With his 135th appearance vs. Cyprus on Saturday, Luka Modrić has passed former captain Darijo Srna as the most capped player in Croatian history! Truly an amazing ride from refugee to World Cup Finalist and Ballon d’Or winner!
The HNS compiled a special message to Luka from all of Croatia’s “100 Club” members, which consists of Dario Šimić, Vedran Ćorluka, Ivica Olić, Josip Šimunić, Ivan Rakitić, Stipe Pletikosa, and Darijo Srna. Ivan Perišić will join the “100 Club” with two more games played.
@T Bone
Croats can’t afford to have kids. I’m sure they copulate with women, but they just can’t afford to have kids.
I think it has something to do with having atheistic communist Franjo Tudjman as the progenitor of this modern Croatian state.
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My Dad’s family had 12 kids, my mum’s family 11 kids, and times were tough then. Are times tougher in Croatia now?
Croatia’s population dwindling? What’s the solution? Jebi Picke! Make babies! Simple!
We have all had a bad week
These losses kill all of us cause it’s how we show the world we are capable
Everyone settle
Let’s get past Malta and see if there will be adjustments
Stipe has nothing to prove, but I suspect he will want his rubber match with Francis
https://youtu.be/PCYArey8ykU
This reminds me of ziva asking for sarma from mama
Always a great laugh
@ the truth
thank you for the the translation. all I know is mama’s sarma that she brings down to my basement once a week is still delicious and she irons my croatia jersey before each game.
ZA DOM
When we lost to Turkey in PK’s after blowing the lead in extra time I didn’t sleep for a week.
The France loss and penalty BS a few days at least.
I suffer as much as anyone when we lose but I just think we need to temper our expectations a bit going forward.
We have been spoiled to say the least.
We had 2 guys starting at Barca and Real in the midfield.Will that ever happen again?
We won’t be the Czech Republic but we are due for some mediocre results, our talent pool doesn’t compare to a lot of the big boys sorry to say
Pero is correct.
@ Pero
“the stars have aligned for us…literally the past decade …it won’t happen for decades!”
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We have qualified for every major tournament we’ve been around for sans 1 WC and 1 Euro. At the Euros, we’ve made it to 2 QF’s and 1 R16 and at the WC, we obviously have a bronze and silver medal.
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For as tough as we can be on our NT (especially in recent times), we have been consistent in terms of getting *some results* at major tournaments and usually being right below the level of Italy/Spain/France/Portugal/Germany/England in terms of their successes (while still being able to beat most of those teams). We’re also light years ahead of neighbors; Serbia, BiH, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc. None of those teams can touch our success or our consistency for making it to major tournaments and getting decent results in said tournaments.
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Between the youth we’re able to produce domestically and being a ‘big game team’, I think we’ll continue to do alright and be consistent in terms of making the Euro/WC. I hope I’m proven wrong here, but I don’t think we’ll make a SF or Finals run at either the upcoming Euro or WC. That might be for another generation, but I think we’ll continue to punch above our weight and keep things interesting.
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This isn’t like the Czech Republic for example after the late 90’s where they fell off a cliff and went from #2 in the world to a middle of the pack European NT in just a few years.. Not to sound like some HNS talking head, but we’ve been in the FIFA Top 20 for 20+ years here. That says a little something
Maminjo…I meant to say “Maminjo, I’m not sure I would have called Vlasic RIGHT after the WC in 2018,”
Maminjo, I’m not sure I would have called Vlasic back after the WC in 2018, he was still very inconsistent and hadn’t proven a thing. As I’ve said recently and I keep getting my mind convinced by others, rather than to trust what I see for myself…we have some good up and comers but we really blow our load when we talk about our future stars. Sure, we have POTENTIAL, but that potential needs to be realized and we seem to name names as if they’re already proven.
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we did it with Jedvaj (me especially), Halilovic, Coric, Radosevic, Balic,….there’s tons and tons!
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I enjoy Vuk and U14 providing us with updates on our youth players but I know the transition from youth to the big leagues is massive and not for the majority! Even when some of these guys do make it, they’re still not something I’d really consider great…ie Kalinic, Pasalic, Budimir, Barisic, Kovacic, Brekalo, Vlasic…soo many more…they are plagued with being very inconsistent and not really establishing an identity with our National Team!
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https://www.marca.com/en/football/real-madrid/2021/03/29/6061c86946163f85578b45e0.html
Out of respect for Luka’s standard, I want to see the rest of these dudes on fire tomorrow.
As per Rakitić, we couldn’t continue with both him and Modrić.
He did us a favor retiring.
I am not busting on Kovačić yet.
He has shown quality with Tuchel’s Chelsea.
Brozovic has been trash this past week, Kovačić has been decent.
Once again I wait to see if Kovačić can dominate vs Malta?!
We need Melnjak to score a hat trick against Malta. That’ll put these slackers on their toes. 😉
Yes, Croatia’s population is dwindling
But I don’t feel as others have stated if we integrate the right youth with what we have now the growing pains has to be so hard
It’s when we completely implode again like pletikosa 2014 where we have to change
We need to find a coach who can do this and isn’t afraid to do so
Maybe that’s why bilic was great at the start he rode the young guys he started With. For sure he had the talent
But you can’t tell me we are that much terribly worse on paper then in Russia.
The fact that Sosa can’t get a look
DCC can’t start
Orsic who has showed the ability not just against Tottenham but to blast world class type of goals
These are completely legit guys who can have an impact here and now
We don’t need all world class guys
We need above average talent which we have who truly want to Play and a coach who can put them in the right formation
@Maminjo you’re a knowledgeable guy and very high on our supposed superiority but when we get knocked out of the EURO’s very early..make it out of our group at the most ,I’ll be the first to say I TOLD YOU SO!
Then struggle to make the World Cup…the stars have aligned for us…literally the past decade …it won’t happen for decades!
Vi are small but bin lucky tu I hop 4 best butt smart man label it regression to the mean.
U smart guy but ur glass two full of Slivovits it over flow with BS optimistic xenophobic outlook not reality!
Shocking its that little.
“a disclosed $5.278 million in career earnings.” Is that a typo? Do football players make so little? Or is it that his salary is not disclosed?
Dalic made the mistake of not transitioning to newer, younger players right after the World Cup success.
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The transition to Vlasic was only made AFTER Rakitic was a no-show at some of the qualifiers, then eventually retired.
Otherwise, Dalic would play Raketa until he was 37.
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Vida and Lovren look to still be the starters, despite having two younger and more talented CBs on the bench worth more than 5-10 times their value on the transfer market.
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Like many coaches, Dalic is too slow to transition, and now we are pay the price.
It was expected that some guys like Perisic, Lovren, Vida, would either drop off in ability…or get too comfortable and just go through the motions.
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Other coaches make this mistake as well, and would rather play it safe by losing with the veteran star players (than try and do something different, and mess something up). You’ll receive less criticism like this.
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The Euros should have be a small step back, in order to take a step forward in preparation for the next World Cup.
Now we risk stepping back for both of them, unless some of our youth really surprise us once they are called up.
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But none of this means that we’re done for good, and should never expect to reach a semi or a final again, lol. Give me a break.
“Vi are smoll kantri….Vi are very very smoll kantri”
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More like small communist-influenced minds, meant to break people’s spirits so they never try.
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Every country in the world has up and downs. Italy in the past three World Cups have been embarrassingly bad. Netherlands can’t even seem to qualify for anything now. Even Germany got showed up at the last World Cup by mediocre teams. Even mighty France was bad right after every tournament they won.
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Why is Croatia a special case?
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These countries can all have low points and high points…but
whenever Croatia goes on a bit of a low point, it suddenly means that we area a small country and should consider themselves lucky to ever experience a high again?
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LOL. Give me a break.
Pero
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You sound familiar. Every few years, people always say what you say, then Croatia bounces right back and shows you what’s what.
Yea, that’s unfortunate, considering he is an All-Time great and will possibly be suffering from some long term health issues from all those head punches he’s taken.
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Ben Askren is fighting that YouTuber Logan Paul in another one of those celebrity boxing matches, and Ben Askren said that it will be his highest pay day, lol.
That right there says a lot about the UFC salaries, and why Boxing will always be respected more (despite it being a less complete fighting sport).
“Miocic’s net worth is estimated to be $4 million, per multiple sites that claim to measure that metric. According to thesportsdaily.com, however, Miocic has earned a disclosed $5.278 million in career earnings.”
Sports like life goes in cycles and with Luke,stipe and our repka fading fast it’s time to re-adjust our expectations for a tiny sporting nation,and the diaspora abroad.
Maybe we should have appreciated the last few years more than we did because the chances of it happening again.. in our lifetime are minuscule.
it’s crazy how little money miocic has gotten paid for his ufc career
Luka has earned all his records and accolades class act as a player person and family man 135 games and still the best player for both team and country incredible!
Yes he definitely is talking about Kovačić.
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Kova has got the most caps among active players at 65 caps, behind only Perišić (98) and Vida (85) but he’s notably younger than them both.
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I don’t know if he will surpass Luka though.
He’ll have to be an undisputed starter moving forward, and I still don’t know if he will be.
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It depends on the coach. If, for example, we get Bišćan as our next coach… He has a relationship with talented midfielders like Moro, Majer, and Sučić that he may be biased toward. He’ll want to integrate them.
Bjelica is similar in that he gives young guys a chance too.
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Kovačić will start after Modrić immediately retires… But I don’t know if he can hold on to his position long term, especially if he continues to play his sideways tika taka style.
Undoubtedly the best player that put on the checkered jersey. Euro 2021 might be his last tournament and I would be fine with that. Modric is one of the best midfielders in history. He’ll for sure clock out with over 140 caps,
I’ll trade 140 games from Kova for 1 more tourney next year from luka all day and twice on Sunday
With that being said for Gods sake guys
Match his effort
He’s the only one who can say fuck it all take a day off and doesn’t
I’m thinking maybe Kovačić (sorry maminjo)
That was me
In an interview, Modrić said there is one player that he thinks may beat his cap record one day, but he won’t say who. Who do you guys think he’s referring to?
Vida is on 85 caps, I wonder if he’ll make the 100 club!
Can’t wait for Kovačić to get to the 100 club.
He’ll get there soon enough.
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The quietest 100 club player of all time lol.
Yup
Rakitic was still very useful to the repka but oh well
These young hungry kids are showing up
Put a fire in some of this complacency
and that’s the big difference between modric and rakitic..
for the diaspora, let me quickly translate that quote for you
“I will still always be here while the coach and team need me. When the time comes, we’ll talk. “
Još uvijek dolazim sa strašću i pun motiva na okupljanja. Iako sam možda svima dosadio kako se uvijek ponavljam, ali uvijek ću biti tu dok me izbornik i ekipa trebaju! Kada dođe vrijeme popričati ćemo.
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Luka’s words after the game. Hvala Bogu.
The greatest!