Croatia’s hero from Sunday night’s game versus Denmark, goalie Danijel Subašić, who blocked three out of five penalties in the shootout, showed raw emotion Tuesday at a press conference in Sochi, Sportske Novosti reported.
A reporter asked Subašić about Hrvoje Ćustić, who passed away in 2008 while playing for NK Zadar. Ćustić slid head first into a concrete wall at Zadar’s Station Stanovi. He wasn’t able to be saved at the age of 24.
Both Subašić and Ćustić were Zadar-born and played for the club at the same time in 2008. They were best friends and Subašić still honors the late Ćustić by wearing a shirt of him underneath his goalie jersey every match he plays.
During the press conference, teammate Domagoj Vida came over to goalie his torn goalkeeper to console him. The team has been on an emotional high but there’s a new camaraderie in the locker room that even media and fans don’t get to see.
Much respect to Subašić for keeping his friend’s legacy alive!
[…] Danijel Subašić following Croatia’s penalty kick shootout versus Denmark on Sunday. Suba wears a picture of his fallen friend Hrvoje Ćustić under his goalie garb every match. While celebrating the win with Croatian teammates, Subasic showed off the shirt which […]
Bobby v. Awesome song man! Can’t beat that!!
When predicting games, always look how a teams defense is playing.
In every sport.
Beating rule of thumb – take good teams playing on the road – and never bet against that situation.
France gave up 3 goals to Argentina. Belgium gave up 2 goals twice to inferior sides, Japan and Tunisia.
Uruguay over France, Brazil over Belgium, Sweden over untested England, Croatia over inept Russians
Therefore, looking to a Brazil-Croatia final. Just think if we had VAR to take a look at Fred’s dive in the penalty box that the paid-off Japanese referee called against Lovren.
https://youtu.be/JiBczWWz5rs
Nobody loves their Baba more than Croatians do. With this video/song they made, there is no way we can lose.
If we win the World Cup i will go fuck a goat.
Truth, I wouldn’t be shocked if you got a prediction correct.
Poglavnik, Daj Boze! It’s our time!!
@ Poglavnik
To je toooooooooo ..
Croatia winning it all of course!!
I like Uruguay over France.
Brazil over Belgium.
Croatia over Brazil.
Then 1998 will be transformed with this 2018 World Cup winning run.
I want billions watching us ascend to the mountain of World Football. Beating Brazil AND Argentina will cement our Alpha status as the best footballers on the planet.
Then they will say Brazilians are the Croatians of South America.
I’ll take “French” scalp in the finals as well to liberate the 1998 disappointment.
U boj ..
There is nothing better than I would like to meet the English and put them down. We must be very careful to to make the same mistake that the 98 team made. We must not be over confident. The Japanese vs Belgium game and England Columbia game are proof of that. We must be cautious playing the Russians. And if opportunity to comes we need to score we cannot take another chance on penalties. I think the win on penalties gave us confidence and got rid of the demons of 2008. Once it goes to PK it’s no longer in our hands And one mistake it’s over. We need to be smart.
France over Uruguay
Belgium over Brazil
Sweden over England
Hrvatska over Russia
Belgium over France
Hrvatska over Sweden
Hrvatska over Belgium
And that’s that!
So i wouldn’t be shocked in this game to see Croatia play a line up more similar to the one against Nigeria with kramaric trading the place of a cdm role
Spain set the record for passes in a game against Russia (1000+),… Russia might sit in a similar shell… For context, Sweden has completed less than 700 passes the whole tournament
Kovačić has an extra gear that no one else can bring in the center of the pitch. Brozovic has been very good but I sense we need a spark from that #6 CDM slot.
Strinic used to be smooth going forward and could put in a cross or two a game. Is he still scared from that Portugal match at Euro 2016? Be aggressive.
Actually think Kovačić makes everyone in the back play more relaxed. Need both Modrić and Rakitic going forward making decisive movements in the attacking third. Actually Rakitic as well as he has performed is due for a wonder strike.
Interesting that Truth only posts comments like that.
Apparently Kovacic and Strinic are doing better than we thought and the coach is leaving it up to him to decide if he’s fit to play. Also Kovacic has been training. I’m confident both will be fine. Who does Cro start with in CDM vs Russia? Broz, Badelj or Kova if he can go? So far I’ve read it’s Brozovic.
Interesting that comments have really died down here given Croatias biggest game in twenty years is coming up
Perišić and Rebić have to be in attack mode from the jump.
Mandžukić will beast as per his usual.
Modrić and Rakitic have still more quality to express.
Kovačić if healthy is our new X factor for our World Cup winning run.
Teams cannot account for everyone else AND for an explosive Mateo Kovačić.
Pivaric slides into LB .. yeah I have been giving Strinic the homer hand holding .. but now I have seen a lively Pivaric who seems hungry for his own big league move.
Vida and Lovren as you were, mindful VAR!
Vrsaljko .. Di si majstore ??
He needs to put in an offensive wing back performance Saturday.
Pjaca
Brozovic
Badelj
ZDS
Tennis is boring @ Rocky no need to be a douche.
Cilic out in the first round
We must stay away from the homosex and Chetnik
Flags which have plagued us.
@KRO
Really? Huge news if true.
If Croatia defeat Russia then it’s either we play Sweden/England to get to the final we will never have a easier path than that so its now or never.
@canuckcro-Let’s just hope we don’t leave a floater in the pool.
Speaking of pools- my cousin – Dejan Lovren says he will celebrate naked if we win the World Cup. Doing the family proud, cuz.
https://youtu.be/zbQTXFJL8lo
This is true cinderella story if cro wins it all,old school movie caddy shack sums it up croatia comes out of nowhere to win the masters worldcup all the makings of a movie…can’t sleep waiting for our win against rusia.Idemo napred,sam da bog pomasu nas decki.
@Goku
Yes, and Derventa is in Republika Srpska, but on this website, no town is in Bosnia . Everything is in Hercegovina.
I think Gildo wrote that young-in-cheek and wanted to avoid the govno.
@Iggy – yes, I’m in that group. The support is amazing.
At anonymous
How are you seeing all tickets available?
Zenica is in Bosna
All tix are avail……are your funds?
Dude they ran out of Russian World Cup jerseys.
Sandro Ricci will be the referee
Does anyone have suggestions in terms of getting tickets to the semi finals if Croatia makes it?. It seems all tickets are sold out
^^less likely
@Maminjo-Rain? Now the conspiracy theorists gonna start saying Putin is controlling the weather.
@Iggy- one site says Kovacic and Strinic won’t be available.
@all-Good thing about playing an inferior team is that we won’t need to challenge for possessions. In other words, it is more likely our good players will pick up a 2nd yellow. That was one good thing about playing an ugly style team like Denmark.
Lol yeah are you guys in the Croatia World Cup Fans Fifa group on Facebook?
The amount of ppl posting pics of themselves in HRV jerseys from Botswana, Bangladesh, Indonesia etc lol.. it’s really something to behold
Everyone is going for Croatia in our bracket.
Remember from1998 that the downtime before the quarter-finals and even more so before the semi-finals was a time for fans around the World to pause and give praise to the remaining teams.
You also have so many fans whose teams have been eliminated that jump over to support you.
Stay humble, avoid trash talking and most importantly, enjoy!
Not if it’s raining.
It is supposed to rain in Sochi on Saturday.
For all you geography nerds, sochi looks to be on a similar parallel as Split. Possible alignment for our dalmatinci to play well?
Great analysis Rocky. Playing against bunker teams always seems to give us problems. Hopefully we can score early against russia forcing them to open up.
There have been many photos and videos of training over the past couple days – yet to see Kovačić in 1 photo which isn’t encouraging.
You can only hope he’s focusing purely on recovery but the silence is deafening.
England’s speed would cause all sorts of problems for us. An in form Harry Kane, is scarier than any Swede on his best day. Unless it’s hockey or curling, I like my chances a little better against Sweden than England. First off is Russia. I thought Croatia as a whole (team, country, coaches, fans) looked way ahead of Denmark and it almost bit us in the ass. Let’s lnot repeat that mistake. Any game from here on out is gonna be a dog fight.
Any news on Kovacic fitness?
Kovacic (Linz, Austria), Rakitic (Rheinfelden, Switzerland)
Lovren (Zenica, Hercegovina), Corluka (Derventa, Hercegovina)
Subasic, Modric, Livakovic (Zadar)
Vrsaljko (Rijeka – moved to Zadar age 2)
Pjaca, Jedvaj, Pivaric, Badelj, Brozovic, Kramaric, (Zagreb)
Strinic, Bradaric (Split)
Perisic (Omis)
Mandzukic (Slavonski Brod)
Kalinic (Solin)
Rebic (Imotski)
Caleta-Car (Sibenik)
Vida (Donji Miholjac)
Would rather play England than just about anyone that’s left.
They play nice and open which suits us best. None of this Scandinavian bus parking or dirty Latin shit.
Also technically I find them terrible. We’ll own the midfield. Modric dominated Henderson about 5 weeks ago already.
Who the fuck are you Iggy? Deez nutz. Do you know anything about soccer? Mandzukic hit that ball masterfully. 9 out of 10 great strikers hit that ball into the ground. Shitty strikers always try to smash it straight into the oncoming defender.
Saturday is going to be the greatest day in Croatiansports history. I am going to destroy DC, after Rakitic destroys Russia.
We would be better off facing England – we seem to rise to the occasion in games against “ the big boys” – but first we take out the communists – zajedno smo ko nam i sta smije
@Iggy I’m dying here watching Mandza ankle scrape that in. That takes balls to try that helicopter spin finish with that ball bouncing towards you though the more I watch it.
@Iggy
England do have their strengths in Kane and our long term weakness of pace is another of their strengths in Sterling & Rashford – but that doesn’t tell the full story if we were to progress.
Sweden may actually present that much more difficult task than England…
England are yet to keep a clean sheet which is damning considering they have played Tunisia and Panama. In addition to this, they have failed to beat any other team as Colombia was for all intensive purposes, a draw at 1-1.
Sweden’s philosophy is very much an organised bunker and kontra which we often struggle to break down. England in contrast do like to sit back but commit numbers forward on the wings – something which Croatia will exploit. England have taken this approach as they are aware that they a very average in central midfield – our main strength. Despite England have more x- factor, it’s hard to argue from a pure tactical sense that England aren’t the better match up for Croatia.
Even when you ignore the tactical aspects – from a pure psychological perspective, the achievement of eliminating England to reach a World Cup final also suits Croatia more as we relish this prospect.
Malo nas al nas ima.
Lol yeah that Dane dude copped a falcon, smack right in the head and to Mandzu
then Mandzu scuffed his shot too and it went in lmao
scrappiest most frenetic start to a game ive seen
@BZ and anybody else. watch the goal again in slo mo and up close. I agree it was super close and he could have done better. The ball nutmeg’s first Vrsaljko, then Vida and deflects off him and even goes through Suba’s legs who gets down a split second late. He didn’t see anything he was screened by 2 of our defenders. Did we scramble again that close to Subasic In the game off that throw in?
They should have never let the ball even get that close to him in the first place off that throw in IMO but I can still see how anyone would be disappointed to say the least with conceding that type of a goal 1 minute in.
We each tradeed chinchy goals. Vrsaljko smash off a defender’s face to Mandza? Both off pressure although Rebic’s work to Vrsaljko for that pass is more impressive than a long throw into the box. What do you think?
I want to avoid England but i dont think that’s possible if we win, though u never know
@Mr Black- Subasic was incredible in the PKs, but that goal was pretty weak. Some might say, we would have not needed PKs had he not let up that goal. He hadn’t been challenged until he let up that goal. He needs to step it up in regular play from here on out. No resting on his pk laurels.
@Ivan Novak- I’d take Sweden, we have been going Viking hunting since the beginning of our qualifiers. We are 3-1 vs the Vikings, and the game we lost we dominated them with a decimated team in Iceland.
Come to NYC Smithfield Hall home of ManU and
West Ham supporters. Take their house over I will be there.
Streetsville park, the best place to watch the game!!!!
Sweet, thanks Dejan!
Steve V
Head down to Mississauga streetsville
Mississauga road and eglinton
Toronto Croatians: I happen to be in Toronto Saturday, any good spots downtown to watch the game with fellow Croats?
Dinamo has one of the best academies in Europe.
@bobby V
I would break it down even further. From which academy? Hands down it is Dinamo Zagreb. At the end of the day I don’t care. To me it is Croatia representing every area.
Debate has always been where the better players are from in Croatia. Nine are from Dalmatia, of which 4 are from Zadar, including Modric and Subasic.
Have to start painting my “Za Bleiburg” sign
Modric to keep taking penalties:
https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/modric-will-keep-taking-croatia-s-penalties-says-dalic
Thank you for posting this.
Great respect for Suba. Without him, it would be over for us in Russia.
Great post
Watching Sweden today, they kind of remind me of Dennmark. My question is who do you guys think is better out of the two? I dont really wanna see Cro vs Sweden, if we get past Russia.
Thanks for posting this Ante.
Huge respect to Subasic. What a heroic display between the pipes! RIP Hrvoje Custic.