It all comes down to the final week. All six matches of week 33 will be played at noon on Sunday, and five of those matches will have some implication on where teams will end up next season.
NK Lokomotiva has wrapped up second place and will be playing in European competition for the first time ever next season. Even after the disappointing last-minute loss to Dinamo last weekend, the Lokosi are guaranteed to finish at least one point ahead of third place.
Rijeka dropped three crucial points to Zadar on Saturday. Rijeka could be in third place today, but Zadar was fighting for their lives and won in dramatic fashion, coming back from behind twice, and scoring the winner in the 90th minute.
Rijeka will now go on to face NK Zagreb for their last match of the season. They must win al three points and hope that Hajduk and RNK Split do not come out as victors in their respective match-ups.
Hajduk Split has turned things around quickly. Now sitting in third, they brought themselves out of fifth place, and hope to finish in the top three, but must first face Dinamo Zagreb in what could be their most important match of the year. Hajduk will also face Lokomotiva at Maksimir tomorrow for the final leg of the Croatian Cup. Hajduk leads in aggregate 2-1.
Istra 1961 took three crucial points from a top-four team for the second week in a row. After denying Rijeka the points they needed, they traveled to Split to give them their second home-loss of the season, and denied them the points to put them in third place. Split’s destiny is no longer in their hands, but if they win, and Hajduk loses, they will see European competition.
Survival Sunday will come down to the final match. Several teams will be playing for the right to stay in Croatia’s top league next season. NK Zagreb has already been relegated last week, but there are still two more relegation spots to fill. Inter Zaprešić and Cibalia will both go down if Zadar wins on Sunday, but a loss for Zadar could spell trouble if Inter or Cibalia win.
Zagreb’s Hrvatski Dragovoljac have officially been promoted to the Prva Liga. Despite not officially clinching the Druga Liga title, they are in first place, and are the only club at the top of the table to be able to obtain their first-league licenses. After a two-year stint in the lower leagues, the Volunteers will be back in the first league.
ARMADA,
The British Isles thing may be a product of how the company that tests your DNA breaks down the results. Most Croatians are haplogroup I, with significant percentages being R1a and R1b. There are many sub-groups to genetic haplogroups. It often depends on how far they broke down your test ( broad test can be done for a resonable amount of money, but detailed tests get pretty expensive).
Haplogroups I and R1 also exist in substantial numbers in the British Isles, though it’s a totally different sub-group. The companies that do the testing often don’t test to the most detailed level. They usually give a broad answer. Therefore, it’s possible you tested for a certain haplogroup, and they made the assumption that it’s the British grouping without testing for the specific sub-group.
It’s an evolving science with a lot of room for interpretation, and it all gets pretty confusing quickly. Anyway, just saying there’s a chance (or likelihood) that the British Isles tracing may just be a function of interpretation due to not testing down to a detailed enough sub-group level.
@ Colin
lol
@Armada87
It basically means that you have some Western European DNA.
Did you guys see that beheading in England. Two Black Muslims did it. I hope the white people riot.
Nothing wrong with having a little “dickbag” Irish in ya, Armada. 😉
@ JP
the vast majority of my DNA traces back to the Balkan area(they give you overarching regions, not nation-states, cities, etc.) but I have a portion of my DNA that actually traces back to the British Isles, which is weird since my dad’s side (last name) has been in Istra for close to a millenium and my mom’s side has been in the Kvarner region for 500+ years.
I’m guessing since my mom’s island as well as Istra as a whole was raided/occupied countless times hundreds of years back by everyone under the sun, I’m guessing some dickbag Brit, Welsh, Irish, etc. dude made it into the selo and got his swerve on with one of my ancestors…
😀
@Marko… edumacate yourself brother.
@Armada … curious what the dna test said…?
I like NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac (met Spajic years ago – great guy), but they dont deserve to be in the HNL first division. Make no sense how they are allowed to compete next year while Sibenik gets relegated into the 3rd division. They both face the same finaical issues and should face the same type of penalties.
Oh well, the HNS at its finest.
I actually did the NatGeo Genome Project where they map out our DNA and based on that, determine where you ancestors hail from (in general).
HET THEY ARE HAVING A DNA TEST SALE. NOW YOU CAN FIND OUT IF YOU ARE REALLY A MONGOL.
http://ldna.ancestry.com/offers/buyKit.aspx
A DNA TEST CAN TELL IF YOUR ITALIAN. IF IN DOUBT WHIP ONE OUT.
@ Marko
you’re on a roll bud…
first, you were close to making a stupid comment about Istra (where most of my family hails from) but you saved yourself, kudos.
second, who are the Italians, may I ask? Rijeka?
May I ask then, what HNL team you support?
rnk split need 1 point against zadar to lock up the last euro spot…leaving out the italians
Is hajduk end up in the third Place, and rijeka is fourth what happens.
Lokomitiva and Hajduk have their places in EL for league position regardless who wins the cup, so there is one more place for EL.
who get that spot?
Glad to see NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac (FC Croatian Volunteer) back!!!
During the Great Homeland War, many of the club members volunteered to fight. As a result, the club was renamed Hrvatski Dragovoljac.
I hope to see this team stay in top flight for a long time.
nice write-up, hvala!
I just wish we had Stjepan Spajic back leading them. Easily the most entertaining and funniest person in HNL history
Great news regarding Dragovoljac and good to see them back.
Ah damn, that’s right. I forgot. I think I’m slipping, you guys. Sorry. :/
Hajduk will play in Europe regardless next year. Since Loko is locked into second place, Hajduk will play in qualifying whether they win the cup or lose, as cup runnuer-up.
I might be wrong, but I thought he was only invited to train with the repka. Did he get a full call up? If so, more power to him. Four goals as a defender this year? Nice. Also I think he was the only player on Istra to play over 3,000 minutes this season. If he’s called up for a friendly, I’m happy. Good to get new/young defenders right now. He plays a very offensive role for Istra, could be a new Srna? lol But, I don’t see any real reason to call him up for any qualifiers YET. Let’s see how he does. Hopefully more will come from him than say Vrsaljko. We need to get our next generation of defenders ready.
@Colin O’Haravić
What are your thoughts on Hrvoje Milić being selected for our national team?
Ideally, they shouldn’t need anyone else to get to Europe. There is no reason why they shouldn’t this year other than they shit themselves. They have the talent, just not the experience. That will come with time. Hopefully the offseason will be enough time…
@Ante – This isn’t going to be a derby week. This is going to be “keep-Hajduk-out-of-Europe-at-all-cost-week” Ajmo Lokosi. Don’t forget to watch the finals tomorrow.
You guys might think it’s a good building block but I mean, who else can they really bring on to get them to Europe? Kek did a nice jo once Scoria got the boot and maybe it’ll be a different story with Kek for a full season (if he makes it to a full season).
Rijeka have a nice mix of youngsters (Mocinic, Datkovic, Culina, Kreilach, etc. with Sluga waiting in the wings) and solid veterans (Benko, Cesarec, Neretljak, Knezevic, etc.)
with not a lot of quality in the HNL, if Rijeka don’t make it to Europe next year – Volpi should just release everyone on the team.
It does not feel like derby week at all. 1st vs 5th.
@Ivica – Ya caught me. Glad to see you guys are reading this closely enough to catch those 😉
I think we all expected more from Rijeka, but this is a huge building block to continue off of next year. No worries about them here. Glad to see Dragovoljac back too. I’ll miss Ciro and Zagreb though.
First time ever?
Didn’t RNK Split play Fulham like two years ago?
Yes, sad to see Rijeka mess this up. They did have MANY opportunities to help themselves out. Very frustrating!!! No fucken heart to make it happen. Game over!
My Rijeka officially shit the bed. Best wishes to jadan Hajduk and Dinamo B. in Europe next year.
Nice to see Dragovoljac back in the Prva Liga. Always liked their grb.
http://www.glasistre.hr/vijesti/sport/stimac-pozvao-hrvoja-milica-407273
Sun 26/05/13
All games starting at the same time.
Dinamo Zagreb – Hajduk Split
Istra 1961 – Lokomotiva
Zadar – Split
Zagreb – Rijeka
Inter Zaprešic – Slaven Koprivnica
Osijek – Cibalia
Come on Zadar! All we need is a tie.
Who is the brown guy in the picture?