2020: The Ugly, The Better, (Hopefully) The Good
The Vatreni started out 2020 with 4-1 and 4-2 losses in September to Portugal and France. Two great teams. Luka Modrić didn’t play. But as reigning World Cup finalists, you simply have to do better.
In October, Croatia did much better, defeating Switzerland in a friendly and Sweden in Nations League before losing to France 2-1 at Maksimir. Much Better results.
Now, the last international break of the year is here and the Vatreni look to end 2020 strong as they begin their string of games with a friendly against Turkey in Istanbul Wednesday 12:45PM (ET).
As always, the rules of the friendly are simple: DO NOT GET HURT!
A manager wants to implement up-and-coming players with 2-3 key guys, without exhausting them. Modrić, Perišić, Lovren, Vida, Kramarić do not need to play against Turkey in a friendly. Especially when Croatia only need a draw/win against Sweden on Saturday, making the Portugal match a mere formality/friendly in its own right.
So here’s who CroatianSports.com wants to see out there against Turkey:
Atletico Madrid #2 goalkeeper Ivo Grbić should see his first action with the Croatian senior side, along with Wolfsburg center-back Marin Pongračić, who just fully recovered from mono and played over the weekend. 23 year-old Bordeaux midfielder Toma Bašić should get a nod as well. Domagoj Bradarić was solid in the Swiss friendly on the left side but we would like to see him at his natural position at left-back. Brozović and Vlašić would anchor down the squad with Ante Budimir up top with Krama and Petković not needed in this game.
In the limited viewing I had, I wasn’t impressed.
Sluga literally means slave or servant
Sluga is a slug.
Ponyboy Pongračić isn’t gonna be a fit to play, but you can tell Dalić is DYING to try him out.
Called him up just to be around the team and get acclimated. Tried to call him up before that mono infection too.
He seems impressed with Bašić, which may make Kovačić a bit nervous.
Vs turkey Sluga will most likely play all 3 games
Sluga Juranovic Vida Uremovic Melnjak Basic Rog Orsic Pasalic Bradaric Budmir second half colak Badelj Pongracic get playing time
Grbic is back up at althletico i dont see him starting.
No question, that was awful and he actually played like shit when he moved there but he’s settled down and has been playing consistently better now. Curious to see how Sluga and Grbic would each do with a half, especially if Turkey gets some chances on us.
General sentiment is that any login that gets rid of truth troll and haet types would be amazing
That was painful to watch but slugger can move pretty quick for a keeper…he made up 20 yards in half a second trying to keep the ball from going into his net.
Nothing compares to Paul Robinson against us though …that will never be forgotten!
@ARMADA87
Maybe Luton wants to flip Sluga for a profit, and Luton sees this as an opportunity to give him exposure for a sale. They’re not a big spending club, and I think he was a record signing for them at like 1 million.
Whenever I think of Simon Sluga, I think of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDuEoO7e2ug
Not sure how well he has been doing since that gaffe, but that was pretty bad lol.
A.) its not that hard to login in espeically if you have it saved.
B.) warnings can be given to individuals who break rules of posting.
@Truth
What if I’m just living my best ‘za dom … spremni’ lifestyle and someone attacks me for that and they’re blocked?
he made the point elsewhere, too.
haha….truth makes a good point!
Truth you should run all these hypothetical questions into your quantitative analysis models ,at the software company you run to come up with the correct outcomes …within .0000001% of course.
i agree with the general sentiment that we should not do email log in… Once again, i have personal reasons in that my profile is too high to be potentially exposed… but generally, it’s too much work
and then , we start running into real censorship issues
so what happens when slavonac goes on one of his ante rants? Does Ante block him forever cause of that?
what happens if someone says anything about anything not sport related? are they then blocked forever?
what happens if someone says that Croatia should not boycott the final world cup playoff game against ukraine? Are they blocked forever?
Sluga should have a shot in this game. He is the regular starter for Luton Town and have started the season where they’re in the upper half of the table. Hoping he stays consistent and continues to show good form (4 clean sheets so far this season for him) and parlays this into a transfer a top tier league at maybe the end of this year?
Good read here too. Nice to see his club manager pulling for him and hoping he should get some time:
https://www.lutontoday.co.uk/sport/football/luton-town/jones-hopes-luton-keeper-sluga-has-positive-experience-when-away-croatia-3028577
I didn’t realize that former Arsenal assistant coach (Boro Primorac) took over managing Hajduk.
Hopefully he has enough influence there to make decisions. Also, hopefully this isn’t a retirement thing for him too, and he has the will to force some changes there.
Good to see Basic finally get a run with the senior squad. Dalic said that Sluga has the upper hand since he actually plays games unlike Grbic but is planning on trying out both during international break.
That’s a nice lineup.
Looks good