After absolutely dominating the match for the first 20 minutes through possession and chances, Croatia fell asleep and finall conceded a Saudi Arabia goal in the 54′, after going into halftime scoreless. Croatian goalie and Chelsea FC property Matej Delač was lucky not to have been called for a penalty in the box during the first half as he clumsily brought down a Saudi player after a strong dribble. Dinamo Zagreb’s Andrej Kramarić played well, blasting two free kicks on frame in the first half.
Croatia conceded another goal; getting caught on a counter attack and leaving a Saudi player all by himself in front of goal for an easy tap-in off the pass. The young Croatians lost all composure in the match after a strong start. Two Croatians goals were disallowed late in the second half; for offsides and the ball being called out of play seconds before it was headed into net. Croatia still have Guatamala and a Nigeria side in group play to change their fortune. Let’s see if they have the fortitude to force a knockout stage berth.
NOTHING DELAČ COULD DO
CROATIA SCORE BUT THE BALL WAS RULED OUT SECONDS BEFORE
CROATIANS UNIMPRESSIVE IN WC OPENER
Croatia’s U-20 squad takes on Saudi Arabia in the opening match of their World Cup campaign in Columbia. The match kicks off Sunday night at 7PM (ET). Nigeria and Guatamala are also in the group. How will the future of Croatian soccer fair in the biggest games they have played to date. The team will be without Hajduk striker Ante Vukušić due to club commitment.
Its actually better if we finish 3rd in this group (the four best 3rd placed teams advance) than second. Finishing in 2nd means they would play Brazil, and probably get smoked. Finishing third means I think the winner of Group B (Portugal/Cameroon/Uruguay). Three points should be enough, but then again the effort they showed yesterday they will struggle to even beat Guatemala
Well well well. We sure know who jinxed us once again.
"Croatia is dominating early, both with chances and possession. The final score will be 2 or 3-0 for Croatia."
Oh me oh my.
I didnt catch the game and after watching a six minute summary I wasn't too disappointed. Croatia dont have the same team as in qualifiers. Their top 4 players were not released by HNL clubs. I didn't expect to lose to Saudi, but its not as if we were dominated.
Also, we are catching Nigeria after a huge win and after a loss. We should be ready to bounce back and Nigeria might be a little fatigued after a night of aguadiente in Armenia(thats Colombia).
I'm going out on a limb here: Croatia 1-1 Nigeria.
Every youth team since I've been following closely is pretty much the same: 2-3 guys who will become good players and play in good leagues, another 3-4 guys who will have a respectable career and make good money for themselves playing at some midtable Russian team but never make the NT, and the rest (about 80%) will never see anything higher than HNL level
I wasn't expecting much results wise, European teams tend to struggle at this tournament because of lack of preparation and in Europe clubs seem to be more important, but I still expected to see some FIGHT, PRIDE, RUNNING, PRESSING which I saw none of yesterday. It was such a lazy performance and the players attitude was pathetic, yelling at each other, lack of respect for the coach/opponents. At one point in the match Croatia was supposed to give the ball back to the Saudis for fair play, yet we simply just took the ball, but the players were so lazy they only passed it backwards lol
@Mishko Usury????
It was an ugly performance but lets not overreact. Germany didn't even make the tournament and France lost 4-1 to Colombia. I don't know if that's the same France team, but they won the u-19 euros last year.
Also, Nigeria won 5-0 against Guatemala
Ziva is right here….my notes during the game.
jarolin… terrible on the wing…one directional…got beat a lot
0 movement
pamic and delay look good. glumac not too bad
typical walking around and pointing fingers that I see the old men do in pick up games
never used our height to our advantage
pamic dangerous on set pieces. Srna must be training him.
saudi arabi more dangerous on offense
saudi arabia more skillful on the ball.
Anyways, looks like the worse the league gets, the worse our talent gets. If we keep up with spitting out a couple really talented guys, and a bunch of average joes we're going to be in real trouble.
I can live with a 2-0 result against Nigeria, but Saudi Arabia???
At the U20's, I'm guessing that almost all (or 100%) of their guys also play at home. Is the Saudi Arabian league that much better than the HNL?
@Ante
You are mistaken about the referee. It is not the guy who did the USA/Algeria match (Koman Coulibaly). According to FIFA.com, the referee was Noumandiez DOUE
The dead giveaways were that this guy was actually pretty good and the ref from the USA game looked like a walking skeleton.
good cliche…..play like a team.
Lets be original here.
These guys did "play like a team", they "gave it their all", they gave "100%"……use all the cliches you want.
They lost because they are not good enough. We might have a chance against Guatamala, because they may be worse than us.
LMAO, I don't hate jews, just zionism and usury. I don't have any desire to get into a political discussion here because I'd bury most people in an arguement and then they'd just name call.
Back to the boys. All I have to say is that they need take things seriously and start playing like a team.
I don't hate the jews……I can tolerate them. My only comment on this website about jews has been in regards to Tottenham fans.
Professionally, I have to work with them at times and all is fine. They are a ethnic group to look up to in terms of watching out for their own and their interests……oh yeah, they are very good with money.
It's more than Bilic, always has been. You can argue the best success from our youth ranks are guys who played under Bilic at the youth level (Modric, Corluka, brazilian-born hrvat, Vukojevic)….what have the other youth teams produced. We either have a lack of direction (system and structure, style of play) or a lack of talent. Honestly, it's probably a combination of both. What has saved the national team over the years are the players who grew up and were developed outside Croatia. Just look at the list:
Simunic
Kovac brothers
Rakitic
Petric
Kranjcar
You can possible add the brazilian-born hrvat to that list but I think you have to give dinamo and the savez a bit of credit for him.
So, take the 6 names listed above and remove them. How would our national team look in the last 10 years without those guys.
Why do a large # of Croatians hate Jews? (Ziva and Mishko for example)
I agree with most of what you say ziva. Croatia really does not have an abundance of talent, our media simply overhypes any players who has 2-3 good games in HNL. Of course I'm not talking about the Modric's of the world, but the likes of Kramaric, Ticinovic etc.. who aren't even regulars in the HNL yet are viewed as some big talents
In pretty much every sport, Croatia has regressed since 10 years ago, I see it coming in soccer soon if the people at the top don't act up. Our style of play is so slow and is not conducive to beating the top teams. Yes, we will be competitive and maybe win a game here or there, but we are simply being outworked, outrun and outsmarted in most of these matches. How do our coaches not realize passing the ball among the back four for 5 minutes then launching a long ball will NEVER beat an organized defense? Thats from Bilic, all the way down to the U15s
ahhhh Mishko, did you not get a peck on the cheek from your mom this morning.
You might not like what I wrote, but show me what is worng in what i wrote? Everything I wrote is accurate. This u-20 team lacks talent and were lucky to qualify for this last year when they made the semi of the euros. They played above their ability last summer.
Reading some of your comments, it seems some people think we have this abundance of talent. We don't. We just got beat by Saudi, that should tell you where are talent level is at.
I think it is an accomplishment to make it to the U-20 WC when you look at the HNL and the savez.
In fact Mishko, I was applauding these guys for their game today. I think they played very well. This is about as good as these guys are. Go ahead and be mad at me for not being a homer like you. Be mad when i get something wrong, but don't be mad because you don't like hearing the truth.
I hope I am wrong, but I have been correct many more times than wrong when posting on this site. I said it last week, these guys will play their 3 group games and then go back home. I would be surprised if they advance to the knockout stage.
not look forward in seeing the Nigeria match, those guys actually RUN (wow, can you do that Croatia?)
Absolutely no heart. It looks like it was the first time this square played at any competitive level. Seems like they felt entitled to get a W just because of the jersey they represented.
If anyone thought there was anything positive in the game, even the first 20 minutes, they don't have a clue about soccer. No organization, no touch on the ball, no fire and this was for every single player on the field. They should be embarrassed.
The only good thing about Croatia in this match was the free-kicks.
Good job though, Saudi Arabia.
Ziva Istina, why do bother posting? Everything that comes out of your mouth is just garbage. Are you a gypsy that was raped in a Croatian prison or something.
Based on the majority of the things you say you sound like you hate Croatians and Croatia.
I'd recommend a moderator trace his IP if that's possible. It probably ends up in Beograd or Tel Aviv is my guess.
All the best everyone. Work hard tomorrow, the country needs our tax dollars. 🙁
I think this team is beyond a disgrace. If U20 represents the best we have at this age, then we are in serious trouble. I haven't seen such a poorly played game at this level ever. The right back #15 has no business being on the field, he practically lost every ball. Hardly any movement off the ball. Really really bad. The left back #11 was basically holding his hands at his side when they were down 2.0. They were playing like they were up 5.0 but down 2.0. Very upsetting to watch this. They should terminate the coach immediately. I hate to be this critical but this was a terrible representation of the HNS at any level. Awful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pathetic performance, I know the guys haven't trained much for this tournament and the selection wasn't perfect, but at least show some fight. Both goals were really lazy defending, before the first goal nobody picked up the guy who shot and the Saudis looked like Brazil on the second goal
Only guy who impressed was Kelic and Pamic had some good free kicks
This game was an embarrassment regardless of if we are good enough or not good enough to get out of the group. I don't have any expectations but if you are going to play like that than you might as well not play. Slow and disinterested against a side who I sure as hell know is not supposed to score a many goals let alone 2…
Our only chances came of set pieces. I mean we played okay at best for the 1st half but 2nd half was shocking. Our play was slow and no sense of urgency came even after we were 1-0 down! No pressing, no passing, nothing. Like I said like most of you i wasn't expecting much from this side and there was not all the u-20 players on there but a performance like that is still awful.
Hard to tell from that replay if the entire ball was out on the dissallowed Croatian goal, but the Assistant Referee was standing right on the line, so I'd like to think he had a great view.
not a sramota to me……i think our guys are actually playing good. This is the best they can do. I expected nothing from them in this tourney, so I think this is good so far.
That being said, if history is any judge, we should be ashamed to lose to the Saudis. While we are no Spain or other great youth power, I would think we could beat the Saudis. But, that is not the case. Again, this is about as good as we can play. The savez certainly was not convinced they can play or else they would have forced some of the clubs to release the best available.
Doesn't matter….two more games and these kids will be on their way back to their club teams.
Ovo je sramota 🙁
Saudi sticks…..
but, this croatian team is garbage. I still doubt we get out of the group stage. We are not that good. Not much collective talent on this team.
Croatia is dominating early, both with chances and possession. The final score will be 2 or 3-0 for Croatia.
On a side note, this is the same referee that botched the USA call in the WC game against Slovenia. Guess he got sent down to ref junior games.
looks like delac hasnt made much improvement
i'd advise using atdhe.ws in the future, they have multiple links to matches
this appears to be working for now:
http://atdhe.ws/live.php?v=event_id%3D57074%26tid%3D196714%26channel%3D0%26layout%3Dpopup%26Itemid%3D207.html