Three weeks ago, the Mladi Vatreni were preparing to enter the Under-21 Euro with one of the best squads they’ve ever brought to the tournament. Although the Croatian side was drawn into the tournament’s ‘Group of Death’ with Portugal, England, and Switzerland, in-form players such as Joško Gvardiol, Luka Sučić, and Borna Sosa were expected to lead them to the knockout stages . Now, none of them will be playing in the tournament due to injuries.
At only 19 and 18 years of age, repsectively, Joško Gvardiol and Luka Sučić are Croatia’s two hottest talents at the moment. Croatians around the world were expecting this Euro to be a breakout international tournament for the two youngsters. Although the Mladi Vatreni’s midfield has incredible depth, featuring players such as Lovro Majer, Luka Ivanušec, and Nikola Moro, Gvardiol and Sosa’s injuries are a huge blow to the back line, as manager Igor Bišćan is struggling to find solid replacements for the two positions. Domagoj Bradarić can get the job on the left-hand side, but his poor form is a worrying factor to the young team.
On the bright side, players such as Lovro Majer, Luka Ivanušec, Dario Špikić, and Dario Vizinger are in the forms of their lives at the moment. Majer and Ivanušec were both key players in Dinamo Zagreb’s recent upset against Tottenham Hotspur, while Špikić is dominating the Prva Liga with Gorica and Vizinger is one of the Austrian Bundesliga’s top performers. Mario Vušković has also been tearing it up for Hajduk Split in the back lately, occasionally scoring and assisting too.
With Gvardiol, Sučić, and Sosa in the squad, the Mladi Vatreni could have been a top contender for the under-21 Euro – but thanks to their injuries, the expectations have dropped tremendously. A third place finish is expected for this team as England and Portugal are stacked. The Mladi Vatreni should get all three points against the Swiss but they open up against Portugal first this Thursday, March 25th. The match kicks off at 4PM (ET).
I just saw a commercial on CBS Sports about “celebrating black stories”. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that when the establishment rewards you for violent rioting you are NOT “anti-establishment”, you are NOT a “revolutionary”, you ARE an establishment toady.
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So in said commercial about “the first black” archer on the U.S. Olympic team, he says “oh, “we” didn’t have the opportunity before”. YOU HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY BECAUSE OF WHITE PEOPLE AND NOT DESPITE OF WHITE PEOPLE. THERE IS NO OLYMPIC ARCHER FROM ANY BLACK COUNTRY. But these lying antiWhite RAT VERMIN will continue lying thru their teeth hoping they can make it to their graves before being COMPLETELY exposed. And yet THEY believe THEY “are on the right side of history”.
@ARMADA
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I think Lovren, Vida, Melnjak and Barišić’s lack of quality will outweigh the talent of players like Gvardiol, Bradarić and Sosa.
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These U21s actually have more experience than Melnjak and Barišić. These two “vets” have just as much probability choking at a tournament.
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Waiting until after the Euros to use the remaining 7 games of a World Cup qualification campaign to figure out our back four and see how they gel, is a big risk. Had we played these guys earlier (starting this month) we could have phased them in.
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My worry is our back four choking at the World Cup… Then a sudden rush to integrate the newer guys after the Euros, with a few short months left in qualifying.
This issue would be even moreso compiled if Modrić suddenly decided to retire.
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It’s just a stupid risk by Dalić, no doubt influenced by the other coaches (like Bišćan) in the HNS who only care about their own results.
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It’s win-win for Bišćan. He takes Dalić’s players… Dalić gets fired… and Bišćan can take over.
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Too bad, this team was really special and now key players pick up injuries. Even in this group, I think we had a really good chance of moving on with our full squad. We still do, but it will be much tougher now. I’m expecting Bradaric and Vuskovic to lock that defence up 🤞🏼.
@ Maminjo
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I’m 100% onboard with the mindset that whatever U19, 17, 21, etc. title or success is meaningless. Serbia won the U20 World Cup in 2015 and Serbia is still Serbia… (even though they thought it would usher in some golden generation for them)
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I’m also trying to think about this from all sides in terms of our defending options. I want to see guys like Gvardiol, Pongracic, Bradaric, Sosa, etc. get some time at the Euro, potentially play well and lead to our success in the tournament – but at the same time, there’s no guarantee that if we went in the other direction and say started a backline at the Euro of Vrsaljko – Gvardiol – DCC – Sosa that it would definitely lead to success. That whole crew is early 20’s and teens; even with a few qualifiers under their belt, its a lot to throw out a bunch of un-proven players (at the international level) and expect big things. It could of potentially went really well or they could of show their age and things could of gone south.
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Thinking about this more, I truly hope one or both of Vida or Lovren retire post Euro and that completely opens the door for the CB positions and I’m assuming the LB starting spot will become “competitive” between Sosa, Bradaric and Barisic. From there, we’ll have 7 WC qualifiers plus some Nations League games too? Plenty of time for that backline to gel and get experience with each other.
UEFA.tv is showing these games, at least in Canada.
All for nothing.
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We hurt our senior team’s depth by trying to stretch our talent across two teams, and now injuries have reduced the chances anyway.
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Good for the U21s if they do well in this tourney, but it means nothing… Especially if it potentially cost us an opportunity to move on from some of our weaker senior squad members.
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If any gaffes from players like Lovren, Vida, Barišić or Melnjak cost us qualifying points (or goals against us at these Euros)… It’s because of this decision.
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I hope I’m wrong, and all these vets have the tournament of their lives this summer.
Maybe we’ll go better than expected : )