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IT’S BACK! HNL Week 19

February 4, 2019

dinamo

 

 

The second half of the season is upon us and the race for second place is in a dead heat.

 

 

Dinamo Zagreb sit at the top of the table with a 14 point lead that was just increased with a 7-2 shellacking of NK Rudes at Maksimir on Friday, which included a hat trick by Mislav Orisic. Orisic scored three goals in seven minutes to record the fastest hat trick in Dinamo’s history in the HNL (just one minute slower than the league record; Davor Vugrinec holds the record). But the real entertainment will be the battle between Osijek, Lokomotiva and Rijeka who are all tied on points for the moment.

 

 

 

 

Hajduk

 

 

Despite a 1-0 loss at the hands of Hajduk Split yesterday, Osijek remain in second place on goal differential. A lone goal scored by Mijo Caktas in the opening minutes of the second half sealed the deal for the Bili, who fought hard for their sixth win of the season. Despite the win, Hajduk remain in sixth place.

 

 

 

 

NK Lokomotiva kicked off the season half of the season on Friday with a narrow 2-0 win over Inter Zapresic. The score remained 0-0 through the 80th minute before the Lokosi found the back of the net by way of Myrto Uzuni. A second goal came 10 minutes later from a penalty converted by Luka Ivanusec. Lokomotiva move up to second place with the win combined with a shock loss by Rijeka.

 

 

 

 

Rijeka welcomed HNK Gorica to Rujevica Sunday and took an early lead with a goal from Boady Acosty in the sixth minute. But Rijeka seemed a little too confident with the early lead and allowed three unanswered goals from Gorica, resulting in a 3-1 loss. Gorica sits comfortable in fifth place, but is creeping up in the table on the heels of Rijeka.

 

 

 

 

NK Istra 1961 played to a 1-1 stalemate against Slaven Belupo at Aldo Drosina. Istra gained the lead in the 64th minute, but Slaven newcomer, Ivan Krstanovic scored on his debut for the club to tie the match. Slaven is the seventh club of the 36-year-old Krstanovic has played for.

 

 

 

 

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Colin O'Haravić
Posted By: Colin O'Haravić 30 comments





  2. ChrisK. says:

    Will Hajduk ever win League again? 2005 was ages ago, heck we haven’t even been 2nd place since 2012. What happened to the once proud club of Hajduk Split?



  4. CroatiaU14 says:

    @dannyj, Antonio Marin, Ivan Sunjic, Nikola Moro, Dinko Horkaš, Ante Palaversa, Michele Šego, Mario Vusković, Roko Baturina, Marko Dira, and Lovro Majer



  5. vuki says:

    @Dannyj
    I admittedly don’t watch much, but different articles and even posts on here have got me keeping tabs on a few players

    Dinamo:
    Antonio Marin, Nikola Moro, Lovro Majer, Ivan Sunjic, Dinko Horkas, and of course Dominik Livakovic

    Hajduk:
    Ante Palaversa (just signed for City but still on loan), Domagoj Bradaric, Michele Sego, Mario Vuskovic

    Lokomotiva:
    Luka Ivanusec

    Osijek:
    Petar Bockaj (haven’t heard much about him recently, but still only 22 and could turn out to be a half-decent player)

    These are the ones I thought of off the top of my head. I’m sure people know about more.



  10. vuki says:

    This is what Olmo’s Wikipedia page says:

    In the end of 2017, Dinamo Zagreb Director Tomislav Svetina said that the club was doing all it could to get the teenager citizenship. Olmo himself showed desire to swich to Croatia on international level.[6] However, in October 2018 he made his début for Spanish U-21 side. As he haven’t obtained Croatian citizenship at this time, it made him unavailable to play for Croatia.

    Granted Wikipedia is not always correct, I haven’t seen an article saying he is still deciding since then so it could very well be right.



  11. Tibor Guzanović says:

    Croatia seems to lose out to much. We have great talent in our DNA but we lost out on Zlatan, Pussyich, and now Olmo.

    We did get Rakitic from the Swiss tough.



  12. vuki says:

    I would not really call any of those losses for us. The only one who ever really considered play for Croatia was Olmo and that was only because he thought he might not get into the Spain team. I would only consider it losing out if someone came through our youth ranks and then chose another nation. There have been a few players like that, but no great players as far as I know.



  13. CroatiaU14 says:

    I’d honestly be fine with Olmo playing for the Vatreni…he’s a great player and arguably one of the best in the HNL…

    I can’t wait to see what Antonio Marin can do, now that he’s practicing regularly with the Dinamo first squad…he’s crazy talented



  15. Anonymous says:

    @Tibor

    Nah. They never lost out once actually.

    They went after Rakitic, and they got him. They naturalized Eduardo, and scored a homerun with him too (until his injury). They secured Halilovic too, when there was a chance he could go to BiH (the jury is still out on whether his career will pan out). People also forget that Kovacic was born in Austria and Dinamo snagged him (and capped him early too). The HNS has done a good job going after the high end talent and capping them.

    The guys that they did not get (Gavranovic, Sertic, Toljan, Drmic, Cvitanich, Bilos) or just let go to other national teams (Simunovic, Jajalo, Ademi) never panned out at all anyway. I don’t think they were ever that serious about these guys other than (maybe) Sertic, since we were desperate for a CDM at the time.

    Zlatan and Pulisic were never an option. Pulisic is very American and never considered it. Zlatan was never going to play for anyone other than Sweden either. The talk about HNS rejecting him was a false rumor.



  17. Andrej L says:

    I’ve said it multiple times but I’d love to see Petar Bockaj get a chance at LB with the repka. Hopefully, Bradaric is healthy but Milic isn’t a great long term solution. Bockaj seems tough, has a rocket, and decent touch.

    I notice Jedvaj finally got a start, although as a CB. Seems like Tudor had a good game with Hajduk. Maybe he gets the call up as well.



  19. Anonymous says:

    I hope Pulisic never sees the World Cup even
    When US hosts. He used Croatia for citizenship.
    That’s a death sentence.



  21. Maminjo says:

    @Pog

    Yea, Viduka was awesome but he seemed hellbent on playing for Australia.

    He went through this weird “football is an extension of nationalism” crybaby phase for a bit (he went through it at Celtic too), which probably deterred him from playing for Cro.



  22. vuki says:

    @Zee I would not be against Olmo playing for Croatia if he is allowed to. The nation change rules are confusing. However, I only want him to play for us if he chooses us over Spain, not just because he thinks he can’t make the Spain team. If he truly sees himself as Croatian like Eduardo he will choose to play for us if he is eligible.

    @Elvis
    We did not officially lose Stanisic. He plays as Bayern, aka the German national team. They pressure their players to choose Germany. They did the same thing to Fabian Benko. He chose Croatia and then a few days later decided he wanted to wait to choose. He hasn’t panned out so far though. Bayern sold him to Austria. He did finally play for Croatia u20 a few months ago so let’s hope he turns out alright.

    Overall, I only really want people playing for Croatia if we are their first choice, not their back up option.



  24. Dannyj says:

    The talent train will always be there
    We might lose some we might gain some
    But I can’t see us ever becoming less then at least competitive



  26. Poglavnik says:

    Always liked Viduka.
    Viduka and Prso up top would’ve been a handful for any team. Celtic and Rangers legends playing together would’ve been cool.



  28. Anonymous says:

    I watched Bujica the other day and it seems the Yugoslavs in Croatian clothing want to give rabid atheist and communist Budimir Loncar the Medal of the City of Zagreb, this is a disgrace, but does show what sort of people the Croatian leadership are.

    Some people are pissed off at this turn of events, to them I’d say, don’t worry about it, the Croatian people chose these blind leaders to lead them, and if the blind lead the blind do they not both fall into the ditch?

    In proverbs a ditch is likened to a harlot or whore if you like.

    So you could say that Croatia is like a whorehouse that has pro abortion Kobila Grubby Kitarovic as it’s madame lol!

    Does anyone think that Kobila copulated with that French guy at the WC?



  29. NEW ENGLAND PATS says:

    Bill Belichick should take over from Zlatko Dalic and he should be given the medal of Zagreb.



  30. Anonymous says:

    “Piše da je zaslužan zbog unapređenja odnosa Hrvatske i država članica EU.”

    Ok, the blind Croatian leaders are saying that rabid atheist and communist Budimir Loncar deserves a medal for his work in leading the blind Croatian people into the EU.
    Lol, communists wanted us in the EU, and what the communists want in Croatia, they get.

    Josip Deur on today’s episode of Bujica also said something that no good Croat can disagree with but Kobila Grubby Kitarovic does, he said, “without the Catholic faith you cannot love the homeland.”

    Of course everyone knows that Kobila Grubby Kitarovic has mocked the Catholic men of the Ustase in the past (that’s her communist upbringing) whilst praising atheistic communists like Budimir Loncar, this woman is harlot that believes the Catholic Croatian people are there to minister to her needs. What are her needs? To remain in power so she can continue to prance around the world pretending to be Jackie Kennedy lol.





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