The HNS is currently running a bracket on Facebook dubbed “Croatia’s Greatest Victory In History.”
The clear #1 winner, of course, will be Croatia’s 2-1 extra time win over England in the semifinals of the 2018 World Cup. And #2 should go to the Vatreni’s 1998 quarterfinal World Cup victory over the Germans.
However, we had our first upset Saturday when Croatian fans voted the 2-1 Spain win in group stage at EURO 2016 over 1998’s bronze medal victory over the Dutch. I think you have to take a medal match – no matter what color that medal is – over a group stage match; even if it is Spain.
1998 was a magical year for Croatian sports that put the Vatreni on the world map. Capping off the tournament with a win was huge and that game should be considered a top-4 Croatian victory in history.
@ Anonymous
Why are you so disgruntled?
@Stipe
I don’t care where you’re from and I don’t care who your friends are.
I wrote two comments and I wasn’t arguing with anyone. I answered a question from Medo and wrote another comment right after, and then you asked your question right after my comments.
What about my comments in particular bothered ya, because the ones before you wrote your sports comments didn’t bother you at all?
@ Anonymous
Cause you guys are arguing about bullshit politics. Who cares right now. I live in NJ and there are way more important things to talk about.
Such as will Modric be playing 90 mins in Euro 2020-2021????
Again I do apologize for having Serbian friends. I know that makes me less of a Croat lol
@Stipe
“What the hell are you guys even talking about ??? Lolol”
Which comment compelled you to ask that question now, and not when you wrote your earlier sports comments?
I know what your talking about. But why here? U guys are funny
What the hell are you guys even talking about ??? Lolol
Ako je Bleiburg zločin, onda je zločin i Oluja.
– Krešo Beljak
Communist thinking right there!
So what’s happened is that the communists manipulated the Croats into believing that Bleiburg was not a war crime because that would make Operation Storm a war crime, both of course being communist operations.
@Medo
Sad to hear what Zvonko did, not only him, but also the 3,069 branitelji that have killed themselves since the organised “Homeland war” with a predetermined result ended.
What sort of Croatia did those guys expect when they shit on the Croats that were murdered at Bleiburg by fighting for communist Franjo Tudjman, and perverting the Ustaša way of Bog i Hrvati and turing into the disorderly way of komunisti i Hrvati, like I said in another comment, the easiest people in Europe to lead by the nose are the Croats.
Back to Zvonko, I believe it’s such a selfish thing to kill yourself, think about his wife and what he put her through, she stuck by him through all those years in prison only for him to not even consider her when killing himself, I wish I lived in Croatia I would’ve helped him by explaining to him that the HDZ/SDP coalition is God’s punishment to the perverse Croats, if Zvonko understood that he never would’ve killed himself.
Right now it’s God’s will that Croatia should be sick, and it’s only going to get sicker with these Mohammedans flooding in (bringing with them the God of Halilovic), all this will create the new lukewarm Croatian man that God will eventually spit out of His mouth.
Apocalypse 3:16
But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.
@Poglavnik, I watched the Russia game last week. Notice how liberals loved the Soviet Union and love China but hate Russia?
“crnkovic’s” response to the factual statement that my race cured leprosy, small pox, plague, etc. was “if you’re talking about medicine you can thank the Arabs”. – if that doesn’t prove to you what a liar he is, what will?
He also said “whites didn’t invent the wheel” – that’s it, “just because”.
Now who do you think is more likely to have invented the wheel, the race who invented the automobile, trains, planes, etc, or people who had the bubonic plague as late the 1960’s?
An actual educated person knows that aquatic rice and our numbering system came from White India. But “crnkovic” thinks that brown 3rd worlders invented all that 4,000 (FOUR THOUSAND) years ago b/c India is brown 3rd world TODAY.
He’s a complete imbecile, a religious fanatic who’ll preach mommy professor’s gospel right into his grave no matter how often he gets exposed.
“But is 9/11 an inside job?” “I win bitch!”
“crnkovic’s” talks to himself and claims victory even though he admits to trying to change the subject b/c he can’t refute he’s a two faced traitor.
“Oh you proved I’m a liar, a traitor to my own kind, and that my version of american history is silly. Who shot JFK bitch? Oh you left the site and won’t answer my question. I win!”
I bet most of us have watched at least one WC 2018 match this month.
Hey – we are a soccer factory no doubt about it- when we combine the right mix of craziness and control – we show the world our parents homeland for whatever reason plays soccer as good or better than most – still turn to joy of the last World Cup during the Coronavirus for a pick me up- that England game – I will never forget
We lost Bokšić and Cvitanović before that tournament.
Cvitanović was in crazy form for Croacija Zagreb that season. He was probably better than Vlaović at the time.
@ CroatianPerson85
Boksic is way more talented than Suker. Boksic is faster, can shoot just as good with both feet, stronger. All around better player in my opinion.
Suker isn’t that fast. His right foot is useless. BUT he is great dribbling in small space. And he’s always in the right place at the right time.
Who knows if Boksic played in WC 98 if we would have done better?? I think Vlaovic and Stanic play better with Suker than Boksic would’ve. Who knows ???
I sure would’ve loved to see Boksic at WC 98. He’s the man. Remember in WC 2002 against Italy? Italy was setting up a wall for a free kick. Boksic slapped an Italian player in the face. I loved it !!!
Man if Boksic never got injured for us in 98. Big man with power, decent speed and a touch.
“Pre-match shirt”:
https://www.footyheadlines.com/2020/03/nike-croatia-2020-21-pre-match-shirt.html
@Medo I read his book.He was a very interesting man.
@ ANYBODY
Croatia vs Turkey 2008.
I know Modric was super hot coming into Euro 2008. He was fantastic. He even made team of the tournament.
But does anyone think Bilic made a mistake not letting Srna shoot the first penalty???? I know Srna messed up 2 years prior against Japan in the WC. But Srna made up for it in the next game scoring a nice free kick against Australia in the 2nd minute
I know Modric scored a penalty against Austria in that first game. But that was within the first 5 minutes of the game. (Thank you Olic!!!!!) If he has missed it, whatever, we 85 more minutes to play.
I don’t know why Bilic made Modric take the fist penalty. He was only 22-23. That is super young, he was a baby. Who knows, maybe Modric insisted on taking it.
If Srna woulda taken that first penalty, who knows, we woulda went thru.
I hate Semi Semturk as much as I hate France
Watching Ivan Perišić score that go against Spain in 2016 was beautiful watch
Man, some people here are very hate filled and disturbed!
Love this site.
Yes crnkovic your mother blows Dalmatian goats ! Ubi tovara fag nuts
A non sports topic to banter about other than conspiracy theories …zvonko busic he hi-jacked a TWA plane in NY to bring attention to Croatia’s plight ..why did he take his own life while finally tasting freedom after 3 decades in prison?
Rumor has it he felt disgust at the corruption occurring in his homeland knowing all he sacrificed was for not?
Opinions ?
yes or no bitch
Crnkovic- 9/11 was a tragedy but if you wanna tout conspiracy theories go join some organization and then u coulda jerk off with all your buddies to your conspiracy theories you homo. This site is for talking about Croatia and subjects related to sports, our culture and so forth not your weird obsessions with conspiracy theories.
@milos Hvar- agree with those choices and your insight as we coulda went the distance in those tourneys -it’s a lot of woulda coulda shoulda – vlaovic was a decent replacement for boksic in 98 but who knows what woulda happen if we had him healthy – same for Eduardo goin down to that dirty chirper tackle as he was on fire for the gunners and Repka – coulda been very useful against Turkey in that quarter – he was an ex factor . I also believe braZil game was a joke with that BS Fred penalty – guys garbage – and pletikosa moving like a snail on the fluffed shot from Neymar- goal called back for us that was legit and Brazil’s 3rd came off foul on rakitic that shoulda been called – officiating coulda been one of the worst we faced ever and we’ve been fucked many times before – we were always against the ropes as them being home team- bullshit I guess but were always up against it.
Za Dom Spremni
Modric is shit, watch the game against Portugal in 2016.
The only non-Croats to make a present day Yugoslavia side would be Oblak, Handanovic, Savic, Tadic, Pjanic, and Dzeko.
One of the most underrated midfielders in Europe was Dragan Stojkovic. Watch the tape of the game against Argentina in the World Cup – totally out performed Maradona.
anon. inside job or not
Besides obvious France 18 id have to say turkey 08 and Portugal 16. Those were both heart breaking losses that were in tournaments that we should’ve gone the distance. I’m not sure some of our teams in the other tournaments brought up were built to win it all but those two in addition to 18 World Cup were
Like Maminjo said also- during that era we had no real creative midfielders – we were relying on our aging veterans then mechanic Prso who actually worked out decent for us as well as right place right time olic -ala the Croatian pipo inzaghi or dutch van nistelrooy- had some decent defenders like tudor, kovac and brother niko excellent defensive midfielder but no creative ones that let us far or really pushed teams – kranjcar had amazing shot, pass, touch, but lacked speed and great agility
@croatiaperson 85-
That definitely up there on the list – 2 years younger from our core that made a bad attempt at repeating 02a Mexico opened you could see the aging taking place – Italy game we gambled with some fringe players that worked out thanks to some goals that didn’t count lol but like Italy that day we suffered through enough bullshit ! As Costanza says “that was our time to live baby” lol that day anyway – Ecuador same ol story as opener – few chances – pretty sure boksic had decent chance he blew – France 04 with that ivica mornar miss lol oh man my baba in her coffin coulda put that in – that team was during a weak eta for us arguably after the fall of 98 it took almost 10 years to produce that caliber again with flashes of brilliance in between
Telsa was never a Serb, he was a Morloch (Black Vlah) from Lika.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morlachs
Pretty good read, but this is the group he belonged to. They just took Croatian or Serbian identities to make things easier, but they were Crni Vlahovi from Hinterland Dalmacija and Lika.
@Anonymous – agreed about loses. Also Mexico 2002 sucked and Serbs tie to not make Euro 2000 (where they got worked by the Dutch). I know it was a qualifier but Var May have saved us. Boksic scored a goal well passed the line on Kralj that was never called.
Serbs are Untermensch, get it
Through your head
Crnkovic, what’s wrong with u dude; where’s my car ! Get off the drugs or on em…whatever works for ya- we talking football here – go cradle bush’s balls if u wanna talk 9/11
dude. was 9/11 an inside job??
Opinions *
Hey guys, not to change up the tone as I love talking about Repka victories but after all this is a forum…what would you say are our most disappointing/upsetting loses are? – I’d have to say both loses to the frogs 98 and 18 for sure especially 18 for obvious circumstances.. followed by a tie with Portugal 16 and Turkey euro 08, Spain 2012, then Brazil 2014-there are many other defeats and heartaches we suffered with losses at crucial points in advancing – Ecuador 02 had aging superstars…Mexico 14 kovac licking pranjic nuts terrible formation set up really poor tactically and Mexico took us to school but like to hear your options
pride under the mother mary. swing for me. i’ll put you down
Tesla was a Serb.
was tesla a serb or croatian?
the croatian diaspora…..
fuckng cowards
as my dear grandfather used to say….
Scum. pure and simple. any country can understand that. except my idiot brother
globalists like trump and the other donut. BIDEN
see it?
was 9/11 an inside job? your thoughts
anon don’t come back back on this site until you answer my question
crying emoji
get a fucking grip. i will help you
are serbs white?
“anti white” lmfao x100
brother
silence. dosta. idiot jedan
@anon I am indeed. now, answer the question
@Iggy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vItguS_U88
@Crnkovic
You’re a fucking idiot!
@anon. was 9/11 an inside job? tell me. prick. i fucking own you bitch. facts
i’m just watching some stipe fights
there are people. haters. who claim that the success of the 98 generation was down to yugoslavia and its strong league. haters. dont be a hater
OK. here is my best goal ever scored in history. all football
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx9KMhX4lzo
Beat that
It’s all gone quiet. shhhhhhhh
I bet you anything mamic has got corona virus
They must all be communists!! Lmfao
Ask mamic which type of whore he prefers. get real
In addition. I don’t want to rant (but sometimes i cant help it, as Iggy knows). my point is this. all you people who come on here sprouting nationalistic clap trap. Go and ask the very heroes yo claim to worship. Ask Boban what he thinks of George Weah, ask rakitic what he thinks of Mbia. ask modric how he rates Piksi. and you will have your answer
My point is only this: Talent is talent. northern Ireland produced George Best. would the people of Ireland say “oh no, he was no good”. of course not. they’re not idiots. war torn Liberia produced George Weah. Talent is talent. respect it
I can’t tell you how proud, and lucky, i am to be a croat. I’m footballer as well, i’ve been compared to modric and rakitic in the past. it’s just in our blood
@maminjo, of course x
Crnkovic,
Re: the Vidic, Ivanovic, kolarov trio being useful to us…
All three of these guys are not even equal to one true #9 or #10.
This is Serbia’s problem.
They can produce solid defenders and defensive midfielders…but the value of these types of players are faaar below that of a true creative midfielder (treqquartista or regista) or a true striker.
I would trade three “world class” defenders for a single true #10. Anyone would.
I disagree that having those three players would have made much difference for us. It would not have put us over the top.
Serbs (and some Croats) talk about that too by saying things like “imagine if there was still a Yugo team?…it would be stacked!”…
but this false statement is implying that an Ivanovic and a Kolarov have similar value and impact to a Rakitic or a Modric (which they don’t).
Serbia regularly misses tournaments, even with all three of these world class defenders in their prime, along with some world class defensive midfielders as well.
This tells me that it doesn’t matter how good your defenders or even goalkeeper are..if you don’t have star players in your midfield and up top.
Solid role players can sub in as defenders on a good team….but role players cannot sub in as good midfielders and strikers.
This is why we always conceded the least amount of goals in qualifying on a regular basis. We had some solid role player defenders in Simunic, Kovac, even Schifo…and yet we allowed less than a world class team of defenders.
Our insane midfield allowed us to be able to do this. They handled the defence as much as our defenders did (even moreso). Having a Vidic back there (instead of Simunic) wouldn’t have mattered too much.
The gap between these two is closed off by Modric playing right ahead of them.
This is why you can’t look at the eleven players on the field and count them in a 1:1 ratio, in terms of value.
Croatia has two-way players, who happen to be creative offensive superstars. These are incredibly difficult to find.
Serbia has none of that. They just have decent role players and good defenders. That’s barely good enough to maybe qualify for a tournament if you’re lucky (which they rarely do).
It’s like the NBA.
You could have a 15-man rotation of solid above average players…but you’re not winning anything without superstars like LeBron, Kawhi, AD, etc.
A team with a solid 15-man rotation would trade every single one of those players on their roster for ONE superstar (and simply fill out the rest of the roster with random role players they can find).
@”crnkovic” trying to change the subject now you lying rat?
@”crnkovic”, you don’t even attempt to refute anything I said, but you’ll go on saying the same anti white bullshit for the rest of your miserable life because lying thru your teeth makes you a good person, right?
@anonymous Was 9/11 an inside job? tell me
Sorry I only deal with facts
Yes. I don’t know what it is about talent. Just can’t handle life. Nobody pisses me off as much as coric and halilovic. They just can’t seem to work hard enough
@anonymous, If you’re talking about medicine you can thank the arabs
I dunno.
Our young keepers seem to have plateaued or taken a step back.
Josip Posavec was starting for Palermo in Serie A three years ago (at age 21) and now he’s barely getting time at lowly Hajduk.
Marko Maric was a solid young keeper who came up the Austrian system. He was starting at Gdansk in the Polish league three years ago as well (at age 21). But, he’s just been bouncing around on loan deals since then, and never starting. He’s actually at Houston Dynamo in the MLS now.
Dinko Horkas was touted as a good keeper, but I don’t know where that guy is. I think he’s playing for Zrinjski in BiH, but not sure. Still young at 21, so maybe there’s a chance for him.
Adrien Šemper looked good in junior competitions, but his first year at Chievo was not good. Made a lot of blunders. But it looks like he’s starting regularly now, so that’s good. I expected him to be further along since there was some hype around him, but we’ll see. Chievo gives up very few goals. Hopefully, it’s him that is playing a major part in that.
It looks like Karlo Žiger from Chelsea’s U23 Team is still playing. He’s splitting time there but he’s also one of the youngest on the squad so that’s good (only 18).
None of this will matter, and we’re probably gonna get some late bloomer come in the next time we switch keepers.
I only claim the truth. And not only will I be able to claim that to God on judgement day, I’ll be able to say that I told the truth in a society whose motto is “truth is heresy”. “racist” is this generation’s word for heresy.
“crnkovic” like all Anti Whites claims he is good and you are “racist”. Being a TRAITOR, justifying a future world without white people / turning all white countries into brown 3rd world hell holes is good for mankind, it is what God wants, right?
He claimed that white people purposefully infected american indians with small pox. Can you imagine ANYBODY, in times before the Evil White Man got rid of smallpox and plague and leprosy, infecting a blanket and confidently carrying it someplace miles away?
Now on to the next “anti-racist” justification for no more white people in the future, right?
@Maminjo, in the last thread you spoke about the last yugoslav team documentary.I have to confess being very honest that as a kid, it was yugoslavia i went to each summer. I didnt know anything about our history at that time, i was just swimming in the sea, worrying about sharks, and eating sladoled, later being encouraged to chase the girls by my cousins (i was always too shy). I remember in 1982, when Algeria beat West Germany, My cousin and my older brother made a HUGE algeria flag and planted it on the beach early in the morning before the german campers came down to the beach, then we sat in bar watching as they all came down. Very happy memories. Of course in 1990 I was supporting yugoslavia at the world cup. I’d be interested to know if everyone here feels the same? but that was our place. some in croatia dont support the vatreni because of mamic. despite the history those guys went onto the field as a team. so i will always respect it. Of course they never had the passion and pride that they do playing for croatia, but that was all we had at the time. In terms of talent, there is no doubt that its us croats who produce the best players BY FAR. having said that PIKSI was an absolutely incredible player, one of the most talented players the world has ever seen. blighted by injury, talent wise he was incredible, he would definately have been on any team. Mijatovic great, savicevic super. You have to respect talent. There are still people in England who refuse to accept that maradon is the greatest player of all time. because of the first goal against england in 86. that shows a complete lack of class. Whatever your affiliation or allegiance you HAVE to give respect, because that respect is what builds appreciation and knowledge and from that grows the next generation. In later years serbia produced some good defenders Vidic, Ivanovic, kolarov. I’m guessing we could have got out of the group stages a few more times if we’d had them ;). BUT its academic, we are croatia and rightly so XX
Yeah both England games in that qualifying campaign were epic. Made me start believing again. Maminjo thats a very thorough breakdown of our keeper history. Pretty bad. LOL. I was almost going to put Livakovic in as keeper!! He looks good to me and like you say hasnt messed up big time yet. We’ll see. I’m still hoping that Semper will mature into a world class keeper, something about him says “class”, he’s been playing regular in serie B which is not a bad league I can tell you. @pogbaglavnic: yes Boksic was an absolute beast. Incredible player. I don’t say this lightly, but in terms of pure ability, both boksic and dudu were BETTER than suker
yeah i will forever remember gerard crying into his shirt after the final whistle went hehe, man good times
I think the win in England in 2007 beats out the 2016 Spain win. In both games, Croatia didn’t need a result to go through (they already qualified for Euro 2008 and they were already through to the knockout stage for Euro 2016). But the fact that they went into London and knocked the English out of the WHOLE tournament adds a bit extra for me.
Ante, i appreciate these posts and you helping with the diversional therapy, keep up the good work dude
We also always slot our worst player at LB. I remember that growing up.
No one wants be a keeper in Croatia
It’s a sign that you are stupid
There’s a saying in split where a father tells another that he has two sons one is a doctor and the other is a goalkeeper hahah
It doesn’t make sense that we can’t produce a world class keeper. We have all the genetics that should go to make a top tier keeper. I know there is the debate they all go to rukomet,
water polo or basketball but it just doesn’t make sense that they wouldn’t be drawn to our most popular sport where they can make the most money (besides NBA). Maybe mentally we can’t handle the pressure that comes with being in between the pipes
A midfield 3 of Modric Boban and Zuti would be nuts. I like Boksic up top with Suker if everyone’s in their prime. Boksic didn’t get the highest wages in England for nothing. He was a fucking beast.
Pretty sure I’d just sacrifice defenders for midfielders and forwards to make my 11 😉
@crnkovic
Man, we had some bad keepers in our time.
Subasic was bad at Hajduk…but he had a good four-year period in his career between 2013 and 2017 at Monaco…but he was done by 2018 (of course, when we needed him most).
But for this small period alone, I too would have to put him on top of the all time list, simply because there was noone else.
Drazen Ladic is probably our second best ever, due to him being excellent at France ’98… but he was so up-and-down for us during qualifying and messed up a lot. Tonci Gabric and Marijan Mrmic were absolutely horrible keepers. We pretty much lost or drew every game they played.
Pletikosa was good when he was very young (like age 21) and playing for Hajduk, then turned to total shit at World Cup 2002 (when he was 23). He had a crap career at both Shakhtar and Spartak, and was a joke for that short loan year at Spurs.
He had a very short career resurgence at Rostov, and actually played well at Euro 2012…but was then horrible again for us at World Cup 2014 (with the better keeper in Subasic on the bench). Plete was very popular, and had a long career, but it was so mediocre.
Tomo Butina was pure garbage (on par with Gabric and Mrmic). At no point was he ever good. Same goes for Vaslij.
Vedran Runje was also a fan favorite, and actually had a decent club career…but was very overrated. Never did well when it matter, and had some unreal chokes in net.
Lovre Kalinic had some promise, and was good in Belgium…but now he’s a disaster. I don’t think he recovers.
Simon Sluga is in the same boat at Luton.
I was always a fan of Joey Didulica as our goalkeeper.
He never got a chance with us, and once his club career started to take off, he got a concussion…then got suspended for giving a guy a concussion when they were going for the ball.
A guy who I thought should have been given a chance was Mario Galinovic. Completely overlooked, despite being a regular starter on a good Panathinaikos team throughout those bad years we had with Plete and Butina. Can’t believe he was third keeper behind those two.
Livakovic seems okay (though nothing special)…and so long as he doesn’t royally mess up, he could find himself on the top of the list, lol.
That’s how weak we have been back there.
4231
Asanovic > Rakitic
My all time Croatia XI: Subasic; Srna, Bilic, Simunovic, Jarni; Kovac, Modric; Boban, Prosinecki; Perisic; Suker,
Mandzukic/Boksic/Eduardo the last 2 were cut short by injury. Both of them were absolute wold class talents. Mandzo I would love him in the team but it would mean playing 2 up top and therefore forcing one of our midfield genius out wide. overall not worth it. what do y’all think?
I think I was more proud of our loss to Germany in ’96 than that B team win against Spain in ’16.
That Spain game should be nowhere near this list. A fun result that made me proud but we were through and resting lots of starters.
We did beat Russia when they were on drugs, and in Russia. That’s huge!
That’s your opinion ante. People experience the emotions of these matches in different ways. England semi final never really felt fun to me. Too stressful especially after our poor first half. I liked the holland game, especially as the team played with some freedom and we scored 2 really beautiful goals