Everything that could go wrong for the Vatreni at Euro 2024, did go wrong.
-2.5XG vs. Spain (0 goals)
-concede 95th minute equalizer to Albania
-concede 98th minute equalizer to Italy
-miss 2 penalty kicks in the tournament
-Petković scores off missed penalty, Perišić called for encroachment
Were the tactics and starting XI that put in place a recipe for success? Absolutely not. But at the same time, this Croatia team ran into dead end after dead end of chanced to go through to the Round of 16. It just wasn’t meant to be.
Guys the fix was in from the beginning. I wrote about this back in December and again before the game.
The EXACT same script was used in 2012-right down to the controversial refereeing in the final game. Don’t you guys see a pattern here?
Seven yellow cards, eight minutes of extra time and soft foul after soft foul.
The fix was in.
Why wasn’t Vida brought in (instead of Ivanusec, Majer or JJ) to shore up the defensive in extra time ?
He would have been perfect to slot in b/w Stanisic and Sutalo
Exactly…Dalic brought so many attacking midfielders to the tournement: Ivanusec, Vlasic, Majer, Sucic, Mario Pasalic, Kramaric. Where were the WAR DOGS to shore up the defense? To protect the 1-0 Lead?
His answer was to bring on Ivanusec and Majer.
No Jakic or Petar Sucic.
Dalic was just wasting time, he told his players to waste time he was just hoping that time would run out and it did. He got fucked over in the same way 2 games in a row. He’s a charlatan not a coach but whatever. He’s not gonna lose the job.
Vida was Injured
Ante/team –
Something Anonymous has caught re: the “missed” penalties (which nobody has mentioned yet)
Pls check the tape and see for yourself (u won’t believe it) – let’s start w/ Modric “missed” penalty
Croatia lined-up 3 players on the right-side that Modric shot the penalty (Buck Teeth Bambi Budimir, Sucic and Stanisic) all making a full-out/hard run as Modric ran up to & struck the ball (vs. 5 Italians) – on the other side we only had Gvardiol who was strolling in (vs. 5 Italians)
Donna knew what side Modric was going to shoot – based on the configuration of our other players (3 right-side vs. 1 left-side)
As an aside, Buck Teeth Bambi Budimir encroaches by two steps (so even if the penalty went in it wouldn’t have counted)
Not convinced ?
Now – look at the Petkovic penalty – it was the exact same thing – but in reverse – we had 3 players running full-out/hard on the left-side as Petkovic makes his up to & strikes the ball vs. only one player strolling on the right-side
So – all the teams/goalies have to do to scout our penalties is not even care about the shooter’s tendencies (ironically) – they just look what side we have 3 (and running hard) vs. 1 (strolling) and know the penalty is going that way, lol
Embarrassing really
I guess this is on the 3 nose pickers we have for assistant coaches who are so primitive in their tactics – that they can’t even figure out – how to line-up our players for a penalty without giving it away to the opposing keeper (before our penalty taker even takes his first step up towards the ball), lol
Would be interesting if someone goes further back to our other penalties – and sees if this has been the case for awhile and if so for how long
But obviously if Anonymous has picked it up – I’m sure every team has by now
Dalic is staying. Been confirmed a few hours ago by HNS
omg muppets, these old asses still stinking up holding back our muli talented youth, just fuck off and let the younger generation through no more dumb dalic .
Czechs vs Turkey, Czechs need to win. If they don’t Romania plays Slovenia, and if the Czechs win, Romania plays the Netherlands. Czech guys gets two yellows in the first 20 minutes and gets sent off. Interesting right, until you find out the ref is Romanian. Hilarious!
With 2 pts and -3 goal differential…This was the WORST performance by Croatia in any tournament! Let that sink in for a second.
So many things that could go wrong, did in fact go wrong. But there was poor preparation, Dalic’s insistance on his favorites playing, the same formation 4-3-3 formation, players often playing out of position. etc..
I think Dalic is a good coach, and we can thank him for the medals in the last few years. His ability to manage egos, establish a positive vibe in the team, and get the best out his players….. But this campaign went sideways. The losses to Wales and Turkey were kinks in the armour, a sign of things to come.
Whether it’s gonna be Dalic or another coach, they have their work cut out for them. They gotta think about which vets stay on, which youth to play, and whats the right set up. We can’t continue like this.
Dalic should be allowed one more cycle to USA/ Canada 2026. But is he the man for a younger crew? He was very zen for the Modric crew in their prime. But now its a new project. We shall see. Can he integrate Sucic, Baturina and others? He tends to like older more experienced players.
At the same time.. Majer needs to up his game this season. Sucic needs a better league. And who is our younger strikers? Will they move to better leagues??
@ Tuđman
Juranovic was exactly brought in to stop that play.
He is running towards three of our players in the box and leaves that dude all by himself.
I am still dumbfounded what the heck he is running after?
Ball watching.
Stanisic has come of age and will continue to improve.
We are actually well positioned going forward.
That’s why even though the ref was shit that should not be the talking point for us. What was he thinking? He doesn’t deserve to be raked over the coals cause he’s one of us and he plays with his heart but what was he thinking? why did he do that? WHAT WAS HE DOING?
The ref added 8 mins and handed out 7 yellow cards. Does anyone think he would have blown the whistle for time had that goal not gone in? Guys the fix was in. It followed the same script as 2012.
What on God’s earth was Juranovic doing? He was like a Magarac in the field with no clue where to go. And let’s not forget slow as Molasses Brozovic and Majer who let Califiori burst right past them. They couldn’t even make a cynical foul on him, for cryin’ out loud!
Does anyone know if Juranovic was interviewed after the game? I can’t find anything.
Well Dalić is staying
Love the move.
He changed the team once already from 18′ to 22′
He’ll do it again
he needs to go Dalic ,needs to be moved on ,hes not a visionary in anyway ,he is past his use by date he will be moved they will be looking.
Is this Croatian jersey on eBay legit?
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/226207888858?itmmeta=01J1AQFPV5XJ35X5RFV7PJMVP1&hash=item34ab0a75da:g:KJMAAOSwmlBmd2CT&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4L44ntrec6gVqpE4Fqb59z7q7r%2BC%2FPkEIdOwrSKrjuqoLN1HfqaeAiFU7Qt%2F%2Bvldasx7cmgh%2FCINyI%2BPvOuInuLXSxcarPskq%2FsJpaZfwONSxt%2ByMDTJZldt6Ab2eGa1E7tZBfGm477haV0X0TlTF8QeT0R7p5hinBN8Ux1vvwZpFBAg6axtlNLwLAwAsyh7VFWXdR45akpjXlUy79wXd69YhoFfDloSlTC3Rw5wtuRbbvZ0vMYB%2F6tSRt1EWo%2Bo9F%2Fk7KGPZ3zBpeQs8L7ND9nPX6es9D44l641pttCsJWu%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9rtvteKZA&autorefresh=true
I am confused because the back of the jersey is different from what I remember and the pictures of Croatian players on the internet I’ve seen during euro 2012. Images of the croatian players from Euro 2012 show the back without any checkers between the name and collar, but this one has checkers between the player’s name and the collar.
@mknight stay away from eBay a lot of shady phony stuff buyer beware
Need to say it because they were often criticized but Lovren and Vida would not have let our defense fall apart like that. When they were around we were consistently tight and reliable defensively. But many wanted them gone, sometimes me too, because they were offensively hapless. Dalic should have put Vida in at the end of both Albania and Italy matches.
Well, all the stuff we are complaining a lot is the easy to fixes.
For starters this day forward: Luka Sucic and Marco Pasalic, and Miroslav Orsic should be starters.
Always, Always, always, let your best Penalty kicker do the penalty shots.
I am sorry that is not Modric, Petkovic, Majer, or Kovacic.
We should always have either Kramaric, Sucic, or Orsic in the game to specifically kick penalty shots. Games come down to penalty kicks.
The captain does not have to be your PKer , nor does it have to go to the one that the offense was directed to. Petkovic might be the penalty kicker on Dinamo, but he should not be for the national team.
95% of the time Modric goes for the left corner. I knew what he was thinkin’, he had to switch it up for this all-important kick. Unfortunately, so did the goalie.
The first thing I said when the handball happened, please don’t let Modric take it. He puts on a brave face, but he too knows he is terrible at it.
I’m still trying to get over that Juranovic was brought in as a 5th defender to prevent the exact play that happened.
Worse then that is his complete lack of positioning/understanding & his jogging around like a lost dog-ball watching as a guy is completely OPEN on his side ??
It will take a lifetime to forget, but at least the Turkey loss is farther in our rear-view mirror, and we have this one to take its place.
Even farther, the lack defense in 98′ ,where the Thuram scored 2 goals never to score again. That still haunts me, and we still honored Bilic to be our coach. That should have been our first WC championship of two.
I think the key is not to overreact. In all of the tournaments where we did well we got bounces, calls and situations that went our way. One I can think of off hand is Perisic’s tying goal vs England in 2018. I was very surprised he wasn’t called for a high foot (as a Croat I’m expecting referee bias against us, especially against England). Another is Luka’s pen that hit the post and then the other post and luckily went in (also in Russia).
This time we miss 2 penalties. And give up 2 last kick goals in back to back games.
Seriously, that’s just bad luck. We have the players and the tactics to beat any team on any given day.
A few minor tweaks here and there, like start games with a mix of vets and youth, sub in more vets when the games are nearing their end. Also need to tighten up the defence (which will come with more experience, our d line is still pretty green) and learn how to properly kill a game (take professional fouls and proper bunkering).
I honestly think a foreign coach would be a complete disaster for Croatia. Only Croatians love Croatia and only a Croatian can understand our unique mentality. We can only win when everyone buys in 1000% from the coach, assistant coaches, players and fans.
Bog i Hrvati
PS- try to enjoy the rest of the tourney… but we all know it sucks as soon as Croatia is out. Just look at what happened yesterday…snoozefest.
This
@MB and any others interested.
I used to do this for a while. I just don’t have the time to manually update the stats all the time and it didn’t seem to pick up as much interest as the time it took. Haven’t updated for a couple seasons. I may do something like it again if people are actually interested in it.
Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C5RDmCS42vCMx_CEwLo5OdNg030t2xYIlhHW7Ofnew8/edit?usp=sharing
CroatiaU14 (not sure if he goes by his actual name now or not) and I (when I used to go by ‘vuki’) also used to do a thing where we picked our young players of the week and write a little bit about them. I know he and Markus kind of took over the younger player stuff and as I got older and got a full-time job, I had a bit less time so I dropped out to the background to just let them do their thing. I could whip up a new version, but I’d need to finally figure out how to automate the stats, get some help from others to keep updating it, or even just make it so it just links you to the pages where their stats are.
Let me know.
https://x.com/footballespana_/status/1805946895048605886
We wasted another Luka Modric tournament.
How you don’t surround him with young wingers and midfielders is beyond disgraceful.
Petković – Kramaric – Brozović – Mario P – etc ..
Cannot start with Modrić.
Marco Pasalic can’t compete with Albania and Italy ?
You have to cultivate the next generation.
We have limited wingers ?
Then you have to play young legs and develop them.
Watching Austria blew my mind.
Where is the Croatian Ragnick?
We lost 4 points in 2 minutes in this tournament.
Dalic is so below the level.
Modrić may become a Zidane like coach.
Can you imagine his football IQ playing with all these top level managers?!
UNL only young legs getting ready for WCQ.
We can pack the stadiums with Hrvati!!
Not so sure about Modric IQ, with the statement that, ” Croatian future is in good hands with Kovacic.” Additionally, he lets, the coach allow him to be the penalty kicker, when he knows he is not the best, and there are better ones on the field. Suker was a good penalty kicker. Modric not so much. During that time, I believe Boban was captain, not Suker.
you are onto something, in the future i think Modric wants to coach ,Dalic is like a version of gareth southgate ,no imagination, and shit scared to lose his job .Hes an excuse maker when his ridiculous decisions screw the team he is coaching.
Hate to say it because they were often criticized but Lovren and Vida would not have let our defense fall apart like that. When they were around we were consistently tight and reliable defensively. But many wanted them gone, sometimes me too, because they were offensively hapless. Dalic should have put Vida in at the end of both Albania and Italy matches.
I have moved past this personally, I think we need to start looking to the World Cup.
Some tournaments go well and some don’t. This Euro Cup was not meant to be.
If our backline makes that many issues for us than we cannot hope to go through. If we cannot stop people with a backline of five people essentially.
Yeah, think about Spain in 2014. They had just won three tournaments in a row and then couldn’t get out of the group stage at the World Cup. It does happen to teams. It’s clear that Perišić, Brozović, Petković should retire from the repka along with Vida. Let Jakić, Ljubičić, and some of these other younger players accept a call-up. Dalić can stay on, but he needs to change the strategy to something more physical. Speed and muscle are crucial in the modern game. I think if you replace the players who don’t run like hell, Croatia has a great team once again.
You grow thru self-examination, and subsequent correction. Otherwise we keep on making the say mistake, generation after generation, otherwise the ghost of Thuram and Zaccagni will keep revisiting us rattling their chains, reminding us of our past of lack defense.
We can be doomed to Ebenezeric Scrooge for eternity.
I’ve slept 3 or 4 hours the last 2 nights..this shouldn’t be affecting me like it is,but I know I’m not alone!
Seem scripted and fixed at the same time. No way these many issues can happen to one squad in 3 games! It’s like the friendly matches went one way and showed good things, and once the real matches began and happened someone was after us. Just beyond gut wrenching as you said Ante. Heart really sunk for Luka man.
Listen to me . We were not good . Yeah the ref was not on our side . That’s not the reason we lost . We did not come out of the gate strong . In Russia we lost because he ran out of gas and our golie was hurt . Those goals could have been saved yeah we got bad calls but that’s not the reason we lost . In Qatar yeah we had the penalty but again Argentina was better and finally exposed us . Yes we have had a history of getting bad calls . I agree . The ref in Italy game was not on our side . We lost because we did not have the skill and talent to win the game . We lost the ball and our defense sucked and left a man open. . Have teams been given special treatment and favorable calls yes they have .nobody conspired to keep us from advancing we brought ourselves down . So please no more of this that the ref screwed us . We screwed ourselves . We are our own worst enemy . So please no more of this nonsense about the game was fixed
How was it scripted? We were given 2 penalties in 2 separate matches. We were handed our opportunities and we missed both penalties.
On the other hand you search Stipe Biuk, and you don’t find anything special other than he was loaned to Valladolid a second tier Spanish side. Not sure how well he is doing.
Rumours suggest that Marin Ljubicic may get picked up by Lazio. Could be an interesting move for the 22 year old.
15 goals and 2 assists 40 games not too shabby.
Mate how long do you think it will be till Marin and Roko join the roster . Hopefully Roko will be what people claim him to be . Do you think it be good for them to wait 2 years before they come on. Get more experience and get better . I am concerned they may become like A Hallivoc and crash under pressure . If his dad just left him alone and someone got hold of him to mentor him and block out the noise he could have really developed into a big star . We have talent coming up . Just need nurture it and help them grow
Markus or anyone: does anyone have a excel spreadsheet of all the young up and coming generation of Croatian Footballers .. be cool to track & follow ??
Check Hrvaska Savez HNS website they have history of all players past present . Every kid as young as ten that plays on the national program is listed . Also check out Dinamo academy as well as hajduk academy for current students who will join the youth program for national team
There were some strange team selections and tactics employed by Dalic, however it has to be said that luck was also not on our side. The blame also must be with the players – conceding against Italy and Albania literally with the last kicks of the match. One hopes that we will learn from these mistakes going forward.
Not sure if Dalic will stay on? but I would not sack him. He needs to bring in new players for the NL matches in September. Players like Sucic and Baturina need to be in the starting 11. Petar Sucic from Dinamo is a defensive midfielder and a potential replacement for Brozovic and needs to be given a chance. Up front is a problem, however I would rather play Pjaca on the left wing then putting Kramaric there. The same applies on the RW play Marco Pasalic there instead of experimenting with Majer, Vlasic or any other midfielder.
We can also hope that Beljo, Simic, Matanovic, Biuk and Ljubicic will start performing well at their club sides to warrant a call up.
I cannot and will not watch Dalic destroy another generation. Have fun. He has 0 clue tactically what to do in games, and you want him to coach another gen? Secondly, he has the worst winning % of all Croatian coaches in our history. I’m baffled that anyone would want this guy to stay. Until we get a foreign coach you are in for a lot of pain and heartbreak. I’m done!
Two WC semifinals, 1 Nations League final. We’re all down with what transpired the last two weeks, but what an overreaction. If you asked me if I wanted 2 WC semis and a heartbreak in the Euro group stage with our small nation, I would not have hesitated! Viva Zlatko!
Agree with a lot of what you said. They need to pull the band-aid off on Broz at CDM straight away. Maybe he can offer something as a backup, but I doubt he’d accept the role. Either way, he’s not our future and will not get better at his age in Saudi Arabia.
When Dalić is playing a 4-3-3, we need actual wingers to play wide. Not our CAM’s that like to operate in the center. Most all of our attacks were harmless, predictable and resulted in a lot of empty possession that was easy to defend and form counters against.
One other thought I had was that our defense let in 6 goals this tournament and made our back line look worse than it was. The strategy of playing without attacking width because our unnatural wingers played centrally had our left and right backs pinching forward. Then on counters we were left with just our two center backs to be beat. As seen, Broz didn’t provide much cover for them.
At striker, Budimir was a bright spot for me and should be an adequate stop gap until someone else proves themselves.
Blame lays with the players agreed . Dalic luck ran out . We some injuries that did not help and I don’t think our boys were in top shape . Also we left some boys home who should have gotten the call . Our squad was flawed. I agree with you Post . Dalic is responsible for the selections and tactics and should be held accountable. We need to start to integrate youth sooner rather than later . I think he is stuck in his ways and we need a coach who understands how the game of football is played now and not how it used to be
Having to cheer for england to beat slovenia by 3 or more goals and the match ending 0-0 is the most hilarious and sad end to this tournament.
look i like dalic but how about ne-lic cause you know what he shouldnt have gotten the boys blessed by this “pope”. put a hex on them i think.
Oh ya and the reveal that the ref of the italy game is a gay dutch man who has been involved with officiating croatia matches before (none to their benefit) has a serious an italian boyfriend/husband is just LOL let me out of this simulation please, ctrl alt delete refresh. if u lean back and look at the whole tournament it becomes funny better to laugh than to cry
Agree! You go get blessed by a global loving, anti-Christian satanist, and than expect something in return? You get what you deserve! Sickening!
Some of you are mentally ill. You’d qualify as such. As a Croat, you are embarrassing to me.
hey man, proofs in the pudding. Pope francis has repeatedly called on Europe to open the floodgates to migrants in addition to a number of other weird stances. Nothing against legitimate migrants fleeing war seeking and obtaining refuge but the way he talks about it he is calling for a wide open welcome mat without any background checks – which will obviously be the end of europe. but this isn’t a political forum i just don’t like being called mentally ill. Maybe you’re mentally ill and as a croat, YOU’RE embarassing to ME.
The end of the Italy match was not Murphy’s Law. It was a bunch of players not doing what they were supposed to be doing, and letting Italy drive down the field while also leaving an attacker totally unmarked and unguarded to accept a non contested pass and sink the strike into the back of the net.
Murphy left the game well before that point with all the absurdity that was going on and didn’t feel like taking the blame any longer for simple horrible play and horrendous coaching decisions.
couldn’t agree more. ante k – love the site and love you man but i couldnt listen to the pod today you guys were too happy at the end and this narrative of “sometimes the bounces dont go your way” is fine and all but its not appropriate here. watch zaccagna’s goal. slow mo it. look at our defence. for the second game in a row in the last minute they are making rookie, dumb mistakes.
What is more pathetic is that there were two natural RB, Juranovic and Stanisic in the game when they allowed the Italian to go unmarked down the left. Juranovic looks lost out on the field, running around with ADHD. There is no excuse to leave a guy open by 30 yards in the last minute of a game. PARK THE FUCKiNG BUS!
Bang on Talan…but the initial breakdown STARTED when not so epic broz let his man go on a give and go just over half…then you have majer not hustling back …then josko being a meathead with that kung fu missed tackle which helped part the Red Sea.
Stanisic was leaving his guy wide open all game long I don’t understand his strategy to pinch in every single time?
As far as JJ he should be torched over his lack of awareness and being in lala land ball watching?
It’s funny we criticized sutalo&pograncic early on but they had good games&very few are critiquing JJ or stan for their blunders
Taking off mateo and Luka started the mess we had nobody to posess the ball once they left.
Milan badelj never got any love but we could have used a guy like that in that situation.
As the brotha’s say…you need to have the “dog!” In them and with guys like majer & JJ just fielding puppies!!!
While I was floating down the Adriatic in my YACHT, it dawned on me, if I used my philanthropy to help the HNS but a proper coach, this all could have been averted.
If you weren’t so pompous maybe a lot less people would think that you are a wanker.
Portugal 2016, handball in the box, via volleyball spike. Come on, it’s two front war.
Turkey 08, Klasnic was onside.
When was the last time we’ve been winless in 3 consecutive matches?
I cannot recall if it’s ever happened.
Euro 2004 we exited the group stage with 2 points, just like this.
@Anonymous
When I find you, Bambi Budimir will become BUCK BUDIMIR
Yeah sure it was murphys law ,and a muppet called Dalic ,who made mistakes from beginning to finish ,get rid of him and get someone decent.
Bambi 2 full steps encroachment before Modric struck the penalty
See 3:25 on the video
I mean he can’t even stay onside for a penalty – after we already had Petko’s called back – how many times do we need to make same mistake ?
lol
Thx Ante!
Look at replay (reverse angle)
Bambi Budimir encroached on Modric’s penalty (by two full steps)
So would have been called back too
Great job Ante!