Look, I’m no detective in my everyday life…buuuut if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck…it’s probably a duck. This will be my last post talking about Argentina and our semifinal match against them. However, all you need to know is that it’s not just Croatians bitching about the calls Argentina received in the semifinal. The entire world has been bitching about Argentina this entire tournament. Call it the Qatari Cup. Call it “Messi’s Final Farewell”. Call it what you will. I’m simply leaving bread crumbs for you all to make your own decisions. I will not sway you in any one direction. I will look towards the 3rd Place match against Morocco this Saturday as soon as I hit “PUBLISH”. I promise.
But I just want you all to know. Hrvati, you are not alone.
#rigged was the #1 trending topic on Twitter following the Croatia-Argentina match on Tuesday, reports SportsBible, a huge football website based out of the UK. Not just from Croatian accounts, but the entire platform…worldwide!
Look, I’m writing this from a macro point of view, not from a Croatian perspective. The Vatreni didn’t play well against Argentina and they were fortunate to play in the semifinal. I mean, outside of Canada, they scored two goals in five matches. Not really a ratio you’re striving towards. But they made the semis nonetheless and we will dive into Croatia specifically later in the week.
I’ve watched every minute of this World Cup. And the more it went on, the more obvious Qatar and FIFA’s love grew for Lionel Messi and Argentina. You can feel it mock you from your living room television. It was palpable.
We know FIFA is corrupt. It’s publicly known. The American FBI literally raided FIFA’s headquarters in Switzerland in 2015, ESPN reports. And if that article isn’t enough to wet your whistle, check out FIFA Uncovered on Netflix. Whistleblowers formerly close to FIFA came out publicly saying how FIFA makes decisions, pays for votes, moves money around, AND how Qatar got the World Cup.
What’s the Qatar connection in all of this you may be asking? Aren’t they happy simply hosting the World Cup? First ones to do it in the Middle East? Absolutely not!
- Qatar bought the right to host the 2022 World Cup. They manipulated the voting and bribed who they needed to. Please refer to Netflix documentary above. The 2018 World Cup was supposed to go to England and 2022 was slated for the USA. Big miss on both of those.
- The announcement of the World Cup being hosted by Qatar happened in December 2010. Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the current president of PSG, bought the club months later in 2011. Al-Khelaifi is a well-connected Qatari business man who is also the Chairman of BeIN Sports and Qatari Sports Investments. The dude is stacked with cash, assets, and businesses. Who are his two prized players at PSG in 2022? Messi and Mbappe.
- Who will the World Cup Final be featuring? Messi and Mbappe.
Look, France could have gotten to the World Cup Final on their own in 2022. I just can’t say the same about Argentina. I just can’t.
At the end of the day, FIFA has us all by the balls. They have the best damn product on Earth: the World Cup. If your country is in it, you’re watching. If Croatia is in it, we’re watching. Simple as that. Obvious corruption or not. Our eyes are glued to the tv screen.
Look, FIFA. You have the best product on the planet. Thanks for putting it together every four years. We really do appreciate all the work. But can you make it less obvious when fixing games, calling benign fouls in the box, going to VAR/not going to VAR? We all appreciate it in advance.
You got your dream Final in France vs. Argentina to the surprise of no one. Messi vs. Mbappe. A changing of the guard. We’re all going to watch. We can’t help it. See you again in four years. QUACK QUACK!
When Livakovic was defending the goal he went for the ball, missed and acidentally hit the argentinian player. It was clear and there was NO need for a penalty.
A nice and clean way to flip the bird at FIFA. I’m sure Croatia would have liked to have scored the first goal and benefited from that adrenaline. When carrying fatigue and having dejavu of the 2018 final, that was a back breaker.
I’m finally in agreement to not protest and leave the tournament, but to put everything on the table for bragging rights. Another bronze for our minuscule republic is everything. Let’s go.
Really? How is it possible that the refs went to check every other penalty and not the one in the semifinals of a WC?
There is only one explanation, it is obvious that if he watched it again in slow motion it would NOT be given!
Brutal!
2026 is ours!!!💪
Bog i Hrvati
Third Place 27 million
Fourth Place 25 million
That is the prize money.
Croatia will go for the extra 2 million and leave the experiments for the next round of Nations League games.
If you were told before the tournament that Croatia would have won third place, everyone would have been ecstatic.
A 2nd and 2 3rds in the last 24 years is pretty good considering Italy missed a couple World Cups.
Winning 3rd place and you could Argue Croatia is the best European team if France loses to Argentina
Lovren should not to play for 3rd place
and let the next generation to have this chance >
seriously … Marocco will punish us ~
Guys. Third place is all we have to salvage this tournament. Let’s go out with a win and hold our heads up high. Experimentation with youth will be for the next cycle.
I agree with Soul Champ, who gives a fuck about 3rd place? Let’s start with the young kids, Brozo out, Gvardiol, why start him to risk injury, Luka maybe a half. See what happens and start preparing for future
I’m all for starting some younger players…but it has to be WITH PURPOSE.
I don’t want to see another Dalić Nations League special, where he embarasses us by simply clearing the bench.
I want to see a formation with players that we’d actually want to try in the near future.
Would love to see Šutalo in there for Lovren, but I still want to see Gvardiol out there to see more of that partnership.
Would like to see Stanišić at RB with them, since these three may be our future in these positions.
Would like to see Majer start…but NOT with Pašalić and Jakić in the central midfield. I still want to see him with Kovačić and Modrić. Then try Sučić for a half.
I’d give Oršić the start (on either side). He’ll probably be playing a bigger role for us at these Euros.
I don’t really want to see any Livaja or guys we’re probably not going to call up regularly for the next cycle.
I really don’t want us to clear the bench just to give everyone a run, then get demolished 3-0 because we played with no strategy, and in the end it didn’t even give us any insight into what we could do for our next cycle.
Agree. I don’t think he will clear the bench but it will be a mixed lineup because of injuries.
Brozovic is injured and read that both he and Gravdiol took injections prior to the Argentina game (not sure if true). Could see Brozo not playing at all and playing Gvardiol and risking him being injured more could impact
this mega transfer he is about to get.
Also think they play Modric for part of the game and probably even sit Juranovic for Stanisic as he’s played a tonne.
Majer should get a full game and Sucic should get at least a half.
I do think they are focused on winning the medal but seeing this ref situation is utter bs. It started in the quarters with Portugal and the Dutch getting raw deals and Argentina getting every call.
Qatar ref for this game? Seriously?? Morocco had the edge with fan support already and now a ref in their pocket….
You should care goofy. If we lose we will be considered chokes
I give a fuck. Getting a medal is better than getting nothing. We dont look back at France 98 and go oh who gave a shit about third place, do we?
The Morocco match has to be fresh legs special.
Stanisic
Erlic
Sučić
Vlašić
Oršić
Budimir
Majer
Kovačić should be captain and come of age in the middle.
Let the kids play.
It reminds of that LA Mexico match when we finally bum rushed them.
We need that same fight from the start.
Then bring on the veterans to take us home in FUCKIN regulation time.
I can see us rolling with this lineup and winning. The guys that didn’t get a minute in the WC so far are going to be really motivated. I can see Morocco playing this like it’s their final and that would probably play into our hands.
I’m more for winning this game for boosting our rankings than anything. I like being in the top pot for draws.
I say we bring back Rebic if we continues his so far successful season with AC Milan. We have no choice..who else? Brekalo is a maybe.
I agree with Tudman below. Petkovic, Livaja and Orsic can only put up numbers in HNL league. They are bums and too slow for international level. It’s still funny that Petkovic was the guy to break Brazilian hearts.
2016-2018: Mandzukic/ Perisic
2014-2016: No top striker or scorer so just Perisic
2012-2014: Mandzukic/Perisic
2010-2012: Mandzukic
2008-2010: Da Silva
2006-2008: Olic/Petric/Klasnic/Da Silva
2004-2006: Olic/Klasnic
2002-2004: Olic/Prso
1996-1998: Suker
Not to mention, half the guys I mentioned were putting up good numbers in the Bundesliga. I swear every tournament we get unlucky and somehow miss a big player. Olic missed out in Euro 2012 and battled injuries for two years. Perisic was out against Spain in Euros. Rebic and Kalanic sent home. Boskic was out in 98. Him and Suker would’ve been a lethal duo. After his injury, never the same. He put up 15 goals with Lazio and that year they made it to the Champions League Final.
Rebic, Brekalo, Musa, Simic are all ready to go. Dalic just needs to let the ghosts of Christmas past players..Perisic, Kramaric and Orsic go. Maybe keep Pasalic.
Saturdays match is important. By the time the next WC rolls around 95% of the people who remember this one will say yes Croatia did good and earned a bronze. If we lose we’ll just be remembered as chokers. Go fuckin win Saturday. If they don’t show up and play dissprited then we really shouldn’t even bother supporting them anymore.
Nobody outside of the teams playing remember third place. Honestly, the only third place results anyone on this board remember is 1998.
Great post by @Miki below if anyone missed it, pointing out who our forwards were in previous World Cups (maybe he gets a guest writing spot in the future?).
Even with Boksic out in 1998, we still had a really good forward like Vlaovic to replace him to go up up top with Suker. Even in down years, we had guys like Klasnic and Prso who could score. Heck, even scrappy Olic was fun to watch with his hard earned goals.
Now? We’ve got bums like Budimir, Petkovic and Livaja. None of these guys should be on the National Team, even on a small country like ours. I keep reading about our academies, etc, but why have we failed and gone OVER 4 years without having a legitimate striker???
LOL an Qatari referee will officiate our third place match against Morocco. So the Qataris and FIFA want the Moroccans to get a bronze medal so Qatar will be satisfied an African and Arab nation has a medal in they’re cabinet. The Qataris are pleased with a full out PSG showdown with Mbappe Vs Messi.
What a joke this tournament was.
Perhaps Canada can use the oil money we have in Alberta to persuade us to win the games in 2026, grant you if we make it far.
Yea that kind of goes along with the theme of rigged….sure it’s difficult to outright rig a large tournament, but certainly hand picking referees that will clearly be biased happens left and right….it’s disappointing but nothing new.
Vuskovic positive B sample…career ending moment?
No Dalic and Lovren around
anymore please . . .
During the France-Argentina game the announcer called the Bronze Medal game “the most important game no one wants to play in”.
Except there’s probably over 100 countries who would kill to play in that game. Saudi Arabia beat Argentina in the group stage and literally declared that date a National Holiday. And that was just the 1st game of the tournament, didn’t guarantee them advancement.
I remember years ago Boban saying the Bronze Medal game was only important to small countries but even that’s not true. You think Poland for example would like to play in that game? How about India or China or even the USA?
It’s interesting that Croatia, one of or the smallest nations to play in these major tournaments are now disappointed to be playing for Bronze while 37.34 million Morocco (“1st African Nation”, “flying the flag for the Arab world”) are said to have more to play for than Croatia.
I don’t know what Dalic is going to do obviously, but I’d think that if he goes with a mostly B squad, those men who’ve gotten limited or no minutes will be very motivated.
This is a good thing.
Croats crying for joy at finishing third in 1998…to being disappointed in 2022, is a transition from being a peasant nation in football to becoming one of the greats.
We all still appreciate the feat of finishing top-4 at a World Cup, but I like that we are all-in on winning it all.
Four years ago, we were all ecstatic about being in a Final and joining the group of 13 teams that have ever played in one.
Some thinking that we would never reach this height for another 20 years…well, we just did it within four years.
Most important thing now is to keep raising expectations, and continue to stay true to our midfield dominant identity.
Italy has fielded absolute garbage teams for the better part of 15 years, missing tournaments and losing to all kinds of bum teams…but they still won Euro2020 and made a nice deep run at Euro2012 and Euro2016 too.
This is all a result of their raised expectations. They’re in it to win in, even though they have largely had crap talent since they won it in 2006.
We don’t need Modric to yield good results. Obviously it helps, but a prime Gvardiol with a solid collection of midfield talent, alongside one decent striker can win you a tournament (or make similar deep runs to the semis or final).
We just need to go in there with the same mentality that we currently have, and these top footballing nations (like Italy, France, Holland, etc) and the results will continue.
Worst thing we can do now is to pull a post-World Cup hangover and lose a bunch of games.
We’re a top-10 ranked nation, who has two recent World Cup medals (if we win Saturday).
Now, go into the Nations League to win it (like Portugal and France did for the previous two).
Don’t ruin our reputation with multiple unnecessary losses, killing our ranking, and creating a low expectation losing atmosphere.
“Most important thing now is to keep raising expectations, and continue to stay true to our midfield dominant identity.”
Even more importantly, let’s stay true to our racial identity.
Never truer words spoken.
It is important to us. Years from know kids will read about this cup and say Croatia did well if we win it. To be honest I can’t stand Dalic but I hope he tells them either you play as hard as you can or fly home on the day of the match
Let’s actually breakdown Argentina’s behavior this tournament, shall we?
-Messi taunts the Netherlands bench celebrating after scoring. Unsportsmanlike from a player that is arguably on the greatest and not one yellow was shown.
-Parades tackles Ake without making contact with the ball and gets a yellow. Then proceeds to kick the ball at the Dutch bench. Was never shown another yellow. If he was shown another yellow, there goes the penalty taker that converted in the shootout.
-The penalty scored by Messi, one of the Argentinian players was in the box before he kicked the ball. No VAR for that.
-Although Messi missed the penalty vs Poland. That was never a penalty to begin with
-Messi was disrespecting the Dutch Manager and asking him “What are you looking and continue walking” and he also was mimicking Van Gaal after the match.
-Interrupted the press conference when Dalic was speaking. The mental midget Messi couldn’t have waited for it to conclude before saying something.
– Aguero was asking the Dutch goalkeeper why he wanted to see Messi and based on the video it appeared
“Aguero said this and I quote “Go and play FIFA,” he wrote to the Dutch players after the shootout, quote-tweeting an image showing Argentina celebrating in front of their beaten opponents following the match-winning penalty. Not to mention, all the Argentina players were showboating and making clowns of themselves after they won the shootout. Terrible display for representing your nation at a international stage. Footage then surfaced of Aguero at the centre of a scrum of players in the tunnel, repeatedly telling Weghorst (The Dutch player who scored the two goals in the game) to “shut up” as the striker appeared to be trying to shake hands with some of Argentina’s players. Why the fuck is this small discount Italian even allowed to be around the players. This prick retired and shouldn’t be making these comments let alone near the Dutch players. He’s not a substitute , assistant nor trainer. FIFA turns a blind eye to Argentina once again.
-Messi’s son was also throwing gum at fans during the round of 16 against Australia. I can see the shit apple doesn’t fall far from the shit tree.
-Argentinian linesman, referees and VAR assistants were hired for the Portugal match. Then an Italian referees our match.
I’ve never wanted to see a team lose more than Argentina. These dirty South American’s don’t deserve to be near that trophy. I hope France and Mbappe thrash them and make Messi’s Christmas gift a second L for his final. I swear these pre Madonna’s think they’re gvono doesn’t stink. I only have dismastment against the French for the final that was rigged against us, they’re celebrations and just being favored for a few other small things. Cough *France Vs Ireland 09 and Ukraine Vs France 2013* But on a serious note. They aren’t that bad. Celebrating? I mean Greizmann doing his fornite dance is beyond cringe. But the rest of that squad are clean on the field and do uphold professionalism, class and dignity.
Let’s hope these Frenchman slap these Mestizo’s and humble them. Make the Qatari prince’s not let that little mentally fragile midget princess to get his trophy.
Viva La France and for Saturday, its a full out Polak referee team. Closest they’ll get to a final.
For Saturday, lets see if we can score before halftime and not concede first.
I agree with all of the above. Lol. You hit the nail on the head, brate.
Another epic post agreeing on points made, glad I read these here.
No Rebić reminds me when Ćiro chose to NOT play Prosinečki for an injured Boban against France in ‘98.
The one thing I don’t understand is when people on this site say Rebic has no skills. This is real football for Christ’s sake, you don’t carry Frankfurt to the DFB-Pokal title without any skills.
I don’t understand why people on this website say Rebic has no skills. This is real football for Christ’s sake. You don’t carry Frankfurt to the DFB-Pokal title with no skills.
You are right. He can do things and just generally shake the baby carriage up I would definitely have taken him.
Dalic has had a magical run on the back of the greatest nogometaš ever.
Rebić is unparalleled with what he brings to the field for Croatia.
His power and underrated playmaking in the final third was not replaced.
Curious why Boban couldn’t pull an Imotski special and have a fuckin macchiato in Milan and squash this boneheaded beef.
I would actual call Rebić for March.
For me it was unexpected tournament very happy how it turned out we all onew our goal scoring was going to let us down and Dalic when he changes stuff in qualifying come tournament he never changes his 11 maybe one player only.
For me livi over achieved
Jura was great
The cbs lovren was great and gvardiol is a stud
Sosa disappointed me expected more from him maybe hes not fit 100 percent
The mid 3 as good as they are together setting up attacks was major proble all three would drop back leaving wholes in Middle of pitch and Argentina took advantage of that.
Perisic bas tournament imo.
Rw we dont have one
Our stikers crap they scored 4 goals plus perisic counts as an stiker in dalic system so 5 out of 6 goals scored bt our stikers technically.
Would liked to see sucic get more of a run and v Argentina budimir start the game somehow krama will play start all 7 games minus canada hes been so bad
Why do you write like you’re texting someone? It’s hard to understand. It seems you’re being stupidly stubborn by making your incoherent and difficult to understand writing style your calling card instead of just doing the right thing and writing coherently. Don’t you want people to understand what you’re saying?
Sosa was a disappointment for me as well. I’d like to give him a pass on his crossing as there wasn’t much to target there. But whenever the ball was passed out wide to him, he seemed so left footed and as soon as he was approached he had to rifle it back to Gvardiol. I didn’t see much in the way of successful dribbles and advancement. I think his best run of play was on what would have been the assist to Vlasic in the opener against Morocco. Maybe it was not being 100%, but he disappeared after that and I hardly saw him do any overlaps or offensive threats. His shots were wild and way off target.
He was great in qualifying.
Not sure what the issue was outside of not having a striker up top (but we had that issue in qualifying too).
Sometimes people have crap tournaments. He’s still young. He’ll get better.
Blind!!
Lovren is not great – you stupid ..
check all of the Croatian games and
look at him and the way he plays
Why do you write like you’re in a hurry texting somebody? Don’t you want people to understand what you’re saying? Don’t be stupidly stubborn by keep doing the wrong thing.
The referee for the 3rd place game is from Qatar.
I don’t recall a WC match being officiated by someone from the same continent in modern history.
Morocco and Qatar are different continents / different federations. Still not ideal for Croatia, but the rules are based on federations. This referee reffed the Wales / USA game and got a lot of complaints for calling it far too tight and whistling too many fouls and not letting the game go.
This is why I got a C- in geography in high school. 😁
Besides them having a slight difference geographically, they are both are majority Muslim, Arab, Arab speaking countries, Qatar ranked fifth in direct foreign investment in Morocco in 2016. They’re sleeping in bed with each other for the third place match. You know, figuratively because of the values and stance on same sex marriage and relationships.
Unfortunately, we are powerless over the referee, Qatar Sports Investments, and FIFA. The referee may have been paid / instructed to favour Argentina, or he may just personally do so (even if it is unconciously), but at the end of the day, all we can do is look at ourselves and make improvements wherever possible.
Brozovic with muscle issues is a sign to me that he worked too hard leading up to the semifinal match, and likely many others on our team did as well.
Dec 1 – Dec 13 four tough matches: Belgium, Japan (120 minutes), Brazil (120 minutes), Argentina, and all matches with generous stoppage time added.
Many people predicted that our offence was our weakness, and that it would hold us back, so it’s no surprise that we couldn’t get back into the game vs Argentina who had a relatively easy path and all other things considered.
It would be awesome to go home with the bronze to add to the list of accomplishments, and to inspire the up and comers. It appears we have some quality offensive prospects and that we will maintain very good midfield and defence going forward, so a lot to look forward to.
Let’s do this!
So the debate that it’s NOT a penalty because Livakovic had both feet on the ground at time of contact and that he has a right to his space and to defend the goal.
Personally, I think it’s a penalty because Livakovic originally came out of goal with the intent of making contact with the ball and then missed. It’s a risk charging out of goal like that, but he chose the risk and unfortunately he didn’t make contact with the ball. We’d all be screaming that it was rigged in favor of Argentina if it was the other way around with Martinez and Kramaric and we didn’t get a penalty.
I think that if he made contact with the ball, this without doubt would not be a penalty, although I think Argentina would have gotten a pen anyway despite that because they did in the Poland game, and that was way softer.
I think it’s worth noting that Álvarez chipped the ball, but that was not an attempted shot, I think he just wanted to take an additional touch before shooting by the looks of it, and Livakovic got in the way of line of attack without making any contact with the ball. Objectively, he disrupted a play which could have resulted with a goal in the back of the net.
In my opinion, Livakovic should have just stayed in goal, that chip by Álvarez was too far out, and I doubt he would have connected with it, if Livakovic had stayed back the chip would have probably come right to him, easy save.
You cannot compare Neuer running into Higuian and that it should’ve been a penalty too, becuase Neuer actually made contact with the ball while running out with intent to match contact with the ball. But Livakovic completely missed the ball. If Neuer had wiped out Higuain without even touching the ball, yes, that would have been a penalty.
Hey! Welcome to football!,, First time watching a game?
I have to say even with our good run in this tournament the tournament overall was garbage. Qatar was the worst place to hold it and at the worst time in November. Europe is by far the best place to hold any event stadiums are already there our people can pack stadiums as it’s only a car drive away. People can fill patios have drinks totally different then being in an expensive muslim country in the desert.
In all honesty, I 100% agree with this, I think FIFA is pushing Argentina to the final in nuanced ways. However, I also think Argentina studied our weaknesses and they capitalized on them, unlike Brazil. Argentina did what Brazil were too afraid to do on the attack.
The very first run by Alvarez that led to the dubious penalty, was just one of many to come. We made many defensive mistakes and they capitalized on it. Argentina was getting soft penalties throughout this WC, I agree, but we didn’t play our normal game in that semi final. Tired legs, and mentally we looked defeated after the first goal. Even while down 0-1 against France after 5 minutes, Morocco never faltered instead they dominated the game after that and really picked up the pace, a shame that they never ended up scoring. My point is that we could have played better. We could have equalized. But we don’t have a striker, we don’t have a Mandzukic, and we could not equalize that day.
We never score goals first, the only time we can score is when someone else scores. Sometimes you need to put the ball in the back of the net and get the job done, so no one can take away what is rightfully yours.
But, all that is in the past. Idemo po broncu!
The most encouraging aspect of this World Cup was the play of 3 players. Gvardiol, Juranovic & Livakovic. All 3 should get moves to big clubs after their performances.
Dalic’s ego is to big for the club now, he has to go. He let his ego get in the way with Rebic and it cost us. We ended up bringing in a rag tag group of second rate strikers to a World Cup. It was embarrassing to witness how slow Kramaric, Petkovic, Livaja were. They all had one speed. Has to be the worst group of forwards Croatia has ever taken to a major tournament?
Yes this is worst Stikers we have taken to tournament without a star CF lets review
Ill go world cups only
98 Suker Vlaovic Krpan Maric Kozniku(Boskic out injured)
2002 Suker Boksic Vlaovic Olic Balaban Vugrinec Rapaic
2006 Prso Klasnic Olic Balaban Bosnjak.
2014. Olic Mandzo Eduardo Jelavic Rebic Perisic
2018. Mandzukic Kramaric Perisic Rebic Kalinic.
What has rebic done in the past year that makes you think hes any better than kramaric?
score goals against teams that aren’t Canada
Brekalo will be apart of team again if he gets playing time or new club but rebic is done in dalics eyes.
So what do we think Rebic and Brekalo thought through this World Cup run?
Do you think Rebic was happy when they won or was he cheering for a loss?
Looking back at scenes like this one from Split, where Filip Bradaric showed himself a much better singer than midfielder singing Geni Kameni to the Split crowd with Rebic up there having a great time… you can’t help but wonder what Rebic thinks now
Does he feel like he’s missing out?
Brekalo I feel worse for. I always liked him and highlighted when he was dropped it was a little disappointing as he gave something on the right wing that really no other Croatia player could.
Not too late for Rebic to reconcile … if he wants to make amends somewhat
I think we need to continue to build on the midfield dominance and make it our calling card.
We outpossessed Belgium, Brazil and Argentina.
Before the World Cup, not many would have thought that, but we’re hands down the best tika taka country in the World (in terms of dominating possession if we want to).
Our young defenders are good (and will get better) so I wouldn’t worry there.
We just need to focus on getting that high pressing forward trio that made us so successful at the previous World Cup.
In 2018, we had prime Perisic, Mandzo and Rebic.
In 2022, we had end-of-the-road Perisic, Kramaric, and Pasalic
This was too big a dropoff and killed our offense.
For the upcoming March qualifiers, we need to focus on this piece.
Keep developing that possession dominant midfield with guys like Majer, Sucic and Vlasic (who are already on the team) and callup anyone who is taking that next step (and have them all compete for the midfield trio).
But for up top, we need to call up Musa and Ljubicic to at least try them out.
Be clear to them that the 2018 forward line is how we want to play and see how well they press and connect with our midfield.
Call back Brekalo, continue to play (and start) Orsic, especially if Perisic retired.
We have Vlasic and Pasalic at RW if we must…but still gotta look at options there too.
If anyone starts showing signs of success in these positions, try them out. Don’t force a mandatory 2-3 year sentence with the U21s under Biscan.
Two years will come fast, and now is the time to start figuring out how to get our pressing forward line back to where it was four years ago. Most of it is work rate anyway.
I’d love to build on the midfield dominance. But we’ve got to see what life looks like after Modric. Our defenders will sometimes pass it to him with three from the opposition around him and he’ll wiggle his way out and find a pass to keep possession. Kovacic has a bit of this skill, but I’d call him Modric-Lite.
The high pressing trio is great, but all 3 have to be working in unison. If one of them is lacking, the whole system breaks down. We’ve already had issues with a RWer for years. Perisic is past his prime and we still don’t have a real striker.
Having said all of the above, I still feel that if we make the right selections and find those replacements within the next 1-2 years, we’ll be okay. We have the talent, but we’ll have to be aggressive in calling up the players with those skill sets. Typically Dalic waits until they transfer to a big club and dominate there for about a year before Dalic calls them up, let alone starts them. We have to trust our own scouting and integrate the players that have the goods into our system earlier than usual. Not like the well cited example of waiting until a major tournament to start Gvardiol even though we had the need.
No one can explain in a fair way why Argentina did not get a second yellow card vs Holland.
Couple examples:
Messi deliberate hand ball
Guy who got yellow and fired ball into bench
Probably other examples
3 of 6 wc we made it to semis.
This was by far our hardest knockout fase we have faced if we rank them id go 98 22 18
Sorry 22 98 18
Dalic hats off but his tactics sometime cost us big time and not believing in some players why has krama started all the games.
Majer Orisic should have played more minutes not believing in some players sticking to a system that in attack we are steral as it comes.
Broz wont play v moroko great most likely kovacic modric will be dms id go with the following
Livi Jura Lovren Gvardiol/erlic(Gvardiol played with kortison shot v Argentina) Sosa Modric Sucic Kovacic Majer Livaja Perisic and sto bude.
I rooted for france 2 times in world cup 1998 when they beat us and 2006 for zidane so lets go france trash this garbage team and go back to back.
Disgusting from fifa.
Main sponzor for world cup is psg owner ma daj hahaha.
Naprijed ..
Morocco is playing for third. In front of home fans in the Arab world.
New tactics as we have become predictable and Morocco have all the horses to compete with us?
3-5-2
Oršić – Budimir
Perišić – Kovačić – Brozovic – Modric – JJ
Gvardiol – Erlic – Šutalo
Livakovic
Most of these guys play in a 3-5-2 at club level.
We have not scored in the first half outside of Canada.
Dalic has to make adjustments.
He also needs to make half time subs regardless of score.
We need fresh legs and ideas.
No need to leave in shame.
We have enough to beat Morocco but we need to shift things up.
We got robbed badly in 2018. That Griezmann free kick for the dive screwed us over, that should have been a free to us and yellow card to the dirty Griez. Then the hand ball penalty was also fabricated crap. We were playing really well at the time and had the game been allowed to flow without bullshit calls by the refs we probably would have won.
This time around we weren’t that good we got lucky to make it this far. 2018 hurt a lot more than it did this time. Officiating in all sports sucks, not just the FIFA World Cup.
It is not only Croatia that is being screwed at the WC, what about Morocco against France. The Mexican referee failed to give Morrocco a clear penalty in the 27 minute. Reality is whenever there is a close call, it always seems to favor the big teams i.e., made by the match referee or the VAR assistant.
This has been going on for as long as I can remember at the World Cups and EUROS, well before VAR was around.
I think why Messi is really furious this World Cup is because he genuinely knows that the one man show will run be stopped by France. I’ve never rooted for France since 2016 when they lost to Portugal in the final. Now I want them to win again only because of Argentina’s antics. They French celebrations are still nauseating but these dirty South Americans take it to a whole different low.
I agree…never in my life did I think I would be rooting for the French but here I am 🤢
I wonder if the French get screwed for a change,so that this “messy!” love affair ends like a harlequin romance ?
I never thought I’d be rooting for France, with dirty Griezmann, but either way he has seriously been carrying France on his back this WC. I think France have a chance of winning. I’m rooting for them. At least they got to where they were without a push. Anyone but Argentina.
Go France
The real conspiracy is how did Lukaku mysteriously miss 4 point blank opportunities to score or how did we end up playing Japan in the knockout round and not a Spain or Portugal or how did we end up beating Brazil with one shot in goal in 120 minutes????
1) Lukaku did NOT miss 4 “point blank opportunities”, you make it seem as though he had the ball at his foot 1 on 1 w/ the goalie w/ enough distance to easily tap the ball over the line. That’s not what happened. And what about Croatia’s missed chances in that game? And what if Lukaku did score in the game, who’s to say Croatia of all teams would not have gotten one back? After all, it was Croatia who only needed a draw so they never had to push for a goal in that game.
2) B/c Japan beat Spain.
3) You’ve never seen that in a football game before? Croatia out possessed Brazil and defensively channeled Brazil’s dangerous attacks into narrow channels that Livokovic closed down. What about Perisic’s point blank whiff and Brozovic with an open look inside the box with nobody between him and the goalie with a pass put on a platter for him?
Let’s all be honest here. Did we deserve to lose? Yes Was the penalty controversial? In my mind it was and according to many other people it was up for debate. Let’s not sit here and always moan about the referees having a vendetta against us. We will always get the wrong side of the calls. As do a lot of teams..big, small, popular, and unpopular. The main thing is that we have prevail and keep pushing for greatness. Perhaps we do need to hire a international manager, hire assistant coaches that aren’t recently retired players or even blow up the team. You have to take risks and we keep this stubborn mindset that won’t win us championship. Stop blaming the referees every tournament we get a poor call, using recycled players, pushing our vets that have no gas left in the tank for “OnE MorE TouRnament”. Enough is enough. Dalic brought us to two semi finals. Should he continue as coach? In my mind, no and that’s only because we need major changes to our tactics. Kramaric should’ve never started after scoring two against Canada. Brozovic made too many mistakes to start again and again. For some reason we think players from the HNL are the answer when our starters don’t step up and that’s pathetic. Get the youth fucking noticed on Saturday and let’s leave with pride after that shit show.
We gotta be better than this. It’s obviously a controversial call. But this is sports and debatable calls happen every couple of minutes. We’ve definitely got some calls that went our way over the years as well. It’s a weak mentality to blame the refs. We can’t go back in time so why waste time being negative and feel sorry for ourselves. We just didn’t have the quality in our attack. We beat Messi in his prime 3-0 last time because we genuinely were a better team. Be ponosan that we made it to the final 4 and everyone knows we belong amongst the football elites.
Dust it off, focus on the next match, and let’s get another medal!
Can you give some examples of calls that went our way, particularly in world cups?
Šimunić getting 3 yellow cards in one match back in 1998…
That definitely wasn’t in 1998. I wouldn’t count that as it wasn’t a “call” that the referee made. He just wrote it down wrong.
I believe we did get a call vs Italy (for the life of me, can’t remember if it was a penalty or an offside). That’s the only one that comes to mind.
The only examples I can think of are the penalty against Romania in 1998, the Bilic fake to get Blanc the red card in 1998, the Italy game in 2002 (the first disallowed goal wasn’t offside, the second one was a foul). The Australia game in 2006, sure Simunic got three cards, but Australia’s tying goal was well offside.
Everyone conveniently ignoring the media darlings that Croatia become during every Cinderella run we’ve had, the 2hr FIFA documentary on the ’98 squad that had ads running everywhere , new fans made across the world and global respect for our players… because of a play that, let’s be honest, we would all be screaming for a PK if it was Martinez that made it on Krama.
Those “globalists” sure seem to like us a hell of a lot for “gifting” us two podium finishes, huh? At the expense of Argentina, Denmark, Russia, England, and Belgium, no less… teams that are prime candidates for the supposed “fix for diversity.” FIFA does a pretty shit job of fixing the SP against us, if you ask me.
Luka and Mario – God bless them for all they’ve done – had an opportunity to hold their heads high and they decide to go for sour grapes. Imagine you’re a young kid in Cro who sees one of the most important strikers in our country’s history saying “We’ll never win it all, ever, because that’s how the world works and we can’t change it.” What a great way to inspire the next generation.
I don’t mind Luka saying it was a bad call as long as he doesn’t continue on and on about it. But Mandzo claiming some conspiracy against Croatia is just embarrassing coming from one of our coaches. Great point that your teaching the kids to be victims instead of resilient.
I used to think Croatians who said 1998 was fixed were crazy. But, seeing the calls in 2018 and the penalty calls for Argentina (vs Poland, vs Croatia, etc.), I no longer think that.
Once it has been ascertained that it should not of been a penalty that’s the moment people start coming up with their own reasons as to why globalist corrupt Fifa chose to screw Croatia?
I do feel the no black players on the Croatian team could very well be one of the reasons, because if you take race out of it, we are as multicultural as France and more diverse than Morocco because of our multiculturalism, and if you think about that for a second, you can see why Mandzukic went with the “small nation wont be allowed to win” theory. Mandzukic probably wouldn’t even think that globalist corrupt Fifa want some Africans on the Croatian team if they want to receive their stamp of approval.
So I have come up with a solution, we need to find our own LUKAku and perhaps a good fast African winger to appease globalist corrupt Fifa.
In the words of the late Stjepan Spajic, the right way to do this would be: “Crnca bi uzeo ako je Katoličke vjere.”
Let’s get it done, and stop f****** around, because you can’t beat the system, but you do need that stamp of approval to be allowed to win the whole thing. Lets go!!!!!
How do VAR checks work? I assume there is someone “upstairs”, looking @ video assist recording, VAR. If they don’t see any issues, the referee is not called to review, because it was done upstairs? So how do we know there was not a upstairs review , and the reviewing group just had no issue with the call? So there was a VAR review, but field decision was not overturned. Sorry for my ignorance.
VAR only intervenes if there is a clear and obvious error. So, in the case of Livakovic penalty the VAR referee obviously thought that it was a penalty.
And that was exactly the same VAR referee as the one who gave Griezmann a clap on the shoulder for his dove and awarded France a non-existant penalty in the 2018 final Croatia vs France…hmm..
Go figure why this time he didn’t think it was a yellow card for the Argentine player and no bloody penalty. Enough professional football players around the world screamed that it was NO PENALTY. And they didn’t make a single cent by saying this…Enough said.
Greasemann dive*
Sorry, auto correct is a fu*king b*tch.
I watched the replay of the foul. Livakovic takes 1-3 steps paces forward to challenge Alvarez. He had his feet planted and in no way charged at him. Livakovic was already out of the 12 yard box before Alvarez made contact with the ball. It was evident it was a bs call as soon as it wasn’t a VAR check. I guess Neuer running into Higuian should’ve been a penalty too in the final of 2014 by these standards. And that was a way worse challenge by Neuer. In terms of the second goal, all Brozovic’s fault and we got caught on the counter attack playing too deep.
You cannot compare Neuer running into Higuian and that it should’ve been a penalty too, becuase Neuer actually made contact with the ball while running out with intent to match contact with the ball. But Livakovic completely missed the ball. If Neuer had wiped out Higuain without even touching the ball, yes, that would have been a penalty.
I WONDER if our vatreni thought when that questionable penalty was awarded ..they automatically thought omg here we go not again..it never ends the blatant scamming . No honesty..led by fifa.Only way to stop fifa..high profile national teams should protest..10 big country’s.. sit out qualifying on purpose but that won’t happen because fifa will throw more money to back their narratives..jebiga
I’ll say what Mandzukic isn’t allowed to say or he’d lose his career in our Free society. It has much less to do with Croatia’s population number and much more to do with what Croatia’s population and football team LOOK like. Go read article’s from the corporate media written about the Croatian National Team and compare them to articles written about Morocco, Senegal and other “diverse” teams and show me I’m wrong. After all, doesn’t the FACT that Mandzukic can’t speak freely to say what I just said prove I’m right?
As an example, in practically ever major tournament Croatia is second choice to get out of the group but the media’s always picking the Nigeria’s and Morocco’s to upset us in the match and get 2nd place in the group over us.
Everyone knows that fifa loves multiculti and coloured players. Last world cup there was even some psycho PC group (can’t remember from where) that gasped at the blatant “racism” of Croatia not having a single coloured player on their team. It’s a scam from beginning to end. Fuck fifa, fuck PC, damn them all to hell… 🤮🤮🤮
Respectfully of the Livaja, Kramaric and Petkovic players I have absolutely no doubt that Mandzukic ( obviously with 3 to 4 months training) would have made a huge difference as a centre forward and made the opposition less effective in attack due his press and his real experience and real presence and real skill and real soccer sense and real psyching out the opposition in attack…. Perisic needed him bad as we needed Mario bad. Just an extrapolation…venting….. and respect his decision to retire.
yeh, i dont know about that. Remember when Mandzo went to AC Milan after the WC? Didn’t do anything there.
I do know that all the Italians I have encountered particularly the ones that support Juventus ONLY had the best to say about him, An absolute workhorse they would say… I know we bitched about him for years but now I feel most of us didn’t understand his value. He definitely had a X factor when he played…kinda like Ivan P. We go as Perisic goes…Side note a la “The Truth” lol : I posted that we needed 4 points from him to make it the final…he got 3.
On a separate note Hvala Puno for everything you do by making this such an engaging Agora for all of us Croatian and fans of Croatia.
Yeah my old man was unhappy with the penalty against us too. I understand it is debatable, but you would think VAR would at least “look” at it, wouldnt you?
Im kinda glad they scored more goals cos i think i would be more annoyed if it was 1-0 or 2-1 or something and that was the diff
It can’t be “debateable,” there are rules for what makes a penalty, it either is or isn’t a penalty?
It’s like when the AFL screwed Richmond at the GABBA, they could’ve chose to do the right thing according to rules in place, or screw Richmond, they chose to screw Richmond.
So you see if it’s “debateable” that suggests that Fifa made a choice, and there can’t be a choice where there are rules. So Croatia was either screwed or not, it’s that simple.
I don’t know the exact rule but that would not be a penalty in my opinion, because Liva is entitled to come off his goal line, the Argie put the ball past Liva, after that either Liva brought the Argie down or the Argie ran into Liva? I believe it to be the latter, but I’ve only seen it when I watched the game. But hearing those former players say “no penalty” makes feel that I am right.
Start Mandzukic? Oh lord please don’t make Mandzo look bad. He’s played 15 competitive games since retiring internationally and departing Juventus. I’ll also add that FIFA will never add two head referees. I ask myself that every time I watch a World Cup game. Every major league has more than one head referee; NHL, NFL, MLB, NBA. It’s despicable that we have to even suggest it. France should win. As much as I don’t like them for cheating in 2018, they’ve played well and pretty clean this World Cup. Making a final without Benzema, Pogba, Pavard, Hernandez and other key players is unbelievable.
Not related to this forum, but no way we’re winning all the marbles with our goalie still playing in Dinamo. Hopefully Livakovic gets linked to a better club. Get legitimate experience and challenges. You can’t improve playing in HNL. Gvardiol will leave RB Leipzig soon I hope. In terms of Nations League, the whole starting 11 should be youngsters. Let’s give them a true test against the Dutch, Spain or Italy.
The brilliant Ben Franklin once said “3 people can keep a secret, but only if 2 of them are dead”. There’s no orchestrated conspiracy here but it might be embedded in referees’ minds emanating from the establishment media, corporate sponsors, etc. to be against the small non-diverse nation. It’s similar to Real Madrid getting most of the close calls except in reverse and the only thing we did to “deserve it” is no be “diverse”.
In 2014, I believe Fifa was trying to rig the system in favor of Brazil. We saw that in our first game. When Germany played Brazil, I thought the only way Germany could neutralize the biased refs was to score enough goals to make it impossible to be cheated. They ran up the score to 7-1. We would need to score more in order to win. No other way around it.
I was told by insiders in 2014 that FIFA would get Brazil to the semis then they were on their own. They wanted a Brazil/Argentina Final in Brazil. Brazil blew it.
Like I said besides the Croatian national team I’ve wiped the ugly game from my life, but I just gotta say, if you believe this entertaining article and you still watch football besides the Croatian national team, then you’re part of the problem, because you don’t stand for something.
If globalist “corrupt” Fifa force you to write an article like this in 2018 because you felt foolish for believing the Final would be played on a level playing field, and 4 years later you’re back writing another expose, what can I tell ya?
The author of this article even admits they’ve got him by the balls, and not just him, but all of you, excepting me of course.
Watch only Croatia and nothing else, this is my way!
Mandzukic is a real one. We will win eventually though. 2026 our defense will be Sosa-Gvardiol-Sutalo-Stanisic and our midfield will have the likes of Majer, Sucic and Vidovic. Then up front we have guys like Stipe Biuk and Roko Simic on the rise. We just need to stay strong and support our guys.
I think our future is pretty bright with some of our prospects. Though Biuk isn’t really moving the needle for me. There maybe some that aren’t even on the radar now that will turn it on come 2026.
I think Biuk may have late bloomer potential.
Seems like any player we have that had a traumatic childhood ends up punching above their weight in terms of potential.
Kovacic will still be playing ( hopefully healthy as he is prone to knocks due to his style) and even though he is older he is getting better in my opinion. He will get more aggressive in shooting the ball. Luka is his biggest fan too and rightfully so.