Two Games Away
After beating Ukraine in Kiev yesterday, Croatia are two games away from qualifying for the World Cup in Russia. While many thought we should have finished 1st in our group, this is no new territory for the Vatreni.
Other Times Croatia Were In a WC Playoff?
1998
The Golden Generation didn’t qualify first in their group. They had to beat Ukraine 3-1 on aggregate to advance to France.
2014
Before we got to Brazil, we had to beat Iceland 2-0 (aggregate) to advance. Unfortunately, we all know what happened there.
How The Playoff System Works
WHO ADVANCES TO THE PLAYOFF?
Eight of the nine teams who finished second in their group qualify for a two-legged playoff. The second place team with the lowest points out of all the groups is the one that will be missing out.
How are they matched up?
Eight teams will be drawn into two columns. The 4 teams with the highest FIFA rankings will be “seeded”, while the bottom four pray to God they don’t get matched up against the team with the highest ranking. A seeded will play an unseeded over two legs. Best aggregate score goes to the World Cup. Away goal rule will be in play.
When is the Draw?
October 17th.
When do the games start?
Since each team will have to play a HOME and AWAY game, you will get to see two games. The first leg starts on November 9th (Thursday) and November 11th (Saturday).
* If you aren’t watching Saturday’s game at your nearest Croatian Dom, you should probably rethink your life.
What happens if we win?
If we win, the final draw for WC 2018 will be held on December 1st.
“If you don’t like the U.S. get the fuck out.”
That’s a slave’s way of saying accept whatever the current ruling establishment dishes out. A bunch of anti-white psychopaths and their toadies pouring the 3rd world into the U.S. for decades and FORCING (by a 1960’s constitutional amendment) White people to “assimilate” with them.
If you don’t like the U.S. get the fuck out . P.S. BEST Country in the world.
can definitely understand that, after the game my first thought was: where was this second half performance the last 4 games???
Poglavnik and Iggy –
You’re probably right. The positive vibes can only help. I feel 100% confident we’ll be in Russia next summer. I guess when i saw the celebrations it just brought out the frustration i have been holding in bc of this teams past performances.
Yeah i liked seeing them celebrate tbh.. they had fucked up earlier games but on the night, this was the abso best result, to make the playoffs, so why shouldnt they celebrate? it was a hugely important and impressive victory and the best outcome attainable at the time, no need to dwell on the past, we have to move on and deal with the current situation
Eminem rules!
@Adame
It’s no big deal. Argentina’s players celebrated like crazy in Ecuadors dressing room. It was a big win. Celebrating together can make us stronger.
Yeah that laser pointing evferytime we had a free kick in Luka’s eyes was very cuntish
can anyone confirm this empty stadium story is actually true though? I could find no such info
Dear Fifa,
I’d rather be called a monkey, have flares thrown at me, and even be victim of German nazi chants THAN have a green laser pointed at my eyes. That is seriously dangerous. Modric had it in his eyes on several occassions.
Just like vs Czechs at Euros, flares only came when things are going well for us. Purposely trying to sabotage our success. Maybe one of those guys hoping team would walk off in a protest?
Did Germany end up being punished for their fans’ actual Nazi chants?
I think Majstro is bullshitting about the empty stadium
wow, i had never heard of that league of nations, so it’s like a mini euro cup? That’s what the format looks like, umm, how often does it happen?
I’m actually sort of relieved to play in front of an empty stadium. Don’t have to worry about the anti-cro Holiga Kvartuc contingent and what rhey might do. Unless they put time release grass killer in the shape of a swastika on the pitch again of course.
What’s a nazi slogan? That’s what the German fans did a week ago. Was Germany punished?
What the hell is the UEFA League of Nations?!
The 90th minute goal by Finland could hurt even more in November if Croatia fail to qualify.
Was anyone else pissed off when the team was celebrating and dancing after the win and then again in the locker room after Ukraine? I was genuinely more pissed off at them for this then when they drew Finland. They shouldnt be happy they should still be kicking themselves for holding 1st place for almost two years and then giving it away last minute.
Well looks like Croatias home game in the playoff will be played without fans
Croatia to be fined and play in front of empty stadium in opening playoff round due to Croatian fans in Ukraine lighting flares and chanting nazi slogans
http://www.uefa.com/uefanationsleague/news/newsid=2507364.html#/
Looks like we in group A
@Ivan-The nations league will put an end to the oft disputed concept of a “meaningless friendly”
I am all for it. Considering we are in the top division, we won’t have to watch meaningless games vs San Marino, Estonia, Faroe Islands etc but rather meaningful games vs Germany, England, France, Italy and Spain.
Might take the luster off the Euro cup a bit, but whatever.
I really didn’t want to talk US Soccer but I’ll quickly mention this. Yes, we (Croatia) have our own problems so pointing fingers isn’t nice…but its gotta be said.
The US National team failed HUGE…more than most people even know. The amount of money invested into US Soccer by Nike alone is astronomical…so for the US to produce shit, in a shit region with shit competition all while their pampered asses have been backed by a super power of a sponsor…while the likes of Panama and Honduras can barely get sponsors to back them…this is HUGE!
someone on here said Bruce Arena is alright. maybe he is, but I’ve always seen him as cocky and arrogant…over confident clown!
On another topic …
Anyone understand how this League of Nations thing works ???
We will see what happens when it starts. Im really looking forward to watching the playoff knowing that Serbia is already qualify i can watch your game with enjoyment with beer while you guys are going through stress. I would really like an Ireland-Croatia match even though Croatia has the better team the Irish always fight and they can get dangerous. Just not Greece everyone will agree with me that they play such a boring football.
Stefan, I’m not “worried” about seeds, I’m just giving the facts. I actually wouldn’t mind Croatia as a #3 seed if they make the World Cup. They play better against good teams, plus the games would be more interesting. They just need to take care of business next month.
WOW USNT is out. I bet Christian Pulisic wishes he picked a winner like Croatia now lol.
yeah i like the guy who put up the total value of the teams in our group, i cant remember the figures but i think Cro was about 300 mill and then turkey was like 100 mill and the others were well below
on that measure we should win tbh
anyways the reason why we’ve had 4 playoffs before and 4 successes is that they normally happen on nov 11th or so and that’s my birthday and the team dont personally want to disappoint me on by bday so u fuckers should all be thanking me after we win on the 11th (give or take a day)
😉
But what levels that when just like you say we are “constantly achieving”?
I have to disagree with you regarding transfer value especially with this market. And it’s hardly inflation
I was watching the US play and hoping they would qualify, but truthfully this may be the worst US team in the last 30-40 years. They’re completely reliant on Pulisic who is only 19. The US tends to overachieve and get the most out of an average squad, but you can only do so much when there is no depth.
Croatia on the other hand has great quality and depth, yet is underachieving with the current generation. Transfer value is a good indication of this with many playing for Champions League sides and many more in top leagues around Europe. I know many self-haters on here dispute this, yet they fail to provide any measurement better than transfer value. We just need to start playing to our level and then we’ll do fine. If we can get the most out of this group, we’ll be dangerous in the WC.
Kengurska zemlja Klokanska zemlja Vlasic to thrive with Modric more like Halilovic would be better with Modric. I think if we draw Greece they can knock us out with their boring style of play but we can beat the others.
That’s dope mile, I hated stats. Shoutout Z scores
Millennial wuss ; terms used by older generations who are jealous millennials are doing what they X wasn’t doing when they were in their 20s.
Factually proven generations before millennials are ruining the world/economy
@mile
First make it to the World Cup don’t worry about World Cup seeds yet. There will not be an easy apponent in the playoff Croatia can struggle against less ranked teams. Will Serbia be in 3rd of 4th seed really is out of our hands but main thing is we are there already.
I’m an analytical nerd too, 😉
Idemo, there are sites that show the ranking points of all combinations of wins for each country for the October games. So once they were completed, we already know the ranking points for the next FIFA rankings for October, which the playoff draw and the final tournament draw is based on. So I took all of the qualifiers points, and started putting them in pots. The first 13 seeds are set right now. Switzerland is #14, but because they haven’t qualified yet, we can’t figure out anybody’s slot until the playoffs. FIFA changed the seeding to be based on overall ranking, not on region.
@ BZ
Dalić deployed the back 4 with intelligence against a desperate Ukraine who needed to score and win.
Bottom four unseeded teams will bunker.
We need the full backs over lapping to create width to allow for some space for Modrić to work his magic.
Strinic needs to be called back.
Also like to see Vlašić in the fold. He his thriving for u21 and showing glimpses for Everton. His father gave him world class track training and he has the dynamic physicality to compliment Modrić.
Curious who else gets healthy and is in good form ?
We need 180+++ minutes of Vatreni football over these next two matches.
We will all remember this November.
@Anonymous
“White self hatred.”
You stupid moron!
You are the worst Anonymous of all the Anonymous’s
Not sure Dalic (or whomever) will stray from our new 4 back lineup (as in Pivaric probably won’t start again.).
1) We finally looked decent on Corners and Crosses.
2)I loved how Vida didn’t overlap as much as Vrsaljko would have. This allowed our Attacking players to commit further up the field. Vrsaljko’s lack of the best left foot, was a blessing, as even he didn’t venture as far up as normal.
i will now root for the socceroos. Iggy’s accusations of micro-aggressions are awesome. I support ppl who are not racists, getting called racists because of supposed micro-aggressions.
Word has it that the USMNT lost on purpose to boycott the corruption within the USMNT. Long term pain for short term gain!
@Soul Champ-haven’t watched much, but I am not buying the Pulisic phenom hype. Watched an interview once, & I don’t think he has the mindset to be as good as his billing. Sounded like a millenial wuss, which imo, doesn’t translate into greatness. Guess I have to watch him play more, but I’ll stick with Kramaric/Perisic/and Pjaca.
Well to be fair Serbs are incredibly dirty cunts so it’s kinda fair.
No, what i specifically mean is over the past few years, every time the Aussie teams has played a country like, say Oman, they come to mind, the aussie players continually in interviews talk about how they’re a dirty team who will use dirty tactics and are generally dirty. They go out of their way to say it about any darker country, ie, Oman, Iran, Iraq, etc – but theyre fine with Japan, Korea, etc.
I’m not the only one who has picked up on this massive undercurrent of racist dialogue from the aussies over a number of years now – it’s very clearly there and obnoxious at times.
In fact, i mentioned the Grosso thing above, how “their type cheat” I remember Lucas Neill going on and on about how italians are all cheats so it seems there is a history of this with aussies – they have no grace and basically abuse select countries they play in a rather disgraceful manner. I think they are using the cricket sledging approach to soccer but dont realise it’s out of place and entirely unbecoming
Bunch of two faced faggots on this site talking about how Croatian blood trumps the country you were born in while at the same time calling any white man who’s loyal to his own race a “racist”. Are you really that fucking stupid and brainwashed not to recognize your own hypocrisy?
Then one of you retards will say “racism” is “hating” people who don’t look like you” and then go on saying the most vile things about Serbs or some other white people who DO look like you. Your two faced faggotry and your White self hatred is a mental sickness.
@Iggy, what do you mean by the word “racist”?
But but Pulisick is soooo good!
if i hear one more fucking comment about this pusildick kid ima kms. The website is called “CroatianSports” not whine about a non-croat not choosing to play for Croatia.
Their chances to make this world cup, so it’s some model? LOL.. i like that.. it’s actually Truth’s model !
Anywho, i wanted US to playoff versus AUS tbh ! my wife is a yank and it would’ve been heaps of fun! We couldve watched together but now its honduras sigh, no fun at all
fwiw i dont like the socceroos, i never liked them since 2006 when they had a massive dummyspit and whine about the grosso tackle, and since then they have just been abject racist cunts always calling their asian colleagues dirty cheats etc, the lot of them are despicable cuntrashes so generally when i watch them i tend to support the other time
to quote ned zelic, doesnt matter if i was born in aus i bleed red and white checkers ! 😀
@mile
Really have been impressed with your calculations, is this all you?
@Iggy
Are you serious?
Their chances to make this WC.
Can we please stop the pulusic talk……we were never ever even a option. American.
Good luck to pulisic but should have respected his genes
Really liked the interview with the new skipper
Hope it’s not just saying what people want to hear but sounds i liked the way he spoke.
Remember when we used to debate Landon Donovan with rakitic. Haha the probability of USA making World Cup 0 percent
THe US are out!!! Pulisic could be playing with Modric right now lool
can anoyne tell me what the WC PCT % means in this pic ante posted on fb?
https://scontent.fbne3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/s480x480/22310407_1468241136577303_67818661752921168_n.jpg?oh=3ad9db710b0d50985e406118e4382928&oe=5A3A0A78
it can’t be percentage of times qualified for the WC cos italy is way too low so what is it?
Man the World Cup is a blessing.
Out:
Chile
Netherlands
USA
Probably some good African sides.
Australia is a different cup of tea for Honduras.
They will match the physicality.
I like to see the socceroos in the World Cup.
Pulisic would of been the X factor for Croatia.
They probably would have played him u21 because they know better than Borussia Dortmund.
I wonder if Pulisic makes a January move now that Russia is not a focus ?
They’ll probably focus him on Olympics, the USA likes that tournament.
I am curious who the USA will hire has coach etc…
Time to turn the page.
You have a phenom in Pulisic.
They have ~$100 million in the bank at the USMNT …
But no World Cup.
Can’t beat Trinidad and Tobago to go to the World Cup ?
That is mind boggling !
I am going to allow the draw to unfold before I start to ramp up my hype-ness for this November to remember.
For the playoffs, if Croatia, Italy and Switzerland win their playoff, and Peru win their playoff with New Zealand, Croatia would be a #3 seed for the World Cup draw. Croatia would need one of the other three to lose to bump up to a #2 seed. The number #1 seeds for the final draw are:
Russia
Germany
Brazil
Portugal
Argentina
Belgium
Poland
France
Five of the number 2 seeds are known:
Spain
England
Colombia
Mexico
Uruguay
After that, it depends on the playoffs and what happens in Africa. Serbia will be a #4 seed, unless Greece wins their playoff and New Zealand upsets Peru. It would be nice if Croatia drew Greece. Beat them out and it would be a bonus to ensure the Serbs placement as a bottom seed.
Truth Troll updated his Xbox modeling and it said 100% chance USA eliminated.. he just didn’t tell anyone until after the game. Why? Cuz you can stick with a pre game 50/50 and still claim to be right no matter what happens!
@Slavonac, They must have got that model from Ziva.
Pulisic should right thing. Play for our ass.
Before the game started they said the US had a 93% chance to advance…they forgot to tell that to Honduras and Panama!
Yes, they barely got by Syria. Honduras will be tough, but the US would have been tougher.
@Mile, it will still be a tough matchup for the Aussies. Are they really still relying on old man Cahill to bail them out?
F**k the shit ol’ U.S.A!
Thaaat”s a shame..
ESPN earlier had the either Honduras or Panama going into the playoff. They didn’t even mention the possibility of USA potentially losing.
Love it!
And Ziggy is probably happy. Australia plays Honduras in the playoffs instead of possibly the US.
The US is out. Fox Sports must be thrilled that they are carrying the World Cup.
USA is out!!! HAHAHA … I love it and so does Van Halen!
That US game will have a bunch of injury time.
You wonder if Costa Rica and Mexico took their feet off the peddle a bit knowing the US was trailing.
Peter North,
That was pretty funny dude!
Wow, the US is 5 minutes from elimination.
C’mon Panama! Do it for Van Halen.
5 minutes to go in each game in CONCACAF.
Live table, if Panana scores against Costa Rica, and nothing else changes, the US is out of the World Cup. 30 minutes to go.
Sorry typo croatianperson85. You know what i mean.
@Croatiam person. My model had them winning at 99.9 per cent. Go figure haha
looked it up, we beat them 1-0 both home and away in qualifies for ’06 WC (Srna got both goals)
while in 2003 in a friendly we beat them in sweden 2-1 – boris zivkovic scored, there’s a rare one
and in 2012 they beat us 3-1 in croatia!
Ya twice I can remember. Srna penalty in one game and I think a free kick from distance in another. Nice goal.
what’s the cro v sweden nostalgia? i can recall playing them in qualies once and didnt Srna score a penalty or free kick once or twice? it was a while ago i think!
@Traditional Croat
That draw you posted has a lot of nostalgia. Those pairings have a bit of history. I wouldn’t mind seeing these games.
@ traditional croat
You are right. A serious flaw in the models is they can’t measure intangibles such as food poisoning. Although overtime you would think these things even out. And also the point of the models is to somewhat discount intangibles at not being that important
That being said, i did break 27th my model and changed the win/tie/loss against Ukraine from 25/40/35 to 35/20/45
To account for both teams needing a win. Guess i was right again giving a result a nearly 80 percent probability
yeah i just watched HRT news here in aus and they said what Mile said above, denmark is not in pot 2 anymore, it’s confirmed by them to be northern ireland, ireland, sweden or greece
so it’s one of those fuckers.. BRING ON NTH IRELAND LEL
@ Zee – I ran my models and 60% of your post above is true. 35% of it is false, probably the “not a personal thing,” and 5% is indifference.
With that being said it’s clear as day that Croatia has a 78% chance of qualifying.
Disclaimer – For the record I am 100% pure idiot.
Truth troll ok dude. Now you are getting personal. Fuck you and whoever knows or knew you. This is a sports site. Not a personal thing.
Swiss vs Greece
Italy vs Rep.Ireland
Croatia vs Sweden
Denmark vs N.Ireland
These numbers are the points after all of the games that were just played. They are the October 16 ranking points.
And if Uruguay doesn’t win tonight, Croatia is a #2 seed for the World Cup draw if they win their playoff. And Uruguay is losing 1-0 to Bolivia.
@Mile – Oct 16th is the next Fifa ranking date so that could change.
Guys, the playoffs are set. Croatia can’t play Denmark. It’s either Northern Ireland, Sweden, Ireland or Greece. Here are FIFA rankings for October:
Switzerland – 1,134
Italy – 1,066
Croatia – 1,013
Denmark – 1,001
N. Ireland – 889
Sweden – 872
Ireland – 866
Greece – 682
Swiss vs Greece
Italy vs Rep. Ireland
Croatia vs Denmark
N. Ireland vs Sweden
Use the rankings and these would be our match ups. Top ranked team should get the lowest ranked team.
@The truth
Stop with your stupid predictions, your model doesn’t measure the intangibles, like, did you know that 4 Ukrainian players had gastro the night before?
Predictions (if Sweden goes into pot 1 instead of N Ireland – how the F are they even there to begin with these rankings are complete malarkey)
Croatia vs Greece
Italy vs Denmark
Switzerland vs Ireland
Sweden vs N.Ireland
I know it’s random but we already know Fifa has pulled strings before in the past and probably still does. Not trying to be a conspiracy theorist, just saying.
Hey Truth – nice post. I also read if Croatia wins both games they have a 100% chance of qualifying is this still true? I hope so.
My model predicts that Croatia has a 25 percent chance of drawing any of the four bottom seeds
Sorry to state the obvious. But i figure maybe through baby steps i can better educate guys like zee who’s parents have failed him on basic concepts of math and likely Croatian
Iggy, I hate going up against bunker teams…if any of these teams score early we are in tough.
oh well that’s even better than if it removes denmark from the lower pot, good news
ya im pretty sure Denmark will leap frog Northern Ireland.
It’s gonna be N-Ireland and not Denmark.
For those who know some French, I found this in one of the most important Swiss newspapers:
On connaît déjà le nom des quatre adversaires potentiels de la Suisse pour les barrage dans un mois: la Suède, l’Irlande du Nord, l’Eire et la Grèce. Tête de série au même titre que l’Italie, la Croatie et le Danemark, la Suisse sera ainsi protégée lors du tirage au sort du mardi 17 octobre à Zurich.
Translation: We already know the names of the 4 teams we could meet in the playoffs next month: Sweden, N-Ireland, Ireland or Greece. We (Switzerland) are the number one in the list of seeded team. The other seeded teams are Italy, Croatia and Danmark….
@Mr. Black, that is very possible. I think someone had posted that scenario in one of the other threads.
I like our chances regardless. I think Ukraine was stronger than any of the non seeded teams.
Mr Black, it could be worse brother!
Don’t matter who we play. Gotta win bottom line. Don’t fear no one!
I’ve read somewhere that N-Ireland will drop to the non-seeded teams due to their recent losses. Denmark would take their place. So it’s gonna be Greece, Sweden, Ireland or N-Ireland.
Ignore the Greece part Iggy. That was in there because they are currently playing and the final standings haven’t settled yet. But you are right.
Thanks man but i didnt understand this:
For example, if Greece do not win, Croatia would face one of the teams in the right hand column
What does Greece winning have to do with it? We’re playing one of the right-hand column teams anyway arent we? I thought we were assured a seeded pot position so we’ll be playing one of the lower 4. Anyway prolly avoiding Sweden would be good, maybe avoiding Greece too