After a 2-0 loss to Saudi Arabia in the opening match of Group D play, Croatia’s U-20 team once again failed to impress against a much stronger Nigerian side at the 2011 Under-20 World Cup. Hajduk defender, but current Karlovac loanee Mario Tičinović, had a horrific game as he stood in ‘no man’s land’ to keep Nigeria’s Kayode onside for an easy tap-in past Croatian keeper Matej Delač in the 25′. It only took five more minutes for Nigeria to double their lead as Suswam sent an absolute rocket towards goal from 26 yards out. Nothing Delač could do.
SUSWAM SCREAMER!
In a match that saw men play against boys, some positivity came out of the Croatian camp as the Mali Vatreni scored an Ivica Olić-like tap in off a free kick just before halftime to cut the deficit in half. However, Nigeria scored once again in the 62′ when Musa sent a low laser from just outside the box through a Croatian defender’s legs and into the far corner of net. With all looking lost for the Croatians, a Zvonko Pamić free kick to the head of Dinamo’s Andrej Kramarić moments later put the Mladi Hrvati down by only one for the second time on the night.
‘CROATIAN CONNECTION’ FOR $500 PLEASE ALEX
However, the Croatian defense looked more like Swiss cheese on the night than Paški sir as they conceded two more goals to the Nigerians in the 69th and 73rd minute. That was all for the Croatians as they eventually lost 5-2. They will face fellow group minnows Guatamala on Saturday in a game that can still see Croatia get through to the knockout stage if they win and get help from all the other groups. Remember, the the best four third-placed teams move on. Croatia could still pull that off with three points.
A NIGERIAN PLAYER WALKS OFF WEARING CHECKERS
What can we conclude from these past two matches? Should we blame it on our best junior players not attending due to club commitments? Should we blame the coaches or a weak talent pool at this level? Most importantly, is Croatia’s future doomed with this crop of players or should we not worry about it?
I'm a bit confused here, UEFA has 'under 21' national teams, then 'under 19' & 'under 17'. So I imagine european countries set up their programs according to said age-ranges. So why is there an 'under 20' WC when that classification does not exist in UEFA? Could this be the reason why the european team's prep for this particular tourny seemed to be disinterested?
I really hope Croatia can beat Guatemala by that much goals so that we'll have a shot of making it in the Top 4 of 3rd place rankers.
@zivaistina- Of course there is talent in today's U20 World Cup. Colombian players really surprised me with their handling of the ball and shooting accuracy. Other players might exist from other teams that are underdogs in this tourny. Don't think that 1987 Yugo (with its "national training camp") was the only country to produce good U20 players or training systems, not by a long shot. We might see a new country from here making the Top 10 in the senior squads, who knows.
Also, don't forget the HNS fired Grnja like two weeks before this tournament but still made him go to Colombia. Whats his motivation?
I agree that the coach is not the problem. The talent is not there. Also, a few top prospects staying in Croatia doesnt help.
For anyone that cares, unless something crazy happens, Croatia will advance to the next round with any type of win against Guatemala.
How about this for a stat, unless Croatia beats Guatemala by 5+ goals, England will qualify for the next round without scoring a goal in 3 matches! How long will this streak last?
you can have the greatest coach in the world, he would not improve this team by much with the current level of support from the savez. This team lacks individual skill and lacked any proper preparation from the start. They were doomed to fail from day one.
This is no revisionist history on my part, I called this 10 days ago. I said they stunk from day one and guess what….they stink.
Everything said by JerseyCro is 100% spot on.
@Matko…..actually, I have seen the youth team practices over the years. There is no issue with the practices. The issue is with the infrastructure and not having an national training camp. Logistics and support. Again, show me the talent??? There is none.
None of you have mentioned the fact that the coaching is a catastrophe. You are all discussing the "what ifs". Address the matter at hand. There was absolutely not heart amongst this U20 team. They all have the ability to play 1, 2 touch ball, they just didn't because of the coaching. They are all just trying to perform individually. Its like they were basically playing without a coach.
Ziva istina…
Maybe I was harsh with the "chickens without heads" part, but here's the truth: they don't play like a team! The Croats were pretty much scrambled through the field, and their passes were often slipshod. It's not that the Croats aren't good; they need more team feel, I felt that their plays were nothing short of…. a short, individualistic play.
What did I mean by consistency? To threaten Nigeria in many parts of the game while holding up defenses! This is what I saw: the first fifteen minutes were good for Croatia. They sprinted towards the ball in the Nigerian side, and offenses were done excellently. The rest? Not so much, for this is NOT consistency. The Croatian defense had to be more alert for the fast Nigerians, but they could not do such a thing to the Saudis. The only consistency I saw was excellent free-kicking, and that's it.
What did I mean about coordination? Many high ball passes had no Croat player to reach such pass! I remember during a part in the game that two Croats ran into each other while one had control of the ball. Where's trust? Some Croats did not even pay attention that balls were being passed down to them! Oops, quick Nigerian contra! I know that all teams make that mistake, but c'mon…Croatia did that way too much.
As for the Yugo system, we had excellent players b/c of the excellent system; I do not see an "exception" in this rule. Yugo 1987 had a superior team, so look out for the superior 2011 team, they might have a similar result. Where do you see the inferiority in other current teams' systems? Have you seen the actual practices? These U-20 teams may not bring the exact skills in the senior squad, but you can't ignore that U-20 Croatia has something to improve. They have the skills, but they need to work more as a team than scrambled when needed (hence the chickens").
Hamilcar: The two biggest losses were Vukusic and Vrsaljko who were not released by their clubs. Dinamo also blocked Kovacic while Osijek blocked Spehar. I think Lokomotiva may have blocked some of their players, they let some go though.
Most of the European teams have had troubles, Austria I know are missing 3-4 key players due to club commitments and they are struggling. England didn't bring their strongest team, but they can obviously survive that unlike Croatia & Austria
Preparations, I only know our group opponents
– Nigeria were one of the first teams in Colombia and they played 3-4 friendly matches against national teams at this tournament + they had a camp in Portugal during the summer
– Saudi Arabia have been training in Switzerland and have been preparing this tournament for SIX MONTHS. They even played senior national teams in their preparations
– Even Guatemala trained for a month and played against Cameroon, Argentina, Uruguay. While they lost those games heavily, they at least had something
– Croatia…train in Ludbreg for one week, play some 4.HNL teams beat up on them and they were the last team to arrive in Colombia, 5 days before their first match
What the hell does that mean….develop more like a team rather than a pack of chickens without heads. Coordination and consistency??? Sure, if this was ballet. These young kids lack the shill level. Maybe these guys lost because they are not that good.
Also, the Yugo team of 1987 was the exception to the norm. Look at the other teams (italy, Brazil, and Germany) in that event and what they produced, which was not much. Plus, those guys grew up in the yugo system, which was and is much better than the current croatian system. So, throw out 1987 because it does not apply. Plus those guys from 87 were talented and many went to big clubs within a few years. I don't see these kids going anywhere and having an impact.
Croats played horrible, but they performed a tad bit better than the game against Saudi Arabia. U-20 Croatia lacks consistency: 2 Croat defenders "allowed" a Nigerian player to strike for the first goal! The player slipped through lack cheese falling out of a sandwich! We can't say that Croatia is weak at the moment, actually the opposite. We have strongly built lads; they only need to get some sense in coordination and consistency. Not just score due to the free kicks. About youth teams not reflecting the future senior team… the Yugoslavian team in 1987 Chile foreboded the masterful class of players in 1994-1998 Croatia. We should not worry about Croatia's future too much, but they should start to develop more like a team rather than a pack of chickens without heads.
@Hamilcar…..that is my point. The Nigerian side was clearly better. This is no "lack of heart" or "they did not try" argument. We lost to a better team, more talented team.
I beleive we are missing 3 or 4 players on the roster who are with their club teams.
@Ziva, "playing against your 10-yr old cousin"?
Come on man, yes this U20 Nigerian team is obviously/clearly better than this U20 Croatian team, but it's not like they were walking the ball into the net – they played a great game with some precision goals. Like another poster said, I aint gonna worry as long as Croats are playing on big teams in big leagues.
How many croatian U20 players are not on this team because of club commitments or injuries? and how does that compare to their opponents in the group?
How does the lack of preparation of the Croatian team compare to their opponents in the group?
Dave…….they played to the best of their best abilities. The problem is they lack any ability. I see this all the time when a team loses, especially a croatian team. Someone comes on and writes they have no heart and did not try. Dead wrong on this one, they did try, they did have heart. Sometimes heart can not overcome the lack of talent, ability and a brain. I think our guys played about as a good as they could. If we play Nigeria 10 times, they would beat us by 2 goals in 7 of those matches. They were outmatched yesterday.
I told you guys last week not to expect anything from this team at this event. Other were saying we had a good draw with our group and I came on and wrote we would struggle to get third in the group. The truth is they are not good enough to play at the top level.
I can play basketball against my 10-yr old cousin all day and beat him. The kid has heart and keeps battling. But, at the end of the day he does not have the talent to compete. That is the situation here.
Everyone from the GK to the last player on the bench….there is no stud on this team. Pamic is OK, but the rest of these guys are above their heads in a competition like this.
i watched the game yesterday and these young croatians played poorly. I don't know how you guys said they played there heart out when in reality they were a very poor team. The chemistry in the team was so weak. They coudn't string together more than 3 passes unless it was backwards to there defenders. In reality our approach to winning stinks and needs change. The Nigerians were pertty good but not anything special. I'm very dissapointed in the team. We should of send out best to the tournament and properly prepared. These yound players need to start learning how to win at a young age instead of being sucks who try to break the others teams legs by the end of the game i.e ozobic and pamic they both deserved red cards
anyone else agree?
The previous poster is correct, youth tourneys rarely are a good judge/indicator of what a senior squad will look like.
@JerseyCRo….well said. The savez wont do anything, they never do anything. With Markovic in charge and then with Suker in charge in a few years, nothing will change. They all associate with the same crew of idiots. The savez would have been better off with Stimac. He is another questionabale character, but at least he was discussing reforms and laid out an agenda, unlike Markovic.
The players from the diaspora have covered up the ineptitude of the savez over the last decade. If that begins to dry off, then we will become a nation that qualifies for one major event every three or four tournaments.
We probably wouldn't beat Nigeria with our best squad either. Ticinovic btw is still at Hajduk and NOT a left back. He is an attacking midfielder. Grnja only bothered calling 5 defenders, 4 of them CBs and the only RB in the squad is on the bench.
In reality, I was somewhat expecting this. They prepared for this tournament 7-10 days at most, playing 4.HNL sides, and then they flew close to 13 hours, another climate and altitude without proper training. Its too much to ask for. The performance against Saudi was pathetic because it looked like the guys didn't care, at least against Nigeria they tried, they just weren't good enough.
About the future, I actually do think its dim, mostly because of the savez and our coaching. From the A team down the U17, we just play a slow brand of soccer which will not cause problems against many teams. I think we will experience what the Czechs have experienced, a slow decline, might qualify here and there, but not at a consistent level until there is some reform at the HNS and more effort put into improving the HNL and youth selections. This tournament should be a slap in the face to the HNS and some serious questions should be asked, but in reality, once Croatia are eliminated the media won't care and they will go back to writing about how Andrej Kramaric will join Tottenham…yawn
Not sure what the worry is about; youth levels of football rarely reflect the potential for development of seniors. Look at the winners over the years of this tournament; few, if any, in the last couple of decades have gone on to great success.
The real growth of the player is done in senior club sides, something kids from small countries like Croatia will not have had a great experience of yet (ie compare an 18 year old in the Arsenal or Barcelona youth system vs one at Dinamo or Hajduk).
If this generation start struggling to find good clubs, then we can worry. But not because of one tournament.
Kranjčar scores again- http://www.yellowad.co.uk/sport.cfm?id=29046&headline=O’s%20beaten%20by%20strong%20Spurs%20side
Anyone got a highlights video?