Lovren ready for Liverpool move

Disagree they could of gone further and won today but no one is perfect.

wow all this talk about the dutch coach so great and we need someone like him, it made a few blunders today

Brazil’s tears taste so delicious, I could taste them all day long.

Danke Deutschland, for this amazing flavour.

Like My dido says, “bolje je biti najbolji u selu nego najgori u gradu.”

@Slavonac

That’s why it’s good to look at his scoring record in a European league, as that’s what we mostly use to baseline and judge players.

He played for Lyon for several years and scored a little more often than 1 goal every 3 games. This seems like a more realistic scoring rate for a player like Fred.

I’ve been curious about that guy Fred from Brazil so I decided to look him up and was shocked at what I found out…the guys record is incredible…I mean, in the 2004-2005 season he scored 41 goals in 43 games….WTF??? since 2009 he’s scored 62 goals in 96 games…so one of 2 things is going on here….since he’s scored this many goals in Brazil…they have no fucking clue how to defend or the guy is some soccer genius I’ve never heard of before….its one or the other but based on what I’ve seen at this WC, he was by fay the worst player I have ever seen play this sport…an embarrassment….and I’d have bet $500 if I saw him playing somewhere that he was some community player and not a NT member of Brazil.

look up this guys scoring history…his scoring production in Brazil is crazy….I’ve never in my life heard of a player that scores as much as he does….right now he has an average of scoring 65% of the time….and before it was 95% of the time….WOW…..Brazil must have absolute SHIT DEFENSE….

Dear Brazil ..

You already have made the World happy with
“annihilating for Brazil”
so put your shoulder’s back .. chin’s up >>
You should proud for what Brazil did to attain ==> at least score for 1 goal
and make your team better than Saudi Arabia (8-0)

Vuki going on these tirades is amusing, but I love how he believes he’s such an integral part of the national team. Congrats you featured in 55 games because the team lacks a defensive midfielder greatly. It’s mind boggling for him to think he’s this stud.

He had his moments, but it’s clear an upgrade was needed. Vuki was supposed to replace Kovac and was a disappointment. Any chance can we start calling him “Butthurt ” Vuki as his name?

http://i.imgur.com/ikEQ2v5.gif

Nishimura can cry in his stinking miso soup all day. Hopefully he drowns in it.

Fuck you Nishimura and Brazil!

Argentina or Messi can clinch for the cup or boot
we will not see Ronaldo wins Ballon d’or

anyhow Croatian should need for my Masterpiece !!

…………………………Mandzukic…………………………..
…….Rebic………………Rakitic……………..Halilovic…….
Vrsjalko…………………L.Modric………………………Srna
…………………Lovren…DMF…Corluka…………………..
………………………..…Subasic…………………………….
This will be our finest lines up >
1) while Rakitic and Modric (both) can be change with Kovacic.
2) and Vrsjalko can be right back wing instead of Srna .. while the left back wing be on Strinic’s role ! !
3) Rebic and Perisic can be switch to each other !
4) Rakitic and Modric have space to their own in the middle
they can show for technique with support from
FW WingFW WingDeff and DMF
5) remember .. the big problem in this team .
when we are too affraid to changing Modric and Rakitic. . even further bench him > and playing for alternative ! !

Did Brazil lose 1-7 on your TV at home as well? Wow, the only thing that would have helped them is if the Japanese ref came in for the second half and Fred took 7 dives in the penalty area.

8-7 Bingo.

dalmo ante my hero, you are the only one

haha this guy called himself dalmo the fag as in he would be a fag (much like alex the great etc etc) these retards should think before they post, geeez Ziva im guessing he is just one of your fanboys and not you sinking to a level unbecoming your “stature”? 😀

Many Brazilian fans did leave the stadion before the final whistle.

http://static3.hln.be/static/photo/2014/3/1/3/20140709000401/media_xll_6887313.jpg

dalmo ante must be gay, he is always talking about this shit

Laknat, fuck off.

definitely Brazil took it in the ass more…

Ya man…one of my buddies from Mexico is a good guy and told me although he was hurt and felt bad for Mexico…he said they didn’t deserve to advance….and he was embarrassed because of the Mexican fans looking like a bunch of low class trolls!

I heard there were 10 arrests in Brazil and 8 of them were Mexicans…cigani!

karma for them too!

Slavonac agreed, now just wait for the memes 😀
Fred probably shouldn’t have crossed himself after that dog act, fuck with the gods they will fuck you back

Ozil shanked that one

WEEEEEEEE!
Leading by a converted touchdown now!

Brazil will burn to the ground tonight!

Seems like all Brazil did for the last 4 days was cry about Neymar.
Should have put that shit behind them and been more focused.

^ ^
What would you expect him to do?…

svabi

isn’t***

5-0 gotta love our German friends

Ziva

Can you please tell me what the Za Dom Spremini lifestyle is?

sour grapes, they can say what they want

Ivica- I agree with you!

I thought Kovac would have had some imagination, kinda like what Bilic was, I looked at him as a guy that is hungry for knowledge and to utilize current technology and techniques to better his team…what I saw was a stubborn man that has been blinded for one reason or another, as if he didn’t think of “the consequence”…I swear, he was not only outcoached but he looked wayyyyyy out of his league!

To say this generation isn’t a good one, I beg to differ! Many coaches would have loved this team…several teams with far less quality achieved not only greater results but actually played better…PERIOD!

Our coach has to find a system that works for this team and stop trying to reinvent the wheel…ie…playing 3 players that don’t function well in the system he chooses. We may have to resort to playing Kovacic as a sub, start Rakitic in behind the forward and having Modric with a strong defensive midfield…we need Strinic, whether you like him or not…he’s been the best in that position over the past 2 years.

there are many areas to cover…one thing for sure is we can’t try to reinvent the wheel!

@armada

That’s right they were a more well rounded team back then(08). And they blew it, just like they did here (brazil).
They had a chance to make some amends in the eyes of the fans. But they didn’t seem interested, their eyes weren’t on the ball, so to speak.

Pletikosa should not have been anywhere near brazil. His lame ass should have been watching from his home. 5 saves for three games! What a dud.
That’s why subusic should have been in the goal mouth. He has been keeping Argentina’s no1 goalman on the bench at Monaco, and Kovac chose his buddy pletikosa? Why?
Pranjic should have remained retired, nuff said.

Anyway you break it down this team underachieved, with the talent at their disposal.
That’s what pains me most, when will there be another time when we will have this type of calibre in the vezni red? Modric came of a champions league victory in arguably the form of his life.
Rakitic came of a breakout year with sevilla and was picked up by Barcelona. They were ripe for this tournament.
How many nations would kill to have their top talent coming off seasons they had. Yet we squandered it.

We don’t have the luxury of coming of a failed tournament to just reload and go again, like some of the bigger nations.
We don’t come across talent like this every few years.
Defensive weaknesses could have been better managed with a better coach. But after the colour commenter as coach, we had the chance to replace him with somebody that had experience, but no we get Kovac..sigh
sigh

Getting the most from your players, finding a system that can help get the most from your players…this was a BIG problem for this team in the WC.

Imagine having 2 excellent players that can play a position and yet neither of them plays well….why not? Rakitic was sacrificed so that Kovacic and Sammir could play the offensive role…in some ways, we can accept Rakitic playing further back and distributing the ball, he actually has great vision and accuracy. Well, the theory failed…not only was Rakitic withdrawn but Kovacic/Sammir did little…..

How would Bilic have lined up these players?

getting the most out of your players…keep this in mind when you think of Pranjic. What exactly gave him such an opportunity? Did Kovac see something in him we didn’t? I am still scratching my head about him…the guy looked like a fish outta water and not only did he start once and fail miserably…he started twice!

there is nothing wrong with this generation…we’ve finally seen Perisic play well, we put Modric and Rakitic in positions where they suffocate each other, we force Pranjic into a role he couldn’t perform at a div 2 level…we experiment with Sammir and Brozovic…AT THE WORLD CUP….

maybe Kovac wasn’t as smart as I thought he was? I have a hard time saying this, I truly like the guy but maybe me liking him as a player has fogged my opinion…if I base my opinion on performance alone, he gets an “F”…he made several mistakes, not just a few…MANY!

going back to the ol Kranjcar debate…I hardly saw many long range quality shots during this tournament…he would have been a good sub that could have done that!

@armada78

Modric himself always it was a failure generation. So he thinks so too. Lol!

This was supposed to be their time to actually do something, after this it’s lament.
They qualified, yes, but so did the 2002,2004,2006, generation.
This generation blew every opportunity set before them. 2008 was a failure, not a success as you see
it. They finished on ahead of Germany in their group and vs the second placed turkey whom were unbelievably lucky to finish 2nd in group.
Then Croatia score 119 Min of extra time and they blow it! And you are trying to convince me they succeeded that year! What!
That year just brings me to tears when I think about it. It does not fill me with pride.
Then there’s missing the 2010 world cup. They did not qualify for that tournament, did they armada?
Now 2012 was unfortunate and they did play well against Ireland, 1 half of italy match, and did hold Spain for majority of the match and could have advanced if rakitic knew how to header a ball. Bad luck but still no advancement.
Now we come to this fucken tournament. I’m exhausted to even think of the failures that transpired.
Modric and co. Could have stamped themselves into our history books if they had beaten the Mexican side like he promised they would.
I’m afraid he and the team blew their chance at a respectable outing. They failed not just because of that fact, but there was alot anticipated that this was the new golden generation.
A generation were our midfield comprised of real Madrid, “Barcelona “, and inter Milan players, we also had a Bayern Munich striker. All of which came of their amazing seasons at those clubs.
They were in their prime, the prime years to actually achieve something. But they failed big time, they let it pass them by and they will never get another opportunity to do so.

That is why it’s a failed generation.

Open your eyes and see it for what it is Mr. Armada.

Enough with this talent bullshit talk and that Van Gaal would trade Snjeder etc for Modric and company. No he wouldn’t. Why because when needed Snjeder shows up. Just like he did in the Mexico game with two minutes left. Our players have the talent but leave it for club and more concerned about not getting an injury. No hustle from our players, no urgency, just a walk a in the park for them. They don’t show up and others countries see this. Fuck we lost to all mighty Scotalnd–twice.
Blame the coach and savez all you want but that is just deflecting the real problem.

Nice post Armada!
Good to have some perspective.

I do agree that our talent which is considerable, is obviously being mismanaged.
The more I watch sports, the more I release how important leadership and respect at the highest levels of an organization affect a team.

THIS FISH STINKS FROM THE HEAD!!!

Ivica A,

I agree.

The fact that a small nation like ours almost always qualifies is in itself an over achievement.

However, with the talent we have we should do much better.

With the talent we have on this team, we could have gone far.

That’s what is most upsetting about this World Cup.

This is the socalist Yugo mentality where we are happy to be peasants.

Alot of you guys are talking about what kovac should do at the euros. As if we get some kind of automatic qualification. For me, a big fear with this team is that we wont even qualify. And thats not me being pessimistic. Thats me being real and making judgments based on how this team performs (usually very poorly).

@Armada
1998 becomes a distant memory every tournament. Be happy if we qualify for a tournament but exit from the group stages is what awaits us. At least we get three games!

Does anyone know about Halilovic’s personal life? Is he really a muslm? Does he not eat prok, drink beer, or pray five times a day. Does he have tattoos?

Bobby V – That would be the biggest new story leading up to the final if that asian referee gets the gig.

He might as well wear a Brazil shirt as well

We Would have, could have, should have done this, I think some of you should be the next coach, turn in your resume

http://www.croatiaweek.com/niko-kovac-admits-mistakes-against-mexico/

Gave up 6 goals against Brazil and Mexico with Rakitic and Modric playing defensive midfield.

Maybe if Kovac pushes them forward, he would have found out that a good offense is sometimes the best defense.

FIFA announces the candidates to referee the World Cup final – check out the fourth name on the list.

Kandidati za finale: Noumandiez Doue (Obala Bjelokosti), Djamel Haimoudi (Alžir), Ravšan Irmatov (Uzbekistan), Yuichi Nishimura (Japan), Mark Geiger (SAD), Marco Antonio Rodríguez (Meksiko), Enrique Osses (Čile), Sandro Meira Ricci (Brazil), Carlos Vera (Ekvador), Cünet Çakir (Turska), Jonas Eriksson (Švedska), Pedro Proença (Portugal), Nicola Rizzoli (Italija), Howard Webb (Engleska)

How awesome would it be to see him do the final and give another one of those penalties to Brazil.

@ziva

Was that a knock on me about bleeding the youth?

Be logical and not twist what people say.

When do you expect for them to make the transition?

“putting them on when we a a goal down”

What? Are you some kind of doofus? Or you trying to be funny?

So what your saying we should stick with pranjic and pletikosa types for the upcoming qualifiers?

Is this what you saying?

And aren’t you the guy that said Croatia’s greatest asset against mexico will be, Marquez being on the team?

You wanna see for Masterpiece huh >>>
http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=53a98132e4b00f1381969dad

………………………….Mandzukic…………………………
…….Rebic………………Rakitic……………..Halilovic…….
Vrsjalko………………..L.Modric………………………Srna
…………………Lovren…DMF…Corluka…………………..
………………………..…Subasic……………………………..
This will be our finest lines up >
1) while Rakitic and Modric (both) can be change with     Kovacic.
2) and Vrsjalko can be right back wing instead of Srna ..     while the left back wing be on Strinic’s role ! !
3) Rebic and Perisic can be switch to each other !
4) Rakitic and Modric have space to their own in the middle
    the can show for technique with support from
FW WingFW WingDeff and DMF
5) remember .. the big problem in this team .
when we are too affraid to changing Modric and Rakitic. . even further bench him > and playing for alternative ! !

@Bobby V

You’re right about Euro 2008.

We were amazing that year, and all we needed was a striker. Eduardo was supposed to be that guy.

Germany was unimpressive that year. The only strong teams, IMO, were Spain, Croatia, and the Netherlands. The Dutch and Croats were both shocked in the quarterfinals, then it became a walk in the park for Spain.

That was our tournament.

Subasic
Vrsaljko Lovren Jedvaj Milic A.

Mocinic Modric

Perisic Rakitic Rebic

Mandzukic.

Zamjene Kovacic Halilovic Hrgota Perica Pjaca Males Radosevic! eto sad ste Dobili Svoje!

@Armada
you might be on something here

Time to refresh the National team MR.NK. No more Pletikosa Olic Jelavic Pranjic Eduardo Sammir Vukojevic Simunic.

50-50 Srna,Kranjcar Corluka Vida Strinic Badelj.

Club football is more important to players these days than international football. They play with their club for almost the whole year then they go play some games with their international sides mainly qualifying games. Even club coaches don’t want their players getting injured in friendly international games so imagine what they would think of them getting injured in qualifying games. They earn big money for their club’s so maybe they are not playing 100% anymore “cuvaju se ” za klub as people say. Some players still do play with alot of heart for their countries but i think our two best mids Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic were more concerned about their upcoming new seasons with Real Madrid and Barcelona. If they did play a whole years worth of games with the reprezentacija,earning big money with repka, than with their clubs maybe we would of seen more heart and effort determination.

Stimac shouldn’t of gotten the job in the first place. once he got it, there’s reasoning that one could say he should of finished it off.
When comparing Stimac and Kovac, at this point I see no difference. At least Stimac got rid of Pranjic who was obviously our worst player, probably worst player in the world cup. hopefully Kovac learns and shows he’s much better than Stimac.

Ivica- you’re probably right but how do you take him seriously if thats his open comment? Stimac to finish the job? it was a gong show that was getting worse by the game!

Lol. Špaco went ape shit on Kovač in that interview.

In the past I’ve asked you and a few here about Badelj…I guess he’s not NT material? Kovac took Vukojevic knowing he’d most likely never use him so what does this say about Badelj?

Ziva- I was ok with the Brazil game, I thought we were disciplined for the most part but the ref screwed us…I wasn’t sure about the Cameroon game…it was too hard to tell if we were good or if the man down helped them…not all teams with a man advantage do as well as we did….and against Mexico I felt we didn’t really have an offensive plan, we looked average but until we made the change in midfield, it was a close game. I was very pissed to see Pranjic go back to left defense that game and I was equally pissed to see we lost complete composure defensively!

going forward, I think Kovac has to establish a strong core and ensure we don’t get caught up in another situation where our midfield cancel each other out…it was horrible to see none of them make much of a difference….its one thing to say you have 3 world class midfielders and its another to play without making much impact utilizing them in a game.

@Doktor Prle
“So if you enjoy just getting there and exiting early, fine by me. I enjoy it too. But then that’s all we should expect.”

Was thinking the same thing the other day.
Really do look forward to those 3 games every 2-4 years though.
Have some friends over, eat and drink way too much and that’s that.

One day we may go on a bit of a run, but I seriously need to lower my expectations in the future. This team is jading me badly! And this coming from an Eagles and a Canucks fan..

There are the obvious mistakes, and not-so-obvious mistakes.

The “not-so-obvious mistakes” are the ones that an experienced coach may be able to catch in training, but is not visible to us fans in the the outside world (ie. Pletikosa’s drop in form, lack of effort from key players, etc).
Whereas, “obvious mistakes” are the ones that even a dumb fan can see (ie. playing Pranjic at LB, playing Sammir at all, and playing a slow Jelavic on the counter against Brazil).

Kovac should not be blamed for the not-so-obvious mistakes he made. These are hard to catch even for a good coach. Before the tournament, everyone here would have gone with Pletikosa over Subasic. Even after that Brazil game, it’s not always a good call to just switch your goalies mid-tournament (and Plete’s mistakes were not terrible against Brazil).

As a result, Kovac should not be blamed for Pletikosa. Nor should he be blamed too much for the lack of effort shown by some of our key players. He may have been able to change things in this area, but even experienced coaches can make a bad call or two.

As a matter of fact, the lineup and tactics in that Brazil game was almost perfectly played. Playing both Rakitic and Modric deep is a good move if you’re playing for a draw (and it almost worked). Lovren worked out really well, and so did Vrsaljko (two risks that turned out to be pleasant surprises). The only blatantly obvious mistake was Jelavic (who completely fanned on his only shot, and was lucky that Marcelo knocked it in anyway). Jelavic should not have played, and everyone knew that. Luckily the own goal worked out for us anyway.

I also gave major props to Kovac’s substitutions that game as well. It was very easy for a coach to jump on that stupid Eduardo hype, but Rebic was the correct choice and it showed. He also made a good move to choose Brozovic over Sammir, and played him forward instead of deep (where he’s not good). Brozovic was nervous but at least managed a couple shots. Kovacic was completely gassed and had to be taken off and we had noone else as ACM. Did the best with what he had and didn’t resort to shifting our successful midfield around or playing a sub out of position.

HOWEVER, Kovac absolutely must be blamed for the amateur mistakes of Jelavic, Sammir, and most notably Pranjic (and then Pranjic the second time). These were all very obvious mistakes that even the dumbest fanboy would have predicted. I don’t thing anyone can disagree that playing Pranjic cost us dearly in this World Cup. He was horrible against Cameroon, and even worse against Mexico. At even strength, both teams outplayed us with Pranjic at LB. The fact that he was actually supposed to play against Brazil is scary to think about.

But it’s his comments after the World Cup that has people pissed off. It seems like he is just being completely ignorant to what happened and is not even acknowledging that we played poorly at all. He seems to think we were excellent against Cameroon, and good in the first half of the Mexico game (a must win-game where we registered zero shots in that half). Either Kovac is stubborn or Kovac is stupid. It’s a terrible feeling knowing that using a failed World Cup campaign to grant some experience to an inexperienced coach lead to them not learning anything at all.

I am hoping that Kovac is not this stupid, rather, I am hoping that he is just a classless stubborn guy who doesn’t want to give the media any satisfaction. I am hoping that he really did see all of these mistakes, and is secretly working very hard to ensure that he plays the right players and the right tactics against the other teams in this Euro 2016 qualifying group. I don’t want to witness what I watched in WC2014 again.

Croatia lost to Scotland – twice. Yikes.

Croatia has a lot of good bits and pieces, but is disorganized. And that’s putting it lightly. Croatia didn’t belong at the WC because the overall product, as a result of years of ineptitude and mismanagement, just isn’t good.

So if you enjoy just getting there and exiting early, fine by me. I enjoy it too. But then that’s all we should expect.

Croatia plays incoherently. Mainly due to the fact that most of those guys are physically inferior to their opponents. Even if they do have technical ability, it can’t be unleashed because there’s no strength or power behind it.

When you’re physically unfit, then you can’t string passes together; you can’t create space; you can’t get the 50/50 ball; and you can only dream of mounting a reasonable attack or applying continual offensive pressure.

That’s the way it is. I hope it changes. But that’s the current situation.

Prle- “Croatia didn’t really belong in Brazil. We have to be honest.”

I think you’re way off on this comment!

we’ve been playing poorly, we’ve had personnel issues, players that have not performed but you are wrong…Croatia has good players, we just don’t have consistency…and thats a very crucial part of the game. we have to play a system, get some success and gain some confidence. It appreared to me that Kovac had no solution for defensive centre mid, he wanted to utilize Kovacic, Modric and Rakitic but never gave them the formula for success…and he really shit the bad with Pranjic…no two ways about it, the guy looked like a fish out of water.

once those details are addressed we can move forward…Perisic played very well, Mandzukic needs to stay focused and play his game and the rest were ok but would have looked better if we have a more solid centre midfield

The HNS is run like a family (mafia) business. They push the product – which isn’t very good – and who gives a shit about the consumers (that would be us fans).

While corruption and nepotism will always be a part of anything Croatian (to be fair, it is like that elsewhere, too), other nations still have some standards that they will not fall below.

Croatian football is rigged mafia-style, producing just good enough of a product to line the pockets of very few, while the consumers suffer.

I didn’t expect Niko Kovac to reject the opportunity to coach the “vatreni” – that’s just how Croatians do things – but imagine we had a guy that said: “Thanks, but no thanks. At the moment, I’m not qualified for the job.”

We’ll probably never experience such a thing in our life-times.

That said, I support Niko Kovac. Bilic & Stimac were hired with virtually no experience, so Kovac will get the same opportunity. It’s how we Croatian do things.

Don’t make it right. But we ain’t changing shit.

As far as this thread goes i’m sure Dejan will improve playing in the champions league, if that makes any change to his Vatreni prformance we’ll just have to wait and see.

This morning I read Kovac’s comment regarding Vukojevic and it made me scratch my head…he said: “Nije igrao ni kod Bilića ni kod Štimca, a ni u klubu. I sad sam ja kriv!?”

so then why did you take a player you don’t trust and you knew you wouldn’t play?

@Rob I
I agree, we showed everybody how to play against Brasil, hopefuly we can get consistent tournament together next time.

@ARMADA87 – if people get hard ons, it’s because Kovac learned. Which would be a good thing. It would also mean, maybe just maybe the players were embarassed and actually will start giving more heart. No reason Modric and Rakitic couldn’t have taken over that game against Mexico. Everyone was on Rakitic’s nuts when back flipped the ball passed a defender for Sevilla. I didn’t see anything close to that in the world cup.
I believe Rakitic was the one that set up the goal against Mexico. And that was because he moved up. Now who’s to blame for that? Could Rakitic have done that where he was, or should have Kovac played him closer behind Mandzukic?

@Vatrena cast – so do you fully support Kovac’s line up and tactics this world cup?

People on this page are the most bipolar people I have ever met. First you love and want to suck kovac off, then he has a few bad games, now you blame him for everything. Now once he wins a few games again you all will want to have his babies again. Same thing happened with stimac, nobody liked him then he beats Serbia and half of you think he is the greatest thing since tudjman, and the loses and everyone thinks he’s milos again.

Liverpool is good for him since he is one of the Homosex guys on the eam.

Some interesting comments here – I just thought we played too much like a lot of Croatian teams – TOO SLOW – I also noticed how teams that usually do well have strong defences – My personal view is that we need a new goalkeeper, two new fullbacks (ie not Srna and Pranjic) and I would probably get rid of Corluka – for me he is not strong enough defensively when required against better teams and for a tall guy not good enough in the air – We need speed and energy – I would keep Olic as an impact player – he creates confusion and runs – good for 20 mins or so ( plus he still scores occasionally)

@Rijecanin – Hold on, Croatia played against a 10- man Cameroon and strolled past them while Mexico had a hard fought game against Brazil right before the two sides met each other..

Whose position would you want to be in coming into the last match?

Even Kovac never blamed the prior venue for the loss – that’s ridiculous. There was 5 days between games.

Wow..

Im glad I dont have to go to a battle with some of the fair weather fans here,

One loss and you clowns are crying like babies.
We were not getting points from Brazil in the opening game, if you think otherwise, give your head a shake, We beat Cameroon 4-0, i dont care if it was with 10 men, we did what we had to do, we got the win and we scored some goals.
As for the Mexico game, no team won aftre having played in Manaus. In this World Cup, the four teams who have played there (Italy, England, Croatia, Cameroon) The conditions are exhausting, especially with only a few days of recovery between games. The travel is a factor as well, with teams losing training days because they have to fly thousands of miles to the jungle.

Records of teams after they played in Manaus.

England Loss and Tie
Italy Loss and Loss
Croatia Loss
Cameroon Loss
USA Loss
Switzerland Loss
Portugal Win

Thats 1 Win, 7 Losses and 1 Tie, Honduras did not have another game. All those teams had more experienced coaches yet they faired no better

http://bostonherald.com/sports/revolution_soccer/soccer/2014/06/croatia_confident_it_can_crack_mexico_defense

….now listen to him before the Mexico match.

So, before the match it’s “We have players in better leagues, so, we should win”

afterwards? “Told you that Mexico is a better team”.

Damn, I think Mamic actually makes more sense than he does.

Agreed with everything everyone is saying about Euro 2016. If they get bounced in round of 16 it’s a huge failure.
This current group of players weren’t seen as failures 6 years ago in Euro tourney. But then again, were they playing for a bigger pay check back then??
If Pranjic gets called to the team for the qualifiers, it’s not worth watching this team. Kovac will show that he’s learned nothing (should have learned after the Cameroon game).

Here’s a question. I know everyone’s said the players have played out of position. I call BS on that as they are “world class players” and should be able to over come that. But that being said, to help push Rakitic and Modric into a more offensive position, would you be more open to Sertich joining the team now? Seems like Vukojevic would helped push those guys into their more natural positions. Then again, even if he did play, he’d have to cover for Pranjic’s stupid ass and would still force everyone to pay more defensively.

@Bobby V

Yea, he seems to have that typical Balkan arrogance.

I wonder if Volker Finke actually meant anything by it when he said: “Za vas je Kovač njemački trener, ali za mene on je tipični Balkanac!”

@Ziva

I thought you were a Kovac supporter. 😉

if Ko-fuck still stuck on the command ..
like bring lousy player ,, > and we can go advance to Final
think .. of how many score did we make .
2-0 to Malta and 2-0 to Azerbaizan -> isn’t not impresive
with suck formation like he did previously ..
we can make through without problem on this qualification
but we need more energetic. . and attractive football ..
we need something new like –>THe Younger star , ,
we are totally boring for old and suck ..

For me, the only way Kovac can redeem himself is with a Quarterfinal berth at Euro 2016.

If we top the group ahead of Italy with at least a win and a draw against the Italians, I will feel a lot better too…but tournament play is what really matters (as I can see many top teams coasting in these qualifiers due to the expanded format).

In two years from now, I don`t wanna see Suker praising Kovac for our success after finishing 2nd in qualifying, then getting bounced in the watered down Round of 16 phase at the Euros. That`s not a success. That`s a failure.

@mkez00

Kovac has it very easy for Euro 2016.

Top two teams qualify automatically. Aside from Italy, both Norway and Bulgaria are heading into their worst years in recent history and are going through a major rebuilding period. It will be impossible to miss out on an automatic berth.

Also, the Euro 2016 knockout phase is going to start with a Round of 16. This means that 16 out of the 24 teams will qualify for the knockout round.

Think about that for a second….
This means that only 8 teams out of the 24 don’t move on. So, teams are MORE likely to progress than not.

Making it to the Round of 16 at Euro2016 will be easier than a team making the playoffs in the NBA Eastern Conference, lol.

Kovac is in a great position for a new coach:

1) Got the team before a very winnable playoff where they were pretty much at rock bottom
2) No expectations in the WC because of lack of experience
3) Heading into a diluted Euro championships where qualifying should be a lot easier

I guess we won’t be able to really judge him positively unless we get out of the group stages at the Euros and make some noise. Anything less would be a fail I think.

The important thing is not like some player have their new club, but what about how this futile resistance –> Ko-Fuck OUT

http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=53a98132e4b00f1381969dad

@dannyj

Niko Kovac has no choice but to be committed. If he were to resign, then he’s pretty much written his career off as a coach. I doubt he made that many millions as a gritty player in the Bundesliga. This career path is his future paycheck.

This was a great opportunity to launch his coaching career, but a short and underachieving stint like this would prevent him from continuing into a club coaching career like Bilic managed to do after he left. I think that this is his goal.

It’s good to see that he finally gave an interview, but after reading what he said, he STILL doesn’t seem to get it.

Kovac actually claims that we played extremely well against Cameroon and the first half of Mexico. He actually thinks that it was going very well against Mexico and that it only went bad for us because we pushed too far forward in the second half.

Is he serious?!

The score should have been 2-0 Mexico after that first half, and we only registered our first shot late in the second half (so I’m not sure what he means by things ‘going well’). Also, Mexico didn’t score their first goal because we pushed forward. But when we finally did push forward, we scored. Someone needs to send him a copy of this game.

Niko also seems to think that, aside from Blazevic, he achieved no less than any other Croatian National Team coach.

This is just straight up delusional.

Dude gets one win against a 10-man Cameroon (and a home win against Iceland) and he thinks his achievements are on par with guys like Slaven Bilic and Cico Kranjcar? Guys who eliminated England, beating Sweden twice at their strongest, beating out Germany and making it to the quarters in Euro2008?

Then he goes on to call out Poklepović for criticizing him, and claims that Poklepović begged to come to Brazil as an advisor with him. Very classy.

I dunno. I want to believe that there’s hope, but he has to give me something here. I just can’t believe that he doesn’t get it.

NK expected too much from this core of guys clearly the team looked to stale and no excitement what so ever playing Olic on the wings was a joke the Lb was a joke and no dm killed croatia and so did Pletikosa. thats my opinion i am glad he said he was wrong and fixes the mistakes and builds a mix of youth and vets i hope thats what he does.

It was pretty messed up to hear about these guys negotiating contracts DURING their preparation period for the World Cup.

I thought Kovač blocked the player’s agents from entering their training facilities, did he? Or was that just bullshit?

Where was the pride? The Mexicans showed their passion and pride for their country, our star midfielders looked lethargic and unwillingly to attack and set up the shooters. Its ridiculous, grow some balls, fight and attack. Only if Modric and Rakitic had the heart of some the commenters on this site.

We need that ZAR naboj like in 90s and early 00s this has been terrible HNS SDP HDZ PEDERI SJEBALI STE DRZAVU I SPORT.

2016 New faces croatia team Subasic Vargic Stipica/Kalinic-AMilic HMilic at LB CBS Leskovic Datkovic Jedvaj wings Halilovic Tomecak Pjaca Catkas Rebic.CF Kramaric Perica Santini Livaja(i know hes sick in head).

He only agreed to move their because he thought they were an ambitious club.

Selling Lambert, Lallana, Shaw, and possibly Schneiderlin, plus losing their coach, is NOT ambitious.

Lovren to Liverpool.
Vrsaljko to Milan.
Mandzukic to Atletico.