World Cup Final: France vs Croatia, July 15 [R]

Oh just stop.

If you really want to play this game, Croatia were also toothless in their very first match against Nigeria mustering a grand total of one shot on goal (penalty shot not included) and only won because of a fluke own goal which they "didn't deserve" Statistically Nigeria were better in almost every other aspect of the game but "undeserved goals" we outshot them, outdribbled them, outtackled them.

Our rookie goalie wasn't tested even once by Croatia other than a penalty shot, from a stupid mistake (much like Perisic) but it did not reflect the play of the match.

So we can play this game all day, I'm sure every team has their story.

Ar least France scored 2 NICE GOALS in yesterdays match. Croatia got lucky against us, and lucky in a number of their penalty shootouts, also lucky that Caballero handed them a gift against Argentina. They already rode their luck. Cant get lucky every game.

This bitterness needs to stop. France were deserving champions. They were clearly superior to most sides they beat. Can't really say the same about Croatia, who scraped past much weaker opponents in the KO rounds, while France was taking out WC contenders from match to match, and not needing the toss up of penalty kicks to do it.

Croatia did very well to get where they got, but they did not deserve to be champions, based on the overall tournament, or even yesterdays match.

 

I've been saying that France will the champion after they beat Uruguay and Argentina and they will beat Croatia because they have more players who can make the difference. They might not be a complete and dominant team like 2014 Germany but they've been the best in this tournament without a doubt.

They certainly had big luck with Croatia own goal and handball but any team that win a tournament needs some luck along the way. Germany wouldnt be the champ if Higuain, Messi or Palacio scored their 1 vs 1 chance before Gotze's goal.

 

yep. After that, I was done caring what the Netherlands were up to. Let me know if they're worth watching again. Maybe once they start qualifying for things again it'll be worth it.

 

Looking at the video here, the decision not to award a penalty would have been even more controversial :

if you don't blow the whistle here for a handball, when do you do it ? I have seen far worse penalty decision in this WC...
"Intent" or "purpose" only decides if you get a red card or not for doing this in the penalty box.

 

Zagreb, Croatian players and audience. Live web cam broadcast.

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/hrvatska/grad-zagreb/zagreb/trg-bana-jelacica.html

 

And the live one from Youtube
don't know why there no sound.

 

So you think you matter, big mistake

 

I never said they "deserved to be champions", I just said they were the better team in the first half. I have no problem with Nigerians saying they should have beaten them.

Ok, but again, the final and the tournament are two different things. France was sloppy in the first half and deserved to be down a goal. We'll never know how things would have turned had France had to come out of its shell and chase the game.

 

Indeed, no sound Buffonfan.
Around 550 000 of people gathered from Airport to the main square in Zagreb. Hard to see any event with such quantity and emotions.

 

Croatia also had luck in that road to the final. Just remember strange goal against Nigeria, unusual curve, also penalty....lucky mistake of Argentine goalkeeper...lack of concentration in Iceland team...nice punch of Milan Badelj, that usually goes above the goal, but he was lucky enough to squeeze it nicely.
Against Denmark, also luck in some moments, fast comeback, the ball bounced from Danish player...luck against Russia during penalties...against England, also England could have 2-0 or 3-0 in the first half time.
Only against France, there was no luck.
To win the title, excellent generations should be created, with their great club careers, where they become carriers of the game, also team chemistry...sort of unity and strong motivation (either through scandals or personal passion).

 

This one is the record (4 hours), and has sound, but it all in Croatian language. Towards the end you can see the players sing in Croatian language, which I don't understand. Maybe you understand Croatia language?

 

In Croatian celebration, there were many ambulance interventions, heat, weather pressure....people risk a lot, just because of football. Very fanatical celebration in Croatia, never seen something similar...it goes beyond Woodstock, Elvis and Beatles support, which were all in specific fanatical approach.
It's better to collect football events in memories, than lose someone's life forever...

 

Yes, I understand Croatian language. They were singing Bijelo Crvena Polja Hrvatska (White and Red Croatian Fields)...
This song is also popular among fans:
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/moja-domovina-my-homeland.html

Zapresic Boys:
http://www.tekstovipjesamalyrics.com/tekst-pjesme/53928-Zapresic-Boys---Neopisivo-tekst-pjesme

"I danas pamtim oca davno je to bilo
kad me na stadionu stavio u krilo
tamo prvi put cuo sam
volim te Hrvatsko
na pitanje ovo od tada odgovor znam "

"Even today I still remember my father, it was long ago,
when he placed me at the stadium in his lap,
for the first time, I heard there,
I love you, Croatia,
on this question, since then I know the answer"

Lijepa li si: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/Thompson-Lijepa-Li-Si-lyrics.html
You are beautiful...combination of all Croatian regions with Bosnia and Herzegovina, second homeland of Croats: Dalmatia, Istria, Lika, Slavonia, Zagorje...

The Croatia Airlines plane flew over the fans before landing at airport.

​

They landed at 3:15 PM, but they travelled until the main square at least 5-6 hours, impossible to drive.

 

@Gilbertsson
Thank you so much for translate. That is so beautiful. I adore this team.

This has been a bad WC for me. First it my team Italy not qualify, then Netherlands too.
Then Germany crash out of the WC in group stage, that was like the most shocking thing to me. Then Argentina lose.

Anyways, looking forward to 2022. Qtar is too far, so I be cheering for my team on TV.
But in 2026 (which will be held in USA, Canada and Mexico). I'm in the U.S., so for sure I will buy ticket to go cheer for my team then.

My son who now is 5 months old, so he will be 8 when the 2026 WC roll around, so he can go too.

2026 will be 48 teams, so who knows my homeland country might make it (which I doubt), I'm Chinese. China and Chinese citizens we just don't have the "obsession" with soccer, so yeah.
We like soccer, we just not "obsessed" over it like in other countries.

oh, and since you here, may I ask, maybe you can educated me. You nickname said Club: Toronto Croatia, when I read it I keep think of that this is a club of Croatia people who living in Toronto started it. Like Croatia-Canadian people. Can you tell me more about the club?

And talking about luck, France got luck too, Cavani injury was pretty much seal the fate of Uruguay.
Germany crash out of this WC. Netherlands didn't qualify. If they still in it, let see how easy can France win them.
And I thought France struggle in the match vs Australia.

Anyways, I'm glad this WC is over. Sooo looking forward to 2022.

 

Wow the scenes from Zagreb unbelievable.

 

So I guess this means France will be eliminated in the group stages in 2022 - our group please!

 

Buffonfan, there are plenty of Croatian fan songs, with themes like homeland, love, family, olives, rocks, songs about returning home from abroad, about the true values. It's not all in money - one of the songs.



Popular even at Samoa island. Full Samoans, who follow Croatian songs for some reason and they speak Croatian in this video.


Several other Croatian fan songs.
http://www.goal.com/hr/vijesti/hrva...o-navijacke-pjesme/1pyzxpc7436zz1rihrnnnbpz5s

World Cup without Italy, Netherlands, Chile seems empty. I fear for the European football on World Cup scene. Observe Spain, Germany, a lot of European teams vanished from the scene. Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia return their role very fast. Mexico is always there.

Qatar will be in December. EURO 2020 for Italy.

Toronto Croatia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Croatia
I just picked this club for random reason. Don't know much about this club, only I know that Eusebio played there and it's part of Croatian diaspora, where they open ethnic clubs in different parts of world.

In area of Nice, exists also Croatia Villefranche.
https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/AS_Croatia_Villefranche

Similar is in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Australia, USA, Canada...in several Southern American lands, South Africa, New Zealand, Sweden...countries where Croats mostly live abroad.

I became tired from WC matches, 65 matches overall. A lot of highlights, TV shows on different national TV stations.

 

Has anyone seen a vid of it behind or in front of the flight of the ball.

I ask because it looks to me like the attacker makes some contact with the ball and alters it's flight and, if that's the case, it might be that the defender wasn't clearly trying to move his hand toward the flight of the ball.

 

Croats in Rotterdam:
https://nos.nl/wk2018/video/2241527-kroaten-in-rotterdam-klaar-voor-de-finale.html
https://www.oozo.nl/video/rotterdam/62294/live-honderden-kroaten-in-rotterdam-kijken-naar-wk-finale

500/600 supporters watching the final at their bar in Rotterdam.

 

When the World Cup got underway, the teams in this tournament could be categorized into several categories. You had one category for elite teams that were rated as the top contenders: Brazil, Germany, Spain and then France. Argentina looked too much a mess even before the World Cup to have been considered a top contender, but they might be placed here too.

Then you had the category comprised of teams with enough talent or other merit to be picked as the top potential tournament dark horses: This category was led by Belgium, with Portugal, Uruguay and Croatia the other teams most often mentioned as potential dark horse candidates.

Among the top contenders, Germany showed that even they aren't exempted from curse of the reigning World Cup champions, while Spain (despite its talent) was underwhelming in a tournament that also showed tiki taka specifically, and possession oriented football more generally, to be tactically a thing of the past. Which, incidentally, is why Brazil and Argentina weren't all that special in this World Cup either. Argentina continued to be the mess they had shown before the World Cup, but that wasn't because they didn't have possession. They had plenty of possession in their games; just fewer goals than they allowed by virtue of an error prone defense that gave up chances and goals far too easily. Brazil was alright and arguably still one of the top 4 teams in this tournament, but that is merely arguable. France and Belgium showed they were better in this tournament and maybe, indeed, Croatia was better than them too. And while I am confident 4th place totally flattered England, at least they finished 4th in the tournament. Brazil didn't finish among the top 4.

So what is that I am trying to say? First, congratulations to France. They were the only top contenders which remained in contention after the quarterfinals. Second, they were deserving champions. This is the last World Cup where the side with more "possession" and such other stats could be considered the more deserving winner. The correlation between possession and results in this World Cup was non-existent or the opposite. In this World Cup, a side whose best player was Mbappe should have ended up with the title against a side whose best player was Modric (or Persisic). Third, well done to Croatia: they finished above all the dark horses in this tournament, even above Belgium which out ranked them on talent.

 

Thank you Sir @Gilbertsson for your explaination to me, and thank you for the translation.
Hope to see you here again in 4 years, well 4.5 years.


oh, and here is a very good tactical analysis video, if anyone not see it yet.

France Becomes The New World Champions France vs Croatia 4-2 Tactical Analysis.

 

That 4-2 Tactical Analysis is excellent and I commend it highly.

 

Germany was the best team in 2016... everyone forgets the first half of the semifinal in 2016. Like the final in 2018... handball and momentum given to France. Before that France barely touched the ball.

 

Lucky... like their draw in 2014 /eyeroll