Right, might be in Dubrovnik during the second week of May. Thus, am keen to find out, whether any games might be on. Basically, I know the top division splits after each team plays each other home and away - two groups of six, where teams play each other (once or twice?) Top group for the championships, the bottom group - to stay up. Now, to make things difficult, Dubrovnik's local team - HNK GOSK (who play at the Lapad Stadium, I gather) - are in the Second League South. The teams have played each other on home-and-away basis, with GOSK second bottom (and that after a fine run of 11 points in 5 matches, after picking up 9 points in the first 17 games). The question is - what happens next? - a round of games with two groups of six? Any good internet resource for this? The Croat sites I found so far seem to be patchy and inconclusive. Any help greatly appreciated.
Normally, the league splits into two mini-leagues of 6. Each playing each other home and away. This is what I found on rsssf.com. It would appear the top 3 and the bottom 5 are segregated. Odd. I'm only aware of what they do in the HNL. This is just confusing. Code: 1 Hrvatski dragovoljac Zagreb 21 11 7 3 41:25 40 --> Play-off 2 Solin Grada 21 11 5 5 41:37 38 --> Play-off 3 NK Novalja 21 10 5 6 31:19 35 --> Play-off 4 Segesta Sisak 21 9 7 5 38:26 34 5 Mosor Žrnovnica 21 8 10 3 36:25 34 6 NK Šibenik 21 9 9 3 31:16 33 [-3] 7 Pomorac Kostrena 21 9 4 8 30:28 31 8 NK Imotski 21 6 5 10 22:32 23 --> Play-out 9 Croatia Sesvete 21 6 3 12 27:36 21 --> Play-out 10 Naftaš Ivanic Grad 21 6 3 12 28:40 21 --> Play-out 11 [B]GOŠK 1919 Dubrovnik 21 4 5 12 15:41 17 --> Play-out[/B] 12 Uskok Klis 21 4 3 14 17:32 15 --> Play-out
Aha! Here is the latest table'from Croatian Sportnet: Tablica (ukupno) Poz Klub Uta Pob Ner Por Razlika pog. Bod 1 H. dragovoljac 22 12 7 3 45 : 25 +20 43 2 Novalja 22 11 5 6 33 : 19 +14 38 3 Solin 22 11 5 6 41 : 39 +2 38 4 Mosor 22 9 10 3 38 : 25 +13 37 5 Segesta 22 9 8 5 38 : 26 +12 35 6 Šibenik 22 9 10 3 30 : 16 +14 34 7 Pomorac 22 9 4 9 30 : 29 +1 31 8 Naftaš Ivanić 22 7 3 12 29 : 40 -11 24 9 Imotski 22 6 5 11 22 : 36 -14 23 10 Croatia Sesvete 22 6 3 13 27 : 38 -11 21 11 GOŠK 22 5 5 12 17 : 41 -24 20 12 Uskok 22 4 3 15 18 : 34 -16 15 By the way - www.rsssf.com - what an awesome amount of stats! But how did you manage to bring up Croatian second tier for this season? Looking at last-season's archived stats, I find that the second tier gets split into 2 sixes as well (I think on the table you provided, it assigned the play-off places for those teams who already clinched them at the time). Looking at last year - the first stage finished a week earlier than this year (probably 'cos of Euro 2004) and the regular season in the Second Division finished on Sat, the 8th, so I have reasons to believe, that I might be in for a lovely double-header on Saturday the 14th - last day of the season in Croatia, with GOSK fighting relegation and then a quick race to a sportsbar to catch Liverpool-Villa last day of the season. Now, would be nice to get a fixture list for the second stage somewhere. Anyone any ideas?
Well, obviously they didn't update last weekends results. I now understand that it hasn't finshied yet, whch would explain only three teams been given promotion playoff spots. All starting to make sense. As for the second-stage, I would imagine it hasn't been drawn yet. Could be wrong. I'll have a check.
http://www.nogomet.com/ Can't find anything though. btw: Are you going on holiday to Dubrovnik? Its really beautiful......
Yeah, they only finished the first stage yesterday. But I reckon they should do the draw by the end of the week. The footy federation's site does not seem to be terribly conclusive about the Second Tier. I did find out that GOSK played in front of 500 people in their last home match - another shock victory.
This seems to be a decent site: http://www.sportnet.hr/Stranica_v2.asp?S=nogomet Yeah, should be booking it in the next couple of days. Been meaning to go for a while and finally getting the chance. Surprisingly enough, despite the old Russo-Serb alliance, the Spartak Moscow fans who went to Croatia for an Intertoto match last summer, were very well received by the locals. So, that would be interesting, considering our Serbian mates wrecked Dubrovnik early doors in the Yugoslav civil war.
Yeah, they just finished the first phase and they haven’t drawn the schedule for the second stage. Gošk were created 5-6 years ago by a local businessman/politician who couldn’t get his way in the than 2. Division NK Dubrovnik. He started from the 5. League and used his connections to destroy NK Dubrovnik which ceased to exist last year ( I think they’re trying to re-start from the bottom now). So GOŠK is mostly viewed as one man project and doesn’t get much support. The stadium is very small and grass is coming through the stands. Football isn’t even the biggest sport in Dubrovnik, It’s water polo. Jug will probably be playing for the title when you come there. Even their basketball team is having a very good season . Dubrovnik itself is a well marketed rip-off
Gosh, foreigners talking about Croatian Second Division. I really thought I'll never see that happening. Second Division is very underestimated here, and very badly covered in media. Nobody is really interested in it, except maybe those towns who have their clubs in the Second Division.
Footy has an appeal to me that water polo and basketball simply don't, although I would watch B-ball if I chance upon it. So, GOSK are a mafia club then? Any idea where NK Dubrovnik might be playing now or any internet references to them. I did notice that the name is mantioned on older web pages. Has the club been refounded by the fans, AFC Wimbledon-style?
Any particular less touristy places you can recomend in the area of Dubrovnik, especially the islands? Also, is it easy to go over to Montenegro for a day or two?
If I understand correctly, the old Dubrovnik team (the one that's been ruined) has been refounded as "Dubrovnik 1919". Is this correct? Can any Croats kindly provide any info on them? (waves)
Yeah, the impression, I got when going there was that basketball and Polo were the big sports, Tennis even on a rec level. Football seems to bigger inland as it were, in Varazdin, Zagreb, Osijek etc.
Sorry to have kept you waiting 1. I wouldn’t say GOŠK are a mafia club. I don’t think the guy who sponsors them is a major criminal, just your regular east European privatization profiteer. 2. Dubrovnik 1919 are in the 5. level and nobody cares. 3. As to the less touristy places, well all of the islands are quite beautiful, lokrum and šipan are right in front of Dubrovnik so it ‘s easy to go there if you’re already in Dubrovnik . Go to Mljet, Korčula, or Vis if you have the time. Montenegro is also beautiful, but don’t expect quality service there. @Ganu football is by far the most popular sport in croatia, there are only 2 cities where it’s #2, Dubrovnik and Zadar.
You're right about Zadar (basketball) and Dubrovnik (waterpolo), but you forgot about Metković (handball).
With a thread about croatian football league and few Croats here, it would be a shame not to update often with news about our league here.. So, for a start, I shall announced matches that are to be played this saturday. Championship League: Zagreb - Hajduk - Zagreb managed to beaten Hajduk 3 times this season. Will they beat them again, we shall see ( I hope so ) Varteks - Rijeka - Rijeka need this to win if are to stay in Championship race with Hajduk and Inter Inter - Slaven - Inter are my favourites for champion since dinamo is in other league so, go Inter Relegation League Medjimurje - Dinamo - will Dinamo win this,well,my question is, will dinamo score a goal in this match 'cause they haven't score a goal last 4 games... Zadar - Kamen - Zadar will probably win this, they're last and need to win this,so probably will Kamen players get some stimulations (money) to play easy and harmless like against Medjimurje 3 rounds ago... Pula - Osijek - match that decides nothing
After Dinamo lost their chances of winning the title I focus my fan energy on Zadar being relegated. But after a win over Dinamo in the last round, that doesn't look so possible, unless Dinamo loses to Medjimurje now.(quite possible, though ). I hoped Zagreb could be the champion, but everything indicates that Hajduk will manage to defend the title.
First player to be assigned by Dinamo for the next season will be attacker Josip Simic, brother of Milan defender Dario Simic who also announced that is interested in joining Dinamo for the next season as a loan player of AC Milan.. Josip Simic turn down an offer from Club Brugge and will sign a one year contract with Dinamo. He played last in Korea, and before that in Aris, Club Brugge, Dinamo and some others clubs. As a young player, during Miroslav Blazevic at Croatia national team helm, he had several caps for Croatia and was named as best player during international tournament in Korea in the late 90's.
I think we could turn this into the HNL thread. We'll crack open a proper one for next season. Great to see some Croat posters here....
Hm, Josip Šimić, really don't know what to think about that guy. I personally hated him as a player, but I don't have anything against his return now, especially not when I see clowns like Zahora. Šimić showed how talented he was in '98 Champions League (the lob against Ajax!), but played terrible in '99 Champions League. If he had scored just the half of his chances against Manchester and Marseille Dinamo would have ended at least as runners-up of the group. But I welcome him back, we could use any help now, really.
Dinamo continues to insult their fans, lost 2-1 to Medjimurje. No comment... Inter is now only two points behind Hajduk and have good chances of winning the title. I definetly hope they'll do it...