HNL REPORT WEEK 9/KHL MEDVEŠČAK UPDATE

 

 

 

 

Results for September 21 – 23, 2012

 

HNK RIJEKA 3 – 0 GNK DINAMO

 

 

Photo:  gnkdinamo.hr

The bijeli pakao was just too much for Dinamo Zagreb on Saturday. Rijeka had 9,000 strong at their backs in the stands and came with every intentions of earning three points. That’s exactly what they did.

For the first time since October 11, 2011, Dinamo lost a league match. Dinamo’s last shutout loss was in Cibalia on April 24, 2010 when the lost 2-0.

Rijeka was able to do something not even Portuguese champions, Porto FC, were able to do; score three goals against the modri.

Despite a 65 percent possession hold by the away team, and a domination on shots and passing, Dinamo’s Champions League hangover got the best of them and opened the doors for Rijeka to come out on top.

Fatos Beqiraj hit the post in the first half, but couldn’t do enough to get his team on the board.

But credit is due to the solid defense of Rijeka. They seemed to take a page from Osijek’s defensive playbook, and shut Dinamo’s attack down with a solid back line that often saw eight men behind the ball. Rijeka relied a lot on counterattacks that Dinamo’s open style of play just could not handle. Rijeka exploited every weakness that their opponents had.

Danijel Cesarec scored in his second consecutive match after being completely unmarked on the back post and headed home a rebound that was given up by Ivan Kelava from close range.

Home-grown player, Ivor Weitzer, capped the match off with a goal and a penalty shot in the second half. The 22-year-old is becoming a dangerous player in the league, scoring four goals in his eight appearances with Rijeka.

The aftermath of the match was just as shocking as the outcome to some. Reactions from Dinamo coach, Ante Čačić, were surprisingly high spirited and positive.

“I am very happy that I was a participant in such a professional spectacle of football. Congratulations to all who were in Kantrida,” Čačić said. “My players played as Croatian champions from the first minute of the match.”

The question we need to ask is ” Is Dinamo getting weaker?” Or more likely, “Is Rijeka getting stronger?” Čačić declared that the loss was undeserved by Dinamo. Kelava, Sammir, and Domagoj Vida all stand by him and say that despite the loss, they were still the stronger team on the field.  Is that so?

Domination on the field is not the same as domination on the scoreboard. There is no better team when the score is as lopsided as 3-0 except for the team that scored three goals. It’s tough for a Dinamo fan to accept a league loss, but it seems that the Dinamo players are just in denial.

So where do the teams go from here? Well, Rijeka go nowhere except to Nedelišće for a cup match then to Cibalia with hopes to continue their recent rampage in the league, which includes defeating Hajduk, Slaven, and Dinamo. The modri on the other hand need not to forget about this match, but to move on from it. Winless in their last three overall matches, the team must turn their play around as they have a cup match in Vrsar coming up, followed by a visit by Hajduk Split and then a trip to Dynamo Kiev.

“I feel great satisfaction. For the players, the fans, the club, and especially for President Misković, that due to work commitments, he is not with us tonight.  I think he would be the happiest. I’d be lying if he said that I’m not satisfied. I wanted as long as possible after the match to stay on the field and enjoy this feeling. As for the game, we did not intend to play such a shallow defense. Dinamo pressed us and our concentration has ruled the front of the goal. We played a perfect match. Dinamo towards the end took the full risk of playing with one central defender It was only a question of when we’re going to punish them and achieve a third goal. We deserved to win.” Rijeka coach, Elvis Scoria

Rijeka: Lisjak – Datković, Knežević, Neretljak – Mujanović, Kreilach, Weitzer, Močinić (od 87. Vranješ), Čaval (od 74. Marić) – Benko (68. Čulina), Cesarec

Dinamo: Kelava – Vrsaljko, Tonel (od 60. Kovačić), Vida, Pivarić – Ademi (od 77. Peko), Brozović – Carrasco (od 46. Alispahić), Sammir, Čop – Beqiraj

 

 

 

 HNK HAJDUK SPLIT 3 – 1 NK SLAVEN BELUPO

 

 

Hajduk has hung on to the hopes of finishing at the top of the table with a huge win over Slaven at Poljud on Sunday. This shouldn’t be a surprise as Slaven has never won at Poljud before, and has not beaten Hajduk in a match since August 2009.

This is the second week in a row that Slaven was unable to secure any points and failed to overtake first place in the HNL. The Farmaceuti are in second place, only two points behind leaders Dinamo, who for the second week in a row also failed to grasp all three points.

Franko Andrijašević opened the scoring for Hajduk and put them in the lead in the dying minutes of the first half, only to score again 60 seconds later to enter the break up by two.

Slaven threatened Hajduk several times in the first half, but failed to do what Hajduk was able to do twice. Goran Blazević shut down any and all scoring opportunities from Slaven. He not only stopped shots, but prevented them with his quick feet, strong hands, and aggressive nature.

Hajduk is happy that they have finally won their first match without Ante Vukušić since his departure. Several players like Mijo Caktaš, Ivan Vuković, Josip Radošević, and Andrijašević have really stepped up to fill the void that was left by the Hajduk star.

The second half was still in Hajduk’s control. They fed off the home crowd of 10,000 and fought Slaven hard for the three points.

In the 75th minute, Vuković hit a free kick that that bounced off a Slaven defender and in the net for an own goal. Slaven was able to get a consolation goal in the end, but that’s all it was as it made no difference in the outcome.

Hajduk are now back to third place, three points behind Slaven.

“I think we played a fighting game, it was not easy, because Slaven is a good team. e. They then created some chances, but Blazević has responded well when it was most needed. I’m glad we went at a good pace in front of our audience, regardless of appearances, where we made good results.” Hajduk coach, Mišo Krstičević

 

 

 

 

 

NK OSIJEK 1 – 0 HNK CIBALIA

 

 

Photo:  prvaliga.tporta.hr/Borut Šips

Ivan Ibriks scores the game winner in the 75th minute to lead Osijek to their sixth shutout of the season.  Osijek have only allowed a league-low of four goals this season.

In an extremely entertaining game, both teams had more than enough chances to knock the other off for the win. Cibalia opened the game with a free kick from 25 yards out that Antonio Perošević took and rocked the cross bar, and at the other end, Osijek beat the keeper, but the goal was denied by the far post.

Osijek became the dominant team in the second half, controlling the possession and tempo of the match. Chance after chance was squandered by their offense, though, missing the net on several key attempts.

Cibalia had few chances to score in the second half, but those few chances were met cleanly by Osijek keeper Ivan Vargić.

The deadlock was finally broken when Osijek appeared to score a goal, but it was called back do to a foul committed in the box.

It took ten more minutes of possession and shots for the home side to finally legitimately score a goal. In the 75th minute, it was Ibriks that shot a quick left-footed sniper shot through traffic and into the net.

Osijek took all three points which leave them sixth place with 14 points while Cibalia haven fallen back down to the relegation zone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NK LOKOMOTIVA 1 – 0 NK ISTRA 1961

 

 

Photo: nkistra.hr

Lokomotiva broke their three game losing streak on Saturday against Istra at Maksimir in front of a crowd of 250.

A decision went against Istra early in the game when the sideline judge ruled a goal scored by Krešimir Prgomet was offsides. Replay shows he was onside but the score remained tied at zero.

Another decision that went against Istra was a penalty from Andrej Kramarić. Kramarić’s absolutely perfect penalty was all it took for Lokomotiva to win three points. Istra players did not agree with the referee’s decision, considering that the judges have been letting play resume in the box after several issues throughout the match. After a body-slam during a corner kick that would bring back memories for Vedran Čorluka playing against Spain, the Lokosi were awarded the PK.

Kramarić has already surpassed his total number of goals last year, where he scored five in 13 appearances. The impressive 21-year-old Zagreb native, who is on loan to the Lokosi from Dinamo, has six goals this season in nine appearances.

Lokomotiva: Radelić-Žarkov; Boras, Samateh, Mesarić, Musa; Mrzljak (od 46. Pejić); Šitum (od 70. Zakarić), Trebotić, Pavičić (od 83. Martinac), Bručić; Kramarić.

Istra 1961 : Prskalo; Sušić, Čagalj, Budicin, Milić; Pamić, Blagojević; Prgomet (od 75. Roce), Bačelić-Grgić (od 51. Jugović), Havojić (od 65. Ottochian); Križman.

 

 

 

 

 

NK ZAGREB 2 – 1 RNK SPLIT

 

 

Photo: tportal.prvaliga.hr

Luka Bonačić is the new Miracle Worker. In his his two games as coach of NK Zagreb, he took a team that was winless and draw less in the season with only three goals to their stat sheet in seven games, to a team that has shutout an opponent to earn their first draw, and most recently earned their first win of the season.

RNK Split visited Kranjčevićeva but encountered something they did not expect.

Split coach Tonči Bašić was pleased with the first half. Split went up first in the 27th minute from forward Aljoša Vojnović, but Split failed to complete the whole game.

The crveni looked like they were about to capture all three points and hand Zagreb their eighth loss of the season, but in the 84th minute, Zagreb tied the game and three minutes later, Besart Abdurahimi put in the game winner for the Pjesnici and celebrated their first win of the season. The match was also their first match where they scored more than one goal.

NK Zagreb: Livaković, Djengoue, Pelaić, Šovšić, Pavlović, Nadarević, Abdurahimi, Mitrović, Štiglec, Štrok, Vojtuš

RNK Split: Vuković, Vidić, Vitaić (od 83. Bagarić), Rebić (od 71. Baraban), Radotić, Pehar, Vojnović, Paracki, Galović, Hrgović, Belle (od 66. Erceg)

 

 

NK ZADAR 1 – 5 NK INTER ZAPREŠIĆ

Zadar, as well as Inter, have had a rough season. Both teams have spent the majority of the past nine weeks in the relegation zone and are struggling in other aspects of the sport. With two of the bottom teams in the league playing each other, a very boring match was to be expected. That is not what we got.

Inter came to Zadar’s home and not only embarrassed the team, but Zadar’s coach too. So much, in fact, that coach Dalibor Zebić resigned after the match.

“It is clear that I will resign,” Zebić said. “We played our worst game in recent seasons. This is not what I want, and maybe someone will succeed in what I didn’t.”

A hat trick by Ante Budimir and goals by Mislav Oršić and Tomi Jurić were what won it for Inter.

This was Inter’s biggest win since March 2011 when they defeated Karlovac 4-0, and this is the first time they have had a five goal game since August 2010 against Lokomotiva.

 

 KHL MEDVEŠĆAK

 

 

 

 

KHL Medvescak is coming off a successful campaign in Pula where they played two matches in Pula arena, which got them an invite to play in Russia’s KHL next season, and faced two more opponents this week.

On Friday, the Bears traveled to Austria to play the most successful club in the league EC KAC. The Bears went up in the game 2-0 from two power play goals from Canadians Curtis Fraser and Kyle Greentree. They let off the gas in the second period and let in two goals for the Austrians to tie it up.

After the third period and overtime, the game had to be decided in a shootout that EC KAC won 3-2. The Bears left with one point from the game but had to face an even tougher opponent next.

On Sunday, the Bears traveled to Villach, Austria to face VSV, who are currently in first place.

Medvescak went up instantly in the game when American, Adam Naglich, scored in the opening minute, but the lead was short lived as VSV tied it up five minutes later. VSV scored a goal in each of the three periods to win the game 3-1. Medvescak are in seventh place.