I am openening new thread about upcoming match between Croatia and Georgia in Split, Croatia. In media there is public discussion about selector Slaven Bilic and his players. Do they have strength to play on high level? Is Slaven Bilic "well read book"? How to choose players? Public discussions are always filled with major dose of fanatism, critiscism, sarcasm and negativity against players, against Croatian Football Federation and against "all mighty" Slaven Bilic, because Croatia has around 4,5 million coaches, opinions, specualations. So it's hard to get unique model of opinion. Main critics on Slaven Bilic account comes because he played very defensive against Greece and Georgia, because Croatia has attacking mentality, so people that care about Croatian success hate defensive style of playing, especially against formations like: 4-5-1, or 5-4-1. Croatians see optimism in lately good shape of attackers: Mandzuzkic, Jelavic, Modric, Lakic. But is this enough? Of course not. Ivan Rakitic and Ivan Strinic are injured. Niko Kranjcar can't play because od card punishment. Like he would made any difference if he would play. Some players don't play in their clubs, like Simunic, but I don't doubt in his capacity or fire in his defensive combat. Every Croatian match is key match, historical match, question of life or death, match of destiny, question of future... Croatia must always win so that people can get their peace, one point or defeat at home ground would be considered as complete failure. Slaven Bilic always has a bag full of excuses: "We are on half way on this qualifications" - same thing he has spoken during qualifications for WC 2010., and Croatia didn't got the main tournament. Slaven Bilic and player are scared of audience; how will they react on them, because Croatia played only 3 official qualification matches in Split. Fans from Split and the rest of Dalmatia hate that status, because they are the second largest town, they have second football club in Croatia NK Hajduk Split. Also, Croatia won't play again in Zagreb, because fans from Zagreb told "boos" during the 0-0 match against Greece. Hopeing for good result against Georgia. Croatian national football team: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia_national_football_team Georgia national football team: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_national_football_team General Informations FIFA Trigramme: CRO Country: Croatia Country (official name): Republika Hrvatska Continent: Europe Capital: Zagreb Geographic Information Surface area: 56,542 km² Highest point: Dinara 1,830 m Neighbouring seas and oceans: Adriatic Sea Big Count All Players 362,514 Registered players 109,799 Unregistered Players 252,715 Clubs 1,464 Officials 17,488 General Informations FIFA Trigramme: GEO Country: Georgia Country (official name): Sakartvelos Respublika Continent: Europe Capital: Tbilisi Geographic Information Surface area: 69,700 km² Highest point: Mt'a Shkhara 5,201 m Neighbouring seas and oceans: Black Sea Big Count All Players 222,186 Registered players 26,786 Unregistered Players 195,400 Clubs 209 Officials 1,233 Football in Croatia As a result of a long tradition of success, football is the most popular sport in Croatia. The nation's first clubs (Football Club of Zagreb (PNISK) and Croatian Academic Sports Club (HASK)) were founded in 1903. The national team played its first match in 1907. The national association was first admitted to FIFA on 17 July 1941 and then again following the nation's independence on 3 July 1992. Croatia's greatest achievement was of course a third-place finish at the 1998 FIFA World Cup France?. In addition, NK Dinamo Zagreb beat Leeds United to win the UEFA Cup in 1967. Many players have emerged from Croatia's fertile breeding grounds to pursue a career with top clubs abroad. The current generation includes Davor Suker, Robert Prosinecki, Zvonimir Boban, Dario Simic and Igor Tudor. Famous retired Croatian footballers include Bernard Vukas (Hajduk Split, capped 59 times and voted Croatian sportsman of the 20th Century), Frane Matosic (729 goals in 739 national league games) and Franjo Wölfl (top scorer in the Yugoslavian championship twelve times in the 1950s and 60s). There have also been many renowned Croatian coaches: Tomislav Ivic (won league championship in four different countries), Miroslav Blazevic (Croatian national coach in 1996 and 1998), Mirko Jozic (won the World Youth Championship with the Yugoslavian team in Chile in 1987) and Branko Zebec (coached in Germany) are just a few of a long list of great Croatian technicians. Football in Georgia In Georgia, a country that gained independence in 1991, football is the most popular sport, followed by basketball and water polo. The national association takes part in all competitions organised by FIFA and UEFA at senior and youth level, as well as in women's football. Dynamo Tbilisi were once one of the leading teams in the top flight of Soviet Union football, often playing in European club competition and actually winning the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1981. A number of Georgian players represented the Soviet Union at FIFA World Cups, including Alexandr Chivadze (1982; 1986 as captain) and David Kipiani. Both players were part of the successful 1981 Dynamo Tbilisi team. Today, the star of Georgian football is Kaha Kaladze, who plays for AC Milan and helped his team to win the 2003 UEFA Champions League Final against Juventus. To date, the national team's greatest success is a 1-0 home victory over Russia in a EURO 2004 qualifying match. "We are a better side with more quality than Georgia so we will win this." Slaven Bilic, Croatia coach Fixtures&Standings: Group F 2-9-2010 Israel 3 - 1 Malta 3-9-2010 Latvia 0 - 3 Croatia 3-9-2010 Greece 1 - 1 Georgia 7-9-2010 Georgia 0 - 0 Israel 7-9-2010 Malta 0 - 2 Latvia 7-9-2010 Croatia 0 - 0 Greece 8-10-2010 Georgia 1 - 0 Malta 8-10-2010 Greece 1 - 0 Latvia 9-10-2010 Israel 1 - 2 Croatia 12-10-2010 Latvia 1 - 1 Georgia 12-10-2010 Greece 2 - 1 Israel 17-11-2010 Croatia 3 - 0 Malta 26-3-2011 Malta 0 - 1 Greece 26-3-2011 Israel 2 - 1 Latvia 26-3-2011 Georgia 1 - 0 Croatia 29-3-2011 Israel 1 - 0 Georgia 4-6-2011 Croatia - Georgia 4-6-2011 Greece - Malta 4-6-2011 Latvia - Israel 2-9-2011 Israel - Greece 2-9-2011 Georgia - Latvia 2-9-2011 Malta - Croatia 6-9-2011 Croatia - Israel 6-9-2011 Latvia - Greece 6-9-2011 Malta - Georgia 7-10-2011 Greece - Croatia 7-10-2011 Latvia - Malta 11-10-2011 Malta - Israel 11-10-2011 Croatia - Latvia 11-10-2011 Georgia - Greece Standings P W D L GF GA GD Pts 1 Greece 5 3 2 0 5 2 3 11 2 Croatia 5 3 1 1 8 2 6 10 3 Israel 6 3 1 2 8 6 2 10 4 Georgia 6 2 3 1 4 3 1 9 5 Latvia 5 1 1 3 4 7 -3 4 6 Malta 5 0 0 5 1 10 -9 0
List of players: GOALKEAPERS: Vedran Runje (Lens), Stipe Pletikosa (Tottenham), Vjekoslav Tomić (Karabukspor). DEFENSE: Darijo Srna (Šahtar), Šime Vrsaljko (Dinamo), Vedran Ćorluka (Tottenham), Josip Šimunić (Hoffenheim), Gordon Schildenfeld (Sturm), Domagoj Vida (Bayer Leverkusen), Manuel Pamić (Sparta Prag), Danijel Pranjić (Bayern). MIDDLEFIELD: Ognjen Vukojević (Dinamo Kijev), Tomislav Dujmović (Dinamo Moskva), Luka Modrić (Tottenham), Milan Badelj (Dinamo), Drago Gabrić (Ankaragucu), Ivan Perišić (Club Brugge). ATTACK: Mario Mandžukić (Wolfsburg), Mladen Petrić (HSV), Eduardo da Silva (Šahtar), Nikola Kalinić (Blackburn), Nikica Jelavić (Glasgow Rangers), Ante Vukušić (Hajduk). Vjekoslav Tomic - new name.
Gabric is out because of his car accident and Vida has been dropped, since he's apparently more interested in getting in fights in bars (he's horrible anyway). They rest of that roster is not going to make anyone nervous. Olic is obviously out and Eduardo (to no one's surprise) is not a National Team level player anymore....it pains me to say it. Sadly, he's the best option upfront. I know people are high on Jelavic because of his good play with Celtic, but his last two games with the National Team have been anything less than impressive. Petric (at both midfield or forward) can only score against the likes of the Faroe Islands. The rest of the forwards invited ideally shouldn't even be on the team. Our best goalkeeper, Pletikosa, is the 3rd goalkeeper for his club team as Runje probably starts. Other than that, we should be ok. Even when the team was struggling when they dropped to as low as 30 on the FIFA rankings, many of these names would have never been considered. This has 0-0 or 1-1 written all over it, but I am hoping that I am wrong!!!
I agree with your post. Many bad things are visible in Croatian national team. President of Croatian Football Federation was punished because his homofobic and rascistic declarations. In both conditions homosexual players and non-Croatian players played for Croatia under Markovic's leadership. Because of this car accident, Drago Gabric is fighting for his life. Domagoj Vida is just bad player and person with very violent side. Jelavic and Petric are very doubtfull material for Croatian team, they both have different role in their clubs, for Croatia they always play so much relaxed. Maybe they can't play for Croatia, because other players are not so good like they are good in HSV or Glasgow Rangers. Croatia has many players that play because of influence of their managers and they push players "that must play", because on that way price of them is getting higher. When they enter on transfer list, everyone in other clubs see that they don't worth nothing. Runje, Tomic, Schildefeld, Kranjcar, Strinic, Vida, Pamic, Dujmovic, Mandzukic, da Silva, Kalinic, Vukusic shouldn't play for Croatia. For example Krstanovic is topscoarer in Croatian league, nobody invites him, he plays is smaller club Zagreb, where it's more difficult to score. But they invite second scorer. Goalkeaper Runje has now entered in second French league with Lens, his goalkeaper skills are without any talent or perspective. Because of "higher interests" Croatia now must be scared of teams like Georgia, Greece, Latvia, Malta, Israel, and fans must enjoy in silly friendly games against Czech Republic, Qatar etc.
Here is the projected lineup for Georgia.. runje srna-corluka-simunic-pranjic vukojevic-modric Mandzukic-Dudu-Perisic Jelavic It's a very offensive lineup with Jelavic Perisic and Mandzukic in very good form..I would take out Vukojevic as Georgia is going to play bunker and you don't need a defensive mid like Vukojevic..I would start Badelj who is a much better passer then Vukojevic..Lets hope the boys take this game seriously..If they do they should win by 2 or 3 goals..If they dont they could draw or maybe even lose again..If that happens i think Torcida would destroy the stadium and attack the players..
This formation sounds much better, finally some attacking issue, without Strinic, Dujmovic, Kranjcar. They are so antitalented players, without any desire to do something. Vukojevic is here just because of caution, they could pull him out after 60 minutes if something goes wrong. In Zagreb audience didn't accepted 0-0 against Greece, they whistled them, I don't like the story about curse on Poljud Stadium, stories for children, if they ever called Andora, Malta or Kazakhstan in Split, they could win. If Croatia doesn't win, it's all over than, even second place is doubtfull.
Leaving work early to watch the game. Hopefully it won't be a waste of time. Ajmo Hrvatska Za Dom Spremni.
How the hell did we pull it off? I just saw the highlights on YouTube as I wasn't able to watch from work. Saw most action via livescore.net. Does anyone know a link where I can watch the entire game (or at least most of it)?
First half was waste of time. But finally some action in second half. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZZe_CsK8mY"]YouTube - Football- EURO 2012 Group F Qual. Round - Croatia-Georgia - Jaba Kankava's Goal (17')‏[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8ccs15hGL0"]YouTube - Football- EURO 2012 Group F Qual. Round - Croatia-Georgia - Nikola Kalini?'s Goal (78')‏[/ame] These types of games are so boring, one way match. Georgia had also luck this evening. But finally it's over this torture with Georgia. This major football forces left still: 4-6-2011 Greece - Malta 4-6-2011 Latvia - Israel 2-9-2011 Israel - Greece 2-9-2011 Georgia - Latvia 2-9-2011 Malta - Croatia 6-9-2011 Croatia - Israel 6-9-2011 Latvia - Greece 6-9-2011 Malta - Georgia 7-10-2011 Greece - Croatia 7-10-2011 Latvia - Malta 11-10-2011 Malta - Israel 11-10-2011 Croatia - Latvia 11-10-2011 Georgia - Greece Match with Greece is obvious key match. But don't forget that Croatia played 1-1 against Malta. Also, bad side of this evening is that there were major conflicts and fight between fans of Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk, it was played in center of Split today, seven fans were injured, they are now in hospital, don't know which group is in hospital. Also there were material damage, one restaurant and drug store. As they promised, fans were quiet for first 14 minutes, because Croatia didn't played 14 years in Split, but after these 14 minutes support was very good and mostly dynamic. At the end I can say that this Croatian edition is far away from good edition, many problems during transition of ball, to much parallel passes, bad edition in defense which was before pretty sure thing.
Take my breath away ta dam He will be president of Cro Football Federation until his 90 birthday I think, eternal president And than after him is Davor Suker time, hopeing to hear more intelligent declarations of him, like: "I am Croatian brand", or "When I see children who smile, when they see me, I am just so happy"
I think that this game you won't see in whole edition. I found some links on Youtube only, still early, they drink and celebrate now. Croatia had also luck with these two fast goals. They hanged on the wind again, bad presentation of some players again, they really don't have ideas, Modric lost some balls in first half. At least Georgia lost all chanches I think.
Well at least the curse in Split is over.. Croatia in the hal flacked any imagination..They just kept crossing it into the box and the goalie just came out and caught everything..Defense just watching the ball and Runje standing on his line when he should have come out and caught the ball.. Second half was better as they started playing on the ground and not putting in terrible crosses into the box..First goal was a nice dupli pass with klasnic and dujmovic and second was great pass by eduardo to kalinic..Croatia did hit the post 3 times but overall same problem for the most part lacking ideas in the final third..Crowd support was great after the 14th minute..
That "curse" phenomenon is so silly and hiperbolized. If they organized some matches in Split with opponents like Malta, Andora, Kazahstan, San Marino, Belarus the curse wouldn't exist. It's just because of large centralisation in Croatia, money from tickets. Have you noticed that microphones were putted on bad places, so that we can't hear fans so much. They did it on purpose. Heard some stories about this situation. There are to much football teams in Europe, like Georgia. European football is going down. You have at least 15-20 countries in Europe that play with that type of style; formation 7-3-0. It's not so big problem, when they play against better teams, but the same is also on matches like Georgia-Greece, Latvia-Greece. Silly and useless style, also born to watch. First goal is well played action, at least we have evidence that they do something on training, not just passing or shooting on the goal. Free shots are also bad, not these direct than these "tries to hit someone's head". Ball is to slow and opponents goalkeeper has time to predict the angle of ball and caught the ball without problems. In the future Croatia won't offer to many ideas, it would be hard and boring, especially against Israel in Croatia and against Greece in Athens.
I dont know but Za Dom Spremni sounded pretty loud to me or maybe i was to drunk.. Even though Croatia won Bilic should be fired..The play has only gotten worse since the loss to Turkey..Bring back Ciro..
The entire pregame, match and postgame can be seen here: http://www.justin.tv/ginger_bloke6/b/287287823 Bulldog, you need to explain this to me since I'm having trouble understanding and you always seem to be knowledgable in this area. Being a Hajduk fan and with my folks being from "the area", I totally understand why folks are pissed about being snubbed. Having said that, how does not rooting for the men in our checkboard shirts help the team ? What did this accomplish? If anything, I think it actually threw our guys off because Georgia started to pick it up and scored 2-3 minutes after the "protest". I am usually not into conspiracy theories, but I think they made it way too obvious that this was done on purpose.
Sorry, but I'm not jumping on this bandwagon. He brought Croatian soccer back to life, but he's not the reason we've gone downhill since the infamous Turkey match. We are simply not as good a team as we were then. First, at keeper, we had Pletikosa....a huge difference between him and Runje. Stipe was one of the top 3 keepers in Euro 2008. Second, Olic was out yesterday. No, he's not the most technical player, but he's FAR better than Jelavic (I could care less that he played well for the Rangers). Kranjcar generally underachieves in National Team play, so I don't think that is Bilic's fault. I could go on and on with other reasons, but lastly, Eduardo is not...."Eduardo" since the injury. We basically have two guys up top who are not National Team level. I think we lucked out with those two goals as those guys we have upfront will never be confused with Suker, Prso or Boksic.
It's still alot of the same players but the football has only gotten worse since euro 2008..Eduardo may not be what he was but he is still a good player..That run and pass to set up the goal was brilliant..Runje stinks but i always thought pletikosa was average only..Croatia has some good players but only one top class and thats Modric..We will never see a generation of top class players like Suker Boban Boksic Jarni again..Rangers fans btw think Jelavic is better then Prso..Just saying..
On some Croatian forums I saw speculations about bad settlement of microphones and sound systems. I don't know, they stopped to sing national anthem, I have heard that before match. They need to adjust, after all 14 years of non-playing left some wholes. Bilic told: "If I had lost this match I would become ex-coach for sure". He didn't believed in come back of his team, like mostly no one believed. I also noticed that after the match against Turkey (Euro 2008) everything is bad, team doesn't have character, motive. Many fans don't see that, that Croatia didn't had fair and progressive approach since that game. Against England was everything bad, that's real situation of Croatian shape. They now want Zlatko Kranjcar to come back. They destroyed him in media after World Cup 2006. Matches with Rakitic, Ilicevic sound much better, but WITHOUT Niko Kranjcar. Dario Srna and Daniel Pranjic as wing players are terrible now.
Next match will be in Split again. Markovic wants votes from Dalmatian Alliance in next elections. Because he saw in last elections how big is antagonism between North and South.
Eduardo, Modric, Olic, real Srna, Corluka, brothers Kovac, Pletikosa, Simunic were carriers of Croatin game in recent past, now we have different type of players, worse type. I wouldn't try to give Runje a chance to keep cows on the field and they putted him on goal. He entered now with Lens in second French league, he is conflicted player. Pletikosa has problems with alcohol. Klasnic was jocker player from the bench, he participated ok when he would enter, but now he and Petric don't have nothing to demonstrate in national team, same like Kranjcar. I really don't appereciate their great results in their clubs, it's obvious that they save themselves for clubs (Kranjcar, Modric, Corluka, Srna, Pranjic). Mandzukic and Kalinic now see a chance to enter in first squad, but after they enter they will play like rest of players. Good decision is to say "goodbye forever" to Kranjcar, Strinic. Perisic was better against France, but some of our players have good days only in friendly matches, like Kranjcar. Great generations for small countries like Croatia happens once in 50 years. We need to be objective and admit that we won't have that 1998 generation so soon. Same thing happened with many other countries, they vanished from maps of football: Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Sweden, Ireland, Scotland, Colombia, Denmark and some of "big countries" England, Portugal, France (1-1 against Belarus yesterday). European football becomes very average now. Politic of Uefa isn't good at all, to many foreign players in national leagues brought up that we have now average England, France, Portugal...etc. Many now thinks that there aren't any weak teams o much as before but they just play the same, only good teams became worse, so Liechtenstein, Estonia, Georgia can see their chances.
I know many people from Dalmatia that cheerup for Dinamo, especially from Dalmatinska Zagora. I have heard that commentators on Croatian national TV cheer for Dinamo mostly, only Zeljko Vela is for Hajduk, that's why Miroslav Blazevic has often send him in "picku materinu" before interviews. Blazevic also hates Edo Pezzi, reporter from Split because Pezzi had bad comments on Blazevic. I think that tehnical persons tried to put microphones on wrong places. It's big difference when you watch Hajduks home matches and now yesterday. But nobody can't prove any conspiracy, that's why it's so sweet. Even on smaller stadiums like Kantrida, Aldo Drosina, Varazdin stadium fans sounded much louder.
I have found an article in which is said that Franz Beckenbauer has Croatian roots. Who knows Croatian here, he can read. But story sounds complicated, changes of cities, potential child outside of marriage, family secrets. Interesting thing is that two best players in history have Croatian roots: Maradona and Beckenbauer. http://www.vecernji.hr/vijesti/otac-franza-beckenbauera-je-hrvat-josip-clanak-295615
