Posted by Tomislav on October 23, 2003, 10:37 am, in reply to "The current Croatian football mentality....." Simic Tudor R.Kovac ZA DOM SPREMAN
You are right we play scared now. Because we have to protect a reputation and God forbid we go out and attack and lose badly. Coach's have too much pressure on them so can you really blame them? one bad game and the heat is on them let alone a big 3-0 loss or 4-1 etc...
Just one thing your line-up from the first game against Mexico is missing 1 player(4-4-1 ?) even thouogh it looked like we were playing with 1 or even 2 less men then the Mexicans the whole game from the begginging(not including Zivkovic's red card). Those times are past us though because we do have some really good potential attacking players who do play for thier clubs regularly and most importabtly are young and hungry(Leko, Olic, Kranjcar coming up etc...) the only problem is Baric like Jozic is affraid of opening it up too much and thus when we lose on of the key players in the starting 11 through a red card or injury like we did against Belgium last month he goes back to the ultra defensive line-up which plays horrible soccer. When we lose Prso and Leko we are screwed. Tudor coming back is a plus but since Biscan is never playing for the N/T while Baric is around we don't have a proper replacement for Tudor either. Our style of soccer somehow suits boring qualification games where the smaller teams just fall into a bunker and kill soccer for 90 minutes but when the real tournies start(World Cup or this upcoming Euro) we would get smoked if we continue playing defensive or while relying on the individual brilliance of Prso and Rapaic(who still doesnt have a team) my ideal line-up at the moment would be
Pletikosa
N.Kovac Vranjes(Zivkovic)
Srna(Babic) Rapaic
Leko(Kranjcar)
Prso T.Maric(Olic off bench)
--Previous Message--
: There are two things extremly evident of the
: Croatian national team character since France
: 98. We play with defensive tactics and
: defensive minded players. I say it a stigma
: from the dissy heights of France 98.
: Our achievements and success then needs to be
: put into context. It was a one off,
: everything just perfectly fell into place. We
: had a once in a lifetime generation of
: players , we struck a purple patch of form
: and we had luck. We are lucky to have
: witnessed such a marvelous thing.
: I fell today our coaches and officials are
: playing not to lose rather than playing to
: win. Since France 98 we have played with
: extremly defensive tactics and defensive
: minded players. It was evidenced in our first
: game in Japan/ Korea. We played with four
: defenders, one defensive (virtually a
: defender) midfielder, three midfieders and a
: sole sriker (Suker) and no wingers or pacey
: attacking players. On the bench there was the
: likes of Stanic, Rapaic, Vugrenec, Vlahovic
: ect. Japan/ Korea was a huge failure we
: played ultra defensive hoping not to concede
: a goal and pinching one ourselves. I would
: have rather played attacking (but
: accountable) football if you get beaten then
: at least you gave yourself every chance of
: winning and the better side wins.
: Today we see more of the same in my
: opinion.........the game against the Slovenes
: will make or break our style, but I wouldn't
: be holding my breath and booking my seats in
: Portugal just yet...........I'd like your
: predictions???
:
:
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