The better teams get the calls! The superstars always have the refs on there side, look at kobe or jordan, lebron, etc. THIS IS WHY U DONT LEAVE IT UP TO THE REFS. HOW DO U DO THIS? U SCORE WHEN GIVEN A CHANCE, WE HAD THAT CHANCE WITH RAKITIC AND HE BLEW IT. OH WELL CANT DO MUCH ABOUT IT NOW.

Derserved to advance. Deeply dissapointed we didn’t, but cant be dissapointed with the way we played our 3 games. Any other group it might’ve been a different story.

I have been a big critic of bilic over the course of the last 4 years, but i have to admit he did a great job on coaching the team throughout this tournament. I doubt many would’ve done any better. Bilic deserves our congratulations.

Had the ref’s called the right decisions, had that rakitic header hit the back of the net, if ireland had not been so insipid. Who knows what might’ve been.

Croatia showed that they can hang with the best of them, and they can be proud of the way they played. They are definitely not leaving the group stage like they did in 2002,2004 and 2006 with uncertainty in the way they performed.

Football can be a cruel game sometimes just as in life it isn’t always fair, and it definitely felt UEFA didn’t want us in their last 8. Penalties not given, free kicks against, hanballs and offsides! I mean come on man! how many decisions can they mess up in our games?

I feel down and heart broken now, but i hope that they carry this sort of confidence and determination through to the next WC qualifying stage.

Nothing left to do but see how the rest of the tournament unfolds. At least from now on i wont be a nervous wreck.

Now my support switches over to the czech republic, its in my bloodline but its not srce, i still wish them the best to cause an upset.

@Bobby V, great job describing why it was offside. Why has NOBODY on tv given a description? Regarding the phantom foul that led to Italy’s goal, why was NOT ONE highlight of said “foul” shown during, nor after the game? Even the “foul” that led to Ireland’s goal was very questionable – a ticky-tack call on Corluka.

Mandzukic was taking a shot at goal in the box when he was fouled in a manner that should have drawn a yellow card; okay, it’s at the edge of the box so perhaps that would have been harsh on Spain – but as a ref you keep that in mind. Then when Corluka gets pulled down in the box but STILL gets his head on the ball – THEN that’s what should get called. – If you ALSO let that go, then how can you NOT call offside on Spain later? – If that’s not one-sided referring, I don’t know what is. – because it’s like Spain dominated the game, they only dominated possession, not the game.

When people tell you “stop crying”, they are telling you to “tolerate” what they want you to “tolerate”.

FUCK YOU!

@Permutations yes you were correct in assumptions. Navas was in a passive offside situation, so if Iniesta would have shot on goal and the ball bounced to Navas, that would have been legal. The pass directly to Navas was illegal.

Anyone else notice that the countries with the most amount of debt and in default situations in the EU are the ones getting the calls. Hey, just saying.

Permutations,

I think u have been hitting the pipe a little to hard. How are we still recovering from the kovac brothers? I think some of u place some values that don’t really matter much. Here are some examples of shit that doesn’t matter when ur a professional or doesn’t really have influence on the game.
HEART, LEADERSHIP, PRESS CONFERENCE, WHAT IS SAID BY THE PLAYERS OR COACHES. This shit doesn’t matter. We didn’t loose today cause we lacked leadership, we lost today cause we couldn’t convert on our chances and spain did, had nothing to do with a gaping hole from the kovac bros.

Modric is a magician with the ball, he doesn’t score through, but that is not his job. He gets that ball from the back third to the front third in no time. And his passing is precise and rarely turns it over!!

I believe the ESPN analysts agreed to agree that the goal was from an onside play. If Iniesta was offside, he was offside by inches. Navas was clearly ahead of the line, but the ball wasn’t passed to him….

Now, the whistle should have been blown when Iniesta corraled/directed the ball with his shoulder. You can’t do that in soccer. It’s just like using your palm. Directing the ball with your shoulder is against the laws of the game.

So after Iniesta gets away with being offside by inches, he proceeds to use his shoulder not even to trap, but to direct the ball – gets away with it – and slips an onside pass (Navas was behind Iniesta at that point) to Navas who, and here’s the point of contention, is offside from Fabregas’ initial pass to Iniesta?!

I think, and I’m probably wrong here, that if Iniesta shoots and scores – the goal stands…. but the fact that he played the ball to Navas who was offside by a mile from Fabregas’ pass, the goal should have been disallowed. But who the f*ck knows anymore.

A 0-0 result doesn’t get us through… and it’s doubtful Croatia would have mustered another meaningful attack after that.

The world is irreparably corrupt, and that is reflected in organized football. The governing bodies of the sport are not about “Fair-play,” “Respect,” or “anti-racism.” Those are slogans they use to masquerade hardcore deceit and corruption. Much like most democratic Western governments that hide their bare interests and cynicism behind slogans like “democracy” and “human rights.”

Croatia will never get a fair-shake at these major tournaments, and those that dream of winning one before they die are, no offense, hitting the pipe a bit too much…

@Permutations:

How is Modric not elite? Titles, don’t correspond linearly to an individual’s performance.

@Permutations – Thanks for letting us know you think he’s World Class – and I never said he was as good as Xavi. We’ll leave it at that. The quotes from Del Bosque, Xavi and Iniesta are from all over…not just Index.hr.

I don’t judge players by titles. A great player cannot control who his teammates are. Modric is 6 years younger – he’s making his move now to start winning some. We’ll see.

@Boston Cro – where did you live? I’m in Haverhill, Ma.

Bobbo,

You cite INDEX.YU as a source. Pametnom dovoljno.

You see, it’s not that I dislike Modric, or think he isn’t world-class – it’s that jerks like you do him a huge disservice by comparing him to accomplished mid-field wizards with titles under their belts….and that have been performing for years.

Modric is a great player, but he’s not elite. And the attention he gets is undeserved. All with a morsel of objectivity know that, except those of you that consider INDEX.YU a reputable portal….

Correspondence: terminated.

Have to agree with BobbyV that it was offside. In the end, we didn’t advance since we didn’t score. Too bad, I think this team was capable of making a nice run in the tournament.

It will be interesting to see what the team will look like in September. Probably the last we’ve seen of Simunic and possibly Pranjic. I think Strinic has laid claim to the LB position and Perisic to the LM. I’d prefer to see Srna as RB, which leaves RM up for grabs. Rakitic is the one guy on the team who does not step up his game when playing for the NT. Most of the other guys play much better for NT than they do for their club.

Rakitic is a horrible player and the team-especially Pletikosa-should have kept playing after the offside. Play until the whistle goes. Modric was largely a non-factor in the whole tournament. This team has no guts.

This is awesome:

http://www.index.hr/euro-2012/clanak/i-spanjolci-priznaju-stark-nam-je-oprostio-dva-jedanaesterca/621335.aspx

Go to index.hr and read a few of the stories.

Del Bosque, Xavi and Iniesta praising Croatia and the SPANISH newspapers commenting on how Stark saved them two penalties (on Corluka’s shirt pull and slide tackle on Mandzukic) with pictures of both on the front page. -haha, pretty cool.

Another stated that this was the Spain of “old”. I guess we aren’t such homers after all and even the opposing fans see it the way we do.

“Croatia robbed” could also refer to people investing in the country and having to deal with our political class.

Regarding the off-side:

On the first pass, Navas was clearly in an offside position and he clearly gained an advantage on that. He interrupted the play by stopping Pletikosa from approaching Iniesta. In the same way that a player who is interfering with the goalie while being off-side as a teammate shoots on goal.

He cannot establish himself back on-side until the attacking play is over.

@Permutations: Modric was listed in the same sentence as Xavi when he was named to the Euro 2008 starting midfield all-tournament team 4 years ago. He is clearly near the top of the heap at the moment. Real Madrid, Chelsea, and Manchester United don’t throw large amounts of cash at “Mrtvo Puhalos” – Smarten up. Pametan nisi.

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/06/18/spain-1-0-croatia-navas-snatches-late-winner/#more-8930

Pletikosa, Corluka, and Schildenfeld were stout against the #1 ranked country in the world. I am sorry to see the NT exit the tournament. But they generally looked great. If Bilic’s prediction is correct and the NT reaches its peak at WC 2014, we might see another run similar to ’98.

@Bronk,

Seconded on everything you said, I didn’t even get upset at the result because it was really obvious to me that some shady shit went on in this game.

Was the fix ever in with this game. Where to begin here.
16 fouls for Croatia 6 yellow cards. 16 fouls for Spain 0 cards. 2 obvious fouls in the box no PKs. Busquets practically ripped Corlukas shirt off. Why is there a ref behind the net for if an obvious call like that isnt made.
Finally the offside goal. Iniesta handballs the ball to bring it under control, then plays it to Navas who was a kilometer offside. The commentators trying to cover up the obvious blown call claim he wasn’t interfearing with the play. He just put it into an empty net how is that not gaining an advantage? The refs were not about to risk Uefalona Spain getting koed by small Croatia hence no calls.
Why do I get the vibe if we were wearing an England shirt today the result would have been different. We were completely robbed. In the Champions league I saw AC Milan get a PK called against them for a slight shirt tug against Uefalona. Busquets had 2 handfuls of jersey and nothing…what a joke!

@Permutations – How many players have transfered in the last few years at 30-40 million pounds or more? That’s what Luka is looking at. I’m going to believe the people who are putting their money where their mouths are over someone who can’t possibly know anything about soccer. Tell me, what did Xavi do today? Did he touch the ball?

ah ziva lipa pisma, lijepo li je hrvat biti, majko hvala ti!!!!

“Tactically perfect game by Bilic…?”

A 1-1 draw with Spain gets us through to the quarters amid an Italian 2-0 result.

Instead of shooting it out with Spain – and possibly getting some goals – Bilic plays 4-5-1 for appx. 65 minutes against a timid and distinterested Spanish side.

Looks like no one in the stozer understood the permutations; and apparently Bilic thought Ireland would hold Italy to a nula…. hahahaha

Mandzukic player of the match and player of the tournament for Croatia.

The most over-rated player in the world (can’t really fault him, though – Bilic is a mad-man), Lukica “mrtvo puhalo” Modric showed mere flashes of lucidity. However, he is NOWHERE near the top of the heap, and most of you are just plain delusional.

I can count at least 3 sequences where he should have been asking for the ball – he hid instead. Like he hides most of the game.

One nice ball with time to spare with the outside of his foot – i to je sve. No organization, no vision, no drive. And to make matters worse, some of his dribbling in the CENTER of the pitch was unnecessary. Ali treba ici u R. Madrid, ne? Malo morgen!

Schildenfeld and Corluka can be proud of how they played in this tournament. Schildenfeld especially was at a level hes not played at before in his entire career and acquitted himself really well. Frankly he covered for other people a lot of the time and had to deal with most of the pressure. Pletikosa in my opinion also was faultless and as a Croatia players has been one of the stronger performers when it comes to major tournaments.

There isnt really a player who i’d criticise. A while ago i thought Bilic lost his way but he has actually left Croatia with something to build on now. In qualifying he seemed like he didnt know what to do but he found a team in the end which could play well. He managed to actually build a team for us. He cut out all the old players who werent running like Petric and Klasnic and brought in players with hunger.

I am most impressed by Ivan Perisic and Mario Mandzukic from this tournament. I think Perisic was unlucky with a number of fine strikes in this tournament. I thought Perisic being taken out was the mistake we made. Pranjic didnt have any real threat, whereas Perisic could have defended just as well and worked as hard as he did and also threatened the opposition. I think Raki was out of position and i think he did well second half v Italy. The player i was least impressed with was Eduardo and I dont think Jelavic did a great deal in the last two games. I think we will see a better Jelavic next season. But Eduardo and Kranjcar i think need to work harder to get back in the starting eleven. If Jelavic has been ill i also think Kalinic should have been gambled on. He has got goals for us and some of these players look tired towards the end when we could have done with fresh legs.

I think retire Simunic and leave Petric, Olic, Pranjic to the fringes of the squad now and see if any new young players can come through.

Thanks Slaven!

You have made all Croatians proud today.

Bog I Hrvati!

Bilic played the right line-up, and Croatia played almost a perfect game defensively. The were solid with checking and blocking. What irritated me so much is that Croatia just stopped and waited for a call on the Spain goal. Never ever stop! It was so frustrating to see them watching, and that’s why I feel upset, despite their stellar play through out most of the game.

Nobody on the Spanish national team have anything on Modric – World Class. He was visibly tired with 10 minutes left – hands on hips and bending over, but an exceptional performance.

I’ve been watching soccer for the last 50 years -told everyone about Schifo last match and was shot down. He’s not flashy by any means, but very intelligent.

Goal was offside. If Iniesta shot on goal, Navas would not have been eligible for the rebound, so, why is he eligible to recieve a pass?

Excellent tactics by Bilic, he out-coached Del Bosque, but the substitutes did not produce enough/what I expected.

Spain’s defence was very suspect – we didn’t expose them enough. They also almost had to pass the ball into the net to score this entire tournament. Villa was out, Torres most overrated forward in Europe (Ireland game meant nothing, moja Baba could score against them) and nobody else. Champions without a striker. Wow.

Has FIFA allowed shirt-pulling again? Used to be an automatic yellow. Also, when Mandzukic was slid into inside the box, the Spanish player won the ball first, but I thought the rule was changed to a reckless play whether you win the ball or not. Corluka was called for something similiar in the Italy game.

Proud of the team and the fans. Need Jelavic and Perisic to gain more experience and maybe Kovacic will be ready for the next Euros.

Bravo momci! Idemodalje.

At the end of the day, the offside issue is moot. Croatia needed to score.

A part of me was actually hoping Croatia would concede a goal to Spain earlier so Spain would invite Croatia to attack. With Italy only at 1-0, a 1-1 result would have seen us through.

Modric was pure class tonight. That is the player that people rave about.

I thought Vida was out of place in the first 15 minutes. I know I was cursing his name more than once.

Rakitic…. if I remember correclty, was it him that was offside or played the ball to a player offisde in the Turkey match? Just not meant to be today also. But a lesson – they teach you to head the ball down to the ground for a reason.

The future? I think it looks bright. I really do. I think we have two more cycles of Modric. One more of Srna. Perisic will only get better. I like how Vukojevic plays. I thought Strinic was the surprise of the tournament. Vida will improve as will Lovren. Corluka should be around for another two cycles. Rakitic should improve. Some kids floating around that might make the jump. Call me a blind optimist.

@Ziva…is this true…cause even soccernet said it was clearly offside?

Why, Why, Why ?

Bravo momci neka samo naprid everyone said we were a joke and we would get scored on atleat 2 againt italy and spain would score 3 on us Proud performace its sad but life goes on Thanks Bilic hope to se you in the future for us again you have proven that nice play in qualifying means nothing all that matters i getting to tournament where anything is possible, Spain will not reach the finals France or England will beat them mark my words and those guidos who without pirlo will be nothing when he retires all the best but i am not gonna watch unitl the final because platini and uefa make me sick. Bravo momci!

Schildy a possible starter for Croatia in the future? RB: corluka CB: lovren CB schildy LB: strinic

“If it ended 1-1 and italy 2-0 …would we have gone on ??”

Evidently yes. From what I’m seeing elsewhere, after the 2nd Italy goal, a 1-1 result would have put us and Italy through on goal differential?

I don’t think Rakitic had a good game. I thought there were too many balls that he gave away. That said, the way Spain plays it forces you to make sure you are on top of your defensive assignments and I can’t really fault any of our guys for that. But, man of man, if Rakitic could have that header back. What may have been?????

I though Vida looked nervous in the first 15 minutes, but settled down somewhat after he won a few duels and 50/50 balls.

We had a chance, it didn’t happen. We exit with our heads held high.

I wonder how much the bidding war for Modric went up after this game. He can play for any team and any system in the world. Pure class.

Also, a big heads up to some of the guys who were big question marks going in. Schildenfeld played about as good as he can today. Outstanding in my eyes.

I think Slaven Bilic signed too early for Lokomotiv Moskou. With his qualities I could see him coaching for example a team as Tottenham.
But Slaven doesn’t leave a mess behind. Igor Stimac will have talented young players to build a new team. I knew already how talented players as Modric, Rakitic, Srna, Jelavic and Corluka were. But Pleti, Schildenfield, Perisic, Strinic, Vuko and Vida(today) showed there’s much more.
Okay, we’re out but tomorrow at work, we will not be laughed at about our football.

If it ended 1-1 and italy 2-0 …would we have gone on ??

Even excluding the missed goal opportunity, Rakitic was the only player that stood out to me by not stepping it up or doing much of anything. I made a post about “losing confidence” in Rakitic well before the goal attempt. The vast majority of our team seemed to step up, and pleasantly surprise me in some way. Rakitic seemed invisible most of the time.

@Ziva,

We couldn’t have played this game any better. Great strategy, we had the best opportunity for goal, couldn’t put it in. In a game as close as this one, croatia did not have any luck. I gotta start going to church more.

FUCK EU AND UEFA PITCKE CIGANSKE MUCKO DUBRAD SRAM VAS BILO PITCKE AJMO NASI GLAVE GORE

Nervs are shot- I’m proud of the way they played today as well as their time in the tourney.
Lets gear up for WC Qualifiers and watching Luka at Chelsea.
Off to Trogir-

Decki, svaka vam cast!! Boys played well and held their own!

There is not one Spanish player better than Luka Modric. Luka was great today.

Must cheer for the Germans!!!!

And so goes the end of yet another tournament. We might have one more go around at WC 2014 but I don’t see us on the stage after that because our players are slowly getting older. That said, nasa vatra dalje gori. Back to being a dinamovac now

Fifa is corrupt, don’t even sweat it. Two non-call penalties, non-call penalty vs Italy and offside Spanish goal today, JOKE.

Proud of the boys, bravo for the effort and nothing to be ashamed of. It wasn’t in Fifa’s script for us to advance, oh well.

disappionting. but overall I think this team gave everyone a lot more than was expected and showed on any given day they can play with anyone. arguably if croatia knew they didn’t need a goal, they probably could’ve remained more defensive and made that last spanish goal much tougher to come by. world cup next. new coach. we still have a lot of players that are you and coming up (mandzukic, jelavic, perisic, rakitic (still only 22 or 23), vida, strinic (who showed some big positive signs this tournament) and a core that remains still in there prime (modric, srna, corluka).

hats of to schindenfeld, played a great game. Luka modric played exceptional. Jebiga, can’t wait for world cup qualifiers. We will have a great team for WC as well. I will be in brazil 2014, if anyone wants to meet me there ur more than welcome.

i saw no offsides

A valiant effort momci. They clearly gave it everything they had… you can’t ask for much more. They had so many “almost” chances, but in the end you make your own luck, and we probably made ours in the qualifiers when we put ourselves in position to end up in a group with Italy and Spain. Nevertheless, nothing to be ashamed of. Uvijek vijerni, za dom spremni

FYI, watching the post game and they’re not showing the Spanish goal from the LINE. It’s offsides, and that German POS Ballach(sp.) is a lying sack of shit.

When Croatia gets points taken away from WC qualifying b/c of “raaacism”, it’s NOT b/c of “raaacism”, it’s b/c of pussies like Toronto Croatia who repeat anti-white lines we’ve all heard tens of thousands of times – that is what is an embarrassment.

Svim govnima koji opravdavaju UEFA/FIFA-u jebem majku po sred picke (vi znate tko ste). Jebo vam Michel Platini majku. Jebo vam sudac majku, sestre i cijeli zenski rod.

Djubrad jedna, ulizivacka. Jebo vam Iniesta majku. Rukom, s kojom je skinuo loptu u sestnaestercu.

I posebno vam Balotelli jebo majku. Bananom.

Govna ulizivacka. Dobili ste sto ste trazili.

Great game, we played the best game we could play. If we convert on our few chances this game is much difference. Jebiga, bravo momci, dobri ste igrali.

Game over, yeah we got fucked.

BUT I think our boys played awesome.

Time to execute the 2-2 gameplan

They’re both off sides.

LOOK AT THE FOUL ON CORLUKA

Put in Da Silva!!

Let’s go Ireland 🙁

@CroRupt Pranjic is working his ass off, so shut your cockholster.

ughh fuck!! so close

pranjic is a scrub

Please God!! We need to win not just survive!!

wow just checked the stats. spain had 77% possession. even worse than i thought. lets hope they can catch lightning in a bottle!

good result, defense is looking strong. The only problem is we need a win. Lets go out there this half and play offensive, we can beat these fools

I usually try not to start blaming the ref, but this guy is calling every little thing on us, and nothing on Spain. When you start to consider our bigger size and physicality, mixed in with some aggression fueled by tiki-taka frustration, with a ref half-cocked to call fouls on us… not good. However, we are bending but not breaking well, and working in some counters. Just need to do better

Someone needs to stuff a flare up this refs ass.

Crap. Goal Italy

Damnit Mandzukiću! quit rolling around!

Can the Amerikwan announcer be more pro-Spain? Is that possible?

And can we get a call?

Ajmo momci! Let’s complete some passes and string something together. Spain playing their game as expected so far.

Oh fuck me, not the damn flares again.

stupid decision taking out jelavic, but even more stupid is taking out Perisic

You may be right BostonCro… sorry, I quickly realized I may have jumped the gun on that… anyway… I still like the inclusion of Pranjic!

I know this is only a football game but it’s difficult to see it that way now. Come on, Hvratska(and Ireland)!

Good Luck everyone!! Daj Boze!!! Even @allen is sounding positive.

I too like the inclusion of Pranjic.

The man’s looking for a club… no better opportunity for him to go out and earn a contract with a new club.

i hope your right!

yea it seems like switching too much. i like having talent on the field. your switching a guy who won player of the month in england (jelavic) and one of the most efficient players in the bundeslig despite limited action (perisic) for an hnl player(vida) and a guy who couldn’t get off the bench in the bundeslig (pranjic). i really really hope my concerns are unfounded, but i have my doubts about these moves

Official Lineup

http://pic.twitter.com/e3XYO8p6

NEMA STRAHA
NEMA PREDAJE
AJMO HRVATSKA!!!!

Starting lineups announced. A few changes to our lineup.

Spain: Casillas, Piqué, Ramos, Arbeloa, Alba, Iniesta, Xavi, Alonso, Busquets, Silva, Torres SUBS: Valdés, Reina, Albiol, Martínez, Juanfran, Fàbregas, Cazorla, Navas, Rodríguez, Negredo, Mata, Llorente.

Croatia: Pletikosa, Strinić, Ćorluka, Schildenfeld, Vida, Pranjić, Rakitić, Vukojević, Modrić, Srna, Mandžukić SUBS: Kelava, Subašić, Šimunić, Buljat, Vrsaljko, Badelj, Dujmović, Kranjčar, Perišić, Jelavić, Kalinić, Eduardo.

Looks like no changes to the lineup from the previous matches

@ziva – all great points.

I am shaking . I hope we have big pride to beat espania

@Ziva it is our duty as humans to rage against that machine. You seem to accept it to easily. Its wrong and we need to speak out. BTW what evil one world shadow group runs uefa and Fifa?

So THIS is the attrocious behaviour for which UEFA has punished the Danish player?! I thought it was something like headbutting or racially abusing an opponent… nope. It seems it was far more serious than that — he stepped on a sponsor’s toes.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/soccer/article/1212981–euro-2012-danish-striker-nicklas-bendtner-fined-100-000-euros-for-underwear-revealing-rival-sponsor

@ManDingo……….but, that is how the world works. Money = power. It may not be right, but that is how things function. Would you disagree with that?

@ Ziva

Your position has no merit. Basically what you said is that the rich dont go to jail the poor do. This is against all notions of freedom, human rights and equality. You come across as a typical Republican. I really want Croatia to stick it to UEFA and win today. That would be so sweet. Also do we really want to become limp-wristed Western Europeans who will be extinct in about two to three generations.

@ziva

Could’nt agree more with your points on what the savez should be doing, and i bet your right when you say they have’nt done anything.

Its just sad that our idiot fans gave them (UEFA) the opportunity.

@shinobi…..I agree with that. Are we held to a different set of standards than Spain or some of the bigger nations. Of course. But, that is part of life. And it is expected.

I made the analogy earlier that its no different than a partner at a law firm and a first-year associate. The partner at the law firm probably brings in and bills more money for the firm, so when he fucks up you look at it differently than when the first-year associate fucks up. The partner is a more valuable partner to the firm than a first-year associate. Same thing here with UEFA. Spain means more to UEFA than we do. That is why we (our fans) need to realize that we should never give them (UEFA) a reason to even consider giving us any punishment.

My point is this: the savez needs to do a better job in policing and educating our fans. Be creative in their thinking. here is a simple idea….the savez should set up a text number where fans can send a text message if they witness idiotic behavior. Let us know the section where it is taking place. We see this all over the place at US sporting events. There are other similar measures that can be taken. I am not saying this will stop some hercegovac (wink-wink) from throwing a banana next time. But, the savez can then at least go back to UEFA and explain all the measures they have taken to combat bad fan behavior. Then you can ask UEFA for their help and explain to them we have taken these 15 measures and nothing has worked. Please help us find a solution. I’m willing to bet our savez has not done much to encourage good behavior and not done much to stamp out bad behavior.

looks like jelavic is healthy again. returned to practice yesterday and scored a goal in their scrimage.

@Ziva

Yes you were wrong. UEFA is a joke, at least you are man enough to admit it this time.

I still agree with you that that sort of behavior is wrong (ape sounds, jeering of anthems, banana throwing). Rascism has no place in sports.
But if they want to make an example of our country there needs to be more consistency and deal with everyone equally. Not just sweep it under the rug because they are the spainish, and label us rascists because we are small croatia.

We need to put some speed up front and attack if we want a result with the Spaniards. Get some speed going and spread out spain on the field so they cant start working there one two passes/give and gos. Force them to play long ball soccer. Lets hope Ireland pull off some magic to.

If we are attack-minded like we were in the 2nd half against Italy, worst case scenario I believe is we’ll come out with a tie.

If we come out like we did in the FIRST half against Italy, we’re looking at a 3 goal loss since a lot of those shots they missed, the Spaniards would have finished.

We are not like the Greeks where we can put 11 men behind the ball and pull out a tie as Spain would rip us to shreds. If we go out in the first round, let’s go out at least trying.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/soccer/wires/06/18/2080.ap.soc.euro.2012.bendtner.banned.1st.ld.writethru.0240/index.html

Look at the fine and suspension given to Bendtner for his underwear stunt. He got fined more for his actions that UEFA fines teams and fans for improper conduct.

You know what guys, I may have been wrong. Here I am thinking we need to behave better and then I read how UEFA decides to punish Bendtner compared to other punishments.

F Uefa….Long Live Croatia….To battle we ride!!!!

Damn iPad spell check pisses me off

Luka Modric will be starring in the next Marvel comics-based action flick as the Invisible man.

http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/Euro-2012/tabid/342/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/178136/Default.aspx

Modric to real madrid?

I think Vida as a central defender is a good move. Shildenfeld looked weak against smaller and faster players in the game against Italy. And Croatia cannot afford to concede an early goal against Spain and let them dictate the game. I would however start with Jelavic because he and Mandzo are great at holding the ball with backs to the goal. But regardless, in order to beat Spain all the Croatian players need to play that perfect game both tactically and individually. An early goal for Croatia changes everything. Good luck to Croatia ! Pain for Spain !

sad ce svit vidit kako kuca hrvatsko srce!!!

@Ana
I meant “said” not “sad”
Although “sad” does kind of work there 🙂

calm down guys, bilic has thrown in vida for defensive duties as we should hold the tie for at least the start of the second half. Then if we can handle it, take off vida, put srna at rb, and bring on jelavic…no big deal. The most important thing is to not let up a goal early. if we concede, spain will play possesion ball the entire game and score 2 more while were chasing the game. I’m liking what bilic is doing and feel we have criticised him too much. God bless croatia and ireland

AZ,

are u on crack, simunic is slower then schindenfeld

GOOD LORD! Vida starting in the biggest game, this is why I’ll never miss Slaven Billc! Why change things that aren’t broken? Vida against those dribblers on Spain is a card waiting to happen.

Thanks Tibor. We might need the Hungary team out there with us on the pitch. I hear Modric is playing off Mandzo to get another midfielder in? But really, do we want someone to come in who hasn’t even played a minute of the tournament so far? And against the best team in europe at that. Jelavic didn’t get many chances, but he worked hard for the team, and combined well with Mario. Bit disappointed because Luka hasn’t exactly set the place alight in the middle, so giving him less ball in a more forward position sounds pretty silly.We now rely on more defensive midfielders to spray the ball from the back, and have one less attacking player in a game we really need to score 2-3 goals in just to draw I’d think? And with 35-40% possession that will be tricky.We need 2 strikers out there, and with 60 minutes gone I’m sure we’ll have the whole lot out there, including dudu. Come on Ireland!!!

Idemo Decki!!!

I really hope Bilic doesn’t play Vida at right back as some people are hinting he may. Till now Srna at RB and Rakitic at RW were doing well, I wouldn’t change that. However, I’d play Vida at CD instead of Schildenfeld. I think Schildenfeld is Croatia’s weakest link. What a disaster the first half against Italy was. How many people thing Vida would be better at CD?