When Croatia and Azerbaijan met last October in Osijek, the Vatreni easily dismantled their competition 6-0 in front of 15,000 happy fans. They meet again in Baku Thursday with only four matches remaining in Euro qualifying.
The question is: will the real Croatia show up who can score goals with ease against a lesser talented Azerbaijan side or will Croatia’s Jekyl side come to play, who could only manage one shot on goal versus Bulgaria earlier in qualifying?
Kickoff: 12 PM EDT, 9:00 AM PST
Venue: Bakcell Arena, Baku (AZE)
Referee: Ruddy Buquet (FRA)
Attendance:
Where to watch?
ESPN3, ESPN Deportes
Lineups
Croatia
Coach: Niko Kovac
Players: Subašić – Vrsaljko, Ćorluka, Vida, Pranjić – Badelj, Modrić (kap.) – Pjaca, Rakitić, Perišić – Mandžukić
Azerbaijan
Coach: Robert Prosinecki
Players: Agajev – Mirzabekov, Husejnov, Sadigov (kap.), Dašdemirov – Garajev – Ismailov, Amirgulijev, Nazarov, Gurbanov – Kurbanov
Disciplinary
Croatia
- Kovacic, Mandzukic, Olic are a booking away from a suspension
Azerbaijan
- Dmitri Nazarov is a booking away from a suspension
Match Stats
score: 0 – 0
Match Events
2′ Big chance for Mandzukic. Modric with a beautiful pass to Mandzo in open space, but Mandzo isn’t able to wrangle the ball in for what would have been a great opportunity to score.
7′ Perisic with a 25 yard strike that doesn’t come close in testing the keeper.
11′ Pjaca gives away a free kick 15 feet outside of their own box, but Azerbaijan can’t do anything with it.
12′ Croatia win a free kick just outside of Azerbaijan box
14′ Mandzukic tries to play quick 1 2 with Pranjic, but the ball rolls into open space that Pranjic can’t get into . How is he still starting?
22′ When a team parks the bus like this, you need wing play to open up the game. With Srna out, you realize how much these youngsters need to learn and improve in that position for us. Everything going through the middle right now
26′ Perisic delivers a ball into Mandzukic who isn’t able to head the ball home.
29′ Perisic with a near goal after Vrsaljko centers that ball into the middle of the box. Beautiful save by the Azerbaijan keeper in the low corner
31′ Another cross into the box for Mandzukic. The ball bounces awkwardly before getting to him, and just misses his head.
36′ Vrsaljko finally gets some confidence to run the ball in himself, and just misses wide with a shot that’s from just inside the box. Vrsaljko looking better as the game progresses, but just needs to improve on his confidence level.
45′ HT 0 – 0
46′ The only redeeming quality for Badelj right now is the announcer constantly calling him BA DELI
48′ Perisic with a cross that nearly goes in the goal, but just hits the top of the bar.
51′ Pretty sure Mandzukic just missed a wide open header in front of goal. Have to see it again, but not sure how he screws that up.
53′ Badelj gives away a free kick to Azerbaijan just outside of Croatia’s box.
57′ Perisic has not stopped running. Reports saying that Kovac put a treadmill to top speed in the dressing room so he didn’t lose his energy.
59′ Mandzukic heads the ball straight into the keepers arms from 10 feet away. AAND HERE COMES KOVACIC for ba deli
61′ Rakitic has moved into a more holding MID role, while Modric and Kovacic are launched forward. I would think Modric to take that position, but let’s see how it works out.
65′ Rakitic with a beautiful pass into Mandzukic who tries to…wait for it….cutely flick it into the goal?
67′ Pjaca with a beautiful run in, lays the ball off to Kovacic who is wide open, and misses a WIDE OPEN chance on goal with a wide shot.
74′ Kovac looking at Prosinecki to see if he wants to come on and make a difference.
84′ Mandzukic puts a sitter into the keeper’s arms. What is going on?
90′ Kovacic picks up a yellow for arguing with ref. Misses next match.
94′ Final 0:0 – Let the meltdown begin.
Swastika hooligans thats all just mamic and co looking to discredit the anti hns/mamic campaign, time to get rid of the bosanci in charge. Not to offend the real hrvati from bih, time for the real hrvati to take over, no matter where they come from they just have to be Croatia first
Ziva Istina says:
@Karlovac74…………..why would we be shitting our pants if the Serbs become a very good or even great team in 4 or 5 years. My life doesn’t chnage if the Serbs win a Euro or World Cup. Hell, they just won the youth World Cup. My life didn’t change. Did your life change because they won the youth World Cup? You mention committing suicide if a rival wins it. I laught at that comment. And honestly, kind of hope to see them win just to see if the homers would actually follow through on such a crazy threat/idea.
The truth is that posting for nothing. Ive been on here for years but never really posted for personal reasons. What I did do is read everyone’s comments and take notice of the instigators. At times I wondered if you just posted to stir the pot or that you get off on trolling.
I used the suicide comment as an example showing how it would suck.Or better yet how I would feel.Example the Euro qualifier in Belgrade when the serbs turned off the lights to ruin are momentum. I was angry and mad for days. Why because I have passion. .
Your examples of Basketball, water polo and volleyball don’t mean anything to me. I’m sorry theirs only 2 sports that I love and follow religiously and that’s soccer and hockey. So basically your right because I don’t give shit about the other sports.
That being said you make laugh because your on this damn site everyday showing you passion for Cro sports yet have the balls to slam me for also being passionate. Your a Hypocrite. Your also a disgrace to your bloodline for saying you hope the serbs win the next major tournament so you can torment your fellow bothers and get off on there misery.
Only a true serb would make such a comment maybe you should change your name from Ziva Istina to Spavaš Sredstvo.
I’m close to locking up an interview with one of the bball players.
Questions?
Understood.
I just have fun with all this stuff.
hahaha….dude, you’re in the wroooooong business! you could easily make a successful sports/gossip/drama show that would allow the audience to bring up all sorts of topics…and then you’d lead the conversations to controversial topics:
STD Corluka, Hamburger Helper Kranjcar, Old Man Olic, Dry Ink Pranjic….Kum Kovac
just imagine what you could do with Americans in Football, basketball, Hockey…
@Slavonac………….true. But, it is more interesting this way. Plus, more hits and discussion on this website.
so after yesterday’s round of play, Croatia has slipped into 2nd place (remember, we lost a point for the swastika). imagine if the hooligan’s didn’t throw the flares while we played Italy in Milan and if nobody etched a swastika on the field in Split…we’d have at least 15 points, still be in first and we may have won that first leg in Italy, we enjoyed so much possession and had Italy defending and on their heels…if we scored again, today we’d have 17 points and still in pole position!
To be fair, Halilovic wasn’t that great at the U17 WC.
Karlovac there youth is no where close to ours…they won the u 20 world Cup. …so what! Mali was a contender…u 17 matters more…Halilovic was at barca at 17…kovacic at inter at the same age…lots of top talent is at big clubs at that age.. not concerned about u20 or 21.
Ziva that I would watch!! Lol…suicide over the leafs??? Come on bro!!! Fuck the leafs…I live in toronto they are a national embarrassment.Serb players are over rated…man u tosic…markovic Liverpool etc…just the defense meets potential…
@Karlovac74…………..why would we be shitting our pants if the Serbs become a very good or even great team in 4 or 5 years. My life doesn’t chnage if the Serbs win a Euro or World Cup. Hell, they just won the youth World Cup. My life didn’t change. Did your life change because they won the youth World Cup? You mention committing suicide if a rival wins it. I laught at that comment. And honestly, kind of hope to see them win just to see if the homers would actually follow through on such a crazy threat/idea.
Who cares if they win it all. Life goes on. The serbs have been at the top of the basketball pyramid winning a World Championship in hoops and runner up finishes at the Worlds and Olympics. Guess what, life went o. The serbs have had more succes in water polo and men’s volleyball and life goes on. Hell, the serbs have an all time great in tennis who keeps winning majors….and guess what, life goes on for us hrvati.
Who cares if the serbs get better than us one day. But, if people really were led to committ suicide, then that would be a good shit show to watch.
I see Tomic starting at the 5 over Zoric. PG is either Ukic or the American.
Stipe says:
@ SLAVONAC FROM CANADA
I know I’m going to get slammed for asking this question about Serbia. Before you were talking about having great players and making fancy line ups. Not for nothing , Serbia has awesome individual players who play in the best leagues in the world. Why do they suck so bad as a team? Cause there Serbian ? I’m just curious
No slam required when talking about the serbs since there latest performance says it all but I will answer your ? and remember this is in no way a pro serb rant but a warning for us to get are shit together before it’s to late. Example
I’m a die Toronto Maple Leaf fan. (PLS No sarcasm required) If The Montreal Canadian were to win another Stanley CuP before Toronto I would commit suicide.
Now if the same were to happen that the Serbs won Euro or the World Cup before us the same response would happen. Now you know where I’m headed.
The serbs national team is bad now but there under 21,19 and 17 teams are actually quite stocked. There going through that transitions that Hrvaska went through after the Golden generation retired. Remember when Dao Prso was the only good player we had lol. We got lucky with him because he was Mechanic in France when he decided to give his pro career another chance as a walk on. Good for us because he was the only shining star in those dark years.
Anyway there youth is going to explode onto the seen within the next 5 years and if they get a decent coach in place we might be shitting are pants unless we clean up the FA back home.
Hope this answers your ?
@Bobby V – wouldn’t it be amusing if Serbia finish their group matches with minus points. It could happen – and would go down as the worst ever performance at qualifying stage in Euro history. Even San Marino and Gibraltar couldn’t match that record.
@ Svima
Point is that Italy find a way to win or draw games when they need to do it. They especially know how to do this at major tournaments. 1-0 Malta is a classic result. Unfortunately 0-0 yesterday is a classic result for the vatreni.
I wonder if Kovač got even more wound up coaching against Žuti. Like he knew he was going up against the master and may be even more exposed?
Or maybe MANdzukic has dropped off a cliff as he fluffed at least 4 good chances ?
Modric looked activated with the arm band on. He was creating space for people to operate, most did not match his level.
Strinic fiasco is really hurting us. He is a classy player who blends in well with the attack from LB.
Sranjic looks erratic and crowds Rakitic and Perišić .
Vrsajlko can play LB Sunday. His running is a revelation.
@ Allen and Ziva
We are in for a goodie Saturday 2 pm against Slovenia.
Who is going to start ? I hope we go quick and athletic.
1 – ?
2 – Simon
3 – Bogdanović
4 – Šarić
5 – Zoric
When are going to produce a #1 PG like Dragić ?
We have finally NBA caliber players in the pipeline.
I still would like to see a real domaći lead guard who can facilitate the flow.
Košarku will provide a needed break from the vatreni till Sunday at 12 noon.
U Boj
…age group will then be 24-28 years old
@Marko – goes back to what I’ve been saying for awhile – Not enough good players in the 21-25 year old range – a 5 year gap wasted.
Our last chance before we drop out of sight, like the rest of our neighbors and like our basketball team did for awhile, will be at the 2018 World Cup – because that age group will then be 24-29 – where your prime time players should be.
How about the current standings in this group?
Portugal 12, Albania 10, Denmark 10, Armenia 1, Serbia -2.
Albanians all but guaranteed at least a playoff.
The reason we lost yesterday was simple – none of our strikers or attacking midfield has much in the way of form at the moment. You could have crossed 100 balls into the box last night and we wouldn’t have scored. Which wasn’t helped by NK not having a Plan B.
Interesting to also watch Italy v Malta on TV yesterday. Italy were REALLY poor – Malta should have drawn that match and they outplayed Italy over the last 15 minutes. That’s the standard of what’s meant to be the best team in our group, which puts our performances so far into context.
I hate to say it but I was just about the only person on here who posted before the match that I had a bad feeling about yesterday – and it’s likely to cost us again on Sunday against Norway.
Are we really saying that we’re relying on stari Olic to turn things around for us, or for Srna to come back? Both are serial over performers who are on the verge of retirement. They won’t be able to bail us out for much longer. What does that say about our prospects once they finally retire?
You know what guys?
Italy, Holland and the Czechs all sucked today too.
Its not the end of the world.
Even a draw in Oslo and I’d still be confident of automatic qualification.
@ Ante B – Copy and paste that last question into a Word file. If Mamic/Suker/Kovac are still around (and why not?) the question might still fit.
….only it might not be as funny
@ Miminjo – Kalinic came in for Perisic. Mandzukic never left the game.
Olic will start with Mandzukic. Pjaca to the bench. Srna for Vrsaljko. I dont see any room for Vrsaljko with Srna back in the lineup. I prefer Vrsaljko to start with Srna coming off the bench.
Early prediction: Croatia 2:1 Norway(Olic-tap in, Perisic counter)
@Maminjo,
You misunderstood me. I know that the HNS has some $$$ in the swiss bank. All I am saying is that the HNS will not break bread for a manager at least not yet.
I’m not one of those that thinks we are a poor federation that barely has enough $$$ to pay utilities.
I agree with your points.
We did lose to Gruzija away 1:0 so it could have been worse we also drew away to Estonia 0:0 in the Euro 2004 qualifying. Izbornik je rekao nije kraj svijeta which is right.
Who is to say the players even listen to Kum Kovac. They are also aware he has no coaching pedigree and is only in his role thanks to being kumovi with the Mamic clan. I wouldn’t respect my coach if that was the case and I am sure there are guys on the team who roll their eyes at Kum Kovac. Now, it doesn’t mean they don’t play hard. They do, they played hard today, but having Kum Kovac as our coach doesn’t provide us an advantage in the coaching/manager category.
I could see Kovac instructing his players to try and set the tone early and pounce on Norway.
Could be a big mistake. If I’m Norway, I sit back and counter…even though it’s Norway that needs the victory.
Mandzo up front, and Olic at LW is pretty much a guarantee.
So long as it’s not Mandzukic. I prefer Olic to Mandzukic any day.
Kovac will probably start both Mandzo and Olic on Sunday.
We’ll see if anyone gets benched. My initial reaction is no. Kum Kovac probably considers that a panic move. Maybe Pjaca sits and Olic goes back in.
I’m not sure Srna should be in at all. Let Vrsaljko stay in that spot. I’m not convinced Srna can play RM. Or do what we did in Brazil and play Vrsaljko at LB.
Back to Kum Kovac……..during the game, who does he turn to for help? His brother. Does the conversation go like this….
Kum Kovac: it’s not working with these guys, who should go in?
Robert: Hell if I know. All I know is that I’m still fucking a former Miss Croatia.
Kum Kovac: right, we will stay with a central defensive midfielder.
This is what Mamic has given the repka ladies and gentlemen.
Do you think Mario will start up front against Norway…or 57 year old Ivica Olic (who I still love)?
Hopefully Kovac has common sense.
Hammer I agree w Srna at RM and Vrsaljko at RB it’s common sense at this point. Mandzo should have been replaced at the half mark. Not sure why he would have kept him in. His confidence is at an all time low.
I might get my wish of Srna RM and Vrsaljko RB, surely Kovac won’t take Vrsaljko out. Also Kalinic to replace Mandzukic and I’ll be happy. I won’t be a Kovac fan anymore if he starts Mandzukic against Norway. I’ve never thought Mandzukic was any good.
Za mene je Hrvatska danas bila odlična, samo nije zabila gol!”
Kovac
My question here is, who’s fucking who? Are you kidding me?
At the end of the day it’s the coaches job to have his players ready to go. Also how do you sub off your best player with 20 minutes to play for a defensive mid? Wow!!!!!
On an unrelated note,
I just realized that Croatia’s club coefficient ranking jumped up to #16 (leapfrogging Austria).
Had Rijeka qualified for Europa, we would have been #15, which would have given us TWO Champions League spots, lol.
@Three
Yes, some players had an awful game, but it’s up to the coach to rectify the situation. That’s his role on the team.
For example:
Everyone wholeheartedly agrees that Mandzukic had a terrible game (probably one of his worst on the NT). So, why did it take 85 minutes for Kovac to finally react and take him out?
Why were we attacking through the middle with all that congestion? Why not continue to focus our play on the wing, and sub out Pjaca who was not having a great game today?
We lacked creativity in the 2nd half, and then we decide to take out Modric (who was in disbelief himself)?
With Modric out, why is our most creative and offensively potent midfielder in Ivan Rakitic STILL dropping back to cover for Pranjic when Pranjic is pushing forward and walking back? Why is Pranjic’s predictable offence taking priority over Rakitic’s creative offense?
If you guys want to watch some young kids who actually deserve to be on the repka, then watch the hoops team starting on Saturday.
Ajdu picku materinu!!!!!
OLDmandzukic should have been subbed off at half time.
Fuck this slow post upfront crap as our #9. Need more movement upfront.
Rebić runs from the start or Kalinic and throw in Mandžukić if you are desperate at the end.
Pranjić is disjointed.
Modric looked fantastic need to never sub him off.
Vrsaljko was a revelation.
Perišić was lively.
We missed 4-5 good chances and didn’t ask any questions of the goal keeper.
Žuti coached his fat ass off tonight!
Kramaric needs some minutes.
Kovač lacks plan B and C and D and E.
@ Svima
Strap it on boys as it looks like we are in for yet another roller coaster qualifying finish.
Sunday Norway will be on fire.
ZDS
@ like Joey
“I get the coach argument but not today”. Great line. These players had an awful game. No way to sugar coat it or point the blame to the coach.
We are missing a right sided player, a true chemistry in midfield and a left back.
Yes, we have Rakitic, Modric and then Kovacic (who’s very inconsistent), we have Brozovic who’s average…and within this group of guys here on this site, there’s always a debate on Lovren, Corluka, Srna….so the way I see this we should start with what we have… a solid starter and then work from there.
Prosinecki is the best soccer mind we have! but he is half serb and mamic will not allow him to take over. Kovac is an apprentice who is learning on the job and will be a good coach one day. What scares me is what his mistakes in the process will cost us.Todays result is because of poor form and performance!! Mandzo could of won that game in the first few minutes he was HORRIBLE!!! i have never seen him that bad ever. i get the coach argument but not today.
@snonymous
Forget about Capello. He did shit with England and Russia and they paid him a boatload of money.
Funny I as having this discussion with IvicA two years ago and he was jumping up and down over this board on how successful mando would be at Juventus. Too funny. I kept telling him Juve is not the team for him.
Also snagging a coach with experience is funny. Yeah that will do wonders with these midgets. Sorry no coach will succeed. As Slavonac said we are not as stacked as so many on here think we are. We need strikers and we need them fast.
Like I wrote earlier, Mandzukic will be a huge flop in Italy. You need to be more of a creative forward in that league to score goals.
That tap-in or deflection shit won’t be available in Serie A.
Hope nobody at Juventus saw this game – Either way, Mario will be on the bench by the end of the month and on a different club come January.
How much would Fabio Capello cost? Livaja is at Empoli now.
With $15 million in the bank, no way you can give a $1 million salary to a coach.
I think our boys are going to come out strong.
However, even if they win 7-0, that won’t change my opinion about Kovac.
I was told a year ago that the savez has at least $15 million Euros in the bank…plus assets.
We have Look at Me Livaja.
Come Sunday, can you imagine the meltdown on this board if Norway wins. It would be good entertainment.
Now, don’t get me wrong, i am hoping for a win, but you have to admit the entertainment factor is pretty good on this board after a poor result.
@Ivica
Risk vs Reward.
Serbs, Russians and Turks are nowhere near the quality of Croatia to be pretty much guaranteed a tournament.
With us there is less risk of not qualifying, but too much of a risk to not spend the extra few hundred thousand.
But even still, these teams made it further than us in recent history with Turkey and Russia both making the semis at Euro 2008.
We don’t have to go out and drop millions on Guus Hiddink like these two teams did, but just snagging a coach with some experience should do.
Don’t know why we stopped producing good #9’s.
I think Kramaric has what it takes to be very good, however, if he doesn’t break into Leister’s starting lineup soon he needs to get out this winter.
I think Rebic has potential, however, I am skeptical about his future because he is so injury prone.
Perica has shown some potential to be a good finisher. Like Mandzo, he requires good service.
Other than those three, things don’t look too promising for the near future.
Can anyone think of any other prospect?
T-bone…….I never said for them to not make the tourney. I just laid out what needs to happen for a possible kick in the ass. It worked with Strucnjak Stimac failing.
Remember, short term pain for long term gain.
Ohh, they would as soon as a negative result came along.
The savez has money, but they are not knee deep in it and that is why they won’t pay big money for a coach. Just won’t happen right now.
Oh yeah
Ajde Ziva, you’re gonna tell me that they can’t scrape $500K from a 40% share of 12 Million Euro prize money for such an important factor like coaching?
Even after the split, that amount works out to $5.5 million.
and that 60% bonus that you speak of, includes the coach as well, so the bonus would be covered. Just add the 500K base.
Nobody in Cro would go “ape-shit” over this. If they didn’t go ape-shit when the coaching salary skyrocketed from $70 per year to $250K per year (from Bilic to Stimac) then they definitely won’t for a coach with actual experience.
This whole short term pain for long term gain mantra must have been made up by a mental midget with regard to Croatia’s coaching or qualification situation. I don’t care if we’re being coached by Bosko Balaban as long as we get into the major tournaments. I’ll put it in CAPS FAILING TO MAKE A MAJOR TOURNAMENT IS PAIN IN THE SHORT TERM AND PAIN IN THE LONG TERM AND RESULTS IN NO GUARANTEE OF GAIN IN THE SHORT TERM OR LONG TERM. Making a tournament is no guarantee of gain but the probability of gaining from the experience is dramatically improved. Hear that Ziva? Ever figure that the reason why the Serbs don’t qualify is because they don’ t qualify? I.e. they don’t get money from uefa/fifa to their savez thereby handicapping their ability to develop players. They have a pretty crap qualification record compared to Cro’s and seem to only pip us when we fail to make it. You never see Croats and the Serbs at the same tournament.
Yeah sure. Pay the big money for a coach. What did it for the Russians, Turks and Serbs the past few years. They went out paid big and did not qualify. A bit naive here to believe a coach will bring them to the promise land.
Our players seem to not give a crap about this game and it showed in the play.
@Slavonac
The reasons why the Serbs suck are very simple…
They have poor players in all the positions that matter, and their only good players are “system players”.
Who is the #9 on that team?
Who is the #10 on that team?
Those two positions can make and break a team, no matter who the remaining players are. Just ask Iceland. A team filled with nobodys, but they have a true #9 and a true #10, and they are first in a very tough group.
Serbia’s top players are defensemen, who can’t seem to defend (with Serbia regularly conceding 2-3 goals per game against poor competition).
Vidic was awesome for ManU, but garbage for Serbia. Same goes for Ivanovic and Kolarov. These guys are worth tens of millions in the EPL, but they’re worth shit on Serbia. These guys are system players who are built for the EPL. They need a world class coach, and world class players to succeed. They can’t be put on a weakass Serbia team surrounded by Eredivisie and Jupiler league players, and expect to perform. These guys kind of remind me of Lovren (but better) and how he has the physical tools to perform at a superstar level on Southampton, but would turn to complete shit once taken out of that system.
That payout for making the World Cup or a Euro you mention……half of that goes to the players. The savez has to pay the players their respective bonuses. Usually a 60/40 split.
The other nations that pay millions for a coach have that money to pay through sponsors. Looks at how Zuti is being paid with Azerbaijan. Same thing.
We don’t have that in Cro. Look at the sponsors we have, none of them are paying millions to the savez. And many others don’t want to sponsor the repka because of Puppet Suker and Mamic. Plus, the public would go apeshit if it came out a coach was being paid millions while the national salary average in Cro is what it is.
The difference between in form and out of form is huge. When you’re in form, your touch is perfect…the weight, the precision, the timing…and everything you do is natural…you tend to score goals that require more skill or you’re in the right place for the tap-ins.
When you’re not in form you’re fighting the ball or as they say back home, lopta ne slusa…you second guess yourself, you overthink situations, tap-ins tend to get away from you, breakaways can make you feel afraid to miss rather than to be optimistic about scoring…it feels like the scoring drought will never end!
@Denis
Re: your comment…
“Croatia doesnt have the funds to through around millions for a proven coach”…
Honestly, I keep hearing this over and over, and yet we are always at the bottom of every list when it comes to how much we spend on our coach.
You have minnows that spend more on their coaches than we do with literally no chance of realistically qualifying, yet we spend almost nothing and we are consistently a top-15 team in the world with the ability to (not only qualify) but actually do something in a tournament (leading to even more prize money coming our way).
Each team gets MILLIONS for simply qualifying. So, why on Earth would we risk millions of dollars just to save a few hundred thousand?
The HNS hired a grossly inexperienced and incompetent Stimac for $250K per year to qualify for the Brazil World Cup.
The prize money for simply qualifying was $9.5 million.
$9.5 MILLION!!!
The HNS ACTUALLY risked $9.5 million in an effort to save a few hundred thousand dollars on a completely inexperienced coach? Who does that?
Stimac was the LEAST experienced coach in the WC2014 qualifiers. Currently, Kovac is the LEAST experienced coach in the Euro2016 qualifiers.
The prize money for qualifying for the Euros next year is set at 12 MILLION EUROS!
We seem to love to take a risk on money that SHOULD be all but guaranteed with a half decent coach.
Why can’t we sign a coach with a modest BASE salary, but add in a nice BONUS if they qualify?
There is PLENTY of money to hire a good coach, and there would be many good coaches that would line up to coach a top-15 team like Croatia.
Sure, they won’t do it for a measly $250K, but if you triple that salary, then it becomes interesting. That difference in cash would easily be made up by simply advancing out of the first round (which this team is more than capable of doing, but due to shit coaching, never seems to do).
Don’t fall for the “we are a poor country” bullshit, when there are tens of millions coming their way for simply qualifying (of which we have an 80+ percent success rate).
Know that
People have a negative opinion of Kum Kovac because of his connection to Mamic. If he wasn’t Kumovi with the Mamic family he never would be the coach and the fans no that.
I agree with anonymous…Corluka is still a very valuable and reliable player, not sure why people hate on him?
Stipe, I couldn’t name 5 players from Serbia buddy and yes, I know they have good individuals that play in good European teams. My guess is this.
The Balkans has always developed very skilled and talented individuals, the difference from what I can speak to, from many years ago, is mentality, organization and discipline! The moment they have success, whether it’s individually or as a team, they lose focus and they stop doing the little things that got them success in the first place. It’s kinda like how we use the name of “mental midget” in North America, they lose sight, egos take over and the ultimate goal is secondary although they won’t agree that is the case.
Throughout soccer history, I find that the better disciplined teams usually succeed. You don’t always need skill, you can be strong with a great system and everyone uniting and ensuring they achieve their assignments. Germany is an example, Italians as well, Holland lose sight often and certain individuals often ruin it for the team. England is a bunch of wealthy primadona’s, ask anyone that’s coached them.
I think Croatia has teetered between disciplined and undisciplined over the years.
Getting the result is and should always be the goal. Some teams can play poorly offensively but still be disciplined and win on limited chances vs other teams that can dictate and control a game and yet lose cause they lose concentration, this is how I believe Serbia is although the only time I ever watch them is vs Croatia.
I’m sorry I didn’t speak directly to this current team they have but I just don’t know, I’m talking more about their mentality that I knew from the past.
…and I don’t know what different lineup Kovac could have put out that would have seen more balls sent into the area – just for Mandzukic to fuck up.
– other than maybe starting another forward (preferably tall – how about Stipe Perica, who you can use just for this game) instead of a defensive midfielder.
I mean, how in-form does a professional forward need to be to take one opportunity out of 15 to head a ball home? – and then get him the fuck off the field.
I meant draw. Freudian slip.
Typical meltdown on this site after a disappointing game – always ends with talk of Ziva leaving the site.
Just like one of those bad Turkish soap operas my Mom watches on HRT2.
Only thing saving Croatia at this point is that Norway still has to play Italy – they both won’t be walking away with 3 points.
Stimac, Jerkan and Bilic, how good would it be to be able to play a back 3 again.
Z,
Nobody said Mamic was to blame for this loss. His point is that Kovac’s appointment had Mamic influence which is difficult to disprove. I think you’re the one who gets a boner whenever Mamic is brought up.
Corluka is a slow as Nikola Jerkan was. Ahh, good old EURO 96.
I’ll be the first to say, I don’t want Ziva to leave.
Actually a draw against Norway will be enough, Norway still have to play Italy and Azerbaijan away, and we know that isn’t easy.
If you think this site is full of garbage, then why post and rad what is here.
Many claim they want me to leave (I’m not sure why. I live a “za dom….spremni” lifestyle and am a huge advocate for all things HRVATSVO) and when I do depart for a few days guess what happens????? There are comments about me or people asking me for my take which makes it much tougher to take my sabbaticals.
What crap do you speak of?????????
Please expound on what I have said that is SOOO wrong.
And don’t worry, the sabbatical is getting close.
please shut the hell up ziva, you and your crap every week, leave and take your sabbatical
ok this is all mamic fault, blab blah blah
incredible the garbage on this site
At least we got the start of Eurobasket this weekend. Our guys should do well at home although the organizing committee and fans support is lacking.
Long term gain would be getting rid of Mamic and everyone attached to him (Puppet Suker, Kum Kovac, etc…).
It is tough to get excited about the repka knowing Mamic and his clowns have their hands all over the savez.
Remember, the people who lead this savez don’t care about the fans, only themselves and staying in power. Don’t forget that Mamic allowed a sick and dying man to be the savez president all in the name of staying in power.
I agree with Maminjo.
Let me ask you this:
Stimac or Kovac?
I rate Stimac a 3 and Kovac a 5 out of 10. There is some improvement.
Croatia doesnt have the funds to through around millions for a proven coach.
I’m not a Kovac supporter but beggars cant be choosers. I would rather have Kovac over Stimac, Kruno, or Zoran Mamic. Imagine Zoki running the team? wow
@Hammer……we are not getting that point back. Would be surprised if we did.
Maminjo you are 100 percent correct. What fucking long term gain are you talking about? What gain did you achieve if you want to get rid of stimac replacement , then there was no gain. Denis , where in today’s game did corlukas lack of speed show itself? What are you watching? If the rest of these clowns played as well as he did and does , we wouldn’t be bitching .
My opinion is not based solely on today’s game.
What long term gain was there when we were humiliated by Scotland and Belgium during the previous cycle?
Stimac got fired only to be replaced by Stimac 2.0
Stimac 2.0 embarrassed himself (and Croatia) in the World Cup against Mexico, and now we’re in a situation where we are somehow only one point out of third place, sandwiched behind a rebuilding Italy team and a no-name Norwegian team, all while fielding multiple players from Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan and Juventus.
Now if we somehow lose to Norway on Sunday, we could potentially miss out on a watered down Euro tournament despite fielding an All-star cast of players (in a joke qualifying group).
Hoping for Kovac to fail will continue to yield the same results.
He will be replaced with Stimac 3.0 (probably some loser like Kruno Jurcic) and it will drag on further and further.
No long term gain. Just short term AND long term pain, until they finally decide to spring the cash for an experienced coach like every other footballing nation does.
If we don’t replace Kovac now, I believe we will suffer at the Euros for it.
I would replace him if we could find a decent replacement like Prosinecki or Bilic.
I agree with the guys who said Kalinic should’ve started instead of Mandzukic and Kovacic instead of Badelj. Remember we will get our point back after this appeal too.
Friends,
You’ll recall back around this time in 2013 I floated the idea the best case scenario for Croatia moving forward into the World Cup was to lose and to lose big so we could get rid Strucnjak Stimac. That ended up taking place.
Should we start considering the same for Kum Kovac. While I am a fan of Kum Kovac, we have to be realistic and realize we are in a coaching handicap going into every game we play as a result of Kum Kovac’s lack of experience and the lack of experience from the entire coaching staff. He was hired as a result of being a family friend of the devil (mamic). So, would it be better for Norway to defeat us and put the pressure on the savez to remove Kum Kovac. This would fall under the “short-term pain for long-term gain” category.
What say you croatian-sports-dot-com nation? Short term pain for long term gain? It worked last time as we got rid of Strucnjak Stimac.
If their was an Ustasa flag behind the goal, I’m disappointed I missed it, atleast that would’ve given me some joy.
Croatia has always struggled against bottom dwellers that defend themselves for most of the match. I’m not worried about this result. However, I am worried about our #9. Ante Kvartuc would have put a couple of those away today.
1) Look for Kovac to insert Olic into the starting lineup against Norway.
2) What was Kovacic thinking picking up that silly yellow card which will sideline him for Norway?
3) Pranjic didnt do much as a left back but Kovac already put an X on Strinic. What are our options?
4) Kovac took out Modric? To rest him for Norway?
5) Corluka looks slower than Simunic.
6) Behind the Azer goal, was that an Ustasa flag? I couldnt tell. You know the jews are watching.
7) I thought Vrsaljko played well considering that he hasnt started since the Belgium loss in Oct 2013.
8) Norway game will be interesting.
.
Before you complain about the starting line-up, you should remember none of you know the dynamics of the locker room.
Can someone explain to me how the ugly cunt Prosinecki is a good tactician, I mean the players don’t need a coach to come up with that game plan.
@Iggy
are you for real, blaming Kovac for this loss, listen I am not a Kovac fan but those players today were awful, suddently we are pointing the arrows at him, wake up
Mandzukic, his foot must of weighted 100 pds, come on, how do you miss those shots
We seem to always blame the coach here but the players are the ones on the field and if they can’t make the effort or even give a f**k well that is not on the coach.
@T-Bone
I had to laugh at those british commentators, they were ripping into Mando, Rakitic etc and you know what they were correct.
Poor Kovacic what the hell was he doing today.
What I find the most disappointing is our ugly, predictable and complacent style. It is just not enjoyable to watch.
And, say all you want about playing players who are active at club level, there is also value in bringing players in who can affect or alter the chemistry of the team in a positive way.
PS … watched about half of the Malta Italy game… Man that was almost shittier than the Cro game. If it wasn’t for the ref putting away his whistle on the scoring play by Italy Malta would have probably got the draw IN ITALY! There were about 3 clear fouls on Maltese players prior to the goal that were obviously ignored by the ref to give Italy the impetus to score…
Cros result today makes the Norway match a lot more interesting and should be enough to light a fire under our boys asses…
Watched the second half of the match. Some thoughts and player grades…
Mandzukic was simply awful. Weird touches on the ball, no real conviction on his shots, didn’t look like scoring and was even called out by the Brit commentators on espn for having lead in his feet! I give him a D-.
Pranjic: C + not as bad as most people posting here think he is. Had some nice crosses in and tidy passes. Didn’t see enough of his play though to have a balanced opinion. For those who think he’s the worst player on the NT I ask who plays on the left side instead of him?
Rakitic : C Some decent passing but always missing that one move or moment of brilliance that he did weekly for Seville and not often enough for Cro…
Fuck this game was pretty shit I don’t feel like doing anymore grading. Wait a sec have to do one for New Real man Mateo… : D… SIMPLY TERRIBLE ATTEMPTS on goal that looked house league, no power in the shots, trying to score way too cute. Kids got to pick up his play some time soon, right?
Overall the game is not the disaster most here seem to be saying. September is a shit month for internationals as most first team guys are just getting back into the swing of their respective domestic leagues. I think in recent history Cro has dropped quite a few games in September/October (England 4-1, Georgia 1-0). I think we’re good for a win in Norway but I would bench Mandzu. Olic to start maybe? Hasn’t he already bagged one for Hamburg? Not sure about Kramaric but maybe go with Olic Kramar up front and drop one for Mandzu if we’re still on a goose egg?
@ SLAVONAC FROM CANADA
I know I’m going to get slammed for asking this question about Serbia. Before you were talking about having great players and making fancy line ups. Not for nothing , Serbia has awesome individual players who play in the best leagues in the world. Why do they suck so bad as a team? Cause there Serbian ? I’m just curious”….
@ SLAVONAC FROM CANADA
I know I’m going to get slammed for asking this question about Serbia. Before you were talking about having great players and making fancy line ups. Not for nothing , Serbia has awesome individual players who play in the best leagues in the world. Why do they suck so bad as a team? Cause there Serbian ? I’m just curious
Even if a neznalica like myself were coach, I could get decent results with the talent we have (although I know we have weaknesses).
Iggy,
I don’t think performance or results are the primary reason MANY people are unhappy with Kovac.
Many people continue to question the players, lineups and substitutions he makes. Often, they don’t make sense. You have to question his judgment and common sense.
Just watched the game on pvr. Mandzukic was horrible!. We will beat Norway and be fine.Italy has luck which you need to be a winning country.Soccer is 80% skill and tactics 20%luck.
Spam away with ads buddy, in this day and age we all have AdBlock anyways. Maybe we can have targeted ads that promote the ZDS lifestyle? 🙂
Ziva,
Horrible days definitely bring in the people. (un)Fortunately, however you look at it, we don’t make any money off of it because we don’t run ads, because we love you guys so much that we don’t want you to be bombarded with garbage ads.
In another thread when the lineup was named, there were comments about “Kovac continuing to impress”
i said lolwut at that time because that seemed a ridiculous comment. Now, we have this draw and Kovac is the weak link.
To be fair, that is correct, kovac has never really shown or done anyhting to deserve this job but i guess the weather-vane nature of some of you fuckers is what’s funny
I don’t think we will lose on Sunday.
However, what are the chances of Kovac getting canned if we do?
Italy and Norway won today, does anyone feel the temperature get a little hotter???
Prosinecki sure is a great footballing mind, he’s carved a niche for himself as a coach in Eastern lands: Turkey, Serbia and Azebijian. I could see him bouncing around the Balkans and Caucasus collecting a nice paycheck. He understands their mentality. 🙂
@Slavonac
exactly, really hurts us what those few fans did to cause the point deduction
0-0. Hit the panic button. It’s one thing to tie Italy, but Azerbaijan? The game against Norway just got bigger.
Man holland lost 1-0 to iceland and are only third in their group.. what’s going on with them?
Well, this is disappointing. DIdn’t get to see the game after all but seems like i didnt miss out too much on this occasion. Oh well, hopefully we make amends v Norway in a few days !
…although Kovac is weak, we are not as stacked as we think we are. Kovacic is not yet a lethal player, we lack strikers and have few killers that take control of the game!
Pranjic wouldn’t even be called up were it not for Kovac.
I’m starting to agree with you Horvat, this is something Ziva has said for a while and I wanted to give him the benefit while we had decent results “after” the World Cup.
Pranjic is the weakest link. Then Kovac.
I hope this qualifying campaign finishes like the last one did, with Croatia barely qualifying.
I would love to see Kovac canned the way Stimac was.
Kovac is BY FAR our weakest link.
He did. It just didn’t pan out with Sammir.
I think Mamic just needs to find a Da Silva 2.0 somewhere in Africa or the Brazilian rain forest.
@NK Susak
When Kovacic came in for Badelj, Rakitic moved back into Milan’s position and Mateo took up where Rakitic was.
Guys, I don’t understand why we sidetrack ourselves into talking about Pranjic (the ball was in Azerbaijan’s half of the field 90% of the game), Kovac’s lineup, Mamic, Boban, Zuti being a genious (not the first coach to bunker against a far superior opponent and get a result), etc.
To get back on track – Croatia does not have a striker.
We are a Zlatan Ibrahimovic away from being a true top 10 team.
It’s the one thing that the Dinamo Academy can’t teach – goal scoring instinct.
At this point, Kovac’s needs to tell his midfielders that they are the first goal scoring option – look for Mandzukic or the other forwards as plan B.
@ Susak
that’s the game plan vs. any team we play
you neutralize our middle we really don’t scare that many people…
in the past, guys like Mandzo or Perisic has swooped in to save the day.
but when Twinkle Toes Mandzuka misses a few sitters and others miss great chances, yeah – we’ll tie a team like Azerbaijan. The way defenses come at us, Modric and Rakitic will never be allowed to win us games.
What we need is an Eduardo type player circa 06-07. A clinical finisher who can finish in the air but with his feet too. Way too many wasted opportunities today.
and no, I don’t want Dudu back on the NT. I just want someone who would be able to finish like the way he did in his prime for us.
Modric just stating he has no idea why he was subbed out. I’m asking myself the same question.
As always, the game vs Norway is the tipping point. Go big or go home.
Every minnow like Azerbaijan has the same approach when playing Cro or Spain or Germany or France………..clog the middle. We have watched this before. Sometimes we can score (last time we play Azerbaijan) and others times we will dominate possession and be unable to score (today) or even lose on a counter (Georgia). It happens, its soccer.
I always thought that Zuti was a much better coach than Kum Kovac. Nothing was going to chnage my mind on that today, even if we won 10-0. Just like right now in his career I think we are at a disadvantage with Kum Kovac as the coach.
Kramaric
Perisic…Rakitic…Pjaca
Modric..Brozovic
Vrsaljko..Vida..Carli..Srna
Subsidies
Italy scored!
Italy and Norway both up 1-0.
Prosinecki played it smart today. Clogged the shit out of the midfield and pressed Modric and Rakitic keeping them deep. He also mustve told his team to lay off Vida and make him create from the back since it seemed like he had the ball at his feet 80 minutes of that game. Vida looks like hes kicking around a brick out there. Seemed like they gave him all the time on the ball he wanted and pressed corluka.
Not being naive, basing my expressions on the fact that Boban was always – together with Prosinecki – amongst the brightest football minds ever to come from Croatia. I wrote it as a wish, quite correct.
Don’t be naive enough to think that you know how he would perform as a coach. Let’s leave it at that.
For the guys who run this site, when Cro loses or ties, that is a good thing….they end up getting more clicks than they would when Cro wins.
There is no proof Boban would be a good coach.
You cant be so naive as to think because he was a smart player on the pitch that he would also have success as a coach.That is nothing more than wishful thinking on your part.
Doesn’t matter anyway, Boban has said he has no intention of being a coach.
@Zuti, Boban is one of the greatest football minds ever to come from Croatia. He would definitely be a success if he coached, so yeah…Zuti and Boban, a dream team. Why the question mark?????
united forces of illegal migrants. 1, europe 0
Sjor Ivo and Zuti together. What a combo that would’ve been.
On the bright side, Pjacas value increased for Mamic/Dinamo
What makes you think Boban would be successful???????
He has never coached.
@Ziva, Zuti and Boban together, now that’s a dynamic duo for you right there…! Those two coaching Croatia, oh man we would win the World Cup!
@Karlovac, I fear you’re right, even in jail Mamic would be forming some sort of cartel or run his own local mafia style, making big money from the whole shit. One thing which is positive about that cocksucker: he sure knows how to make heaps of money on Croatian football players and he’s real good at that part of the business…if only he’d been a normal club owner not running it all mafia style it would have been so much more positive for Croatian football as a whole.
@Peter North…….I’ve always said Zuti is the best soccer mind in Croatia. However, as long as mamic is running the show I just can’t see him bringing Zuti in. He will coach the repka one day, but right now I think Zuti is OK bouncing around and collecting a nice salary coaching countries like Azerbaijan.
Piss, Malta just about went one up on Italy.
When he’s in jail and getting bum rushed by Igor we will know the truth or maybe he will form his own cartel in prison where everyone who sales smokes has to give 10% for the lifetime of there prison term LMAO.
Even better when they finish there sentence they still have to pay him 10% LOL
I’m fucking sick of Mamic and the way he has transformed football in Croatia into a mafia ruled dynastic league. On the other hand, the way some Hajduk fans (I don’t buy the theory that serbs made that swastika at Poljud) have tried to topple Mamic and the semi-mafia HNS has made the whole situation for Croatian football and especially the repka, even worse. Croatia was en eighth of an inch away from being thrown out of Euro 2016, and the HNS has made extreme precautions, Croatian fans not being able to attend any match with supporter gear in any form. It’s a fucking disgrace. Mamic is a fucking shit bag, no doubt, but so are those moron extreme hooligans who made the whole situation ten times worse for the average Croatian football fan. Can’t wait for the day that Mamic dies from a heart attack and the mafia style will be exchanged for something normal again.
Ziva, what would your opinion be of Prosinecki (zuti as you refer to him as) being NT coach one day?
I have always thought of him in some sort of tandem with a guy like Asanovic as ideal. This is even prior to his early success in Azerbaijan with their NT.
According to some who post here, you are correct. Mamic aint bad.
Ziva, Mamic isn’t that bad.
He also should have added…………..”its impossible to be the coach of Croatia if you are not connected with the Mamic family”
Robert Prosinečki (Azerbaijan): “I am proud of my players. They fought and played very well against one of the best teams in Europe. It’s a very good result for Azerbaijani football. After this draw with Croatia our mind is only on the next game [against Malta]. I also want to thank our fans, they were perfect.”
Niko Kovač (Croatia): “We dominated the match for almost the whole 90 minutes. Azerbaijan didn’t make many mistakes, especially in defence. We had our chances to win this match but we did not score. It’s impossible to win if you don`t score. I want to congratulate the Azerbaijan team. They played very well and deservedly take a point. Norway await us in three days, which is a very important game for us.”
haha…”its impossible to win if you don’t score” thanks, Captain Obvious.
@JimmyCro, you bet. Of course the media in Croatia criticize the players and coach if the team performs badly. Why shouldn’t they? They’re not holier than thou. The best comments are found among the numerous (and sometimes extreme) fans making comments under the match report. Generally it also involves at least some sort of exchange of words between Dinamo and Hajduk fans. It’s great fun to read if you know Croatian. Also expect to read some sour puss serb comments from the perpetual fifth column residing in Croatia, especially if Croatia has had a bad day or played a bad match. Those little worms writhe in Croatia’s bad fortune.
Peter North and Kralj Tomislav….I agree, I am down on them…I just finished watching this and my emotions have gotten the better of me, but I’m also a realist.
we have to acknowledge that the strategy was wrong today…we have to acknowledge Mandzukic should have been subbed out(was this a case of Kovac trying not to piss off Mandzukic?), we have to acknowledge that Vrsaljko provided more offensive chances in this game than Pranjic has in the entire campaign, so far….we have to acknowledge we have few striker options…
Don’t really thing you need “Magic” LOL
Rebic and Kramaric would be fine and we would probably win, jsut based on the fact that they would move
ivo,
its often a tough position to fill with a very high quality goalscorer but if you have one, you ride him and forgive him for the few games he doesn’t score.
Mandzukic was good for a long time but since the Christmas break last year, he’s not recovered his goal scoring form. If Kramaric was in form, we could be fine, if Rebic was a standard player we could argue to throw him in…right now, if I was Kovac, I’d be a bit worried. We’ve had decent success because Perisic definitely contributed a lot but he didn’t today and Kovacic is NOT a real goal-scorer but should have easily scored…Pjaca didn’t really get many opportunities (I watched online so maybe didn’t see everything), not sure if this was the case of a bad line-up and tactical screw-up or a sign that our players are not in mid-season form?
@Peter………….I agree, not the end of the world to tie this game. But, this goes to the bigger picture of not looking very impressive in our games. Plus, add in that we have a coached who was hired because of family connections and it is no surprise things like this will happen.
Personally, it makes for great entertainment. So enjoy the ride.
Mandzukic isn’t showing at club level either lol. For Kramaric defense, he was the leading scorer in Hrvatska before his transfer to England. I know that Kram and Rebic are sitting but like I said they have pace and pace is more of a threat then being slow and lazy.
I remember at the world cup against Mexico when Rebic
d eked out 3 Mexicans to only hit the woodwork. We know what Mandzukic full potential is and that’s not saying much but when hes done nothing on the pitch I say give the kids a chance.
Like I said earlier why 1 striker. If Kovac didn’t use the BUNKER to beat the BUNKER strategy then with 2 strikers we would had more options. The option being Rebic Or Kramaric given a chance to play with Mandzukic. I’m sorry but giving young strikers opportunity is not defensive liability, there hungry and want to make the first team.
Its a 50-50 chance and from what I saw 1-0 is better then 0-0. Especially since your playing a team who’s ranked 110 in the world its not like we were playing Italy ,if that was the case I would understand being hesitant to inject YOUNGBLOOD.
@Slavonac, please don’t be too negative. Croatia is absolutely and without any doubt amongst the best European teams, and also amongst the top teams in the World. I constantly have people from other nationalities telling me how they support Croatia and love that positive attacking football. Which is true. Today was a bad game, we played against an 11 man defense and couldn’t find the rhythm to start scoring. Also, Mandzukic played like a zombie, and Pranjic was – as always – leaking like a fucking sieve.
@ Slavonac, all of the stronger European nations tend to have slip ups in qualifying. I recall Portugal dropping a home decision to Albania at the start of this cycle and I believe they lost previously to the Azeris in another qualifying cycle.
I’m sure there are other numerous examples but I’m too lazy to look and those two were off the top of my head.
Professionals can’t always be on form all the time even though there is an expectation for them to be. Shit happens.
Like you mentioned, could have just been an off day.
Azerbaijan may not have a star-studded team but even they have higher standards on hiring a coach.
Do the Croatian media hold coaches and players accountable, by that I mean do they question coaches decisions and players play?
I know here in Canada if the national hockey team sucked it would get ugly.
Just because you have great individual players doesn’t mean they can come together and form a great team.
Regarding Rebic……I am sure Kum Kovac will give him a chance. he seems to have a hard on for him. He has skill, but then I ask why has he not been able to get playing time for any club and coach who has coached him since he left FK Split. The job of a national team coach is not develop a player. How could he when they are only together for a few days every other month or so.
Rebic may get a chance and take advantage of it, but there is nothing in his recent history that suggests he will.
Plus, let me add this about today’s game. We will always look and play better against teams that are more wide open and don’t bunker. I’m not saying that is an excuse for our play today, but it is never easy to play when a team parks the bus.
Go with no strikers, just load up on the all-world midfield! LOL
@slavonac
Past few years I have always said to family and friends is the striker situation which concerns me the most, never been comfortable with it and today is more proof of it.
Will Kramaric, Rebic be ready next year for Euro? I doubt it.
Who will step up for the team?
Maybe Suker can step out of retirement for the team.
hahahaha….who’s the next Danijel Bilos and Dario Cvitanich?
Time for the savez to start mining goal-scoring options in the South American diaspora!!!!
reality is a killer and something hard to accept at times. today was a clear indication of our limited options. day after day after day I read people commenting on how strong our mid-field is (best in the world is often used to describe it) they enter their line-ups and add in fancy formations….the reality is what we saw today. we took out Olic (replaced him with Pjaca) and Srna was replaced (Vrsaljko played well), we saw Badelj tuck in for Brozovic (who’s also been contested and debated about) and we finally see how thin and powerless we can be. this just may have been a bad game, that happens…but professionals know how to get results…especially vs teams like Azerbaijan…Italy did!
@Peter North, I was drunk but not iverly so, watching Rebic play for the youth national team and also some matches at senior level. Impressive, technical skills and aggresive against the goal. Matthew is right, he reminds me a bit of Suker. We need an aggressive forward, not that zombie Mandzukic lurking about like a sleep walking moron, not being able to put four clear shots into the net. At close range, to add!
@King, were you drunk when you saw Rebic play? He hasn’t done anything club wise to prove he deserves a place in the starting 11.
Rebic is a nice change to what we currently have in players. He’s selfish, and it’s what we saw from Suker. A guy that held onto the ball and looked dangerous against unsure defenders.
To Ziva’s point, though, the kid is a wildcard. He looks good one day, then he’ll make one mistake and completely blow up. His mental game is terrible, and you need a #9 that’s a leader not a head case. If you throw Rebic in consistently, he’s not going to mesh well with a team full of unselfish players.
I think Rebic should be given the chance to play more for the repka. What I’ve seen so far when he’s played is quite impressive and he needs those playing minutes. We need someone to take over from the zombie Mandzukic…!
Leave Kovac and Mandza in Azerbaijan and give Prodinecki a lifetime supply of smokes and alcohol and take him to Oslo..haha.
Ziva, it was a joke lol. But I wouldnt mind hanging out with Corluka. I bet he has a good time.
I know we are donw on Mandza and rightfully so……..but Kramaric and Rebic have not shown at the club level they are the answer either. You cant bring in guys who are not doing anything at the club level and have no history for the repka and think you can perform magic and get them to perform.
Who knows, you might strike lighting and get something. But, the odds are you wont.
Slavonac:
Totally agree. I think Vrsaljko could have done a lot more, if given the opportunity. He had quite a bit of room in the first half to do what he wanted.
Yes on the other point. You have to bring out your strongest team and press for a goal in the first 45. You play 3 back and take a small chance of an Azerbaijan counter, but you trust in your back 3 to support your offense. As a defender, Kovac should know that and play to that.
Bobby V says:
Mandzukic never seemed ready for any ball he received.
Rakitic sent one to him perfectly inside the box which he just flicked to the goalie in a lazy manner.
He had that dumb Balkan look on his face all game. Kramaric should have came in for him at halftime.
Our forward situation is incredibly awful right now.
Nobody knows how to shoot from distance, It is so bad right now that our midfielders are trying to dribble the ball into the net.
Well said and I agree 1000%. First off I would have subbed Mandzukic at the beginning of the second half since he’s hasn’t scored for Juventus so far.
Also I would have had different formation. Ive never been a fan of the one striker scenario. That’s BUNKER team strategy so I don’t know why Kovac is playing chess not to win but for the stalemate.Maybe my bed and breakfast theory wasn’t so off lol.
The Kovacic miss at the penalty marker was pretty gross and then he gets yellow lol.
Lastly I really like Rebic and Kramaric. I know their slumps are worse then Mandzukic but that’s only due to sitting on the bench. I’m sure if they had the same minutes in there respected domestic leagues that they would surpass Mandzukic easily.
They both have pace and ability as supposed Mandzukic one sided aerial attack. Like Bobby V said,that stupid Balkan BS look he gives gets me irate. Typical Hrvat,look at everyone else with disgust instead finishing. He doesn’t even clap for his teammates for the few good balls that were dropped in his lap.
hahaha….Ernest, that was classic!
Why the FUCK is that clown Pranjic even playing? I watched this on Sky Sports 1, and the English commentators were asking why Pranjic were making such erratic and confusing moves as a wing back, virtually inviting the Azerbaijanis into the Croatian box on several occasions. Could someone please hypnotize Kovac into scrapping that clown Pranjic once and for all? Also, the commentators were asking if Mandzukic’s boots were filled with lead tonight, putting big question marks on why he was not substituted during the match. Unbelievable. And this was a game where we really needed three points. Kovac lets a clown play and a zombie left standing in front of goal the whole match. Fuck it!
Ernest……..you should hang with STD Corluka. he always scores.
If you can’t see that mandzukic is the worse player on this team then you really need to go see an eye specialist. And can someone please shoot the fucking ball!
Well atleast one of my 2 favorite teams isn’t disappointing!
Go Jays!!!!
Can Tulowitzki get an HRV passport?
I meant to say…Lebo…you need one goal to change the entire game….
Mandzukic current form reminds me of myself at bar closing time. Mostly just hanging around the box and giving light taps hoping and praying something goes in but never really having any confidence or conviction in an attempt.
Italy is sharpening their knives as we type, getting ready to carve up Malta. Looks like that game against Norway will be do or die, in order to avoid the dreaded nail-biting Play-off games.
Lebo…you need once goal to chance the entire game, Vrsaljko provided 2 excellent chances for a goal in the first half…one in particular should have been a goal and then this game goes far differently.
I’m pretty certain Zuti is coaching these guys mentally and tactically…”nemojte primit gol”…this is the first and foremost objective…and they haven’t been scored on in their last 3 games.
on the other hand, Ziva made a great point…we needed a goal and yet, lined up with a defensive centre mid (which I actually liked the idea of before the game) and when we weren’t creative enough, we then threw in Kovacic. I think the game plan was wrong and the execution was worse…Kovac gets a failing grade in this game, so does Mandzukic.
Kovacic seemed to open up the bunker a few times, but, Croatia always struggles against it.
Need shots from distance – forget about that- , or crosses from the wings – which Mandzukic wasn’t doing anything with.
Mandzukiz and Pjaca were usless.
Better if we started Kalanic and Kramaric.
Why was Badelj starting ? This is the most confusing pick
Croatia=out play italy….nil nil with azerbaijan! Terrible!
Fuck….i’m pissed I didn’t put money on a tie. It was paying some good odds
Slavonac said it best when you look at our few options up front. It is tough breaking down a bunker, that is why wasting any chances by Mandzukic is magnified ten fold. You guys can brag all you want about the quality of the midfield, but Croatia remains a small nation that will often have a shortage in certain areas of the team….currently, goal scoring options are brutal.
At home at least, you would expect Norway to play more open….standard repka fare though isn’t it? We can never really cruise through a group, ALWAYS seem to make it painfully tough on ourselves.
Jebi ga, to ti je nogomet!
The results so far in qualifying were better than the actual play.
Outside of a very impressive first half in Milan and early parts of the 2nd half, we haven’t looked dominant. Even in some of the lopsided victories, our play was not impressive.
@Slavonac – sorry, I was busy typing slowly – didn’t see that, but, agree with you.
@ Ziva LOL
Let’s face it folks, we lost the game because of Mandzukic. He was the focal point of the attack, the passes were designed to go to him, and he couldn’t convert.
It’s times like these drastic actions are required. Put Perisic as the forward, albeit one that has the liscence to roam freely. Surely he would’ve finished one of those chances.
I can’t wait until Bilic starts rolling in the Premiership, and we start seeing the “BRING BILIC BACK” chants.
There was a lot of flaws in today’s game. I think the big issue is the movement of the ball from midfield to forward. We tried going through the middle with Pjaca, who either lost the ball or didn’t have anyone to lay off to. Then we tried the wings, but Vrsaljko and Pranjic were not consistent. Then we tried lobbing the ball to Mandzukic, and we all know what happened there.
There is just something missing both technically and mentally when we go against any team.
Bobby, thanks for re-capping what I said in my last comment!
Anytime you have a national team roster with starters who play for Juve, Inter, Barca and Real Madrid and you end up playing to a 0-0 tie with Azerbaijan………I think you can walk away with your head held high.
Mandzukic never seemed ready for any ball he received.
Rakitic sent one to him perfectly inside the box which he just flicked to the goalie in a lazy manner.
He had that dumb Balkan look on his face all game. Kramaric should have came in for him at halftime.
Our forward situation is incredibly awful right now.
Nobody knows how to shoot from distance, It is so bad right now that our midfielders are trying to dribble the ball into the net.
Mandzukic sucking doesn’t mean pranjic sucks less. Plenty of suck to go around.
hahah mandzukic has never been in form. As long as hes our go to striker we will never accomplish anything
Front half of
Inter , juve , real madrid, barca, inter, real madrid
and not fukn score
@ziva that rukavina comment might be the funniest thing you’ve ever posted. Well done!
Don’t know why you guys so surprised about mandzukic, what have you been watching with him lately? He is a total joke , he doesn’t deserve to start here anymore. He’s horrible , but all you bitch about is pranjic! Jeba mu pas mater!
Mandzukic is out of form…period! he can re-gain his form but until then, I think we need to look at other options…but who?
Kramaric isn’t playing, Kalinic is not a high calibre player (in my opinion), Olic….well, we discussed Olic prior to the game, Rebic has a long way to go and he needs consistency….
this is what it means to be thin, when you lose one key member and the team is not lethal and few options.
we brag about our midfield, yes, they are great….but how many shoot from distance, score regularly and can change the outcome of a game themselves?
Mandzukic was terrible. He looks like he doesn’t care. Kovacic looked good. Azerbaijan was very organized, they definitely have the better of the two coaches. Some people say zuti was the brains behind bilic.
The second minute chance from Modric, stupid backheel in front of net after a good pass from Rakitic, or the one-two from Kalinic-Persic that he fired straight at the goalkeeper.
List is endless of chances that Mandzukic wasted. Honestly haven’t seen anything like it since Olic against Turkey from Euro 08. Pathetic is the perfect word.
Definite props to Zuti…
Absolutely pathetic performance by Mandzukic today.
In all honesty, I don’t think it takes much to outfox Kovac.
Props to zuti, he outfoxed Kovac
Mandzukic should have put at least one ball away. We are witnessing his decline sure enough…
Zuti is the far better tactician…
Well at least we’re undefeated, lol
At what point in the last 12 months did Mandzuka morph into Ante Rukavina?
stupid yellow by Kovacic… out vs. Norway now
wow i completely jinxed this game
Zuti should go to the Azer federation after this game, sit down in the office, raise his feet, smoke a cigar, drink a beer and start laughing with the federation leadership……..and then demand another $1 million for this……..he can explain that he just took a point from a quality team with his roster.
Maybe Norway is the main objective and Kovac wants them rest.
Honestly would consider benching Mandzukic. Haven’t seen finishing this bad since the infamous Turkey game in 08.
i wouldn’t mind that game on Sunday being more interesting. I’d like to see how these guys respond to such a situation.
Only we can go from a firm hold on 1st in the group to now a possibility of a playoff!!!!
Mandza’s got to come off. No, really. He’s a total liability.
twinkle toes mandzuka…. fucking up chance after chance
If this result holds and Norway grabs 3 points, the game on Sunday becomes much more interesting.
can anyone finish in the box for us??!?!?!
sloppy… just sloppy
@Allen………Can’t blame Kum Kovac for taking them out. For all we know they could have asked out.
Don’t fear, Kalinic will save the day..haha.
the last time we played this team, we got an early goal and they fell apart. this time, they told us they were gonna be more compact and disciplined…and they are. then add in the fact we are short on in form goal-scorers …and this is what you get!
Taking off Modric and Perisic. Kovac’s tactics….
oh, no……Vekic has a use for everyone. She has no standards.
Zuti never would have played a CDM against a team that bunkers.
Kovacic has zero idea of what to do in the box…???
So Vekic has no use for him???
Pyakka given shelf space. But it looks like there’s no buyers !
drinking game for everyone………..everytime Mandzuka gets the ball in open space and fails to successfully pass the ball……you drink.
Think how fast you would be drunk.
Kovacic has zero idea of what to do in the box…
Anybody for Mandza, even Kranjar or Jelavic would look better then him.
Pjaca or Mandzukic have to come off asap.
Next sub is Olic for Mandza, right?????
Will the real Croatia please show up ?
Mandzo has definitely lost his mojo.
bozzzzzzze Mateo….. you gotta bury that dude!
So, Mandzuka who has trouble scoring with his feet all together just tried a back heel attempt on goal. Makes sense
Way to bury that one Kovacic, what was that? Pathetic, Ziva puts that one home.
Kovacic should’ve put that away
Kovacic good lord.
I missed it the first time around………quick glance of the line up made me miss it…apologies
@Ziva, Agree with your observation but I thought you mentioned you had no real issues with the lineup prior to the outset of the game?
Surprised you didn’t bring it up then.
Mandzukic sucks
good point Ziva…very good point!
So, here is my tactical questioning of Kum Kovac and makes me question even more why he was hired (i know, i know…..he is kumovi with the Mamic family).
In a game when you know the opponent is going to bunker, why do you play a central defensive MF. Badelj should have not played today. It makes more sense to have a creator in there instead. Jebiga, what do I know. I didn;t have the (mis)fortune of being kumovi with the Mamic family.
Rakitic looks ragged out there. Out of options.
58. – Kovacic on for Badelj
Azerbaijan ‘s football team doubles as their Olympic diving team, budget cuts ya know!
Before any of you start crying about the dives taken by the Azer’s, please remember we have Srna and Mandza who are known divers and guys who embellish.
Azerbaijan is making Srna’s flops look like nothing.
The quality of Azer’set pieces is only matched by Pranjic’s dirty, dried ink.
Wow Pranjic with an excellent cross. Manzo should have done better.
Lebo, you saucy minx. I agree.
Wasn’t it Stimac who publicly criticized Badelj after the Wales qualifier two years ago?
I would say Perisic is the best player for me so far. Vrsaljko is getting better with more time on the pitch though. Most of our guys just look uninspired, but what can you expect when you’re playing Azerbaijan. It’s just a parked bus the entire time.
I wish Kovac had the balls to go into the locker room and tell the players to relax, have fun, and don’t worry about the result. These guys look as stiff and as uninspired as ever.
Vrsaljko has been very good, my only criticism of him is to not act out and start pulling shirts or hanging onto players when he loses the ball in the opposing end of the field, like he did in the box….other than that he anticipates the play very well and is quick, excellent first touch and great deliveries!
Vrsaljko best player so far. Mandzukic needs to be benched he is an overrated joke right now. If I didn’t know better I would think he’s paid off not to score. He falls down constantly , two good chances for him and he can’t even touch the ball ! Get him out
No flight back to ZG……straight to Oslo.
Asking Corluka not to pick or distribute any more STDs is like asking Dona Vekic not to sleep around with guys on the ATP Tour or asking Puppet Suker to stop losing in the casinos………its just not possible
Match highlight so far: no swastika on the pitch.
I could see Kovacic coming on for Badelj to provide the spark.
So thus far this Croatia team looks exceptionally weak and would not doubt a 1-0 win or draw 0-0 pjaca is dog shit…
Badelj has been the most disappointing for me. Decent at winning the ball back, but his passing has been awful. Rakitic hasn’t been much better.
Vrsajlko has looked decent at least. For a player who looks physicall strong, Pjaca gets pushed off the ball quite a bit.
Poor? How?
How many guys do they have behind the ball?
We are dominating the chances and possesion.
Patience, decki….
We get 1 in, the Azeri’s will open up, we’ll pop in a few more and have a nice flight back to ZG.
Hopefully Corluka won’t pick up any more STD’s or Pranjic won’t get any additional dried ink while there and it’ll be a win-win across the board.
Perisic seems to be the only lively spark on the offensive end. I like what Vrsajko is doing at right back. Vatreni just gotta find the end product.
ZZZZZZzzzzzZZzzzzzzzzZZZZZ
Highlights: the red coat announcing Badelj and Pjaca as Badelge and Pyakka.
0-0 at half time. Poor. Very poor.
This game has substitute Olic goal written all over. That or a Mahir Mandzuka tap in goal.
Vida yellow carded. He’s got to be careful as the Azeris are flopping all over the pitch and playing for free kicks.
Mandzukic has already wasted two chances. No idea why he would try to head Vrsajlko’s cross like that.
Its got to be killing Zuti not to be able to smoke right now.
Vrsaljko with 2 incredible passes…
Seeing the amount of visible tats on our guys, I wonder if we will ever have a coach who demands they wear long sleaves to cover up the dirty ink. Not sure what you would do about Pranjic. I guess drop him for the next tats.
After watching the first 25 minutes, we can see why Azerbaijan selected this stadium and field……..very hard pitch, tough to get clean bounces and passes. That hurts the technically skilled team more.
http://sportska-tv.in/free/1
Someone paste a link
Azerbaijan’s bunker so far has been vicious.
Man we are going to be stuck with Corluka in Euro Championships aren’t we…. Hope Tin has opportunity to show us something.
Valid point Ziva.
Not a bad attempt by Perisic. Nice to see Croatia pressing so far.
Passing so far has been an absolute disaster.
Only reason Lovren starts for Liverpool is Rodgers still trying to justify what he spent on him. Not uncommon at the club level to stick with a guy because you invested heavy in him.
Props to Zuti………..collecting a nice paycheck.
Funny how Lovren is a first team starter for Liverpool, but not Croatia. Looking forward to watching Vida. He’s been one of the better players during this campaign.
Olic going to MLS would be funky. As much as I criticize him, I’d pay a ticket to support him. He actually played pretty well against Brazil. Will always give him credit for that.
Rumors of Olic going to MLS next season. Looks like he will leave Hamburg during the winter break.
lets not start the Olic debate again please…he did well in these past 3 years and the argument is old…he’s not starting so lets go forward.
Anybody at the game?
well said Slavonac
Olic’s time has been gone for three years now.
is there really an ideal time to play the young kids, other than the scenario we are in now?
I kinda disagree that Kovac drops him down after a bad game, if the kid keeps doing well with Dinamo and shows signs that he’s ready, one game won’t negatively affect him…Kovac has to introduce the younger kids and I think he knows that.
Easy for Kum Kovac to play Pjaca in this type of game. The question is would he play him against a much better opponent. That is why a game like this is perfect to judge Pjaca. If he shits the bed, he then loses the opportunity and drops down on the pecking order. If he does well, that si epxected due to the opponent. But, he doesn’t blow his chance and then is still in the mix moving forward.
The young unixpereinced kids have the most to lose and gain from these type of games. The result isn’t really that important because we are in good shape to qualify, but it is still meaningful for the young and inexpereinced players.
Guaranteed some nonsense goes on today with the fans , even though we won’t be let in wearing Cro attire. Unfortunately we won’t be in this upcoming euro , we will be thrown out, I pray I’m wrong but that is my gut feeling .
A “U” on the pitch huh?
Are we brainstorming here?
I’m interested to see how Pjaca will respond to this start, I really haven’t watched much of him so I’m glad to finally see someone other than Olic in the line-up…yes, I said it….Olic’s time is gone!
No real issues with that line up. Pranjic is a given at this point even though we all disagree on it. For this type of opponent, Pranjic is fine.
Pjaca has earned a chance to play. Now its up to him to show he belongs.
Hrvatska: Subašić – Vrsaljko, Ćorluka, Vida, Pranjić – Modrić, Badelj – Pjaca, Rakitić, Perišić – Mandžukić
@Ziva – agreed that Azerbaijan are likely to play bunker. They don’t have many other options. However if we don’t score early on and we start getting frustrated, they could get lucky on the break if Pranjic is caught out of position, assuming he’s playing.
Right now I’d take a 1-0 win in Baku and then a draw against Norway. And no swastikas or U carved onto the pitch for our remaining matches would also be a bonus.
@Marko……..Prosinecki is not playing. Not much he can really do. They are a shit team right now that will play bunker. Always tought to score when a team does that. Game will be ugly with us dominating possession. Even a tie is not the end of the world.
Love Darijo Srna but so happy to see him not playing. I feel the guy often a liability (at his age)
@ Ziva
the whole fan thing was outlined once the punishment came down. not surprising at all.
I read that Prosinecki made some very big changes tto this team and that they are more compact and disciplined than they’ve been (we’ll see!). Prosinecki is definitely a good tactician, many people say he was the brains behind Bilic for the years he helped out our repka.
on a side not, I also read that Azerbaijan’s best player won’t be playing today, he’s sitting in a prison cell!
They are not allowed to hold you to a contract anymore, so you might even be able to cancel the channel tomorrow, and pay like $1. I ordered it yesterday afternoon and will be canceling after next weeks qualifying games are over.
The game Sunday is on sports net 1.
GO JAYS!!!!
@ Sudi Mi
RE: sportsnetworld
You can order the channel today keep it for 7 days, then cancel the channel it will cost you pro rated under 4$.
Ernest, your lineup is what we should play today.
It will be interesting to see what happens.
Someone on here said that Pjaca was gonna play RB instead of Vrsaljko (which doesn’t make any sense, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it happen with Kovač).
Mateo Kovacic has a hot wag Ronaldo will have a crack at her.
The game today in Canada being broadcast @ 11:45am on Sportnetworld, which is a PPV channel; I’ll pass paying for that one given the opposition.
My Lineup for this game is this.
Subasic
Vrsaljko (Srna suspended) Vida Corluka Pranjic (sigh)
Modric Brozovic
Rakitic
Pjaca Perisic
Mandzukic
oh for piss sake, you were right ziva, it’s 3 hours later than i thought 🙁
fucking uefa.com showing 6 pm everywhere, and then in tiny little print. local time 9 pm..
fucksies.. fucking piss .. oh well
I don’t have a good feeling about the match tonight. None of our strikers can score to save their lives at the moment, whilst Prosinecki is going to want to show the savez why picked the wrong German-born hrvat as coach. Really hoping I’m wrong about this one…
Playing someone like Caktas or Rebic, even if he doesn’t deserve it, against a minnow when the game is over doesn’t offer you anything in terms of seeing what they can do.
Interesting move by the Cro savez in their meeting yesterday with the Azerbajain savez……our fans won’t be allowed inside the arena if they are wearing Croatia gear. They didn’t allow an organized trip for our fans and now this.
even without Srna, this should be a routine 3-0, 4-0 win.
we need that early goal to break their inevitable bunker they’ll start the game with – flood gates should open from there. should give NK some options to put guys like Kovacic, Caktas, and Rebic and see what they can do.
We should increase the 6-0 rout but who knows. Maybe he will take the Kovac brothers to a bed and breakfast prior to the match and plead for mercy so he can retain his job.
The Prosinecki factor could be the difference. I also heard that he got his Azerbaijan citizenship and made deal if they pay for his cigarettes that he will come out of retirement as player/coach and lace up against Hrvatska.
Wait Prosinecki is their coach ? Heh, didnt know that ! Funnies !
FUCK YEAH Good aussie time to watchies !
Australia take on the MIGHT of bangladesh before this game too – sweet !
Hope we have another 6-0 win ! But i think it’ll be more like 2-0 this time