Team CroatianSports.com met up with General Ante Gotovina and documentary producer of “Searching for a Storm” Jack Barić this past Monday in Zadar, Croatia for a casual sit down over drinks.
On November 16th, 2012, after being imprisoned seven years at the Hague, General Gotovina was found not guilty on all charges by the appeals panel at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and immediately set free. Gotovina has become a symbol of the ‘homeland war’ as well as the liberation and sovereignty of Croatia.
Little was discussed about the past, however, Gotovina chatted about the present and especially about the World Cup.
During the conversation, Gotovina said of the Brazil match,”we (Croatia) should not be concerned with the penalty call. If we would have scored 2 or 3 goals, we wouldn’t be talking about the penalty today.” He was alluding to the team needing to control their own destiny instead of letting outside forces affect the game so much. He also said of 42 year-old Croatian manager Niko Kovač, “Kovač will be great (as a coach), he is still young.”
@kroatienZG
Good post
Shouldn’t each team that qualifies for a World Cup get to play more than 3 games? We wait for 4 years for this? – and that’s if you’re team is lucky enough to qualify.
In the major Water Polo and Handball tournaments, each side plays 5-6 games right? In soccer, I’m sure wih the huge money involved, club teams prefer shorter tournaments. That is probably the difference.
It also means that any kind of an extra effort will come from players who want to be recognized. Established stars have less of an incentive to perform all out.
It hurts the sport. The World Cup is not yet quite like the NBA or NHL All-Star games, but, it seems to be headed that way.
Some of the Croatian players seemed like they really weren’t into this World Cup – very much unlike 1998.
@ Jm you mean 4-3-0 remember win draw loss not the american way!
But again HNS is the problem like most of the users on this site say HNS is problem not NK. Who hires a color annalist to take over a national team back in 2012 thats like giving Lalas and Twellmen the usa national team since they think they know everything? Now they expect NK to go to round og 16 and 1/8?
i’m still optimistic for kovac
if you had an actual referee against brazil, you could’ve been looking at a croatia team going into hte mexico game under kovac as 4-0-3 under kovac, having played games against two top 8 teams
iceland 0-0
iceland 2-0
switzlerland 2-2
mali 2-1
australia 1-0
brazil 1-1
cameroon 4-0
Croatia looked a dispirited, dis-organized lot. I would hardly call that attractive football.
I have to agree with Anon above. Some are saying give Kovac “more time.” That assumes he has the same quality of players in the future.
Many talented players on the Squad are in their late 20s, such as Modric, Mandzukic, and others. By the next WC they will be in their 30s and past their peak.
Hell, they may even call it quits before the next WC to focus on their club career.
This was it. This was “the time.” A group of players at their peak. And Kovac blew it in Spectacular fashion. This is why he doesn’t deserve to continue as coach.
Get an experienced coach to take the helm. With a proven track record, not some newbie Kovac.
At Least if he called best 23 i know Strinic Kranjcar Ilicevic Males were out but the 23 he called was all wrong
The 23 that should have went and 11 that many guys would put
1Pletikosa
2Subasic
3Vargic
4Srna
5Corluka
6Lovren
7Sifo
8Leskovic
9Milic
10Vrsaljko
11Modric
12Rakitic
13Kovacic
14Halilovic
15Mocinic
16Perisic
17Badelj
18Ademi
19Mandzukic
20Eduardo
21Olic
22Kramaric
23Rebic
starting 11
Subasic-Srna Corluka Lovren/Sifo Milic/Vrslajko-Ademi/Mocinic Modric-Perisic Rakitic Rebic -Mandzukic. inthe hunt for 11 Halilovic Olic Kovacic 100 posto 1/16.
What kills croatia at this generation is there is Goalkeeper that is lights out and the back 4 and dm position are our weakness. and some player NK called wouldnt play in the zupanska liga for me. I can say this that end of day we have Psychological issues does this team imo. the talent is there just need a Coach and new blood in the team, sure if in 2012 a competent coach izbornik was hired the whole Wc would have been different i need to see a whole ciklus from NK to fully judge him. But if i see 10 of the 23 he called up again ME NO WATCHIE UNTIL HNS IS REBOOTED!
^ ^
For the most part, yes.
I would say we have that reputation.
We produce talented attacking players, don’t we?
@ poglavnik
croatia plays attractive football?
you see that 0-0 draw in iceland?
@Bobby V
The teams that do well are the ones that defend well.
Even Argentina with all of their stars have been scrapping and defending their asses off.
We’re like an Ivory Coast.
Produce lots of talent and play attractive football but don’t know how to knuckle down and get results.
Whereas a team like Greece barely know how to play a ball forward but know how to win 1-0.
At least most casual football fans find our style attractive.
Hey I am trying to orginize a group pool party for the fourth. The only rule is show up naked and BYOB and dudes only. Its a celebration of our great HNS.
@ kroatien ZG
thanks for watching 60 minutes of drmic and giving your assessment of him not be very good. instead i’ll take his 15 bundeslig goals as a 20 year for a relegation german team, 2 goals against croatia, 2 assists in 3 world cup games as my evidence to the contrary.
as always, the point is never about what kind of player drmic becomes. its’ about incompetency and corruption and the hns for not pursuing all eligble croatian talent
@ mr. black
you raise a good point. people are too reliant on final score in assessing the game. if pletikosa is in goal yesterday and the USA gives up 5 goals, do we still claim they had that much heart?
You spoke too soon Iggz.
Čilić with an excellent comeback. Wins the second set, and entering a tiebreaker for the third.
sigh.. cilic already getting a smashing from djokovic
http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=53a98132e4b00f1381969dad
say YES to LAknat
say NO to K0-Fuck
The Swiss goalkeeper Benaglio was also very good. For all you Josip Drmic lovers out there he isn’t very good so no big loss in him not playing for Croatia. I watched him play versus Argentina missed an easy goal and struggled alot. Cameroon was only better than Croatia in the opening minutes of the game we took control of the games after the we scored the first goal and we could have been up 2:0 at half time before the red card so we would have won anyway with a Cameroon full side on the pitch.
get over our players did not show up to play. USA showed how to do it.
What if Pletikosa was the goalkeeper for USA today instead of Howard. What would have been the result: 7-1 or something?
@anonymous
Right on.
That’s the reason why we suck, so often they believe it will all come together eventually.
That attitude and an unwillingness to change has cost us a real opportunity to advance. On paper, age, form, this was their time to make an impact, but now it’s all what could’ve been.
They blew it! That’s all that can he said and fans and the savez all to easily make excuses for their shortcomings.
Again Rakitic played a good tournament Modric and Kovacic Sammir were poor Raketa played dm and was a good dm Modric Kovacic podbacili skroz man. And NK forcing pranjic olic on wing giving jelavic minutes and sammir putting brozovic v brazil i just wish that for once the best 11 play and best 3 get subbed in thats all. Im not a coach but a squad of 23 NK called was not so good and i think that austria training kamp killed the player from what i read. Also again ill say i want the best 23 playing i hope if Nk luke to play with wingers actual wingers play in 2016 not olic pranjic lol rebic ilicevic pjaca misic halilovic are wingers even kovacic can play at wing position wasted tournament
…and it’s not all on Kovac. like dannyj says above, if we had Tim Howard as a keeper and the heart the Americans showed in the last 15 minutes, we’d be fine.
@Tomo – Rakitic and Modric showed up to play in their proper positions, but, guess what? Kovac didn’t let them. Said he needed them as defensive midfielders.
Puts Pranjic at LB against Cameroon, admits after the game that it was a mistake, then repeats the same mistake in the VERY NEXT GAME at the 70th minute mark, with the score tied 0-0 and Croatia needing 1 goal to advance.
How can anyone defend Kovac on this when he contradicts himself?
It would have been nice to gotten out of group stage couod have been done such a shame and waste of time its all HNS fault they are run by incompetent morons idiots imbeciles and are making fools of us it really sucks wated tournamnet calling players not playing them playing player out of position it still stings really HNS pederi nogomet ste sjebali.
back to the old “heart” conversation… a few teams showed it here for sure like the U.S. if we had that heart fuck where we could be….
and yes i can see the heart on my tv screen if ziva asks
Can’t blame the coach for Rakitic and Modric. They both failed to show up. Simple as that. These USA team played non stop.
Credit to the USA for a great tournament. Look on the bright side it will be another season where we get to hear all the great things these guys do at a club level!
Country well that is a different story.
again i love stipe and all his work but if we had a howard, fuck we could have made up for alot of kovac’s bad tactics and won despite him
It would’ve been nice to see if any experienced coaches could’ve harnessed the full potential of a Modric & Rakitic combo.
Bilic, Stimac, and so far, Kovac couldn’t seem to do it. Now Modric is 29 and has one tournament left in him before he goes downhill.
Hopefully Kovacic and Halilovic continue to grow and develop into the players that everyone thinks they can become. We’ll see what they can do alongside Rakitic in the next World Cup.
LOL. We’re so lucky to be sitting on a goldmine of talent like this. What other nation who has a low population like ours… as crap of a league as ours…with horrible coaching like ours… yet can still manage to generate high caliber midfield players like this every 4 or 5 years?
Its not NK problem that this team he called let him down and its time to call fresh blood and start with his vision i hope if i see Pletikosa Olic Jelavic Sammir Pranjic Eduardo Vukojevic(stepped down ) i then see that he still believes in crap and i will not watch time for Rebic Halilovic Pjaca Perica Kramaric jedvaj datkovic leskovic tomecak males mocinic milic milic milovic mixed with the new veterans on team then thumbs up for me its time for new hungry croatia aand NK i hope can build a new team. Its time to trust HNL and reward talent from HNL strong HNL strong repka. And steal some diaspora like toljan hrgota culjak
Can’t disagree there. He is a complete idiot.
When I’m watching Swiss, Belgium, USA and Algeria in the final 16 a wanna hang myself. I think it gets me more upset at that idiot.
Tom, New Mexico
Our time was now and Kovac blew that. We aren’t like other
nations were every year we just re-tool.
We have a 10-15 year window. This was our time. You don’t have that option of “give him time”. Kovac is an idiot pretty plain and simple buddy. Anyone that can’t put a simple formation together should be shot. Now what? let’s wait until the Euros whoopee buddy there goes another 2 years.
It’s the World Cup or bust. Guess what? We are a bust of a soccer nation.
Haven’t made the final 16 since 1998 because of “give it time”.
There are some real head cases posting – we need a filter lol
A true hero!
So the only game we “won” might have been thrown on purpose by Cameroon. Probably looking at Alex Song first for his chop on Mandzukic, because, before that, we were not better than Cameroon.
Brilliant. With as many players as we had in form, this was a disgrace…..especially when you see teams like USA, Costa Rica, Greece, Algeria, etc in the final 16. Teams we were saying would get their asses kicked.
Niko should read this site, lol
Knock Out Fuck AKA KO-Fuck
should better leave Cro management”
He just drunk ..
can waste Mandzukic Modric Rakitic
in their prime time !!
and I’m still young too. .
1) even young than Ko-Fuck ‘
2) have a better strategy than Ko-fuck ;’
Cro team should have LAknat :
http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=53a98132e4b00f1381969dad
I say stick with Kovac. The man hasn’t even had ten games in command. Bilic had little coaching experience coming in, and after beating the Limies in Wembly he was hailed as a genius.
Give Kovac some time. He had that poise and presence on the field as captain WHICH the NT still has not replaced!
I believe with time, Kovac will impart a winning philosophy and the NT will take its rightful place in the soccer world.
On an unrelated note, Boris Vukcevic did not have his contract with Hoffenheim renewed (it officially expired on June 30th).
He’s still going through some rehab, as he had to re-learn how to walk and talk again. The team said that they will look to give him an office related gig once he gets back. He’s expected to make a slow but full recovery. He’s walking and talking now, so that’s good.
That was an Awesome display of Heart, Courage, and Will by the USA!
They nearly equalized to make it 2-2 a couple of times. Looking at WC results since 2002, the USA national team has done WAY better than Croatia.
USA incredible. These players would not give up. Unfortunately ours wanted to leave Brazil ASAP. Bradley all over the field.
i wish this attitude to not give up, was instilled in croatian players. Our players would’ve folded in the 80th minute. The USA may not be the best technically, but they fucking bite, skratch, crawl, there devil dogs. I wouldn’t want to play them, I would want to play a bunch of mental midgets like Croatia. Jozy altidore big loss for the US.
As a Canadian and a TFC fan I’m proud of Michael Bradley and the US. That’s how you dispaly passion, courage and fight.
The states have nothing to feel shamed about.
They left everything on the field, bravo!
lets go USA, I believe that we will win. Tim Howard playing out of his mind.
Bravo decki! I would’ve gotten immediate chub. Did you guys talk about the current HNL at all?
Maybe Kovac can put Gotovina as our last line of defense?
Nevermind he’d probably use him with Modric as an attach mid.
Forget that idea.
Can we make Gotovina the savez head?
Awesome that you met him.
What?!?!!
Looks like Mamic got to Gotovina too!
Užas!
Let us all take a moment to remember that soccer is a beautiful expression of our identity, but to be thankful for our independence too thanks to warriors.
Ante now you can never wash your shirt or left shoulder!
damn ipad
Well said General. Svaka ti cast.
Well sound General. Svaka ti cast.