Croatians all over the world are mourning our national team's inability to secure a World Cup berth in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup. What makes it even worse is that we still have a game left in qualification against Kazakhstan in Astana this Wednesday. Even though Croatia are not yet mathematically eliminated, only a Croatia win and an Andorran draw/win miracle against Ukraine would give the Vatreni that all important playoff spot.
With the national team currently in shambles; the question we should all be asking ourselves is: Should Bilić treat this as a friendly and experiment with younger and unproven players or play the best possible team hoping for the result of the millennium from Andorra?
As it lies, Croatia is already running on half a tank of gas as the injury bug will keep Eduardo, Mladen Petrić, Ivica Olić, Luka Modrić, Ivan Jurić and Stipe Pletikosa out of the squad. If you think it couldn't get worse, both central defenders, Ivica Križanac and Josip Šimunić, have been kicked out of the squad for fighting each other last week. Both extended olive branches the next morning. That's eight regulars which will be out of the squad.
With that, the squad has to be experimental with some new blood in the starting lineup- but to what extent? Let's see what Bilić does in potentially his last game in charge as Croatian manager. The only way all this can get even worse is if Andorra pulls off the miracle draw but Croatia doesn't win in Kazakhstan. What would we do with ourselves then?
PREDICTION: CROATIA WINS EASILY 4-1 WITH GOALS FROM JELAVIĆ, MANDŽUKIĆ AND TWO FROM NEW-COMER MATE BILIĆ.
ROBERT KOVAČ has said the Kazakhstan match will be the last of his international career. Kovač has wilted as age and fitness has become a factor for him since Euro 2008. The eventual spark which lead to Kovač's retirement talk was his red card against England in 2008 at Maksimir. UEFA handed Robert a three-game suspension which was later rescinded after an appeal.
Kovač's match against Kazakhstan will be number 83 for him in the red and white checkers. The only blip on his international resume is that he was never fortunate in scoring a goal for Croatia. The man is a Croatian legend; just like his big brother and former Croatia captain Niko Kovač.
~ANTE KVARTUČ, reporting from San Pedro
Thanks to Ivana Đaković for the video
PREDICTION: CROATIA WINS 2-0 WITH GOALS FROM JELAVIĆ AND MANDŽUKIĆ
For those of you gamblers out there and those of you that actually think Andorra has a shot at victory, Bet365 has Andorra at 50-1 for a win, and Ukraine is 1-100 for a win.
~Denis Svirčić, reporting from Lakerville(It's back)
42 comments:
What about a draw Denis, what about a draw?!?!
That's all we really need. Can it happen? Someone once said that Croatians are more Catholic than the Pope. This would be a fantastic time to cash in eh?...
Who are we kidding? Look forward to hanging out with the national team when they come to Kalifornija in the summer.
never say never, unless its Andorra..
Luxembourg beat Switzerland, and the swiss are a draw away from the world cup...haha
its over. I have not checked out the time of the game tomorrow and if it is at the same time as the Ukraine-Andorra game. If the Andorra game is first and we already know that Ukraine has won, I would not be surprised if we lost to the Kazaks...We have nothign to play for and I am sure most of the guys just want to get back home to their club teams.
The game times are the same.
Watch live FREE U21 Croatia-Serbia at 8:30 am pacific time at www.atdhe.net Its a euro qualifier in Varazdin where players like Badelj, Barbaric, Lovren, Kramaric, Perisic, Badelj, Jajalo, Maloca, Oremus are all expected to start. Good luck to some of our up and coming national team players.
People that are saying the Kazak game doesnt matter, It does matter, right now we are in the first pot for the Euro 2012 campaign, anything but a win could drop us to the second pot, We need a good win in the Kazak game
AGreed that it does matter in terms of 2012 seeding, but tell that to the players. I'm sure that is the last thing on their mind right now.
Perhaps being the non-group favourite would do us good.
They seem to play better when they are the underdog.
croatia up 2 - 0 against serbia in U21
some light for croatia's future
10 man croatia scores to make it 3-1!!
I watched the game and Croatia looked excellent..Money wise the Serbian team is currently worth about double what our players are worth..Just Sulejmani from Ajax is supposedly worth about 8 million euro..Our players were fighting and hustling for every loose ball..Oremus hit an amazing shot left footed in the upper left corner from about 20 meters out..What really impressed me about our team was how they reacted after Serbia scored..A few minutes after we put together some nice offensive plays..Ljubicic put away a nice goal by placing the ball in the far corner past the Serbian keeper..Kramaric also had a nice cool finish for the second goal..I hope this team can qualify for the U21 Euro Championships..We haven't had a convincing result in youth tournaments in awhile..
Woo Cmon Kramaric - would like to see this form in a Dinamo shirt. Reja seems to have given Oremus a new leash of life.
Oremus got a red card, so he's out of next match.
Markovic just said hes sticking with bilic for two more years....
heres a cool betting website i found, it starts you off with $.25 and you work ur way up (u cant use ur own money). if ur gona try use this link so i get a referal bonus:
http://www.wagers4free.com/sign_up/signup.php?referrer=lukamaric
If only we would play like this against every team not just serbia with that pride and just hunger to win...and i lived in Varazdin when i was younger im surprised it wasnt more full of fans....if they knew how much us in america would love to be at the games they would go to every single game...
The Croatian players will be playing this summer...
Look for LA CROATIA and SP CROATIA to be making calls to bring a couple forwards for the tournament summer of 2010...
3-1 Croatia YES this feels so go to beat those loser Serbs.
@Andrej...The U-21s were in the US a few years ago and the attendance at their matches were low in Chicago and Toronto area. Nobody cares about seeing the youth teams, only interested in the big boys.
I can't even begin to pretend to care about this match. First pot for qualifying in Euro 2012, are you serious? We were in the first pot for 2010, and what did that get us? Being in that pot guarantees NOTHING, Croatia always does better when not favoured anyways.
Add that to the fact that Savez is not going to axe Bilic and you have one disgusted fan in me. I realize Croatia is unlikely to ever win a world cup, but not qualifying is simply unacceptable. I don't care who the replacement is, but Bilic needs to go much like Mclaren did when Croatia knocked England out. No tournament, no job. Someone has to be held accountable.
Change needs to be made and made NOW.
If Bilic keeps his job i will cancel my croatian citizenship.
I Agree Rob,Bilic Must Go,its obvious the squad has lost respect for him & his rock star lifestyle,Im preety sure he will resign after the Kazakh game,anything u hear that he will be staying on etc. are all rumors,Bilic Must Go Full Stop..Its the only solution..
As for the Kazakh game, I HOPE CROATIA LOOSE, & i hope UKRAINE WIN, because as a passionate Cro fan i feel as tho they do not deserve to be in WC 2010, Even if things worked out in there favor & they made it to S.A.
Ask your self the question just how far would they go playing horrible football as they are at the moment, NOT VERY FAR, things dont just change over night, theyve been playing like school yarders since preety much the start of the campaign & that is a sign that things need to be changed..
I hope missing out on the World Cup will hurt the players for years & years to come, because u have to learn,u dont get many chances & the last missed 1 might be your last..
Markovic offered Bilic a 2 year extention because he is still relatively popular with the people. Its all politics... However, I believe Bilic will decline the extention and search for a club job at a lower level EPL team or maybe somewhere in Germany.
I believe the recent call ups of some of the players (Jelavic, Bilic, etc) will provide great motivation for the game against Kazahkstan.. They want to show themselves to potentially a new coach that they are worthy of a future national team call up.
Also, good point about the pot situation. A loss or draw will almost surely see us in POT B when EURO 2012 qualifying comes around.
For those of you even thinking about an Andorra draw against Ukraine, you're out of your minds. NO WAY IN HELL ITS GONNA HAPPEN!
Ukraine's C squad can beat Andorra.
I was pretty impressed with the U-21 today. Not mentioning the result, the way they played together was fantastic. The passing amongst each other, the hustle in midfield was great. Yes, they did committ a few reckless challenges that resulted in yellow cards/red card, But maturity down the line will eliminate those mistakes. I must say their performence was very good.
Many players from Bosnia & Serbia will make names for them selves after this tournament - WC South Africa, these are the players i believe will be very sought after & end up at better clubs after the WC..
BOSNIA
1. Edin Dzeko
2. Vedad Ibisevic
3. Zvjezdan Misimovic
4. Miralem Pjanic
SERBIA
1. Marko Pantelic
2. Ivan Obradovic
3. Neven Subotic
4. Bosko Jankovic
Croatia will have to wait another 4long years before underated players can make a name for them selves & big clubs take notice..
@razor
Dzeko & Misimovic are already star players. They're the main reasons why Wolfsburg won the BUNDESLIGA last year. Dezko, in particular, was offered a contract to play for AC Milan this year and DECLINED!
Can anyone tell me what site the game will be streaming live on?
Even though nobody seems to care about the matches tomorrow I think I'll go ahead and make a few ridiculously specific predictions.
Croatia v Kazakhstan:
Croatia will open up the scoring with a goal from Jelavic early on but the first half will end 1-0. Croatia won't score again until after 70' with a goal from Bilic (as a sub) and then another from Jelavic. However, Kazakhstan will embarrass our defense when Sergei Ostapenko scores shortly after 50'. Match ends 3-1 for Croatia.
Ukraine v Andorra:
Ukraine will score after 15' with a header by Shevchenko and he will hit the post within a minute after but the half will end 1-0. In dramatic fashion Andorra will get the unrealistic hopes of Croatia fans like myself up and be awarded a penalty kick, which Fernando Silva will convert, in 65' to equalize. Gai will score 2 for Ukraine between 75' and 82' to shut my cheering for Andorra up. To top it off, Ukraine will be awarded a penalty in 92' and Shevchenko will convert it. Match ends 4-1 Ukraine.
If this prediction comes true, I don't think a t-shirt will suffice (Ante and Denis, don't get me wrong, I would love a CSR t-shirt). All the CSR readers should pitch in to send me on a little 3 week holiday in Croatia next summer.....
@Croman13
http://www.zhibo8.com/english.htm
http://www.atdhe.net/
These don't have a link posted yet but I've always found one on one of the two sites.
Also,
www.myp2p.eu
Create an account (it's free), it claims to have 2 channels for the match available but if one works I doubt it will be good quality.
Oh, and one more thing. I do understand that Andorra has a snow ball's chance in hell of even getting a draw, especially since Ukraine know that a win guarantees a playoff spot. And it seems that most of us agree that Croatia does not deserve a playoff spot at this point but if Andorra by some miracle manages a draw, then Ukraine won't deserve a playoff spot just as Croatia doesn't now. So after tomorrow if Croatia were to go through, not only would I go see a clinical psychologist to make sure I wasn't living in my own fantasy world but I would say that we deserve it.
Im glad slaven bilic is going to stay. He won WAAAY more games with croatia then we lost. We were cursed with injuries since eduardo broke his leg...we never had our complete squad!!! Therefor we couldn't beat Ukraine home and away and england...but slaven is a smart man. he will turn this around. Just have faith in him. And have faith in Andorra!!! They can tie Ukraine...we should of beaten Ukraine TWICE, but we were just unlucky!!!!
Dont forget to give a little prayer to Andorra!! Its in their and gods hands to help us join the World Cup.
You're living a dream. Other then the Euros he hasn't done anything to bring my confidence in him again. His tactics against England were exceptionally horrid, and not only gave the English motivation, but gave them the opportunity to defeat them. Largest defeat in Croatian History and the first time not qualifying the WC, and you want to keep him?
Okay REMEMBER WHEN WE BEAT ENGLAND "TWICE"!!!! GUESS WHO WAS COACH!!! SLAVEN BILIC!!!!!!! I BET HE WAS YOUR FAVORITE COACH IN THE WORLD BACK WHEN HE WAS WINNING. YOU'RE AN IDIOT!! YOU CANNOT ALWWAYS WIN EVERY STUPID GAME!!! THE BEST TEAMS SOMETIMES SLIP. WE LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES AND CONTINUE ON!!!!! ARSEN WENGER DIDNT WIN A TROPHY IN A WHILE...SHOULD HE RESIGN. JOSE MOURINHO DIDNT WIN EVERY TIME...DID HE RESIGN???? CIRO BLAZEVIC WASNT ALAWAYS SUCCEFULL...SHOULD HE RESIGN?????
SLAVEN IS A LEGEND. AND YOU KNOW HE IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE JOB. We're 9th in the world....
@Deno
You're an idiot. Comparing club coaches to national team coaches is comparing apples and oranges. First of all, Jose Mourinho didn't resign at Chelsea, he got fired. Strike 1.
Second point, the average stint for a coach at national team level is 4 YEARS no matter if the guy is successful or not. Sir Alex Ferguson has been managing Man United for almost 25 years. Have you heard of any national team coach coming close to that?? HALF THAT? Strike 2.
Point 3, Bilic last beat England 2 years ago. Unfortunately for him and every other coach in every other sport, its a "what have you done for me lately" situation. HE DIDNT NEED TO BEAT ENGLAND TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS. This team is twice as talented as Ukraine we couldn't get past them on points with them DRAWING against Belarus! STRIKE 3.. your arguement is out
and and BTW, Ciro led his team to 3rd place of the World Cup. Slaven Bilic's best finish is the EURO 2008 quartefinals. MIROSLAV BLAZEVIC FAILED to qualify for EURO 2000 after taking his team to 3rd PLACE in the 1998 WC. WAS HE RETAINED AFTER THAT??
If there was such a thing as a STRIKE 4... you'd get it buddy
THE VIDEO IS HILARIOUS!!! LMAO
UR AN IDIOT!!!. Who is better then bilic...tell me!!! WHo DO YOU WANT TO BE Croatias NEXT coach....YEP thats right, there is no one better. How can you fire someone that has done more good then bad. Do you think Capello could of done a better job with Croatia??? HELL FUCKIN NO!!! WHEN YOU have injuries like we did....there is not much you can do.
And according to markovic...slaven just signed another two year contract...so suck it buddy.
If it wasnt for Slaven we might of not have Niko In the EPL, we might of never seen eduardo on the national team. We might of never seen luka in the EPL or the national team...SO GIVE THE GUY SOME CREDIT!!!! YOU Think he doesnt know that we need better defenders, do u think slaven doesnt know he needs to be tougher we the squad, do u think stupid or something.
If there is a guy smarter then him who can coach the team...yeah, go ahead...bring him in. But there is nobody. Stimac???fuck that.
Branko Ivankovic, Zoran Vulic, Ivo Susak, Elvis Scoria, Martin Novelselac are all just as qualified as Bilic. It does not appear HNS has the intelligence to appoint a quality foriegn coach. I'm not talking big names here either. Look what Bielsa did with Chile. You can find just a decent coach and they do a fine job. How about Aguirre formerly of Mexico and Athletico, i reckon he could do a good job with Croatia. Co Adrianse or Otmar Hitzfeld - there are people out there in my opinion. All these people are more qualified than Bilic.
I'm sorry but if Croatia selects Bilic then Simunic and Krizanac will stay banned and Dino Drpic will be in Croatia's central defence. Croatia need to move on from Bilic. Ivankovic will be better. If one of those experienced Croatian coaches got the job i'd back them 100%.
@Rob....your comment that not qualifying is simply unacceptable makes me shake my head. Really, we are small nation of less than 5 million people. Teams like Holland, France, England, Russia have not qualified for major tournaments in the past 15 years and yout think us now qualifying is unacceptable.
Our diaspora has saved this national team from not qualifying in other years. The lack of grown talent is terrible and we are now paying the price for it. We should have been knocked out for other tourneys, but players born outside of Croatia have saved the national team.
And some of you guys need to go to school and learn how to read the croatian language. Markovic never offered Bilic a new 2-year deal. What he did say is that if it was up to him, he would give Bilic 2-years now. But, he did not offer him anything. The exec. committee of the federation will decide on that.
The way it looks at the moment we are not going to Africa. our dreams our ambitions are gone down the drain. Next summer will hurt even more when the tournament starts not seeing Croatia there but seeing Possibly Slovenia Bosnia and Serbia will make things even more painful. we are far better then alot of teams at the World Cup and alot of teams in Playoffs Including as it looks Ukraine. but bad luck and England's unsportsmanlike loss to Ukraine. just to put us out is a shame.
@michael
"Perhaps being the non-group favourite would do us good.
They seem to play better when they are the underdog."
Are you serious? Listen to what you are saying.
I agree in the past Croatia has played well against the better teams and suffers draws at Malta, Slovenia, Bulgarias and Macedonias, however, would you honestly want a Spain, England, Germany or Italy in your group?
A seed gives us huge advantage to qualification for Euro 2012. Obviously, this doesnt mean that we show up and advance.
With a seed, its possible to have Russia, Serbia, Bosna, and Slovenia in the same group. Not easy. Still up to lady luck.
@Andrej
Yes, I was surprised with the fan turnout. I'm sure tickets were like 5 kuna or something.
Just for the record, the Croats and Serbs didn't exchange shirts after the match.
"if they knew how much us in america would love to be at the games they would go to every single game..."
true, however, sometimes you dont know what you have until you lose it. If you had the U21 team in your backyard, I'm sure that you would miss a game every now and then.
@Rob
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(UEFA)
"First pot for qualifying in Euro 2012, are you serious? We were in the first pot for 2010, and what did that get us? Being in that pot guarantees NOTHING"
take a look at the above look and the pots.
pot 1, Croatia
pot 2 we draw the best-England,
pot 3 ended up impressing as Denmark, Swiss, and Serbia qualified direct and Ireland made playoffs... however, we drew the second best(on paper) Ukraine
pot 4, 5, and 6 we got lucky, however, those are the bottom feeders anyways.
Luck wasn't on our side in the draw.
"Croatia always does better when not favoured anyways."
not this time, look at England. We dont always win against big boys, look at us in tournaments. And in qualifying, besides England EUro 2008, we were favored against almost everyone. Belgium and Sweden are not big boys.
@Dan
"If Bilic keeps his job i will cancel my croatian citizenship."
You cant be serious. If you are and do cancel your citizenship, email me proof and I will ship you a dozen Bilic shirts...haha
razor5556
"Bilic must go"
However, no replacements... Is it that bad, that you would rather have Stimac in the hot seat?
@HvarSplican
Good stuff. I agree with you on the U21 team. We shall see on Bilic, however, you havent come up Bilic successor.
I agree with you that Dzeko is already a star. However, still unknown to the rest of the world.
Someguy
Great prediction on Cro-Kaz, almost came through. Andorra to score on Ukraine? Andorra can't even score with their own wives.
@Denis(Deno)
Please send me an email with your adress, and I will send you out a Slaven Bilic shirt. Also include your size preference.
paluka81@yahoo.com
I agree with some of your thoughts, however, most are irrelevant to Croatia's performance.
"We're 9th in the world"
this doesnt mean anything. Seriously.
I'm not satisfied with Bilic since Euro 2008, cause he used the same tactics from the previous tournament. He did a Ciro Blazevic.
However, I would only let Bilic go if we have a few replacements in mind.
in example, why would I ax Ivica Olic, after all those posts he hit, if we just dont have anyone better. Ivica is getting older, and wont have an almost guaranteed spot with Croatia if he choses to return.
@Hvarsplican
I agree with you on points one and two. Point three, Slaven used the same strategies and tactics and also had a healthy Niko Kovac captain the squad as well as Robert Kovac.
In 2008 he had results in 2009 he didnt. End of story. If you are a winner, you get a contract, if not, you dont. Results mean nothing for me. Just like Italians are upset over their national team even though they were undefeated. They look like shit.
Question for everyone
would you rather have Croatia beat England in penalty kicks after being dominated the entire game, England hit ten posts, miss 3 pks, Runje made 10 saves, and croatia had 0 shots on goal.
or
The other way around but Croatia lose?
I would rather have Croatia lose but go out with their head held high.
@Dinamofan
"Branko Ivankovic, Zoran Vulic, Ivo Susak, Elvis Scoria, Martin Novelselac are all just as qualified as Bilic."
key words, "as qualified" this doesnt convince me to sack Bilic.
I agree with you on the foreigners.
"I'm sorry but if Croatia selects Bilic then Simunic and Krizanac will stay banned and Dino Drpic will be in Croatia's central defence. "
Come on, its obvious that Drpic is done. Simunic and Krizanac were only suspended for Kazakhstan.
@Ziva istina
"we are small nation of less than 5 million people. Teams like Holland, France, England, Russia have not qualified for major tournaments in the past 15 years and yout think us now qualifying is unacceptable."
I agree 100%. Us Croats hate to lose. "neka pati koga smeta, Hrvatska je prvak svijeta" type mentality.
@Anonymous
Get a name buddy.
"England's unsportsmanlike loss to Ukraine."
wow, this is hilarious. Maybe we should complain to fifa...haha Don't be a sore loser.
Lets say England played 50 %, lets say they let Ukraine slide. Why go 100% and get injured in a meaningless game for them? to do us a favor? oh please. I dont blame England for anything. They could have lost to Ukraine 10-0 I wouldnt have said a word.
Post a Comment