Matt Lebo and I got into a heated debate last week on the CroatianSports podcast, which we were unfortunately unable to post due to being noobs. A technical issue that I’m still gutted about prevented us from posting. Lesson learned.
We talked about the Livaja situation and who was most at fault. But we also talked about the upcoming Nations League semifinal and what a European trophy would mean for Croatia. My answer: a World Cup or Euro title would mean everything. A Nations League crown. Not so much. I’d honestly take a World Cup or EURO seminal run over a Nations League any day of the week.
I proposed that an Olympic gold medal in soccer would mean more to Croatia than a Nations League title. And I’m sticking with it. So much more comes with an Olympic gold medal (in my conditional hypothetical situation). Let me explain how I see it:
Will I take a Nations League title this weekend? Absolutely. But don’t think the ‘trg’ in Zagreb will be packed with 500,000 people like it was after taking 2nd place at the 2018 World Cup or 3rd in 2022. Nations League is cute. There’s silverware attached. It’s definitely better than playing meaningless friendlies against Moldova and San Marino. But the Nations League is miles and miles behind even finishing 2nd or 3rd at a major tournament. It’s also held every two years as opposed to the normal 4-year cycle. So it will lose value and whatever prestige it has at the moment pretty quickly.
My argument is that Olympic gold in soccer is far more valuable than a Nations League title…with a caveat.
I understand the men’s Olympic tournament is a 16-team amateur tournament consisting of U-23 players. However, you are allowed to bring 3 veteran players of any age to play alongside the kiddos. Imagine Modrić captaining the young guns alongside Perišić, Brozović, or Livaković. I don’t care. Pick any two. Imagine Modrić getting an Olympic gold medal around his neck as the Croatian flag is lifted to ‘Lijepa Naša’ in Paris during the summer of 2024. Imagine Modrić carrying the Croatian flag and leading out all of Croatia’s athletes during the opening ceremonies. That scenario is WAY cooler to me than lifting a Nations League in Rotterdam.
I know this is wishful thinking because Modrić would never play in the 2024 summer Olympics following EURO 2024 a month later. But all of that would mean more to me than UNL. Caveat.
So, would you rather have Croatia win Olympic gold or a Nations League title? It’s Olympic gold for me all day, baby!
***Croatia has never qualified for the Olympic soccer tournament in their history. Only 3 European teams receive a berth. You must finish top-3 at this month’s EURO U-21 tournament to get into the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Just give us one star please
I personally would like for them to win the soccer olympics because, Uruguay has 4 stars on their badge because they won 2 world cups and 2 soccer Olympics and I think after all of the success we have had since 1998, we deserve at the very least 1 star on our logo. So for crying out loud please fifa please.
I don’t even watch the Olympics, so my vote is easy.
Nations League is never going to have the lustre of a major tournament, but it’s a trophy and much better than simply topping your group in qualifiers. The lead up can be weak, but you can be assured that the teams in the semi finals are among the best in Europe and playing to win.
Meanwhile there are only, what, 2 or 3 European countries represented at the Olympics, and they send their C squads? Come on.
While the Nations League seems like a lot less to some, it would mean a great deal more to me than the Olympics. Especially for players like Modric, Broz, and Perisic who may have retirement plans around the corner. Broz being the younger of the three who may still have a Euro Cup in him. I am not sure whether Modric and Perisic will be able to continue to 2026, but all things are possible.
If nothing less, these 3 players deserve an international title of some kind, they deserve more than the Olympics in my view (and yess for the one hundredth time I am including Broz as he is an elite player). It may not be a Euro, it may not be a World Cup but the Nations League itself is gruelling given when the tournament is played (especially in conjunction with other tournaments) and with which teams Croatia are expected to face in the semifinal and potential final should they win the semifinal. All these matches will prove difficult. What would be unjust to them is walking away from this without the trophy for the above reason stated.
I never much cared for Olympic soccer, the other sports to me are different as they are specific and geared to the Olympics. That gold, for Olympic Soccer, would only serve to put Croatia on a higher tier for the overall Olympic tournament. However, if that Olympic gold would mean a player like Gvardiol gets some notoriety however, then I may change my mind in that case and might have more a vested interest in Croatia securing that gold.
I said 2026, I meant 2024…
NL title over Olympic gold but by not much.
If Vida does start against the Netherlands, then my question to Dalic is when are you ever going to give Erlic more NT playing experience? He’s already 25 with 3 Serie A seasons under his belt and can still grow further, while Vida is at the tail end of his career… I mean so what if he’s “very experienced”? Plus Erlic has been solid in the 4 games he’s played for Croatia so far, 3 of which being the difficult stretch of NL games in June last year. Why is Erlic not the 3rd choice CB?
Hopefully this turns out to be a wrong guess by the press.
Olympics would be a breakthrough for our depth of young talent.
Plus you could add three super cool legends to show the young boys the way.
It would build on our global brand which is already excellent.
NL pool A play has been positive because it makes sure we are competing at the highest level and not playing at Estonia where we blow out the knees of our young talent, see one Marko Pjaca.
not trying to change the topic but I will.
in todays news, someone left a banner for Dalic, apparently right in front of his family home and this is what it says:
“Dalic zasto sutis, savezu kurac pusis” (Dalic why are you quiet, you’re sucking the savez’s cock)…the comment has the HNS with a BIG X painted across it.
Lets play a game. who in Croatia would do such a thing like this? if we were to take an educated guess, what has happened that would turn people against Dalic…the man that brought us silver and bronze and the same man that has us in the semi finals of Nations League!
my guess….Torcida! why? because of the Livaja situation.
Look, all you Hajduk fans, this has nothing to do with Hajduk just to be clear…we all support Hajduk but we MUST be against these dividers and shit disturbers who don’t care about Croatia. More people every day are waking up and are noticing that Torcida is the enemy!
your guess?
I’m beginning to think you make not like Torcida all that much
I wouldn’t say all of them but there’s a big enough base of them that create trouble in the country.
make no mistake, the average Hajduk fan is not a Torcidas, they’re regular fans that love their team just like the average fan in Rijeka is not Armada and in Zagreb the average fan in not BBB. Those fan boys do have their positives and I appreciate them for that but far too often Torcida tend to turn their hatred towards diving the country!
…*** dividing
It’s highly likely that it is Torcida, again fan bases in the soccer world are all capable of stupid things. Like many other club teams they can all be very divisive and impulsive.
But I do recall someone saying not to focus on the fanboys, or ultra’s to get a true picture a while back… I dunno Slavonac… 🙂
I said club teams I meant fan bases of teams actually**
Nations League trophy over Olympic Gold for soccer.
Olympics is cool for some sports but not soccer.. Nations league doesn’t have respect yet but it’s still national teams that are competiting and it will take a little time but nations league could one day be considered more prestigious.
Olympics is good, but not if it’s some weird U23 + 3 senior member format.
It ruins the seriousness of it all.
Is Dalic considering Perisic at left back, and Ivanusec at left wing?
https://gol.dnevnik.hr/clanak/rubrika/hrvatska-reprezentacija/dalic-priprema-velika-iznenadjenje-nizozemcima-radikalni-potezi-ili-cista-logika—786639.html?_gl=1*lligox*_gcl_au*NTczODA2MDgxLjE2ODE5OTg0Nzg.
More concerning is the comment about Vida possibly playing. Yikes.
This is just the newspaper making guesses though. I would be surprised if Vida actually started. Pretty much a fire-able offense.
Everything that Croatia wins (or almost wins) is worth celebrating. In fact, if celebrating was a sport, we would take gold every time 😉
Regarding this debate, i would have to agree that NL is more important than the Olympics in soccer.
add a 3rd event. LIV Soccer. You think those “oil dudes” aren’t thinking about a super league. Forget English League, German League, Italian- whatever . They’ll just have a super league that moves around the world just like golf for huge money and the best of the best play in it for crazy money. Every betting site will pay them huge money to participate.
NL definitely. Olympics is U23 comp with a couple of overage players.
Right now I would say win the NL and hopefully qualify for olympics. The NL isn’t easy to win would be a big achievement for Croatia. Just remember how we even got to the semifinals 🔥🇭🇷💪
Does anyone know how to watch the game tomorrow? I know that Nova is showing it.
DAZN
Depends where you are :
Canada- DAZN (also in many European countries)
UK- Viaplay UK
US- FUBO
Etc.
NL
I’d prefer the Olympics. Even if soccer isn’t the main attraction there, it’s a much larger event, held every 4 years that is incredibly difficult to qualify for. Opening or closing ceremonies for Modric tips the scales for me. The Nations League happens every 2 years and while winning it would be great, much like Olympic soccer, nobody other than the winner really cares or remembers who won.
NL. Easy. Bragging rights are at stake.
I will admit that I’m somewhat uneducated with the Olympics soccer situation. What I do know is that Mexico won it not that long ago so if they won it, it can’t be very relevant 🤣…I actually mean that! U23 to me doesn’t represent “the highest professional level” so when I see a tournament that’s not including a country’s “best”, to me it comes across as winning with a caveat ….ie…some teams send their best and most take that time to spend with their families and then get ready for preseason.
Nations League’s knock, from what I can recall, is the fact that it was cramped right in between league play and qualifying for tournaments…so it’s tough to always have your best although…each country does try to send their best if they are healthy!
Overall, I think Nations League is the closest we will get to a World Cup or European Cup calibre!
Yeh, I don’t know. I may have a fear of winning a shitty trophy before winning a real one. I was just thinking about it. I don’t want UNL to be our first trophy after everything we’ve done at the WC last past 5 years.
It would put a sour taste in my mouth. I’m just not feeling it.
Soon we will lose one of our best ever players we’ve ever had, he will retire. At the moment, we struggle on the right side of our attack and it’s been this way since 2018, we don’t have a good goal scorer and I just don’t feel we will keep up the pace we currently have…between 2018 and this past World Cup we did phenomenal considering we were handicapped in two very important positions.
IF we are good enough to win vs Netherlands and then win the finals, I’ll celebrate and be happy for this accomplishment. I don’t see us doing this well in the near future so this would mean a helluva lot to me.
I agree Slavonac FC,
The Nations League champion is a National team (the very best players that the country has).
I’m with Maminjo on this, Nations League easily…couldn’t care less about the Olympics, personally 🤷♂️
No one watches the Olympics. Give me the NL.
Nations League has only been won by legit top teams ( including this year) and teams are taking it seriously. Netherlands have been hyping this run as their first chance at winning a tournament since ’88.
Olympics doesn’t seem to be taken seriously and almost nobody can tell you who won the last one.
Really? You guys don’t follow the Olympic results. I get it that’s it’s tough to follow when we don’t qualify but Brazil has won the last two. Argentina went back-to back in 2004 and 2008.
It’s because it’s U23.
If it were a senior squad, it would be bigger than the Euros.