TENNIS
After a disappointing French Open for Croatians, Donna Vekić and Marin Čilić have been showing good form on grass as Wimbledon looms one week away.
16 year old Donna Vekić advanced to her second WTA final at the AEGON Classic in Birmingham, England, falling short for the second time, but picking up her two most impressive career victories up to this point. She defeated #38 Ula Radwanska 6-3, 6-2 in the second round, and bested that performance with a 6-2, 6-1 win over #23 Sorana Cirstea. In the final, Donna fell just short to Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova, 6-7 (5), 4-6. After falling in the first set tiebreak, she managed to stay on serve in the second before Daniela got the winning break at 4-5. Donna was disappointed, but all smiles after the loss. After her great week, she will move up over 25 places in the WTA rankings, to an all-time high of #63.
“I have mixed emotions right now. I can’t be happy after losing a match, but it was a great week for me and I’m happy I could reach the finals. And I gave it my all today – maybe it wasn’t my best tennis, but it was the best I could do today, and Daniela was just the better player out there. I was happy to be playing the finals – hopefully I’ll have many more matches like that.” –Donna Vekić
“She’s a very talented girl. She moves very well and has a great serve, and that makes her play very well on grass. I haven’t seen her play on the other surfaces, but she has a great team around her and I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot about her.” -AEGON Champion, Daniela Hantuchova
Marin Čilić was nearly successful in his title defense at the Aegon Championships in London, ultimately falling short to world #2 Andy Murray in the final. Marin will be confident going into Wimbledon after beating #6 Thomas Berdych in the quarterfinals and taking a set off of hometown favorite Murray.
“[Čilić] is one of the best grass court players in the world. We’ve had a lot of very close matches. I was lucky to come through in the end; he was playing very good tennis, especially towards the end of the second set.” -Andy Murray
“It was an extremely great week for me. I enjoyed all my matches. It wasn’t easy, I had some tough fights. I hope I’m going to continue with my good form.” –Marin Čilić
Čilić Interview
BASKETBALL
The preliminary round of EuroBasket Women 2013 is underway, with Croatia faced against Belarus, Czech Republic, and Lithuania in Group D. They were victorious against Lithuania in their first game, with an 89-77 win and fell to Belarus 43-57 on Sunday. Croatia’s final preliminary match is against the Czech Republic on Monday. Jelena Ivečić leads the team with 12.5 points per game, and 6 rebounds per game. The top three teams in the group advance to the “Main Round”, where they join another three teams, with points carrying over. The top four from that group advance to the quarterfinals. The top five teams in the tournament will qualify for next year’s FIBA World Championships.
Croatia-Lithuania Highlights
19 year old Dario Šarić has elected to spend one more year in Europe before heading to the NBA, and has withdrawn from this year’s draft. His agent, Marc Cornstein, explained the decision: “With another season of experience, he’ll guarantee a higher spot in the draft and a bigger role with the team that drafts him”. Dario was projected as a late lottery pick in the draft, which will be held on June 27th.
MMA
Stipe Miočić and Igor Pokrajać both fought in UFC 161 on Saturday night, with Stipe picking up a big win over highly touted Roy Nelson.
SOCCER
- Dejan Lovren has signed with Southampton. Full story here: link
- La Liga club Granada purchased Ivan Kelava from Dinamo Zagreb at the end of May. The move will pit one of Croatia’s few young goalkeepers against the world’s best.
- Ivan Rakitić has been linked to a move to Liverpool, who may be in the market for an attacking midfielder. link
- Lokomotiv Moscow manager and ex-Croatia boss Slaven Bilić has has ended his managerial duties with the Russian club and his future is unknown.
- Zenit St. Petersburg and Fenerbahce are rumored to have put in bids for Lokomotiv Moscow defender Vedran Ćorluka.
HANDBALL
The Croatian men’s handball team qualified for the 2014 European Championships this week, after winning their group with a 5-1 record. The championships will be played next January in Denmark.
@Horvat, agreed with the performance in Osijek against Wales. I think Ziva was referring to the performance in Wales where we were lucky to win…
I have to disagree with you Ziva. I think Croatia’s performance against Wales in Osjek was great. I don’t remember when was the last time the repka played so well in a qualifier against a weak opponent.
I think that game and possibly the first half against Serbia was the only solid performance under Stimac.
After the first Wales game I got my hopes high. I was hoping that was going to be the begining of good times under Stimac. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened.
I always wished we could of brought in Srecko Katanec as coach. Granted, he’s not that foreign and the HNS could of brought him in for a decent price, but he would be a definite upgrade over the current crop of coaches we have. I know years back we had him all but sealed to become the NT manager but of course with all the politics and BS, we ended up with someone else… Baric was it?
Will have to see Stimac’s overall body of work, so far we have this:
Best performance so far: tie in Belgium
Everythign else has been gifted wins (Serbs gifted us two goals) or doing just enough to beat lower tier teams. Have we really bean that impressive against Macedonia, Wales and Scotland. This is still very much a work in prgress, which makes me laugh at that no. 4 FIFA ranking.
Cro doesn’t have good coaches like some other countries do.
Personally, I prefer Stimac over Bilic.
Poklepovic’s time has passed. He never did anything outside of Cro/Yugo.
easier to understand.
Goto Statistics-Managers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_national_soccer_team
for those of you still following this thread:
Managers[edit]
Before Croatia’s independence distinct Croatian football federations and teams were occasionally formed separately from the official Yugoslavian organisations. Ivo Kraljević served as the manager of the initial federation, established in 1939, and organised non-sanctioned matches played by unofficial national squads up to 1956.[16] These temporary sides, playing non-competitive fixtures, were led by seven different managers.[note 5]
Statistically, Dražan Jerković and Vlatko Marković are the most successful managers in Croatia’s history; they both recorded victories in each of their few games in charge. Miroslav Blažević, who was the team’s first official manager, holds the highest number of competitive victories, having led Croatia to their best performances at major international tournaments.
Name Tenure Played Won Drawn Lost Win % Points per game[note 6] Major tournaments
Dražan Jerković 1990–1991 3 3 0 0 100.00 3.00
Stanko Poklepović 1992 4 1 1 2 25.00 1.00
Vlatko Marković 1993 1 1 0 0 100.00 3.00
Miroslav Blažević 1994–2000 72 33 24 15 45.83 1.71 1996 Euro – Quarter-final
1998 World Cup – Third place
Tomislav Ivić (caretaker)[note 7] 1994 1 1 0 0 100.00 3.00
Mirko Jozić 2000–2002 18 9 6 3 50.00 1.83 2002 World Cup – Group stage
Otto Barić 2002–2004 24 11 8 5 45.83 1.70 2004 Euro – Group stage
Zlatko Kranjčar 2004–2006 25 11 8 6 44.00 1.64 2006 World Cup – Group stage
Slaven Bilić 2006–2012 65 42 15 8 64.62 2.17 2008 Euro – Quarter-final
2012 Euro – Group stage
Igor Štimac 2012– 9 6 1 3 66.66 2.11
Totals 223 118 63 42 53.15 1.87
@Ivan the Red,
What are you on about? What? Because Cico used Modric for 20 mins during a World Cup, he has gigantic balls? PLEASE!?!?!
Look, I really like Cico and he had a GREAT qualifying campaign, but his style was WAY TOO predictable. Always going down the wings… Perhaps, he didn’t have too many options, because his son (whom I think was a very good player) was manning the midfield?
Then, Cico adds a useless player like Bosnjak to the team and Eduardo is not even invited? I understand hindsight is always 20/20, but c’mon?!?!?
So, Cico takes Croatia to the WC (and cannot even make it out of group stage while having Japan and Australia in the group). Bilic took Croatia to two Euros and almost made the semi final in one (while beating a finalist in group play), and everyone knows the Euros is a tougher tourney.
Their respective records speak for themselves.
@nije bitno,
I think Stanko is a very good coach and I believe he already coached CRO a long time ago, although he had a pretty bad record. Something like 1 win, 1 tie and two losses…
@ Ziva, do you think Poklepovic would be a good candidate to coach the NT?
@T.o Cro
What are you on about? Bilic had the balls to use younger players?
Cico may have had a disaster of a world cup but atleast he got there.
Can bilic say the same?
Cico did use younger players, he played modric before bilic and at the world cup of all places. So you cant use that argument that bilic had balls to use younger players. By that logic cico had some gigantic balls to use an inexpierenced younging at the biggest stage of all.
Granted it was out of desperation but he was used against australia in their WC exit.
@Iggy
What has playing guitar got to do with coaching? and how do you know that us freaks cant play.
@Ziva istina
Exactly what i was saying.
because a legit coach, especially one from the outside, wont have to answer to Mamic. This way, Mamic gets what he wants (force feed guys like Sammir so they can be sold).
we just keep sending novices/clowns to coach the NT…
rather than have class acts/good footballing minds like Ivic, Kuze, etc.
the HNS hires guys like Bilic, Stimac and Otto Baric
mark my words, the next guy in line once Stimac fails to qualify for a tournament or has a major blunder will be Niko Kovac – another manager with hardly any experience and who conveniently is in cahoots with Mamic
I know its politics… but fuck man, why can’t someone with half a brain at the HNS, spend a little extra and hire a legitimate NT coach (Croatian or foreign)
well i already psoted the full fight of stipe and nelson elsewhere but if anyone still wanted a working link:
http://www.fightvideomma.com/2013/06/roy-nelson-vs-stipe-miocic-fight-video.html
why are u guys on beating in Bilic..
HE CAN PLAY GUITAR
can u freaks do that?
NO !!
BTW, Bilic is the apparent frontrunner to coach the Polish national team and may have to take that route before returning to club football, after the debacle at Lokomotiv.
Sure, Bilic’s stock is down, but we have to give him credit after Cico’s disaster of a WC run. We could argue Cico qualified with a lesser team, but Bilic had the intelligence/balls to give the younger guys a chance. He has the best record of all repka coaches, as well. I think the team went downhill after Zuti went to coach the cetniks at red star and is currently our best young coach…
Unfortunately, the late Kuze never got a shake, but those are the politics-sigh!
RIP Josip Kuze…
@Dejan the video is private
Full fight of Stipe Miocic & Roy Nelson right here!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2KDR2ULdPFE#!
lol
How many people said this after we beat England twice?
@Zachy Gilfix
Raptore already posted that link (glushakov blasts bilic)
But it is relevant, because it confirms what most of us already knew. That mr. Slaven Bilic cannot coach.
http://news.yahoo.com/little-joy-croatia-enters-eu-135944160.html
Hey,no dissing of NK Zadar allowed – check out this list of former players:
Vladimir Balić
Leonardo Barnjak
Mate Baturina
Josip Begonja
Saša Bjelanović
Dragan Blatnjak
Mate Brajković
Jurica Buljat
Marijan Buljat
Ivan Ćurjurić
Hrvoje Ćustić
Damjan Gajser
Mirko Grabovac
Tvrtko Kale
Antonio Ježina
Zvonimir Jurić
Marin Ljubičić
Ferdo Milin
Luka Modrić
Antonio Mršić
Dado Pršo
Tomislav Rogić
Đovani Roso
Ivan Santini
Josip Skoblar
Zvonimir Soldo
Danijel Subašić
Jakov Surać
Mate Šestan
Fahrudin Šehić
Marin Tomasov
Zoran Varvodić
Dalibor Zebić
Dragan Župan
I still don’t get how one jumps from Croatian powerhouses Zadar to the Bundesliga…?
now that I’m poking around, I do like Zadar’s new grb… when did that happen? that old grb was probably the most boring grb in the HNL.
safe to say Santini wont be heard from ever again.
Ivan Santini left Freiburg for Belgian side Kv Kortrijk. Kortrijk normally finish between place 6 and 12 in the Belgian first league.
RIP Josip Kuze
Kuze, RIP
Yep, Kuze was one of the good guys in Croatian soccer.
RIP JOSIP KUZE
Played and coached for the fans and not the uprava. Pocivaj u miru Bozjem Joza!
I ja bit cu sa tobom i u nebo kad udem
the title of this report is all wrong, shouldn;t it read, “Croatians Around Europe- Sammir Edition”?
@Ziva
Bilic just doesn’t have the necessary long term English football experience or depth of contacts to land a pundit’s role with the BBC or Sky in the UK on premier league TV coverage. At most he might get wheeled out for occasional international tournament TV coverage such as the next World Cup if an “exotic” foreign analyst is required, but even that’s unlikely in my view.
After failure in Russia, his best bet will be to land a job coaching in the UAE, Turkey or the far east, especially if he wants to build up his bank account further.
“The coach introduced us some exercises but I guess they were not good enough. And I cannot explain the team’s playing style under Bilic. I have a respect for all my previous coaches. I have complemented every coach in my old interviews because they all have taught me something. Bilic is a decent man but not a good coach. With all due respect, I can say that he did not teach me something new in terms of tactics and techniques. This is the first coach who failed to teach me anything. This is a professional response and it’s nothing personal,” – Loko midfielder Denis Glushakov
http://blogs.bettor.com/Glushakov-blasts-Bilic-and-rules-out-potential-move-to-Spartak-from-Lokomotiv-Moscow-Football-news-a216724
Good deal for Bilic. I think by letting him go, Bilic is due 6 million Euros from Lokomotiv.
Bilic’s next move should be to try to gain a role as a soccer analyst on one of the TV stations in England. Build up his profile and then latch on to some job in England. I still think he will one day be hired by an premier league side.
Bilic to Real Madrid!
Here’s a brief synopsis of why our teams and athletes have “Hrvatska” and “Croatia” on their jerseys, an not serbia or yugopizdaland or serbian symbols on them. Too lenient on the serb sickness factor I think though because lots of info was left out in the 90 min video covering 1500 yrs, it should have spent more time on the serb complexes, their ethno-serbo obsessions, overcompensating kleptomanias and their serbo-mythmaking complex obsessions. English subtitles so you dont have to bug mom and dad to translate for you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUpgUGA2wbo&feature=youtu.be
@Zach
That’s a great idea to start doing a weekly round up of Croatian sports around Europe.
Just something to think about for next season perhaps but how about including a brief wrap up of how the Croatian clubs in the BiH league are doing, like Zrinjski, Siroki and now Vitez? Zrinjski and Siroki will both be playing in the Europa League next year apparently.
4 goals in 200 games prolly more goals that arent tap ins than any of our current strikers tho
you EEEEDDIIOOOOTTSS
my point is thus:
HE IS THE ONLY PERSON ON OUR TEAM THAT CAN SHOOT
ARE YOU NUMBSKULLS ALL FORGETTING HIS GOAL VS WALES ??
Give the man a chance he definitely has the potential to be better than suarez plus hes unlikely to try eating the other players
He’s not even a goal-scoring centerback, lol. He has 4 goals in almost 200 games
@ Iggy
“and DEJAN LOVREN will yet become our star striker !”
when did Dejan Lovren ever see time at forward/striker…?
Bilic > Maurinho
Lovren > Neymar
well said @Ivan the Red,
@iggy .. here’s an article that might give you a players insight to Bilic’s Tactical coaching
http://blogs.bettor.com/Glushakov-blasts-Bilic-and-rules-out-potential-move-to-Spartak-from-Lokomotiv-Moscow-Football-news-a216724
Bilić? Are you guys fucken insane?
Let me get this straight you want the guy whom couldn’t get us to south africa, to heroically come back and lead us to brazil? am i missing something?
I dont think so. I mean he may be a better option than stimać but in no way is he a good coach. Ask lokomotiv if he can coach.
Bilić is not the answer.
The solution would be to wield the proverbial axe and cut the serpents heads off that run the savez.
~Iggy. “bilić is the best coach ever”
“Cico” Kranjčar, “Ciro” Blazevic, and Otto Barić were all better coach’s than bilić.
Kranjčar, and Barić had far less talent to work with and still managed to qualify with relative ease.
Bilić had his moments in 07/08 but after the initial honeymoon period was over it went south, apart from maybe the turkey (revenge) game, his cv doesn’t give you much to applaud.
Croatia need a coach whom wont bow down to mamic and co.
Bilić was just as bad as stimać when it came to bending to their (savez) will.
should start an online petition..
draft LOVREN into a striking role for the repka.. lol.. so far he’s the only guy ive seen score a ranged goal for us
lol.. what’s worring is that im only half joking.. i mean..
As has been well discussed.. we do struggle to score goals outside of corners free kicks etc.. i cant rememebnr us creating too many goals with good interplay.. the 2nd goal against wales maybe is the last i recall but it doesnt happen often..
so exactly as u said why the heck not.. as they say abou tAFL here .. just chuck the magnets up in the air and wherever they land on the board thats where u play..
who knows maybe Mandzukic could be a great goalie ! LOLOL
lol iggy you sure got a hard on for lovren becoming striker… at this point why the heck not
maybe stimac gets hit by a bus and bilic heroically comes back and takes us to the promise land
Bilic is the best coach EVER
and DEJAN LOVREN will yet become our star striker !
Well done Zach!
Rakitic likes it in Spain, especially since his gfriend/wife is spanish. I dont see him leaving any time soon.
I didnt think that Bilic would last in Russia. I wonder where he will end up next?
Lovren is excited about the transfer and has supposedly started training the day after he heard the news. Hopefully, the transfer will motivate Dejan and he will produce in England as well all know that we are thin in defense.
Am I the only one that hopes that Bilic comes back to Croatia?
agree with the above sentiments, i didnt know about womens tennis, basketball or handball at all so regular updates would be great
I would LOVE to add track and field. I’ve been watching Perkovic absolutely obliterate the Diamond League so far this year, she has the three longest throws in 2013. Vlasic is back, still regaining her form, and there’s a younger Croatian high jumper who’s up-and-coming, Ana Simic.
also, if Rakitic were to go to Liverpool. Who would teach him how to head the ball?????
A weekend summary of all cro sports activity is a good idea. I know some of us follow this stuff all the time, but I am sure there are a good number of people who are unaware the handball team or the female bball team was in action this week.
May I suggest you also add track and field since Vlasic is back and we have that big chick (Perkovic??) in one of the field events