The boys have successfully landed in Russia and had their first training session Monday.
During the training, manager Zlatko Dalić spit the the squad into two 11-man squads for a little scrimmage. And the vets smoked the younger generation 7-0.
The “starci” consisted of Vida, Lovren, Subašić, Perišić, Rakitić, Mandžukić, Strinić, Modrić, Badelj, Ćorluka and N. Kalinić.
Should we at all be surprised by the lopsided result?
@Crnkovic
“the wolf and the sheep live in the same country”
You think that’s wise, creating an environment where the sheep can’t graze in peace?
but you have a very good point there none the less. All i will say is this: “the wolf and the sheep live in the same country”
No Islam is not a nation. Islam is what we call today a religion. Words had different meanings in the 7th century AD. This is 2018
The Quran says: “You [Muslims] are the best nation brought out for Mankind”
Lol, I know Islam is not the best nation, I know that.
Is Islam a nation?
anonymous you know absolutely nothing about anything. you are an ignorant uneducated idiot. shut your mouth and keep it shut.
^
Troll
you guys are all fucked
We can’t play Germany in the round of 16. Who we can play is AUSSIES 😉
@Coach Crnkovic/Muslim convert
“croatia=israel???”
Does Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey, Yeman etc. these countries are almost 100% Muslim = “Israel”?
I’ll never forget, at the 2006 World Cup the future looked bleak. This generation came from that. The future looks promising.
Is it the talent or just the exposure with moden media?
Much easier to follow the youngsters now than it was 10-20 years ago.
I agree there’s talent but we should be prepared for a transition period at some point.
We’re pretty fortunate to have watched 3 good/great generations in a row. 8/10 tourneys. Don’t take it for granted.
Suker, Boban, Zuti, Jarni, etc.
Kovac brate, Prso, Kranjcar, Da Silva.
Modric, Rakitic, Mandza, Corluka.
Who’s carrying us next?
The national team will experience a dip once Modric retires. We’re not the same team without him. If he retires after this World Cup, we might not even qualify for the next Euros.
However, when has Croatia ever had so many promising young players? Someone, please answer this question.
Well this generation did not do much in the tournaments and rarely played with style, so I don’t mind a change for youth in the future. What we won’t have again for a long time is a player of Modric’s caliber. Enjoy watching him while you can. Some might disagree, but to me he is the greatest Croatia has produced.
Lots of flags on cars inToronto- supporter spirits are very high- expectations are at least group of 16 and we play Germany- we always play them hard- I say we win first two- yes I said it- we beat Argentina- they can’t run with us- biggest game will be Iceland – not that they have a lot of good players but for them it’s Croatia 98- they’re 100% heart- great support in Toronto-
Zero Italian flags – for Toronto that’s a shocker
I wouldn’t worry about our ‘youth’ losing this badly. This team doesn’t even have any of our future youth players anyway.
Brekalo, Moro, Ćorić, Halilović, Sosa, Rog… None are on this team.
Any team with Filip Bradarić and Josip Pivarić on it will concede 7 goals.
Eduardo and Sammir 100% Croatian
I’m not worried about our youth.
Hopefully Moro comes back healthy but you have
Moro, majer, brekalo, benkovic, caleta-car
Still kovacic, rog, pjaca, and etc and etc for our small nation im happy with our future. dinamo will continue to pump out kids will always be a decent nation from what I’ll see for now.
Hazard, Mbappe and a few others injured in training. We are very fortunate to have a healthy team with many of our core players on good club form heading into the WC.
Biggest question remains… can this team gel and play well together. Plenty of talent to make a splash, but they have yet to fire on all cylinders.
Anyone got those goals on video?. Delighted to hear we scored 7. If we scored 7 against a team of blind pidgeons i’d be happy. Good for confidence
@the truth. Juve, napoli, barcelona etc dont employ scouting teams. They just read the croatian newspapers and blogs and spend millions of dollars like that…stupid
@smocito
Avoid that garbage Maminjo. Reminds me of the moron nije bitno. Just trying to push buttons with the typical he is a bigger Croat vs you.
Enjoy the World Cup.
@the truth. Juve, napoli, barcelona etc dont scouting teams. They justcread the criatian newspapers and blogs and soend millions of dollars like that…stupid
@BZ rog is a big talent. Thats why napoli bought him. He hasnt played because sarri is a coach who doesnt rotate his players. Zielinski and diawara are also very talented but they dont pkay much because sarri doesnt rotate he just plays the same guys every week. Diesnt mean rog isnt a talented player. Pjaca has been unlucky with injury…there are so many factors which play out iver a career thats no reflection on the ability of these boys. Apart from modric the younger generation has just as much ability as the current one they just havent quite got to there level or found their confidence at the right club
@Smocito
Avoid that garbage Maminjo. Reminds me of that idiot nije bitno. Always jumping on people trying to prove how they are big Croats.
Enjoy the World Cup.
Ibrahimovic and halilovic are Bosnian Muslim no?Kids usually take the father’s background but you are what you want to be.Part cro either side..have cro buds mixed French German speak better cro than me and I have both parents that are cro.
Well this is something i have long said that this “great generation” of youth is largely a fake out by the hype machine media
Not that this scrimmage really matters
But ultimately, Croatia has a lot of risk in coming years as these guys retire
@ CroatianPerson85
All good my friend.
@Smocito – My apologies. You’re right you never did write anything at all referring to him being Muslim. I was just in a hurry and read the posts half ass. My bad.
Crnkovic-I can bet you those young guys tried their asses off. Losing 7-0 is embarassing, and says a lot about actual performance vs undue exuberant speculation. Remember when ppl on this site got irrationally exuberant about Rog in 2016, but Napoli’s coaches and Croatian coaches barely play the guy. I bet some of those guys don’t even admit they were wrong about Rog’s trajectory to this day.
The next generation might end up being ok, but nowhere near this generation. I hope I am wrong.
@Maminjo
“Funny how you assume that they meant he was Bosnian Muslim”
When did I say this? I literally assumed nothing.
Well, this degenerated into a bunch of assumptions and accusations. I didn’t assume nor imply anything. All I said was that I followed up on that ridiculous story Živa shared a long time ago since I went home. That’s it.
Never did I say that I thought he was Muslim or anything else. Come on guys.
Ballotelli and El-shawarry are 100% Italian.
This team is starting to remind me of our 2002 WC team.. At least give us one kickass game 2 against Argentina. 2nd match is always our best.
@ Smocito. Bosnian Croatian not Bosnian muslim. Is he not from Bosanksi Brod originally or around there then his family moved to Slavonski Brod?
is adam lallana english? how about wayne rooney? but he has irish roots oh no!!! stupid
so what if mandzukic has bosnian roots. who cares. what if he is a muslim? what if he prefers pepsi to coke. nationality is not religion or race or ethnicity they are all DIFFERENT things. the ONLY country in the whole world which tries to conflate them is Israel. you get it? croatia=israel???
Croatia 7 Nigeria 0
I doubt rakitic retires. Dudes 29 years old he’ll atleast olay the next euros
Well yea. His family has roots in BiH. Much like many Croats.
Funny how you assume that they meant he was Bosnian Muslim. You do realize there are Croats in BiH.
BZ its a training match LOL relax
7-0? That is scary bad. I bet that young team thought they were going to actually win too. Just like all the guys on this site saying we needed to bench Rakitic, Modric etc when our qualifying campaign went sour.
Rakitic considering retiring after this World Cup. Modric will likely never step foot in Croatia if he is convicted.
Our young guys can’t hold a candle to this generation. And to think,I was looking forward to winning the Nations League.
Now we will be lucky to qualify for Euro 2020, without Modric.
anyone have a link to the goals?
Mandzu
Kramaric
Perisic Modric rakitic rebic
Strinic lovren vida vrslajko
Subasic
Love that Modric is back in the holding position.
Adame why u like it?
Can u post here please
You guys see the rumored line up for Nigeria? I like it
Guys, remember when Ziva talked about how Mandzukic was supposed to be Bosnian and that his real name was Mahir Mandzuka? Well I have a fun story!
I’m from the same hometown as him and we’re the same age. He’s less than a month older than I am. Went back to Slavonski Brod just this past year and followed up on that story with my Aunt who still lives there. I couldn’t get a confirmation on the name, but I got 100% confirmation that his parents were Bosnians. It’s known all around town.
Either way, just wanted to share this pointless anecdotal story with you guys, just for fun.
It continues to be a very risky move to deplete the midfield and play four forwards and only two midfielders
We’ve seen for years how real has gotten out of balance and struggled when it played rinaldo, benzama, and bale together
It wasn’t until they rebalanced the squad that they had success
And the Croatian top four obviously don’t compare to those real guys
Although maybe they’ll actually come back and play defense
And he can’t score the easy sitters but will score the impossible ones. He can be pretty frustrating to watch.
Iggy, no kidding. Krama is our secret weapon. He’s hungry, he’s fit, he can play with a ball on his feet.
As long as he doesnt start thinking Mandzu is better than Krama after this, lol
Not surprised. Now lookie here>>
Subasic = Lovre Kalinic or that other scrub
Strinic = Pivaric
Corluka = Calera Car
Lovren > Jedvaj at CB
Vida Kovacic
Badelj > Bradaric
Rakitic > Brozovic
Perisic > Rebic
Mandzukic > Pjaca
Kalinic < Kramaric