Lovre Kalinić is officially on the hot seat.
After giving up a top-shelf goal to Azerbaijan on Thursday – something we can absolutely forgive him for – the 28 year-old Croatian goalie gave up two relatively “soft goals” in Budapest Sunday in a 2-1 loss to Hungary.
The first was a shot from an extremely tight angle that Kalinić got to ground far too late. It was almost reminiscent of Stipe Pletikosa diving to the ground for balls at the 2014 World cup in Brazil. A tall, lanky is no good if he can’t get tot he ground quick to block the low shots.
On Hungary’s game winner in the second half, Kalinić did not come out to punch a corner kick that hovered well into his 6-yard box. Every coach, goalie, and football player in the world will tell you any ball in the 6-yard box is the goalie’s. Kalinić stuttered, never came out, and the following play let to the ball in the back of Croatia’s net.
In CroatianSports.com’s latest poll, 80% voted to drop Kalinić.
Next in line: Dinamo Zagreb’s 24 yer-old keeper Dominik Livaković. Livaković has had a solid Prva Liga season and even more memorable Europe League run, helping Dinamo get all the way to the Round of 16 and posting a clean sheet against a very good Benfica side in the first leg.
The Vatreni only have one more match on June 8th against Wales before the summer break hit and Dalić can ponder what his game plan is for the final stretch of Euro qualifiers in the fall.
To drop or not to drop Kalinić?
Ishii is a Japanese Croatian much like how Africans are American in the U.S.A.
Better Ishii than white American trash I say.
What is the Croatian identity anyway lol?
who cares its mma, just let them beat eachother up
Satoshi Ishii is now a Croat!
https://youtu.be/uqQf_92dgHM
Why should we let a guy from Japan come to our country and claim our identity. Did we not fight a war for our right to exist? Now we just give our identity away. Fuck you!
that is.. if you understand Croatian ;D
^tru @soul this site has a good amount of dumb diaspora croats
anyway y’all should watch this movie its really funny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSYP6UE2dEo
@Americanci
Neki balavac i moje ime koristi jebo ga Tito, i ja sam pravi Hravt, i, ako sam znao da bi ovako prošao, jebo sebe ako bi vam došao!
A sad znadem da ovaj “Croatiansports.com” nije za prave Hrvate kao ja nego za Amerikance koji glumu da su Hrvati.
@The truth
Jebo ti pas mater u guzicu.
Modric was not a bust.
You have no football knowledge.
Your comments are sourced from your American soul.
You idiots should be ashamed of what you have turned into!!
Racist garbage pretending to be others,how old are you clowns 11?
How about Japanese mma fighters? Satoshi Ishii just got his croatia citizenship and will fight under the croatian flag. Now cap Olmo!!!!!!
@ ante
I’m glad your asked. I have a lot of potential topics
1) the oveehyping of the youth by media, people on this site, and especially the diaspora. Would be fun to think of all the next Croatian messis and look at where they are now.
Radosevic:. Once voted on this site to be Croatias cdm going forward after debuting against Belgium at 18
Halilovic: the next messi
Pjaca:. The Croatian Ronaldo
I mean the list can go on and on… Have we even seen a hyped youth actually eventually make the line up and stick?!
We’re still playing modric, rakitic, and perisic with some scotch tape assembly of defenders, the latest goalie in the hajduk production line, and a couple younger guys in brozovic and kramaric who were not that hyped
2) perhaps a self help series:. We could do things like give the diaspora guidance on ordering drinks (pice) back in the domovina
The problem with Croatia is it’s full of white Croats. Need some more black Croats like Ante the Hercegovac that guy is alright.
@Casual fan
You suck at trolling you little motherfucker.
So you’re not with Vlatko?
What’s the difference between a jew and a pizza?
A pizza doesn’t scream in the oven.
What would you call the Flintstones if they were black?
Niggers.
I have Mulato grandkids all black man faults
I am in closet for much too long
My dream is to move to S.F. And chair the gay parade!
I DO NOT LIKE NIGGERS.
Me and family are huge supporters of gay rights
I’m with Vlatko.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/nov/14/gay-backlash-croatia-football-chief
Casual he meant they should concentrate on their game not tube steak.
Casual fan LMAO laughing with you and @ YOU
Jean king and navritolova ARE HOMOS, DO WE WANT THAT?
Ante topics to discuss perhaps
The stadium issue in Croatia > dynamo
The off-season for our hoops stars…bojan looking for at least 80 million over 4 years I would think …ZU does he stay with the clippers …Dario does not seem happy in minny.
Hezonja and bender do they both return next season to the NBA after not coming close to performing to expectations
98 team where are they now and what are they up to these days.
Women’s tennis …why do our girls seem to flame out after reaching 17 or 18 …Vekic and konjuh come to mind.perhaps put them on a strict vegan diet..it did wonders for billy Jean king and navritolova.
Most importantly WAGS …Who has the the sexiest pair of ankle booty’s after kova’s wife ?
Keep up the good work Ante!
We win this game in June against Wales, and all four contending teams in the group even up and go back to square one.
Wales beat Slovakia
Slovakia beat Hungary
Hungary beat Croatia
Croatia beats Wales (in June)
All wins are home wins, so nobody gains any advantage over the other three teams.
It would be as if nothing had ever happened. Qualifications would resume with the same amount of home and road games.
Maybe teams have just adjusted to our style of play?
I am sure there is a binder in how to play Croatia.
We need to more creative.
I know this won’t be happening anytime soon but we got Dinko Horkaš (19) on Dinamo that looks fantastic for the youth teams…when it comes to choosing between Kalinić and Livaković though I’ll choose Livaković any day
Thanks Truth,
I always enjoy these articles but I have so much going on in everyday life it’s hard for me to get to them on a weekly basis.
Thanks for the input. Let’s go for 3. You got a topic for me?
This is two in a row where this site is presenting some relevant and interesting articles
Italy had Buffon for 2 decades and now they have young starlet donnorumma for the next 2 it seems …perhaps we should be looking to poach goal keeping paesano with a bit of Croat blood in him?
Talk about stability in net …something we can only dream of!
Bring back Subasic or Pletikosa, my word does he ever suck.He looked really good in the Iceland game last world cup. But he had too many bad games against Spain, Azerbaijan, and now this one.
@Medo
I didn’t understand why we weren’t just playing Jedvaj at LB.
He plays there for Leverkusen, and we wouldn’t have to rely on Leovac playing.
I’d rather have brought out Ćaleta-Car and slide Jedvaj to LB, and kept Leovac on the bench. Ćaleta-Car created that first goal against Azerbaijan at least, and he may have started to develop some chemistry with Vida and Jedvaj after that game. Leovac was a complete wildcard.
Then again, it’s easy to nitpick now in hindsight.
We are always two years behind when needing to promote our younger keepers.
Subašić was a solid goalkeeper in 2014, but we stuck with Pletikosa and he killed us in that World Cup.
Kalinić won back to back goalkeeper of the year awards, but we went with a rapidly declining Subašić this past World Cup and he cost us the trophy.
Even sticking with a borderline retiring Ladić for the Euro 2000 qualifiers, over Pletikosa (who was playing great that year) was a big mistake.
A lot of coaches are too loyal to their keepers. I get it, they don’t want to create instability back there, but it’s already unstable when you have to play 7 different defenders in a span of two games anyway.
If he’s not starting and playing well at club football can apply to our entire defense,and goalie.
Perhaps Vida being the exception…lovren looks to have lost his regular spot due to injur and Matip taking his spot..Jedvaj plays sparingly at best for Bayer,and for good reason.
The others who slot in…Leovac, caleta car etc don’t instill fear in anyone.Will sime stay injury free and come back the same player?
I’m praying Big Ben can stay healthy and solidify a spot soon. I see him as bright light if he keeps improving.
Our defense is where we should be most concerned about the next few years.
“never had the makings of a varsity athlete.”
I agree with the previous comments. If he is not starting regularly and playing well at Aston Villa, there is no way he should be Croatia’s #1. It’s a shame that his form and confidence are slipping right when we need him at his best. Lovre has been waiting for his opportunity behind Subasic for years, and many would argue that he should have started in the finals instead. I think Dalic has to give Livakovic a chance, at least until Kalinic re-gains his form. Whoever is currently in better form needs to start.
Is Livaković much better?
He looked “okay” in the last Benfica match, but nothing special.
He’s apparently been good in HNL, but I don’t think any one of us watch enough games to judge.
It’s such a damn shame that Kalinić (who was in great form these past two years) had suddenly fallen out of form when we need him most.
On top of that, our other young keepers (Letica and Posavec) are going through their growing pains and are nowhere near ready for a call up.
Hopefully it doesn’t screw us over in the next round of games.
I believe we will come out strong against Wales and win the game. The only way that gets screwed up is goalkeeping errors.
Lovre’s brother was a mutter and he’s a mutter- couldn’t save himself in a dish of water – move him out- give the kid at Dinamo as shot – as for the rest of team- leave Modric in and everybody else is first timers- kids – who cares.
Croatia always fails when transitioning in some youth with experience- forget it- go all in with youth and let them show Modric the majestro what they got-
We play best when somebody out there has something to prove- final in World Cup- the senior members look like their still hungover- Dalic better shows some courage or he’ll be heading back to the “selo” on a donkey.
The answer is simple, let Aston Villa decide whether he should start. They are undefeated since he was dropped as their starting keeper over a month ago. I’m not blaming Dalic for starting him because of a couple bad games with Villa but now it’s really a tough call whether to start him.
We will have to place a defender next to him at all times.
In affect two goalies.
please, one defeat from Wales could change the team entirely!
Dalic out, Kalinic out, 4-4-2 / 4-4-1-1 out!
LAknat in, 3-5-2 formation in
God of Halilovic revelation in
We dont really have a good history with goalies do we?
Even though Ladic was great during WC ’98, his shocker of a performance Vs Serbcunts during Euro 2000 qualies undoubtedly cost us getting into those Euros so even he was flimsy as fuck at times. We’ve never really had a good keeper have we?