Bruno Petkovic struggled in Italy also. If he really is that good, he would play there just like Perisic, Brozovic, Pasalic, Rebic and Vrsaljko earlier. Croatian league is far more easier, if you have ties, if your club dominates with other clubs. Dinamo will win the league once again. Their eight B teams accept that. https://www.soccerstats.com/latest.asp?league=croatia If they don't accept that, no new court, no assets. Hajduk still struggles with their court. But Osijek makes new stadium, Rijeka and Pula got their new stadiums. They all get solid loaned players. Dugopolje got new stadium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadion_Hrvatski_vitezovi Dragovoljac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadion_NŠC_Stjepan_Spajić Belupo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradski_stadion_(Koprivnica) Jakobusic hopes that Hajduk will have good relations with CFF, but this is only in words. Hajduk will take 5th, 6th position. Will they bring Lokomotiva higher...? Loan team of Dinamo Zagreb.
Petkovic went to Italy at 17 and yes never made it there. Petkovic played really well for Dinamo when Bjelica was coach. Petkovic is a talented player he was the leading score for Croatia in euro qualifying. With Petkovic he has mental problems and is lazy. Technique he is really good but without hard work that means very little.
He has that bad attitude, which says that he doesn't care about anything. 26 years and still in HNL. Reminds me on big headed Ante Rukavina, he came with Ademi in Dinamo. Ademi still plays. He is limited in every aspect, but at least he works hard. Talented Rukavina just vanished. Just like many players in Dinamo. Dario Smoje for example.
Rukavina was a totally different player who had great speed and decent dribbling but no football brain. When Petkovic had Bjelica as his coach he played very well for both Dinamo and the National team. Bjelica seemed to know how to push the right buttons with Petkovic. Since Mamic took over Petkovic looks like a lazy player who doesn’t give a shit. It’s a shame as Petkovic looked like a class player. He was great against Slovakia both games and against Hungry. I remember Rebic was ready to go back to Croatia after he didn’t make it in Fiorentina and red bull Leipzig. Niko Kovac saved his career when he brought him to Eintracht Frankfurt. My point is many of our players have mentality problems and sometimes it takes the right coach to get the best out of there ability. Very lucky we don’t have this problem with Modric. One of the few who is a true professional to go along with great ability.
Yes, the usual improvisation style. Players without discipline, against coaching authority, smoking, drinking, awful turbo folk music, problems with wives, gambling.... In Croatia, true football professionals are rare. Some of them have mental issues: Livaja, Halilovic, Rukavina, Petkovic...gambling issues of Dino Drpic, Marcelo Brozovic. Blaz Sliskovic could also have better career, Zidane accented him as most talented, his role model. That's why numerous team competitions often end as 2nd, 3rd, 4th...on top, but not first. No focus, cold blood players. Big difference between 1st and 2nd. Long walk to this part of glory. Handball team can't win gold since World Cup 2003 and Summer Olympics 2004. Always from 2nd to 5th,6th place. Similar is in water polo, basketball in 90's. Wimbledon's of Goran Ivanisevic, Marin Cilic...they lost together 3,4 finals. Coaches are terrible, they just get the job because they are in great relations with Federation presidents in each sport, with addition of HDZ political party admiration. Silly criteria. After that coaches take players if Federations approve them. Some handballers, basketballers don't want to play for NT: Blazenko Lackovic, Dario Hezonja...Ivano Balic isn't around handball. Renato Sulic retired long ago. Toni Kukoc isn't in Croatian basketball. Just like Zvonimir Boban, Prosinecki, Soldo... Federations adore people like Suker, Vori, Stojko Vrankovic, Dino Radja, Slavko Goluza, Kruno Jurcic...limited intellect. Zoran Vulic discovered Dado Prso, but he can't get the chance.
You two have written a lot of things that are half truths or exagerations. All kinds of reasons about why some player didnt make it but not mentioning quality of the same players. If all these players succeeded we would be the only country in the world that is small but has more players of quality than Italy, germany and england combined. How do you guys envision this? In what world are you guys living? The gilbertson talks about Handball and waterpolo and talks about mentality while the teams are in the top of their sports but comming from a country that can not in any way be compared to even other little countries that are much better organised and have far more money. I really dont know what you guys expect? To be world champions in football, handball waterpolo and have the no 1 in tennis? You guys are deluded. Like cromagnum said, Rukavina had no brain, Livaja as well, Petkovic has done pretty well considering hes not the fastest player out there. Halilovics problem is simply quality. The tecnique of Rebic is nothing to write home about, etc, etc. Even with all this bad mentality and with a country thats poor compared to most european countries, after large numbers of migration in the last years, little investment etc I think we are doing pretty good. Better than any country of the same size with a much bigger economy. Whether wou look at Olympics or other things. I think mentality is one of our strong points. But I must be crazy. I read the danish newspapers after the danish girls lost for third plave in handball. You know what they were saying? Typical danish mentality. No, the croatian girls were just better. Thats all. I rest my case.
This is the problem, people constantly say about "small country Croatia". I only mention the sports where Croatia has tradition. There are many other small countries with a lot of medals at World Cups, EURO, Olympic Games. Croatia has 44 medals in both Olympic Games. We can also include Croatian participants during Yugoslav era, especially water sports, handball since 1960's, basketball... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-time_Olympic_Games_medal_table Belarus has 96. They have 9,6 millions of people. Bulgaria has 224 Cuba is a small island with 226 medals. Their island is like Hvar, Brac together. Plus they are always under sanctions, poverty... Czech-Slovakia had before 168 Czechs alone have 87 Slovaks alone have 36, Slovakia has 5,4 millions of people. Slovenia has 40 medals, but they have less residents than Croatia. Croatia likes to accent their results. Norway 520 medals. Yugoslavia had 94 medals which is pretty low number compared with Czech-Slovakia. Thailand has 33 medals and no one considers them as sports nation. Latvia has 28 medals, Lithuania 25. Jamaica 78. Hungary 498. Georgia 32. Estonia 41. So, what means "small", "big" here. Some smaller countries are close to Croatia or better. Even Yugoslavia didn't had a lot of medals. Hungary for example is very successful. I don't include here states with 30,50,150 millions of people. People fall easy on flattering words of different Croatian sports federations. So that they remain in power. Female, ladies categories mostly don't exist. Croatia is a macho state. Some exceptions are female Handball team who got their first major result in 2020. Bronze medal. Other countries care more for female categories. Croatian volleyball doesn't exist in any category. Old tradition in Croatia. Clubs have weak results in basketball, handball. KK CIBONA, KK SPLIT, KK ZADAR, KK CEDEVITA before, RK ZAGREB, RK METKOVIC, RK BJELOVAR, NK HAJDUK, RK PODRAVKA, different clubs with old socialist names like: MLADOST, JEDINSTVO, METALAC in different sports vanished. Male single tennis is vanishing, doubles seem good. Female tennis average: Donna Vekic, Petra Martic, Ana Konjuh. ATP TOUR UMAG is becoming very weak. No WTA TOUR of course. No more table tennis success, Zoran Primorac, Tamara Boros history. Positive flashes happen in alpine skiing: Filip Zubcic, others are bad, they participated because of close connections, they were mostly all kicked before few years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Croatian_alpine_skiers Ferk, Komsic, Misak, Palic, Stimac, Marinelli, Olivari, Siroki, Samsal...numerous. They often could not finish the race. Croatia is successful in sports. But there are smaller, slightly bigger with much more success. Results in football, rugby, basketball, volleyball could be much better. World Cups in football 2002, 2006, 2010 (no participation), 2014 were terrible. EURO 2000 (no participation), 2004 also terrible. When you compare this with number of good players, the overall success is average. Observe how many of them play in Champions League, Europa League... People say that Switzerland plays defensive, non-creative football, but they end in knock out stage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland_national_football_team Sweden has great results, also not some major country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_national_football_team 10 millions of people. Denmark, also very good. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark_national_football_team European champions, just like Greece. Some countries use their chances very well: Germany, France, Italy. Some don't: Croatia, Argentina, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Bulgaria, England...I think that Belgium won't use their talent a lot. Nice example of wasted generations is Cote d'Ivoire, Portugal in 1990's. Handball, water polo is played between 7-10 countries. Interesting, Hungary without sea is great in water polo. Croatia had more results in rowing before, sailing...today only Sinkovic brothers, Damir Martin... When you place the numbers on paper, it's good, but it could be better. Some countries are much more poorer, but they have nice results at Olympic Games. Next competition is in handball, again without gold medal I guess. But you know that there are many players in top European clubs. They took players from domestic league, so that they can sell them abroad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia_men's_national_handball_team PPD ZAGREB One of the weakest clubs in handball Champions League, zero victories. Why Jakov Gojun, Marko Kopljar, Manuel Strlek and numerous others from abroad don't play? Renato Sulic retired in 2008, but he played in great clubs until 2018. There are conflicts between players and Federation. The ultimate rulers for decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaženko_Lacković He retired in 2013, with great club career until 2020. Why coach Zvonimir Serdarusic can't train the NT? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zvonimir_Serdarušić His club managing career is much better tha career of Lino Cervar, Slavko Goluza. Why no one invited them in German, French, Spanish clubs? Kaffe und kolač story. https://www.24sata.hr/sport/kljaic-prate-me-i-prisluskuju-kao-u-americkim-filmovima-208477 So, he ordered cake abroad and he used the Croatian word. They know. It's enough to have good ties with Federations, talent isn't often important. So talented players sometimes avoid to play with handball, basketball NT. They force now the son of Nikola Prkacin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko_Prkačin Why would someone came from NBA, European clubs to play with KK CIBONA, KK SPLIT, KK ZADAR, KK CEDEVITA clubs? I follow some things in Croatian sport at least since 1994. Maybe it seems as half-true but there are numerous strange situations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia_men's_national_basketball_team Ante Tomic avoids basketball team. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ante_Tomić_(basketball) Barcelona, Madrid, Joventut?? But they create roasters consisted with domestic league players or from some exotic countries. Damir Markota, very untalented, but with good ties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damir_Markota He can't collect 2 seasons in each club. San Antonio selected, or Gregg Popovich, to be more clear. The story about transfer of Dario Saric in NBA, also amusing. If you mean on foreign investments in Croatia, that's funny to say. Foreign countries and their large companies just seek cheap labour force in Europe. People in Croatia don't want to work in Croatian tourism, in assembling industry, stores, construction...no money there. So companies rather placed their companies in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia... Would you work at coast for 4500-5000 Croatian kuna? 600 euros? Of course not, so hotel chains bring foreign workers. Audi placed their facility in Hungary, FIAT in Serbia...anyone can assemble cars, but companies seek cheaper force. IBM opened call centre in Croatia. This is accepted among people, no physical work. But in factories, hotels, bars, coffee shops people in Croatia hate that mostly. Low salary, high number of working hours. Stores work during weekends. Bars are opened since 6 AM until 2,3 AM. Silly. No one wants to renovate historic sites, no workers who are interested. Observe earthquakes in Zagreb, Sisak, Petrinja, Glina...older buildings collapsed or damaged. No one cares for physical work in Croatia. They rather drink coffee in Bogovic street in Zagreb or down town. Korzo in Rijeka, Riva in Split, Zadar full of coffee drinkers, maslina je neobrana. Nobody wants to harvest fruit, grapes, vegetables in Croatia, low earnings, owners are cheap, stingy. Olive, strawberry, tangerine, grape harvesting, shepherd business - never ending low paid jobs in Croatia. When Denmark cries about their defeat, this is bad, but when Croatia blames in every sport referees, heat, rain, court, hotels, this is acceptable? Before they begged for VAR, now VAR is bad, "it breaks the game flow". Or is it just bad outcome for Croatia. In male handball they blame refeerees since 1990's. At first there was Swedish lobby, in 2000's French, Danish lobby. The beds were small in hotels - one of the excuses. Croatian coaches like to find excuses.
All true what you wrote. And there are of course reasons for it. Koliko novaca toliko muzike.(especially the case with women sports). Also the fact that we are into team sports makes sure that we dont have a lot of individual sport people. Countries like Cuba win in a few sports they are specialists in like boxing and probably athletics. Same for Hungary, Bulgaria and other easterneuropean and scandinavian countries. Hungary always had a lot of individual athletes in athletics mostly. Same for Bulgaria. Our teams take a lot away from individual sports. Im pretty sure there are a lot of handball and basketball players who would have succes in athletics. In handball you can only win one medal. In for example skating dozens (Netherlands). Same for athletics and other sports. Jamaica mostly wins in athletics because of their genetics. It is what it is. If you ask anyone if he knows a famous Bulgarian athlete most would only know Stoichkov. And that weighlifter that competed for Croatia, lol. Anyone know a Hungaryan athlete? I cant really think of one. Swimming is their speciality since austrohungary. There are more swimming pools in Budapest than in the whole of Croatia. Its also what you invest in. In croatia there is no investment in individual sports, thats a family bussiness. Britain has won countless medals in these last years in cycyling. You can win a whole lot of them in one sport. They have the money to invest in this. But do you know any cyclist? I dont. Most of these medals of the easterneuropean countries like Hungary, Bulgarya and others came in communism I assume. I think they have slowed down since then. Scandinavians have their skiing and all forms of it. You can get a lot of medals in these disciplines. Things can be better, im sure. Croats can be thick. But im sure if you dive deep into any countries sporting culture you would find corruption. I dont think that we are much better or worse than anyone else. But my point to begin with was that in football its hard to talk about mentality when we puch above our wait for a very long time. Take Portugal for example. These people dont do anything else except football. have you ever heard about a famous athlete from Portugal that isnt a football player? He doesnt exist. I went through all these losses like you, angry. But when a man takes a step back he realises that its not so bad at all. I dont know if you have watched the long interview with Otto Baric on youtube. It was made a few months before he died. Great watch. He really made me laugh. When the interviewer asked him why after the succes of Croatia dit Yugoslavia do so poorly for years in tournaments, his answer was, maybe......... we were not good enough? lol. We all gladly find all kinds of reasons why we didnt make it. Quality is the last thing we want to look at. BUt all in all I agree with what you wrote. They could even be much better than they are now. I agree with your take on the economy as well. It is what it is.
There are much more poorer and smaller, or similar size just like Croatia. Brazil has 4 World Cup titles, more than wealthy Germany, France, England. Croatia was wealthier before 20-25 years than Poland, Czech, Slovakia...and further eastern countries. Who is guilty, because Croatia is behind them? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslavia_at_the_Olympics Some sports known from Yugoslavia vanished mostly after 1990. Federations promoted team sports, sports that attract more waves of patriotism. Wrestling can't attract 50 000 people. Just if you go in region Lika, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, you can find hundreds of strong people. Canoeing vanished... Gymnastics started to develop in Croatia, mostly northern Croatia. For handball, you don't need money, otherwise USA, UK, Netherlands, Belgium would be title holders. Yes Bulgarian Peshalov... But they have 224 medals... I don't include UK here, they have too many of people. 4 countries are part of UK. I know Anthony Edwards, Linford Christie..but I often don't follow Olympic Games..I watch what I currently see. They all also don't know about Croatian handballers. Croatian handballers are known in handball countries. Not in UK, Belgium, Finland... UK cricket layer is much more known in India than in Croatia. You don't know about Hungarians, because we don't care much. But medal is medal. Their gold values the same just like Croatian... Hungarians have water polo players...if you follow Croatian water polo you had to see Hungarians...their surnames are harder to remember. One competition was in Eindhoven. One swimmer is Cseh, other Gyarmaty, something like that. We don't know Hungarian at all. So we remember them harder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgaria_at_the_Olympics 19 in Athletics, they have Stefka Kostadinova, very popular there. Croatia doesn't know other sports figures from Balkan, they like to underestimate them. I also don't know much, haven't even visited cities like Sarajevo, Belgrade, Skopje, Montenegro, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria...we behave like they don't exist, we don't know their music, languages...but they handle well in Croatian. Portugal invests in handball, but average at Olympics. Few runners. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal_at_the_Olympics That's why I said. Portugal, Spain, England, Belgium invest a lot in football. They should get few World Cups more. Otto Baric can be objective, because he came from Austria, not from the local dungeon. He had weak players at EURO 2004. Nenad Bjelica played there, 34,35 years. But if you ask Bjelica, he will say about great Euro 2004 team: Ivica Mornar... Each competition brings 5,6 bad players, ready to pump the price for sale: Ante Coric, Niko Kranjcar, Tomo Sokota, Davor Vugrinec, Hrman... Manager of Mandzukic said that he is close to his father, and that his father asked him for help. So he could not end in Dinamo Zagreb in 2005, so he ended in Zagreb 2005. Only connections help. His manager is Ivan Cvjetkovic Tarzan...nice nickname, nothing questionable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Cvjetković Now he forces Mitrovic and says that he is great. He also said that he crossed coach Zlatko Dalic before 10 years. Bad person according to him. But Zdravko Mamic helps to Tarzan. He doesn't need puppet Dalic. https://www.transfermarkt.com/ivan-cvjetkovic/beraterfirma/berater/1118 He also manages Bruno Petkovic, justification that he is a team player... He rather assists instead of scoring. Matej Mitrovic is just like Tin Jedvaj. Zero. But at least we see sneaky managers from behind. Even if you are good, you still need to praise, beg... Mandzukic. See that I don't say half-truths...
What Croatia has done in sports is truly remarkable for such a small country. I don’t follow handball or waterpolo that much. In handball for example when they kept losing to France I believe they just lost to a better team. Basketball is the only sport where the results have been poor despite some good talent. Since Petrovic died the national pride for basketball has never been the same. In football Croatia has always been good but never will be as good as the big countries as economics and population it’s just not possible. The fact that the national team is this good despite the HNL being poorly run is truly remarkable. I remember the first time I saw Rukavina for Sibenik. This guy can run like the wind and could dribble. The more I watched the more I saw he had very little football brain and then started becoming a party guy once he went to hajduk which was the end of maybe a promising career. Halilovic thought he was Prosinecki. When you tell your coach I’m here to score and assist not run well then your never gonna make it in modern football. Only someone like Zuti could get away with that as he was so good technically . Petkovic is someone i admire as he’s very good technically but slow. He seems like a player who needs good kick in the ass from a coach to get him motivated as when he plays motivated he’s very good.
Yes, the results in some sports are excellent: handball, water polo and alpine skiing, but only Janica and Ivica Kostelic. Results in basketball are terrible, just like in volleyball. Results in football, tennis are solid, but not extraordinary. Uruguay is smaller, probably weaker economy, but they have 2 World Cups, 14 Copa America titles. Female team sports are terrible. Only handball team won bronze medal, but before they were weak. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia_women's_national_handball_team Yugoslavia was good, but no one kept it after. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslavia_women's_national_handball_team Basketball is bad because of Federation, incompetent. You see only Stojko Vrankovic, Jasmin Repesa, Dino Radja around. Destroyed clubs: Cibona, Split, Zadar, Zagreb, Zrinjevac. These clubs were once good, solid. Cibona, Split were European champions. They all have halls to play, we can't say no infrastructure. Halls were built for handball World Cup in 2009. Most sports are cheap to run. Only hotels, travelling are expensive. Some sports are expensive, you need equipment. France is too strong in handball, great league, talent. Croatia will be among top 5 at World Cup, with France, Spain, Denmark, maybe Germany, Sweden, Norway. Economy in football? Finland, Japan, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland should be the best in world. They can invest billions, clone 11 perfect players. Economy, country size don't mean much, because we see poor countries that are great in football. Germany invests a lot, but Brazil has better results. Argentina has better results than wealthier England, Netherlands, Belgium...etc. In Croatia: small country became empty excuse. They can create 20 great players every 10 years. But we see suspicious people behind players, in clubs, around clubs. Rukavina seemed more talented than Suker, Boksic...fast, technical. Later they forced weak Leon Benko... Petkovic would be good in 90's. Stand there and wait. Today you need to be like Sterling, Mbappe, Rashford, Benzema..probably best European attackers. This is faraway from Goretzka, Petkovic, Lewandowski...you need to help in defence in modern football. Players from 1990's would leave the game today after 30 minutes and they admit this. Central defensive players: Arturo Vidal, Kante, Marcelo Brozovic are specific class of mile collectors. Prosinecki would have physical issues today. But for 1990's he was excellent. Only special players can play for Real and Barcelona and avoid hatred. Bruno Petkovic has good connections, we must tolerate his lazy approach, lack of motivation. He doesn't use his height like Prso, Giroud... You saw Eduardo da Silva, when he turned against Mamic, he was nowhere, just like when Zlatko Kranjcar turned against Mamic, his son Niko vanished. Zvonimir Soldo left the bench of Dinamo Zagreb. No words or presence. Dinamo Zagreb will build the new stadium. Guess which stadiums they will use: NK OSIJEK, NK SESVETE, NK RIJEKA...their B teams. They won't play in Split. I am sure that Dalmatia would support Dinamo in UEFA matches. Just like normal fans of Dinamo like to see Hajduk as strong. But Federation created this artificial conflict, it really came out of nothing after 2000. Mislav Orsic, Lovro Majer, Ivanusec, Gvardiol, Nikola Moro seem as talented. Free kicks of Orsic are nice. Lovro Majer has something from Modric. He has that discipline. Northern Croatia has more discipline.
Uruguay win there last World Cup in the 50s when only 8 countries competed. Little bit of a difference there. A lot easier to get to the finals as not nearly as much competition. For me Croatia getting third place and second in the World Cup is a great accomplishment. Tennis the results have been good. Won the Davis cup twice and have multiple grand slam winners with Cilic and Ivansevic. Majoli of course in the woman’s tennis. I think Lucic would have won grandslam if not for the abuse from her father. She was right there with the Williams in talent but phycologically she could not recover from her crazy father. As far as football I think Croatia will always be good but never as good as the bigger nations. Having a Croatian win best footballer of the year is something I thought I would never see. Now everyone will never forget the name Luka Modric for what he accomplished for club and country. You mention Majer similar to Modric I personally don’t see it. He doesn’t run like Luka or have the quickness of Luka. Majer Looks like more like Niko Kranjcar to me then Modric. You mentioned Eduardo turning against mamic if he did not have his leg almost broken off he would have been an excellent player. Never the same after that injury. Similar with Pjaca exciting player but never the same after injuries to both Knees.
Mirjana Lucic, Silvija Talaja, Iva Majoli, Donna Vekic, Anja Konjuh seemed as talented. Mirjana Lucic was compared with Steffi Graf, semi-final of Wimbledon in 1999, Australian Open 2017. Big gap. Uruguay gained their continental titles later also. Croatia must wait 10 years to switch generation and get decent result. Great generations were at EURO 1996, 1998, EURO 2008, they could not enter at WC 2010. This would be a nice WC for Croatia. Shape from EURO 2008. After that EURO 2016, WC 2018. So, three main generations. In three decades. Too bad that they could not play due to war at EURO 1992, WC 1994. Probably knock out stages. Good results against Italy and Denmark in new qualification cycles. The wind of Split against Denmark, or bura, bora. Unusual goal. Can they create good shape for Qatar 2022? Probably not. Covid 19 made some players older for EURO 2021. But they could pass the group stage and lose in quarterfinals against France. So, EURO 2028 could be the best one. European teams reduced their quality a lot. No one good in East Europe, Balkan Peninsula (besides Croatia). So, Germany, Italy, Denmark, France, England, Belgium, Spain, Portugal seem as the best ones. Croatia can play good against Germany, Italy, Denmark. If things start well, it's possible to win against Spain, England. But Spain, England are not suitable for Croatia. Netherlands seems good. Croatia could play with them. It depends how talented they are. Netherlands was much more disappointed in France 1998. So, they lost against Croatia. Their generation was very talented. Today, Croatia could play against them. Belgium, you never know. Before 10,20 years, Croatia was better. Eden Hazard gained weight now. 7 kg only. But Lukaku, De Bruyne seem great. Portugal isn't suitable for Croatia. Teams that have Atlantic ocean exit are not suitable for Croatia. As you can see, nice number of European teams vanished: Czech, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Sweden, Norway, Scotland, Ireland. Smaller flashes of Wales, Northern Ireland, Finland...but they can't create new players. For creation of good players you need 10-20 millions of people. Portugal has 10,2 millions. Teams with less residents struggle and create great generations every 10,20 years. Austria has 8,8 millions, and it's a problem. Ireland, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Moldova, Norway, Slovakia have similar number of residents 4 - 5 millions. But it's silly to compare with them. Norwegians adore winter sports: ski jumps (Bredesen, Ljoekesoey, Brenden, Ingebrigtsen, Tande...), alpine skiing (Kjus, Aamodt...) Ireland likes rugby. Finland ice hockey. Denmark is comparable with Croatia. They both care for football, big rivalry in handball. Georgia, I don't know. Weightlifting... Moldova, sheep, goat milking. I know that they have Latin, Russian-Ukrainian and Turkic Gagauzia element. But number of residents doesn't mean much. India, USA, Venezuela, Russia, China, Iran should be the title holders. Economy doesn't mean much. You don't have to build futuristic stadiums so that you get big results: Qatar, USA, Korea, Japan, Australia have great stadiums, infrastructure... For football you need to have long tradition, faster development from 1930's to 1950's because of WW2. Newer era started with 1970's, after that in 1990's. After that in 2010's. So, I divide 5 football periods according to styles. The fifth period is that exhausting and running period. That's why it's silly to compare players from each period, decade. Mamic protected da Silva after Arsenal, he placed him in Donetsk with Darijo Srna, but love collapsed at court. Zlatko Kranjcar said: "Maybe I drink too much, but I don't use cocaine like someone". He banged the closed bar doors in Jordanovac quarter in Zagreb to get his Pelinkovac shots. During the night...for his stomach I guess. People started to dislike him when he coached Montenegro. And Niko Kranjcar was no longer invited. Something happened with Danijel Subasic also, love collapsed after World Cup 2018. There are doubts that he helped France with his bad defending style, his sign of cross was questioned. Serbian origins of his father. Crazy. Luka Modric has Serbian origins through his mother. No one pokes him about that. Josip Pivaric also vanished after his injury. He was pretty good at EURO 2016. Only if Domagoj Vida retires. That could open some space. Interesting, Tarzan was the manager of Domagoj Vida. Powerful manager if he can keep average player in NT. Matej Mitrovic will be pushed after Lovren. The 27 year old "youngster". Talented, only no one see this. Just remember how many articles about Mandzukic, where he will end? https://www.transfermarkt.com/ivan-cvjetkovic/beraterfirma/berater/1118 Now he has no club. Cvjetkovic said that he refused Manchester United, PSG, Barcelona...sure. At the end he will return in Dinamo, just like other old players. Or Osijek. Paid articles I guess. They write more about Petkovic than about Perisic, Brozovic... Pjaca can't extend his leg completely, I know the story about his injury. My friend had similar injury and he had the same surgeon just like Pjaca. Medical staff pressures your knee down, so that you can extend your leg. Only pain and tears. So many injured young players. My friend is amateur football player, futsal version on artificial grass. But he avoids football now. Many professional players lost their careers due to knee injuries. Medical institutions earn fortune on that. Players can be happy that they can walk normally. Pjaca is forcing himself only. He postpones the obvious outcome. Juventus, Fiorentina know that. So he had to end in weaker club. He and Perisic would be perfect LF, LAM, RF, RAM wingers. Petkovic could just stand 90 minutes and score 1 goal. Pjaca is much more direct, goal oriented than Perisic. Both very talented. Perisic is probably the captain and the coach on the field, while Dalic reads messages of Mamic. Ante Cacic didn't end in some bigger club. People realized his puppet story. Otto Baric was appreciated in Austria, but mocked in Croatia. Interesting, Croatian NT coaches have mostly average careers abroad. Mamic pushes his godfather Niko Kovac in Monaco, he aids to Slaven Bilic. Prosinecki had some illness. Not sure why Nikola Jurcevic doesn't coach anyone. Same origins like Mamic. Blazevic never had career after WC 1998. He just yelled: Ajmo, ajmo, run, run". This can pass with talented generation, when they play alone as they wish. Croatia is bad in creating coaches. Nenad Bjelica seems good. Even Zoran Mamic seems good. He was solid as player also. He knew how to keep the ball. I remember Zlatko Dalic from Varteks, weak player. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zlatko_Dalić Never saw him in Hajduk. He doesn't mention that he played in Montenegro just in the eve of wars in Yugoslavia. He played for Velez Mostar, pro-Yugoslav club. He flourished in Varteks, if we can say the word flourish. Very limited person and coach. Cacic seemed much brighter. Dalic picked 5,6 sentences and he juggles with them: "We must play together, as team. If we play together, we will get good result. I trust in my players, they are responsible for our success". Incompetent, but with good players it's possible to have results. Spain, France outplayed him completely. Portugal also. Why don't they get some foreign expert like Klopp, Mancini...Dalic is funny with his Varazdin, Zagorje Region accent: po-stici, rezul-tat, na-praviti. Mismatching dialects of Shtokavian Ikavian from Livno and Kajkavian Ekavian from Zagorje.
Your posts are way to long lol. I think most people know that modric mother is serbian. Not a big deal many are of mixed origin.Petrovic Ibrahimovic Prosinecki and many more. Lucic was really all about her crazy father why her career was not a big success. Feel bad for her. Agree with you on pjaca. Will never be the same. Shame as he was a big talent. As for Dalic he’s a good motivator tactically limited like most Croatian coaches. Cacic should have stayed as a television repair man lol.
My working time is so long. So, I must fill the time with something, forum, online games, tv streams.... Yes, no big deal, but Blazevic blamed Prosinecki, because of his mother, Dado Prso was questioned, fans of Dinamo provoked Milan Badelj...although his father was in Croatian army...funny Balkan. I recognise Tomislav Ivic as great coach, real club career, not only domestic league. Slaven Bilic, Niko Kovac, Zlatko Kranjcar, Igor Stimac were average. In crucial matches against stronger opponents they collapse. Cacic can't repair tv machines, we have now 4K, 8K, new technology compared with old Philips, Grundig, Sanyo, Blaupunkt sets.
Marko Rog torn his ACL December 23rd against AS Roma and will not be available for NT selection for the next 9 months. Real shame, he was getting serious minutes at Cagliari Calcio. Meaning he will be missing the Euro's this summer. The midfield selections for Euro's this coming summer will probably be these players now: CM - Mateo Kovacic(Chelsea), Luka Modric(Real Madrid),Mario Pasalic(Atalanta) and Toma Basic(Bordeaux) DM - Marcelo Brozovic(Inter Milan) and Milan Badelj(Genoa) AM - Nikola Vlasic(CSKA Moscow) Not too many options in that midfield. Post Euro's you need to start looking at players like Nikola Moro(Dinamo Moscow) and Ivan Sunjc(Birmingham City).
I agree with cromagnum that its not sure Majer will have a great carreer. He improved very much this last period. But imo the jury is still out on him. The way de Bruine plays should be his rolemodel. Just like him he is a guy where his strongest point is his left foot. He is not a real winger and not a real cm. Should be playing as some kind of playmaker. We will see. I do think he is more athletic than Kranjcar but i get the comparison. Last year I already had written him off but he surprise everyone. He can still come good. And gilbertson, you write a lot but I like your passion. You are a real sportsmaniac. I have been called that a lot myself. I cant wait for the tournament. Think we will be pretty strong.
Cheers epicurus! My comparison to Kranjcar was due to lack of athleticism and not so good defensively. Majer does have excellent vision and a good left foot. I think he will have a similar career to Niko. As for Euros I think we can make a run if Luka plays like he’s playing now. Defense needs to improve though. Conceded way to many goals lately. I’m a big fan of Gvardiol. I believe he can start right now for the national team.
I watched different sports much before than today. So, I understand las 5-10 years of different events. You noticed that Ivan Cvjetkovic "Tarzan" placed Mandzukic in AC Milan. I guess with Mamic brothers. How else you could place inactive player in such club. It seems that Dalic and Dinamo Zagreb act now some invented conflict, where Dinamo pushes their players and Dalic is acting his independence and he is refusing Dinamo players. So obvious, so that they bring fans after Covid 19 ends.
Zlatko Dalic called up the squad for the WC qualifiers this month against Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta. No big surprises here. He did take 24 players and 5 players on standby. Except for Marko Rog who is out till the summer, everyone else is healthy and available for selection. He will need to make 1 cut come summer, but i believe that the squad for the summer is in the list here. I am guessing he will cut one of the fullbacks here, as i can't see us going into Euro's with 8 defenders. Callups for the Slovenia, Cypurs i Malta: Vratari: Lovre Kalinić, Dominik Livaković, Simon Sluga Braniči: Domagoj Vida, Dejan Lovren, Šime Vrsaljko, Borna Barišić, Duje Ćaleta-Car, Dario Melnjak, Filip Uremović, Josip Juranović Vezni: Luka Modrić, Mateo Kovačić, Marcelo Brozović, Milan Badelj, Mario Pašalić, Nikola Vlašić Napadači: Ivan Perišić, Andrej Kramarić, Ante Rebić, Josip Brekalo, Bruno Petković, Mislav Oršić, Ante Budimir Standby callups: Mile Škorić, Toma Bašić, Marin Pongračić, Ivo Grbić, Kristijan Lovrić
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_–_UEFA_Group_H 4-3-3 (GK) Livakovic Defenders: Vrsaljko-Lovren-Caleta Car and someone Central players: Modric-Kovacic-Brozovic Attackers: Perisic-Kramaric-Orsic Substitutes: Vida, Uremovic, Pasalic, Vlasic, Brekalo. Rebic, Petkovic - injured With Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Croatia can play with 3 attackers. Dinamo Zagreb created new wave of optimism after their match against Tottenham in Europa League. After 0-2 in London, Dinamo won 3-0 in Zagreb.
Borna Sosa has decided to play for Germany in his senior national team career. This was a shocking descision but I blame Dalic and hns mostly on this. Dalic played barisic and Melnjak in front of Sosa even though Sosa is a much better player. Sosa though I believe made a career descision and not one with his heart as no way would anyone who loves Croatia choose another country. So money I guess more important to him then national pride in your country.
Borna Barisic must play. Borna Sosa knows this, just like everyone else. Not so shocking, if you start to read about Borna Barisic. Nothing to do with football.