Pre-match: Matches Malta - Croatia (2.9.2011.) and Croatia - Israel (6.9.2011.) - Euro 2012 Qualifications

Dramatic come from behind win..Old Dudu returned and Modric took over the game in the second half.. Thanks for the support..

why is this forum section dead, did you guys ever have alot of peopl?

Thanks Jaime for your best wishes, saw now that you visited this theme.
We can also enjoy in CONCACAF matches until South American qualifications starts. Saw yesterday some results: Bermuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, amazing.

Here are the videos of the match:

Qualifying round (Group F) - 06/09/2011 - 20:00CET (20:00 local time) - Stadion Maksimir - Zagreb

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb4_6iaGRWk"]Hrvatska - Izrael 3:1 - analiza utakmice (Slaven Bili? i Luka Modri?) - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57riFhjOZz8&feature=player_embedded"]hrv - izr 3:1 - YouTube[/ame]

Three goals in ten second-half minutes saw Slaven Bilić's men come from behind to move a point clear at the Group F summit.

First halftime was like in recent matches, we had ball possession, but without any dynamics or good chances. Israel started to play very aggressive in formation 5-4-1. I think that they had most attacking formation, when you compare with all other opponents in our group.

Israel is the second team in our group, that's for sure.

Israel started to take some time, they didn't wanted to return the ball in the game, their goalkeeper had that mission. Also he took injure breaks, so that their medicine team can help him. But he was changed in half time.



There wasn't to much viewers, on internet they said 25 000, but before the match I saw 15 000. Recent bad matches achieved negative reactions.
Also, fans are against current coach Slaven Bilic and members of Croatian Football Federation.

Croatia: Pletikosa, Ćorluka (since 46. Eduardo), Lovren, Šimunić, Strinić, Srna, Modrić, Vukojević (since 46. Dujmović), Kranjčar, Mandžukić, Jelavić (since 87.' Kalinić).

Israel:
Aouate (since 46.' Haimov), Ben Haim, Gershon, Kayal, Twatha, Hemed, Benayoun, Zahavi (since 68.' Shechter), Khutaba, Ben Harush, Cohen (since 57.' Golsa)

First goal surprised us, shocking atmosphere. Fans yelled "Bilicu odlazi" (Bilic go away), he frozed with his members of staff.

Niko Kranjcar, Darijo Srna were bad again. Srna played silly, he only got punches, also he had a blood on his head, also Israeli player had blood on his head.

They played ruff, committed some nice fouls, but they didn't got any card.

Goalscorers: 0:1 - Hemed (44.'), 1:1 - Modrić (47.'), 2.1 - Eduardo (55.'), 3:1 - Eduardo (57').

Tal Ben Haim got direct red card in 51 minute, they were lost and he was angry. After the red card he didn't wanted to move outside of the field, he walked around the field mostly, he should go in locker room.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tv6iQIfvJEA

Also there was one brutal foul, Croatian player was on the ground injured and Israeli player started to run and he stood up on his leg with whole feet. They play dirty football, provocations, can't find better words for them. Also they had problems inside the team. They don't talk with each other, after they lost against Greece, chaotic.

And finally we played like before in the second halftime. Israeli players didn't knew what hit them. They lost motivation, but for me they should be the second team in our group, they play better than Georgia or Greece.

They don't have to much luck in football. In their 2006 World Cup qualifying group, Israel finished third, behind France, and tied on points with Switzerland, which also remained unbeaten in 10 matches after four wins and six draws. The Swiss had a better goal difference, though, and advanced to the qualification play-off. Coach Avram Grant announced his resignation on 26 October 2005.

Latvia also helped to us a lot last night, they played 1-1 against Greece.

I think that this means: Thank you Latvia in Latvian language. (Paldies Latvija).

Israel can't take any of first two places, this means that Croatia and Greece will decide who will be the first team in our group.

Standings:
P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Croatia 8 6 1 1 16 5 11 19
2 Greece 8 5 3 0 10 4 6 18
3 Israel 9 4 1 4 11 11 0 13
4 Georgia 9 2 4 3 6 7 -1 10
5 Latvia 8 2 2 4 7 10 -3 8
6 Malta 8 0 1 7 4 17 -13 1

Finally where we belong.

Croatia and Greece need to play two more matches:

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

Some people think that we should take a tie in Greece. Don't know what is better now. Maybe it's better that they attack, because they are to defensive, they will be tired, 2,3 counterattacks and they are history.

I think that Georgia will let them win. Yesterday they played 1-1 in Malta, lost completely their motivation. Georgia has better friendship with Greece because of religion. 21st century, but some countries are very careful with their opponents. "Orthodox brotherhood" is well known in Europe. Scandinavian loyalty is also famous. On EURO 2004 in Portugal Italy, Denmark and Sweden played in the same group. In the last round played Denmark and Sweden, Italy played against Bulgaria. Denmark and Sweden needed the result 2-2, if they both want to participate in quarterfinals, and it was miracle, they played 2-2.

But also once they had problems, one match finished 3-0 because fans entered on the field, Poulsen hit one Swedish player in stomach.

Waiting for October now...

I read one sentence of Slaven Bilic, who said: "If we are so bad, why everyone plays so defensive against us?" Sounds like rhetorical question, but he is asking good question after all.

I am happy that this group is finishing soon, it was so hard to play against these teams, so hard to watch these matches. Looking forward for our next qualification group: Belgium, Scotland, Wales, Macedonia, Serbia.

Bilic commented: "Bilic go away" with these words "I can leave, but I will go on that EURO 2012." Really sad to hear these words from fans, he is our unique legend, great footballer, musician, has a law degree, even though his father was the dean, but he is Croatian football icon, now he is oriented to money, became greedy.

Slaven Bilic biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaven_Bilić

Here is his song: fan anthem.

Vatreno ludilo - Fiery madness

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RYg8Dy3xk4"]Vatreno ludilo - Slaven Bilic & Rawbau - Navijacka Himna - YouTube[/ame]

Together we were in 1998
the world has heard about us
and yet we gloss the bronze glow
When they fall, Japan, the Netherlands,
Romania and Germany

And now ten years later
Again the same hope, we have the same dream
and preparing things, a backpack, jeans
on our breasts Checkerboard, Checkerboard, Checkerboard

When the Fiery madness moves
Fieryyyyyyy
Let all burns when through the veins
red white blue moves
red white blue moves

And now ten years later
Again the same hope, we have the same dream
and preparing things, a backpack, jeans
on our breasts Checkerboard, Checkerboard, Checkerboard

When the Fiery madness moves
Fieryyyyyyy
Let all burns when through the veins
red white blue moves
red white blue moves

Who could be our next coach? In Croatia they are all bad. President of our federation will probably forget the fights against Igor Stimac and put him on Croatian bench, just so that Markovic can stay as president, 11 years he is our president. We can't have foreign coach, except Felix Magath. Foreign coaches don't understand Croatian mentality, don't know us as type of nation, our habits, way of life, way of thinking, feeling. If we must take foreign coach, I would say that Germans are best candidates (Magath, Hitzfeld, Klinsmann), maybe even Dutchmen (van Gaal, van Basten).

In Croatian football I really don't see anyone as great replacement. There you can see only the same faces: Ilija Loncarevic, Srecko Bogdan, Drazen Besek, Vjekoslav Lokica, even Dinamo and Hajduk had experience with foreign players. Dinamo had two bad editions with them (Osvaldo Ardiles and Vahid Halilhodzic). Halilhodzic only wanted the money, lied about other options, he is coaching Algeria now and he didn't achieved entering on African Cup, terrible coach "I say".

He is always saying "I say" - "Kazem ja", every fifth word is "Kazem ja", true ignorant.

Don't know what happened in the locker room, but there was probably a lot of angry words. Nice to see Croatia on the first place.

Photos from the match Croatia - Israel:

Intonation of Croatian national anthem:



Niko Kranjcar and Israeli player:



Israeli goalkeeper:

Luka Modric:

Dejan Lovren: that probably hurts very much.



Croatian fans: always faithful (Uvijek vjerni)



Players after the match: from left to right (Joe Simunic, Tomislav Dujmovic, Nikica Jelavic and Mario Mandzukic).

"Worlds greatest coach": Slaven Bilic

It was a nice comeback, after that deflating goal by Israel just before halftime. Modric picked a great time to finally score a goal. What a rocket that was.

I'm surprised Eduardo got up after that rough foul.....brings back ugly memories. Looking forward to the game against Greece.

I thought that we will lose points again. Croatia was never defeated in EURO qualifications at home. That means Euro 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and I assume that we won't get defeat against Latvia, for Euro 2012. Nice record. We lost only against England at home, World Cup qualifications.

Before 1990. Croatia played only 20 matches: 10 victories, 4 ties and 6 defeats, goal difference: 47:33.

After 1990. Croatia played 201 matches: 106 victories, 59 ties and 36 defeats, goal difference: 340:187

Great goals, I liked the Modric's and Da Silva's last goal.

Vlaovic didn't say anything. I was able to understand some words that Bilic said.

I nearly didn't recognize L.Fernández with all that white hair, he looks very old, like a grandfather.

The red card was fair, Ben Haim deserved it after that horrible foul against Da Silva.

Yes, Modric opened that series of goals. Great to see that Modric scores. When we had two more attacking players, Modric got more liberty in attack. We can play with three defenders, that' obvious.

In first halftime Croatia had 4 players in defense. After that Bilic pulled out RB player Vedran Corluka, and DM player Ognjen Vukojevic and changed them with Eduardo da Silva and Tomislav Dujmovic. Everything changed.

Kranjcar and Strinic are useless players in our formation. We only wait that Kranjcar takes 1,2 shot from distance, he is not the ball bringer, dribbler, he is tall, but he doesn't know how to play with head, that's why I think that Rakitic is much better on that position, or Danijel Pranjic.

Ivan Strinic is also bad. He is LB player, but he has problems with center shots: we don't have them at all.

Vlaovic was probably co-commentator. Luis Fernandez changed a lot. I remember him from PSG and his conflicts with Ronaldinho. They had open verbal fights on the field. Ir was weird to watch how Luis is pulling out Ronaldinho and Ronaldinho would come to his place on the bench and he yells on him like in some kind of madness.

Tal Ben Haim has problems with hi personality and nature. I saw that in England also. He is overrated player in defense.

Bad news from UEFA though. Croatia will probably have empty stadium against Latvia in Rijeka, because Croatian fans were singing some Croatian historic songs. This match can decide a lot if we play a tie against Greece, or if we lose in Athens.

Some observations: http://www.croatiansoccerreport.com/2011/09/crunch-time-for-croatia.html

Croatia could be the best second team also. Other teams who are on the second place are: Turkey (14 points), Ireland (15), Serbia (14), Bosnia and Herzegovina (16), Sweden (18), Croatia (18), Montenegro (11), Portugal, Denmark, Norway (13), Czech Republic (10).

http://soccerstats.com/leagueview.asp?league=euroqual

Match against Greece is on 7.10.

Also, in Santiago de Chile (Vitacura) is opened new square, that carries the Croatian name, the monument was made from copper (cobre), donation was from Croatians from the city Iquique:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWyBeR90iw4"]Inauguración Plaza Croacia, Vitacura, Chile. - YouTube[/ame]

In Russia was huge plain crash with Russian hockey players from club Yaroslavl Lokomotiv, almost whole team died.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lokomotiv_Yaroslavl

Vitacura is in the north-east of Santiago.
Vitacura comes from "Bütacura", the name of a mapuche leader. Bütacura means "big stone".

In the Region of Valparaíso we had a huge plain crash last friday (21 Chileans died), to the south of the Robinson Crusoe island.

Probably it's nice neighborhood in Vitacura. I saw that monument, not so big, the color is black, only Croatian coat of arm has copper mosaic.

I saw some of photos of Vitacura, maybe Google has wrong one, but these are really beautiful, Chile looks so clean, untouched, one big green oasis, like Croatian coast, their mountains, I think that Chile, Brazil, Columbia and Venezuela are most beautiful South American countries. Chile is on the first place, because he is economically better, has diversity in weather, landscapes other countries have violence, crime and to much hot weather, hard to survive:







I have heard about that crash in Chile, one famous TV reporter, or host is also missing. Sad stories. Is there any survivor from that accident in Chile?
In this accident in Russia two are still alive, but they are injured badly also. In Russia there are many plain crashes, Polish president Kaczynski also died in accident, flying with Russian plain.

The Iquiqueño citizen Hrvoje Ostojic gave that monument to the new Croatia Square.
Vitacura is the commune Number 1 in in the Human Development Index of Chile. It's very expensive living in Vitacura.

Yes, our country is beautiful, and so diverse. : desert and oasis, Antartica, Easter island, snowy Andes mountains, more than 5.000 kms. of coast, mediterranean valleys, rainy forests, thousand of islands, beaches, western Patagonia, vulcans, lakes, rivers, etc.

Yes, unfortunately only 7 bodies has been recovered, in tragical conditions really.
Among the 21 people there were a millionaire philanthropist (Felipe Cubillos), a very famous TV presenter(Felipe Camiroaga), a TV reporter(Roberto Bruce), a 2nd division lineman and Air Force subboficial(Flavio Oliva), etc.
I don't think there are any survivors.

Vitacura looks like very planned green zone. Hrvoje es nombre tipico en Croacia. Hrvoje = Hrvat (Croato) similar. Pero Ostojic es patronimo de nombre Ostoja. Ostoja es tipico serbo nombre. Pero Ostojic es croato. Tal vez alguien de antepasados fue serbo. Tipicos apellidos serbos estan: Jovanovic, Milosevic, Stoisavljevic, Stojadinovic, Stamenkovic, Milutinovic. Patronimos estan Jovan, Milos, Milutin. Serbos tiene muchas patronimos.

Pero tambien serbos tiene algunas apellidos tipicos para croatos: Antic, Josipovic, Jozic, Matic, Stjepanovic, Stipanovic, Ivanovic. En Croacia esas apellidos estan patronimos: Ante, Josip, Jozo, Mate, Stjepan, Stipan, Ivan. Eso es un gran enigma, por ejemplo Radomir Antic tiene apellido tipico croato.

Veo muchas fotos de Chile, que tu mandaste a mi, muy diverso, no es tipica pais en Sud America. Croacia no tiene desierto, pero tiene desiertos verdes, solo con grass, bosque, con muchas parques.

"Croatia covers an area of 56,542 km2 and its territorial waters cover 31,067 km2 of sea. It is divided into 21 counties (local administrative units)."

http://croaticum.ffzg.hr/eng/hrvatska.html

"In the Northern part of Croatia the way of life is typically Central European, whereas the South is Mediterranean. In the North the climate is continental, in the mountains it is alpine and on the Adriatic coast it is Mediterranean."

Por eso pienso que Chile y Croacia estan similar, mismas colores en bandera.

Interesante que Croacia tambien tiene costa de 5000 km cca, con islas.

"The Adriatic coast is 1,278 km long, 5,835 km including the island coastline. With its 1,185 islands, islets and reefs, Croatia has the most indented coast in the Mediterranean. Numerous tourists from all over the world are attracted by the cleanliness and beauty of the Adriatic Sea. The sea temperature reaches 26 to 27 degrees Centigrade in summer. The sunniest island on the Croatian coast is Hvar, which has 2,718 hours of sun per year.

Croatia has eight national parks: four in the mountain regions (Risnjak, Northern Velebit, Paklenica and the Plitvice lakes) and four in the coastal area (Kornati, Mljet, Brijuni, Krka). The entire city of Dubrovnik, as well as emperor Diocletian's palace in Split and the Plitvice lakes, have been included in the UNESCO list of world cultural heritage. Many Croatian towns were founded in ancient or medieval times. They include Pula, Split, Trogir, Zadar, Šibenik, Pag, Korcula, Dubrovnik, Varaždin, and several more.

Many tourists from around the world visit Croatia, a cultural and tourist jewel of this part of Southeastern Europe. Some of the more curious tourists embark on the adventure of learning the Croatian language in the program called Croaticum, at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, the capital of the Republic of Croatia."

Solo Croacia es muy pequena, pienso que es una de mas pequenas en Europa. Por ejemplo Croacia es como Francia en pequeno edicion, con montanas, mar, campos en parte continental. Croacia no tiene volcanos, pienso que es mejor, volcanos pude destruir natura, casas, gente.

Porque Vitacura tiene tanto gastos? Vitacura signiifica algo como (Life that cures), en Latino tal vez? Cura es sacerdote tambien. Pero parece como palabra aborigen.

Terible cuando podemos ver esas accidentes, parece que fue malo tiempo, con error de pilote, no se.

Camiroaga fue muy joven, 1966. Ese apellido es apellido vasco oviamente. Muy triste.

It's because the hight quality of life there. But there is smog there too, like in the rest of Santiago.

Vitacura ("Bütacura" mapuche leader=big stone). In castilian this name doesn't mean anything.

Another similar mapuche words: Tabancura, Cobquecura, Trancura, etc.
Cura=stone (in mapudungun language).

Apparently (the investigation continues) the airplane had not enough fuel to try a 3rd landing. The Air Force is using excuses (a bird, the strong wind, etc).

Santiago has high population. This form of Santiago looks like spider net.



All ways are leading to downtown. Conquistador Pedro de Valdivia founded this city. First name was Santiago de Extremadura - Spanish region. I remember that your background in from this region also.

Does in Santiago exist some dangerous zones for living? Maybe southern parts?



Taban means feet in Croatian. Cura means girl in Croatian.

Nobody wants to say, that they are guilty. There are always some unexplained interventions from the sky. Government don't want to lose voters, because many of them would react emotional. Croatia had a big tragedy, there was a fire on one island Kornati, many firemen were burned without any reasonable explanation, 12 firemen died.

http://www.google.hr/search?q=Korna...on.2,or.&fp=5c339d42b35bf462&biw=1152&bih=773

On that islands almost nothing exists, only forest and stone, few houses, Kornati is national park also:

http://www.google.hr/search?q=Korna...on.2,or.&fp=5c339d42b35bf462&biw=1152&bih=773

Strange form of islands, very rounded, but tourists visit this island a lot.

mhh wouldnt you say Ciro was croatias greatest coach, we in bosnia consider him one of the best we ever had with the current one, maybe ciro and bilic are the greatest

Croatia's greatest coach was Tomislav Ivic..He lead Croatia to there first famous victory when they beat Italy in Sicily in Euro 96 qualifying..Ciro was a great motivator but not a very good tactical coach..Ivic was a great tactician and was the guy who made us play attacking football..Ciro was a more defensive coach who relied more on counter attack..Ciro gets alot of recognition for leading croatia to third place in france 98..He also messed up the game against France by leaving an injured Boban on to long and not putting in Prosinecki who should have started but thats a whole other story..

A lot of people think that western and southern communes are the dangerous zones in Stgo., but it's normal watch on TV or internet assaults and robbers in the eastern and northern areas too.

i agree about ciro being a great motivator, however who has made a bigger impression on the people??

Has anyone seen "" signs? Of course that Tomislav Ivic or Miroslav Blazevic are best Croatian coaches. That match in Palermo was so intensive. Italy always plays in southern Italy delicate matches.

Ciro had a fortune that he had great generation, but in tactical terms he doesn't have same potential as Ivic used to have.

Many stories I have heard about that match against France 1998. Many people say, that Croatia accepted bribery offer from France. France won in finals with weird circumstances. Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos got some kind of illness.

Ronaldo:

"Voted the FIFA World Player of the Year in 1996 and 1997, he scored four goals and made three assists during the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The night before the final, he suffered a convulsive fit. At first, Ronaldo was removed from the starting lineup 72 minutes before the match, but he requested to play and was later reinstated by coach Mario Zagallo. Ronaldo did not perform well and he was injured in a collision with French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez. Brazil lost the final to hosts France 3–0.[25] Adrian Williams, professor of clinical neurology at Birmingham University, said that Ronaldo should not have played, saying that he would have been feeling the after effects of the seizure and that "there is no way that he would have been able to perform to the best of his ability within 24 hours of his first fit – if it was his first fit."

If he had this, how come he never had this after?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seizure

Also Boban was good with the ball, he lost the ball so easily against France.

I figure it that southern parts are more dangerous. Vitacura needs peace. In Croatia there isn't so much crime, at least small of amount is caught. I have heard that Zagreb has robbers who steal purses, jewelry, or sometimes they visit bank or betting places.

You have live shows, about robbers? Like in USA, when they chase them. Usually they have white vans or cars.

Germany has a lot of crime, but Austria doesn't have crime. Austria has other problem, people who molest their children, police discovered several persons.

Enjoy in IQ Show - Miss Universe contest.

http://magazin.net.hr/moda/poznati/page/2011/09/08/0645006.html