Josip Brekalo had the “Sexy Assist of the Weekend” for Wolfsburg as he broke the ankles of two Werder Bremen defenders before crossing the ball to American John Brooks for the header. Wolfsburg packed in plenty of goals in the 5-3 win and this type of play from Brekalo shows what he is capable of. Sure, he’s either hot or cold, but when he’s on, he’s a game changer. And remember, Brekalo is only 22 years old.
Brekalo Assist
Mateo Kovačić played the full 90 minutes for Chelsea in a scoreless draw against 1st place Tottenham on Sunday. The win keeps Chelsea two points behind leaders Tottenham and Liverpool in the congested Premiership. Kovačić was given a 6-grade from NBCSports with a “workmanlike display alongside Kante, but couldn’t impact the game in the final third.”
What’s going on with Real Madrid? After an impressive 2-0 victory over Inter Milan midweek, the La Liga champions lost 2-1 to Alaves on Saturday. Modrić is absolutely getting overworked in the current European COVID schedule and it’s beginning to show. Modrić received a 5/10 as “it was his fifth straight start within 14 days, and it really showed on his passing. He looked fatigued, and his passes were sloppy.” The schedule will begin to lighten up for most top teams after the new year, but guys like Modrić at age 35 need to get a break. Real Madrid sit seven points behind leaders Real Sociedad.
Ivan Perišić played 85 minutes in Inter Milan’s 3-0 win over Sassuolo. Ante Rebic played 90 minutes and picked up a yellow card in AC Milan’s victory over Fiorentina. AC Milan remain the top club in Italy. No goals for Andrej Kramarić this week as Hoffenheim played out a 1-1 draw with Mainz.
Let’s pour 1,000,000 non-whites into Croatia, enforce integration laws that make sure no segment of Croatian society is “too white”, teach Croatian kids in schools and the media that ONLY Croatians are guilty of sins every other nationality and race has also committed, show advertisement after advertisement showing Croatians in mixed race marriages.
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Any Croatian who points out this is Croatian GENOCIDE should be put in jail for Hate Speech and attacked as a Racist and a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
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None of you should be against this because it’s just about Free Choice and True Love.
55 teams/nations makes up eufa right! so expanding the euros to 8 groups of 4 teams, getting 32 teams shouldn’t make the tournament boring.
32 teams is like combining all the teams in league A and B of the 2020 nations league…I don’t mean the exact teams will make the euros,but atleast half the teams in both League A and B will make it to the euros.
Don’t overlook the teams in League B of the nations league,they r quite decent teams ( eg Slovakia,Czech,Scotland etc )
@Pro white guy
Whites that believe white skin is the one true faith that leads to salvation can choose to copulate and procreate with whites only, no one is forcing them to do otherwise (so where is this “white genocide”?), those that don’t believe white skin is a faith necessary for salvation can copulate and procreate with whoever they like, even negroes. It’s that simple, there is no white genocide. Where white skin is concerned white people are allowed to choose to not accept your teaching on a “white genocide” as true. Your religion is false lol!
Do you want “white countries” to remain white because you fear given the choice that whites will choose to copulate and procreate with negroes?
@Cuckservative
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So Whites have been forced into a position where they need to get into a breeding contest in their own lands to survive and you say there is no White Genocide?
well the euros is played every 4yrs just like the worldcup…so why not 8 groups,so the tournament can run for a month just as the worldcup. Remember the big wins that made the world took notice of CROATIA. Croatia beats Germany,Holland
and almost against France in 98 worldcup.
The first worldcup we played…the biggest jump we made in terms of rankings (from over 50th to 3rd place) and the world was AMAZED by what we achieved, as a less fancied team.
@Suba
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I think it’s been the opposite with us.
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We rarely grow into a tournament. We usually do well when we perform well right off the bat.
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We’ve never made it out of the group stage after losing or drawing our first match.
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Euro96, WC98, Euro2008, Euro2016 and WC2018 were the tournaments where we progressed… And we kicked off all those tournaments with wins in our first game. Actually, other than that odd hooligan-disrupted Euro2016 draw against Czech… We won our first TWO games in all of these tournaments. We actually won ALL THREE games two of them, and rested our starters for the third game in the remaining tournaments, lol.
Maminjo – yeah. the players still only play 7 games max (which is big deal for them). And UEFA only loses 2 early round knock-out games. You may very well make that money up (and more) by having even more people tuning in to watch the 3rd group stages games, cuz they actually still matter a lot
I think the easier group format benefits us
We grow into a tournament as we sometimes don’t start too well especially against the teams in the first match
If that were the case in the last Euros…we would have gotten a bye into the quarters and Portugal would have been knocked out in the first round lol.
@chicro
Yea, that is a lot simpler and more interesting.
All games will matter and be exciting to see to automatically gets a quarterfinal berth, or have to go through a knockout round to get into the quarters.
I hate how the euro group stage feels unimportant now (like the WC will in 2026). Always said euro format should be something like this. Keep it 24 teams. 6 groups, 4 teams/group, just like now. However, only 1st and 2nd place get out of the group. ALSO, the top four 1st place finishers get a “bye” from the first knockout round (while the remaining 8 play each other in the first knockout round). After that first round, you end up with 8 teams remaining (QF round).
This way, even if you’ve clinched the group after 2 wins, you’re 3rd game still matters, cuz you wanna make sure you’re one of the best four 1st place teams (and get a bye)
Lovren on the new Champions episode lol
https://www.facebook.com/BleacherReportFootball/videos/1151107618639752/
@ Svima
Brekalo breakthrough this summer or Brekalo bust.
Be clear with your post about Brekalo.
I am going Brekalo breakthrough.
I remember this kid being the best player at the u17 World Cup.
He is the goods.
I guess the weaker nations would rather prefer watching Mile Skoric pocketing Ronaldo lol…are the weaker nations there to watch anyway.
I think the 20 teams 4 group system is very tough for the weaker nations…2 strong teams are likely to be in a group…get helped by refrees to qualify. I want UPSETS in the knockout stage just like iceland and wales did to england and belgium respectively…an upset in the group stage don’t count much lol
Nope i rather dislike the current system (Group A – F ), 6 groups with awkward 3rd placed best teams given a chance.
Wish it was expanded to an 8 group system just like the worldcup…i think 8 groups should be the limit
I like the 20 format proposed by Anonymous. It’s definitely better than the current format and actually unquestionably MORE fair. Win or finish 2nd in your group to advance. Plus, it would give the weaker nations an extra game to watch. Sounds like a winning formula to me.
‘watered down’ how does expanding the groups make it feel that way?
The worldcup has more groups and its great…the champions league also. Let’s just give so called smaller nations a shot at big tournaments that’s all. So called big teams sometimes get beaten by smaller nations anyway(wales thumb belgium 3-1,finland beats france in friendlies , iceland beats OVERHYPED england team also) and that makes the tournament great…with 8 groups u r likely to successfully seed the top 8-10 nations without cramping them in a smaller group system…my concern is the is the ‘So Called Smaller Nations’
@Pro white guy
Heresy is choosing to believe something that is not true. Believing in a white genocide is heresy, and that makes you a heretic. Falsehood is still heresy ya libtard, and no one would say “truth is heresy,” you all just believe your different truths lol!
Multiculturalism’s purpose is to make people liberal you stupid libtard, people like you and BLM serve the globalists well, you distract people from what their real agenda is. Skin color is not more important than a person’s faith, but that’s what YOU and BLM would like people to believe.
Did you know that Protestants are still heretics? If it was true once then it’s still true now, because truth is unchangeable? You already respect and accept all the different white religions and that makes you liberal, but lol you just can’t respect and accept a white person choosing to copulate and procreate with a negro, that’s retarded. Why do you believe that you should have the final say in who someone chooses to copulate and procreate with? Who the fuck are you?
“unfair”? Everyone will know the rules going in; how is making the group stage tougher to get out of for EACH & EVERY team “unfair”?
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You have 4 tries to beat out 3 other teams.
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So you prefer the current grotesquely watered down format to mine if you had to choose between the two? Just answer the question.
5 teams in a group means 4 matches to play…now only 2 teams can qualify from a 5 team group to get the 8 teams in quarterfinal…am sorry but a 5 team group seems unfair in a major tournament like the EURO’S…4 team group is ok and u have that Vintage 3 time try
I wonder what the world, specifically the political landscape will look like 60 years from now, well after white people stop being white supremacists acting like we’re still in the colonial age and rule the world. Meanwhile, it is OUR lands that are being colonized!
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Well after white people start acting like every other minority group ONLY concerned about OUR best interests, and not everyone else’s except our own.
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So I laugh when antiWhites accuse me of being “scared”. No no, you don’t get it dipsticks, I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO THE WHITE MINORITY FUTURE.
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Where does that leave YOU? When minorities don’t need white traitors anymore. We certainly don’t need you.
@”Maminjo”, let’s assume they won’t go back to the 16 team format, b/c more games means more money; which format is better? Mine, or the current one?
@Anon
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Yea your proposal is fine, but I think the reason for the expansion of teams is because they like the “Round of 16” round.
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Trying to do a Round of 16, with only 6 groups instead of 8 will cause all kinds of mess.
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At the same time, watering down the tournament to 32 teams (in order to create 8 groups) is a problem too.
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16 teams truly made the tournament elite. Oh well.
I saw an episode of ‘Bonanza’ from 1960 (NINETEEN SIXTY), 4 years before anti-free speech/antiWhite integration laws were passed & 5 years before the antiWhite immigration act was passed.
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It was about “racism” towards Chinese living on the Ponderosa, with the same old shit about “First it was the Irish, blah blah blah”. In one seen, the “racist” father accidentally shoots and kills his own daughter over an argument about her helping a Chinese guy who got assaulted by one of the “town racists”.
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We all see the RESULTS of that antiWhite propaganda today, 60 years later. If I could go back in time and tell the producers of that show what their “anti-racist” propaganda would lead to, they would have called me a “crazy-racist-alarmist”. But if THOSE “anti-racists” of THAT time could go forward in time and SEE for themselves, THOSE “anti-racists” would have become proWhite on the spot. Unlike the antiWhite faggots in corporate america and the advertisement industry today who produce commercial after commercial showing mixed marriages with their brown children completely disproportionate with reality; these antiWhite faggot GENOCIDAL CRIMINALS know exactly the result of what they are pushing.
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Since Bonanza was a hit show back in a time when people didn’t have many entertainment choices, it should be OBVIOUS the establishment has been antiWhite for a quite a while now. So even though the establishment is terrified of us – why do you think they are desperately trying to censor us? We have a HUGE advantage – we point out that their entire foundation rests on “Truth is Heresy”; they promote disloyalty and bullshit, we promote loyalty and the truth.
Everyone complains about the new Euro format but nobody offers a solution, for the 3rd time, here’s mine:
20 teams, 4 groups of 5 teams, top two in each group advance to knockout round/quarter-finals. You end up with almost the same # of total games in the tournament as the current (new) format.
“Now…there will be a lot of cases of teams not really caring about where they finish, if they secure a top 3 spot in their group. It will drop the quality of the group phase matches significantly.”
Correct.
Maminjo you are ???? can I drain your balls ⚽️ ⚽️
The only issue I have is the fact that we (again) are screwed by the new format for the Euros.
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There is literally zero incentive for us to top our group.
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Of the 8 games in the Round of 16…only three group winners get to play third-place teams. The remaining group winners play runner up teams, and even some runner up teams play other runner up teams.
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It’s just a mashup of teams playing each other, with no incentive to take the first three games too seriously (so long as you win one of them, you should be good).
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In our case…if we top our group, we have to play the runners up between France/Germany/Portugal…
But if we finish second place, we still get to play a runner up team (which is likeliest to be Sweden).
If we finish third, we actually somehow still aren’t in bad shape as finishing first, lol.
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That is a significant dropoff. If we are tied with England for first place, going into the final game against Scotland…what’s our incentive to even field our starting eleven?
England would probably do the same in their final game against Czech.
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The dropoff from playing a team like France to Sweden is ridiculous, and well worth losing a game for, lol.
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People were hyped about our England ‘re-match’ in Wembley…but now, that won’t even matter because of how diminished it is to finishing 1st vs 2nd. This is why the 16-team format was so good. It made sure that the two heavyweights in each group took that game seriously, and the loser would get the tougher path.
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Now…there will be a lot of cases of teams not really caring about where they finish, if they secure a top 3 spot in their group. It will drop the quality of the group phase matches significantly.
Good up the good work Maminjo.
I’m not betting my last dollar on us beating Denmark.
Not with our defense and keeper, that would be rather foolish
Prepare for disappointment boys…it’s coming like a freight train!
Denmark better than Croatia? Really?
Fine. Then put some serious money on Denmark then.
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I’ll put cash down on Cro, and you can put it on Denmark.
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The team who goes further in the Euros wins.
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Ask anyone here who would take that bet and pick Denmark.
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I do agree with your seeding gripe. It’s actually the reason why we don’t do better in tournaments. The teams that eliminate us in these tournaments are always the Finalists or Champions (after we’ve already taken out a couple of contenders). Most teams like England, Italy or Belgium get passes without having to play a serious opponent until the quarterfinal of a tournament. Because of our seeding, we always have to take out a top seed, then probably another one shortly after.
This actually solidifies my argument more, as we have had a winning record in the past two tournaments with much, much more difficult opponents than other teams ranked in our area.
@ Maminjo
“Look at tournament results only” LOL do you understand how these ranking systems work? It’s a snapshot in time of how all NT’s are doing, not a checklist of who’s done what at major tournaments. I mean, I understand why you might have that bias, since we’re historically more of a tournament team vs. a team that is consistenly top 5 or top 10 in the rankings.. Try to take off the checkered tinted sunglasses for a minute..
We can’t just discount all non major tournament games. Things should be weighted, to your point, and what not i.e. wins at major tournaments vs. UNL and friendles – but in the same breath, I think you sometimes forget that the last WC was OVER TWO YEARS ago. Look at the starting XI in the final; there’s been a fair amount of turnover on the team due to retirements, form, etc. plus other Euro teams have gotten better where its safe to say we have regressed a bit. TWO YEARS ago we were absolutely a top 10 team but with changes to our squad and drop in form, we aren’t a top 10 team and I think both Elo and FIFA Rankings acknowledge that (each of them have us in the teens now).
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While not a complete fan of the FIFA Ranking, it’s pretty close to accurate I feel (I think the original Elo is the best/most accurate). Looking at FIFA now and with our CURRENT form and SOME past success in mind, I think we should actually be lower (closer to our Elo rankings) I think Germany, Holland and Denmark should be ahead of us and present day, in a one game playoff format, those teams would probably beat us. I just have a lot of worry about our back 4 (and GK at times) not being able to keep up with the better European NT’s out there (again, this year the evidence is there to show that)
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Now… as we have seen with the repka countless times, we’ve been known to stink it up at times in qualifiers or friendlies (exhibit A: 2020) and then get on a roll before a major tournament and make a deep-ish run. If we were to do that, beat some big teams, etc. our rankings will absoultely mirror those wins – but for now, we’re exactly where we should be in the rankings.
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At the end of the day, the FIFA Ranking doesn’t mean too much for us this year – but it could of if we were one of those teams that on the bubble in terms of seeding pots for WC 2022. I’d much rather be a Pot 1 team and potentially the hardest team I’m grouped with is Wales, Switzerland, Ukraine or Poland vs. having a Portugal, France or Spain in our group. Point being and I’m sure people in the HNS are aware of this, is that we can’t just brush off where we’re at in the rankings and hope for a magical run at each major tournament. ‘The hill’ is steeper to climb when you’re a Pot 2 or Pot 3 team vs. being in Pot 1.
Luka Sucic 18 yo. Started as RW (leftie) on the weekend. Let’s hope the RB machine really works on his development.
I caught Kramaric this weekend; he was playing the false 9 role like he did for us against France. While he didn’t score, he was dropping deep and really helping to create opportunities. The passing and vision was on point. I’ve never seen him pass so well. Hopefully, he can add this to the arsenal going forward.
What’s up with that wunder kid from Austria? Forgot his name already
Vuk thank you for all the valuable info
mmm Nikola are u writing a CV for a JOB! lol..anyway does someone have any info on this Italian born kid Emir Murati?
Can’t fix the spacing. Sorry boys.
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You would have to space everything (.) as a page break.
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It was the only way to bring back this version of the website.
Welp. I didn’t realize the spacing was jacked up when I typed that. Sorry for the eye sore of a comment. -_-
Maminjo, I can agree with you somewhat about not caring about the youth games, but I will say for those that are not ready to be called up or who wouldn’t get as much time on the senior team, let them stay with the U21s and try to at least have the team do decently. I had been calling for Bradaric to get a call up for like an entire year before he finally got it. The reason being, he fits a need and he would get playing time. I felt Barisic was growing well last year and looked like he could be the starter come Euro 2020 and probably would have been had the tournament not been cancelled. However, the U21s already have/had Borna Sosa, David Colina, Marin Sverko, Daniel Stefulj, and even Josko Gvardiol who can play LB. They don’t need Bradaric.
On the other end of things. It would be silly to call up someone like the aforementioned Gvardiol to play CB unless he was actually going to get good minutes. He is a key player in the U21s and should be playing minutes in competitive matches. Although I wouldn’t even mind him being on the team right now if Vida doesn’t pick things up. Maybe Mile Skoric will be good now after a pretty good performance against Portugal. I know how much you and I love it when he is called up lol.
I’ve seen you and others mention some names that we should try out in another thread a week or two ago. I’ll go through a few and say whether I think they should/could have a shot to make the Euros squad:
Toma Basic: Yes, maybe instead of Badelj. I think Badelj is just kind of there because he gels with the team off the field and isn’t a horrible CDM so he just comes on in matches where we’re trying to hold a lead.
Nikola Moro: Maybe, but I don’t see him taking a spot over anyone other than Pasalic or Badelj. Kovacic secured his spot after proving he can actually show up for us against Portugal.
Lovro Majer: Maybe. If his current form keeps up and Pasalic’s is still not picking up as much, I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes it.
Adrian Semper: Probably not. Pointless unless he makes a big step this season. Good young keeper, but wouldn’t be more than 3rd choice, MAYBE second choice for us at this point.
Toni Borevkovic: No. I honestly don’t know that much about him other than he’s a CB that gets decent minutes in Portugal, but there are better players than him.
Borna Sosa: Doubtful (for reasons mentioned before). I also just think Barisic is better than him right now.
Mile Skoric: Doubt he makes the team. He did have a good game against Portugal, but I can’t see him continuing to be called up even if he is one of Dalic’s favorites like Melnjak. If he does get a shot in the qualifiers and does well again though, who knows.
Josip Juranovic: Probably not. I don’t hate the way he plays, he just isn’t great defensively. I can’t decide who I’d pick between him, Uremovic, and Jedvaj at RB if Vrsaljko can’t get fit.
Filip Benkovic: Doubtful. This guy needs to find a way to stay healthy too. He looks good when I watch him, but he just gets hurt a lot. Leicester has two young CBs now that they like in Soyuncu and Fofana so I doubt he’ll get his shot there. He doesn’t even start every week in the Championship on loan at Cardiff. I hope this guy figures it out in the summer otherwise he’ll be treading in flop territory.
Luka Ivanusec: Nope. I like him, but I doubt he finds a way on the team considering he’s still young and not starting for Dinamo much due to Majer’s great form. He’ll be on the roster in the future though.
Ivan Sunjic: Nope. He’s a decent player, but that move to the Championship was just not the right one in my opinion. I prefer Basic over him right now.
“The god of Halilovic”: NOPE. The only way he ever gets close to our national team again is if he starts putting on a show in the Championship and carries Birmingham to promotion.
@Soul Champ, Maminjo, The Great AD: As always, I respect all those points…thanks for the discussion.
@Soul Champ-Common misnomer that Rebic is just speed and power…Rebic is highly skilled with a high soccer IQ. His biggest weakness is his shot consistency, but that is not to shabby either. EG-Watch him play with a man at his back (a rare skill), those turns and “give and goes” are superb.
PS-Fun fact- ACMilan is now undefeated in their 11 games without Ibrahimovic (8wins 3 ties). Rebic just wins. Ibra is special and has helped Milan, but my favorite thing to watch is how Rebic’s hustle has rubbed off on Ibra too.
@BZ
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A couple years back, I recall watching Sosa do well in a few U21 matches, and he had very good chemistry on that left side with Vlasic.
He also transferred to Stuttgart around that time, so I recall being supportive of Sosa getting a callup to the senior squad as we had desperate needs at LB, and he was just transferring to Stuttgart and was doing well on our junior teams.
I was not a fan of Pivaric and didn’t want us to keep experimenting in that position with less talented ‘veteran players’ being played out of position as we’ve done in the past.
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Unfortunately for Sosa, he kept getting injured. So, it’s not like my support for him faded. He needed to be 100 percent health and playing.
It’s like me saying your support for Pjaca faded since Euro2016.
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My support for Sosa then was probably about the same as my support for Bradaric…who is also a young player who transferred to a good club in a good league and fulfills a need for our senior team.
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Who isn’t a supporter of that?
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Right now, I’m still supportive of Sosa…but Bradaric is ahead of him due to how well he’s played for us in that small sample, and he does start for Lille for over a year now. Sosa, however, is healthy and starting every game for Stuttgart as well.
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I do want Sosa to be called up and I would rather try him out at LB than give Melnjak yet another full game.
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IMO, Bradaric and Sosa should have been getting more time in these UNL matches at LB. We spent way too much game time on Melnjak and Barisic.
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I understand that Dalic was probably trying to help out our U21s by keeping Sosa and Bradaric in our youth ranks…but I don’t give a crap about youth tournaments at all. I would have rather had both Bradaric and Sosa alternating 90-minute games in UNL to see what they could bring for us at the Euros. I don’t have faith in our other LB options.
I agree with BZ – Brekalo is uniquely talented, sure, but the starting position goes to the player with the biggest positive impact on the game. This is why some of these phenoms are bench players. We want to win, even if it isn’t necessarily in the flashiest style
@ BZ
I respect you putting your name to things.
Brekalo and Kovacic add unparalleled dimension to our squad.
How they get utilized is up to Dalić.
Just like when one Ante Rebić was needed for pace and power in the attacking third.
“What’s official exactly? The Cola-Cola FIFA Rankings? LOL”
Priceless. 🙂
@Dannyj- I like it. Life is full of hard choices. I am not afraid to put my name next my choices.
–Not every prospect is going to pan out.
–Yeah some prospect might score a goal in a shootout with a bad team, but that doesn’t make them a good fit for the National Team.
…to be clear, Brekalo is not a bust. He is just so far behind Rebic (the guy most want him to replace) that it is comical to consider him the starter. He is like Kova, a great player, just not our winning brand.
@Maminjo-Serious questions. you used to be a huge supporter of Sosa.
Why the change, have you been watching him play?
What makes you think your high praise of Bradaric won’t fade like your excitement for Sosa?
We do need to have an official sign in thread where you put your name by a bust or make it next to a player
That would be entertaining for the future
Give brekalo some more time. He’s still young
Remember how many gave up on Rebić? You know who you are
I thought we said 25-26 is when we can call it on a nogometaš
Bradaric looks confident in the checkers. For sure has more to prove. But has to be the most confident inspiring wing back prospect in years
LB is not a problem. We have Bradaric, Barisic, Sosa, and Melnjak there.
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I wouldn’t judge Sosa on one 15-minute spell, but I don’t think he’s some major prospect for us. But if he were worse than Melnjak, then he would be the one on a near-relegated Turkish league team and Melnjak would be the one starting for Stuttgart.
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The best news for us there is that Bradaric is visibly the best player for us there AND has the best club resume. On top of this, he’s the youngest by far.
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He should be starting every single game for us there. Barisic and Melnjak have been playing WAY too much for us there and we have a very large sample size to judge them from. They are stop-gap players and are Strinic-type ‘role’ players. It’s fine to start one (maybe two) of these types of players and get away with it, but if you have multiple role player types in your starting eleven, you won’t go far. The UNL games showed us what happens when you do that.
I caught the end of the Bayern/Stuttgart (Inter game ended) and Borna Sosa was playing LWB. Interestingly enough he takes their left sided corners. Maybe it was late in the game but all of his crosses were short. He then proceeded to play Dougie Costa poorly and allowed a goal. Very small sample size but he looks to be behind Melnjak in the pecking order imo. At least we’re 4 deep with above avg talent at LB, hopefully 2 of them develop.
Need to keep ONE posting name moniker.
Like my man Živa Istina, who called Luka Modrić a bust.
Wonder what Hazard is?
Comes in out of shape and then goes on an injury binge for a calendar year.
Jovic?
Ascensiio?
Got Luka legend running around with Zero options around him?
Marcelo the over 30 Brazilian bug got him too.
Brazilian footballers must lie about their age when they are young?
Vast majority fall off a cliff at 32?
Brekalo = the goods.
I am bagging because I am so sure Brekalo is our 3rd best wing (4th if we play Vlasic at wing.)
To level set. The kid is skilled, but with him starting we are going to be average. I don’t see the full set of skills we require for success.
I have a solid early bag radar. BZ’s put him in a bag and zip it up list:
-Badelj when he was our starter.
-Rog 2 years ago when he was supposed to be our golden boy ie never smitten by his play vs Spain in ’16 or Napoli
-“the average” Santini
-the Passive Pasalic, even when he was banging in goals for Atlanta (although Pasalic did play better at CF)
-Bag him up Budimir.
… and the list goes on. You don’t want to see my EARLY good call list, it is even more impressive.
Forgot to mention, was glad to see Pjaca play last week, after 2 separate fakenews reports had him out over a month for an arm and hamstring issues. Ball is sticking to his feet again. Full pace is not back, but I am confident we would look great with Vlasic, Perisic, and Rebic around him. His hold up play would gel perfectly. His physical self is not the same, but his understanding of the game is still there.
Pjaca is definitely our 3rd best striker (or better.) So let’s put a bag on Colak, Budimir, and any other 4th rate CF Dalic experiments with.
Bradaric, I know everybody else is smitten by you, but I will be watching you closely next year; with a zip lock bag in my left pocket.
@ Ante
That’s funny.
I watched the match.
With Brekalo expressing himself all over the pitch.
The headline seemed spot on.
Back in the day on the courts of NYC, we would say “breaking ankles.”
Beyond catching bodies, I see that final ball coming together for Brekalo.
He is on the rise just before two major tournaments.
This will also coincide with a big time club transfer.
He has chosen wisely with Wolfsburg, he needs to get this next move right as well.
UNL has benefited Brekalo the most, as he has gone against the best that last two years. Despite his mixed level of performances he has grown.
Anybody bagging on Brekalo is playing checkers.
At 22, he reminds, of how we watched Modrić. In the sense of his skill and his game changing ability.
This next two years Brekalo has the opportunity to become world class.
It’s his confidence that is his most valuable skill.
Gentlemen,
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Hahahahaha…I just read it the way you did. Apolgoes.
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No, Brekalo did not break his legs but he did almost break some Bremen legs. This kid is special…when he’s on.
@ Bećar
I thought the pass was a smooth move.
Exactly a skill that folks think Rebić does not possess.
@ Real Modrić
Why is Luka playing all these consecutive matches?
He is 35 playing like he is 25.
He needs a rest.
Kroos is a drain.
Mandžukić is needed by so many top clubs.
He is such lightning rod when it comes to a consensus on how effective he is.
Amazing how narrow most people are when it comes to how a player must look or play.
I am watching all these matches and thinking how he would feast on all these goal scoring opportunities.
I pray he makes a good choice for the new year and has a proper mid season process with his new club.
I would love for him to go on a tear and have back for the Euros.
’14 Croatia had 1 win 2 losses.
’16 Croatia had 2 wins a draw and a loss
’18 Croatia had 4 wins 2 draws and a loss
50% winning percentage.
Cameroon was fixed. Win against Turkey was lucky, Turkey had some good chances in that game and perhaps should’ve won. Spain played down to your level. Lost to Portugal who were a best 3rd placed team, Mandzukic and Modric chocked in that game. Nigeria and Iceland are shit, Argentina were having all sorts of locker room problems when Croatia beat them.
I don’t rate Croatia with the big boys that have won tournaments, but you guys are a good little team, and that’s good enough.
Then there’s my France!
Concerning Rebic’s assist, am I the only one who was disappointed that he didn’t try to score himself?
@Pog
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No, Korea are not capable on the big stage (unless it’s rigged and taking place in Korea like 2002 was).
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Yes, I am counting history…but recent history (at tournament level) counts for the most.
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To me, World Cup 2018 performance is king…then comes Euro 2016…then the World Cup before that. Also, it’s a matter of WHO you played in these tournaments too.
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Italy, Germany and Holland may look impressive lately, but I’ve seen things like this before where teams look amazing in qualifying and friendlies…the the tournament comes, and they choke.
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Holland has missed TWO tournaments in a row. That’s bad. Yes, they did well in 2014 and that’s why I will always have them as a good team…but you cannot discount the fact that they outright MISSED both the most recent Euros and World Cup. You simply can’t put them in the top-10 because of this.
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Same goes for Italy.
Italy did pretty good at the Euros, but they missed the 2018 World Cup. They also did very poorly in the 2014 World Cup as well, considering who they played and lost to there.
If we’re counting the most recent tournaments, I can’t put them in the top-10 either.
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Germany’s a great team, and won the World Cup 2014. They also did pretty well at Euro2016. They are most deserving of a top-10 spot out of these three teams…but still, that World Cup was very bad considering how easy their group was. I’d rank them at #10 or so, simply because there are many teams that did well in these recent tournaments that should be ranked higher than them.
Big win by jurics Verona
At this rate he will be our next izbornik before you know it
Ante
Don’t do that again
Germany won a World Cup the tourney before that. Holland finalists in 2010. If you’re counting histories does that not mean something?
Korea are capable on the big stage too.
Yeah ante don’t ever put guy breaks legs in your title I almost had a heart attack!
Also, Holland needs to practice qualifying for tournaments before they’re top ten again.
Teams like Italy and Holland should be barred from being ranked in the top ten until they are back in the tournament and show results.
Germany lost to Korea in a critical World Cup match and tied the game up on a Hail Mary free kick against Sweden…finishing last in their group without a win.
That has never happened to Croatia in their tournament history. We’ve never lost a game to an opponent like that, nor did we ever finish last in a tournament, especially without a win. Whenever we finish third in our group or Euro or World Cup… We wound up ranked outside to top 10 (and into the 30s).
Germany wins a couple of UNL games and now they’re top 10 again?
Germany needs to prove that they’re back (at an actual tournament) before they are considered to be a top 10 team again. These rankings don’t mean shit until July 2021 rolls around.
Haha I did too @Medo
Am I the only one who Shyte themselves when they first read Brekalo breaks legs.
We should be ahead of Uruguay and Mexico but Germany and Holland should be ahead of us so yeah 11 seems about right.
Belgium didn’t get slapped by France. They outplayed them for most of that game, had a 10 minute lull and got beat by a set piece. Classic 2018 France.
I think Belgium were the best team at the 2018 WC.
We were second best. Since then we’ve been balls. Not surprised when a tiny country does that well there’s a bit of a comedown. Happened after ’98 too. The rankings look accurate to me.
@Soul Champ-100% Dalic does not grind out wins. He deserves a 2nd term despite his UNL failings, but his incohesive decisions have been mind boggling.
@Maminjo- yup, wait for Euros. Though we go as Dalic goes. If he goes on one of his patented off-script binges, the Coca-Cola standings might be considered generous.
@ARMADA
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What’s official exactly? The Cola-Cola FIFA Rankings? LOL
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So, according to those rankings, Belgium is the top team in the world, despite only beating two top-20 quality opponents in the past four tournaments?
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Belgium gets slapped by Italy, Switzerland, Wales, France, etc in all tournaments since WC2014 (with almost all of their wins being narrow ones against Asian, Arab, CONCACAF, and African teams).
This Belgian generation only had wins against England and Brazil. The Brazil win is impressive (after they squeezed by Japan), but is it really enough to make them the top team in the World for several years now?
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We need to look at tournament results ONLY.
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It’s obvious that the squads we’ve been rolling out in our friendlies and UNL will not be the squads in the upcoming Euros and World Cup.
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It’s a shame that we hurt our rep, but rolling out these experiments…but we were one of the top teams in these past two tournaments, beating several top-20 caliber teams (Argentina, Spain, England, Iceland, Turkey, Nigeria, Denmark, Russia) and only losing to ACTUAL champions (France, Portugal) in controversial fashion.
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Let’s wait for the Euros before declaring these Coca-Cola ranking as anything but fluff.
@ BZ
Did you see the highlight when the Norwegian kid on the right wing.could nott execute a simple pass to Rebić who was wide open in front of goal, after an explosive run down the middle?
Milan had a lot of rotation for this one, and it showed.
I am impressed that Rebić was able to be in such good shape after a month off?
I know it was his elbow he dislocated, but it still takes time to get your legs sharp.
Milanello has a world class training ethos and it shows.
@ Maminjo
I too am glad that we were able to back into staying in first division of UNL and before that pot 1 of World Cup qualifying.
We have grown in talent depth over recent years but still could not deal with robust youth campaigns and veterans like Mandžukić retiring.
And plain out exhausted World Cup run.
And Dalic, who I respect, but is not world class, does not help in grinding out results.
Covid and injuries hit us harder than other top 10 powerhouses.
Actually remember being top 5 and getting bum rushed in some major tournaments.
These next two major tournaments will give us the opportunity to finally establishing ourselves as a dominant footballing nation.
I still pray that Mandžukić comes back to add his beast mode goal scoring presence.
Where are the guys on here who were sure as shit that we’re a top 10 NT.
It’s official, we’ve officially dropped to 11. I bet we finish the year in mid teens. Just happy we stayed in pot 1 for WC qualifying.
He damn near broke his own leg when he botched the Cruyff, and it luckily bounced right back to his feet.
I’ll give him credit though, he sure had 1 good moment against bottom dwellers Werden Bremen (2wins in 10 games)
Wolfsburg getting into a barn burner with an inferior opponent, is reminiscent of our last few games against shitty teams (eg Turkey and Sweden) where Brekalo was on display!
@Soul Champ- finally saw that Rebic highlight you were raving about. First touch was sublime. Speed was world class, and the perfect layoff was juicy. Against a solid opponent too!