Croatian Hope

I am an Australian of Croatian descent. I agree with Matt, Australia is more than capable of beating Croatia. Croatia is a good team, but Australia is definitely on the same level. Croatia’s defence which is meant to be their strong point, but I believe this is their weakness. Croatia will struggle to control Harry Kewell. Their defence is slow, and prone to making errors under pressure. This has been proven with the two goals conceded to Iran and 1 goal conceded against Austria. Croatia do not have a world class keeper, so if the Aussies can get a shot at him, look out.
I cant believe the myth going around that Australia is inferior to Croatia. Both teams are evenly matched, and the best team will win on the day.
Goodluck to both Aus & Cro, hopefully both will go through at the expense of Brazil, now wouldn’t that be good to see!

Posted from  Australia

bigone, i disagree — the fact that croatia is better than australia is not a myth, if you keep the supporter bias aside. have a look at the current qualification results (ignore the friendlies for a second) and compare them between the two sides, i.e. acknowledge who the respective opponents were.

that notwithstanding, australia has a chance of beating the croats regardless of yesterday’s match — it was just as big/small after the match against austria. matchday is decisive, so we’ll see — still, i give croatia the nod (big surprise!).

cheers.

Posted from  Germany

If Australia play the way they played against Greece and if Croatia play the way they just played against Iran than im sorry but Brazil and Japan will advance.

Just quietly, I still think Australia and Croatia will get through.
I cant wait to see if Australia come out firing against Holland and give them a wholloping.

Posted from  Australia

Don’t underestimate Iran. Iran 2006 is a lot better than Iran 1997. It’s more of the case that Iran has improved so much, rather than Croatia being weak.

The question is: Are we (Australia 2006) as good as Iran 2006? We need to be at least as good as them to beat Croatia.

We know that in 1997, we weren’t as good as Iran.

Posted from  Australia

I say we should reevaluate this debate after our next game against the Dutch. This will give us a better indication of where we really are and if we are on target to firstly, defeat Japan in the opening game, take point(s) of Brazil and capable of doing the same against Croatia.

As usual, the first game in the WC can be the most crucial. A loss here can be a huge set back cause that means you need to pick up points in the second game. Who knows it might not even come down to the 3rd game between Oz v Croatia. I hope it does though. Would be great football.

Tomislav,
Australia has beaten Uraguay, England & Greece(Euro Champs04). Not a bad track record, I agree that two were friendly’s, but we outplayed the England “A” team in the first half, and that game was a little bit more than a friendly.
Croatia has beaten, Sweden & Argentina…..nobody else of note. The Agentina game was a friendly, and Croatia were totally outplayed by Messi & Co. Croatia was very lucky to win that game.
Looks to me like Australia’s oppponents more than match Croatia’s recent games. Surely you dont beleive Bulgaria, Hungary, Iceland & Malta(1-1) are worth taking into this equation do you?
So, Croatia better than Australia; Myth or Fiction? Definitely proven as FICTION!
THIS MYTH HAS BEEN BUSTED!

Posted from  Australia

Bigone,

Maybe you missed my point. Australia played great football against Uruguay but the standard they showed in the game vs. Greece was BAD.
Croatia (from what I could gather on the replays I saw) played very poor vs. Iran especially the back line.
All I stated was that if Australia and Croatia do not improve on this than Brazil and Japan have a great chance to advance.

Posted from  Australia

O.K. Bigone,

Just realised you were referring to the other Tomislav.

My bad.

BTW, it would be totally awesome if the Australia Croatia game result would determine who would play Italy in the next round and nothing else. It will help the Australia -Croatian community feel much more at ease celebrating the win Ha ha….

Posted from  Australia

I saw the game live on CCTV5 and have to say that Croatia fielding a full strength side where less than impressive.

Won’t be much between Australia and Croatia and a bit of luck will seperate the teams. Japan looks in shambles at the moment, I saw the Kirin Cup and they looked nothing like the team that played in Confeds cup last year. Brazil are superb team and can not see them not getting past the first stage.

Posted from  Hong Kong

hello my fellow australians, I just want to say, there is no way you guys can beat croatia. You guys arent even close to the same level of soccer as croatia is. You guys won in penalties to participate in the world cup, playing with a lousy team called Uruguay wich was unlucky that day. Croatia played bad that day but you guys dont know why, well im going to tell you: Croatia started to do bad when there were 6 substitutions made by croatia, wich then meant cratia wasnt having their real team on the pitch, they had their C team. You guys dont pay attention to the teams we beat, like Argentina, or the tie against brazil, austria probably plays better then australia, so the score when croatia plays you guys in the world cup will probably be 4-1 0r maybe even 7-0. I just cant belive you guys think if ceoatia tied with Iran means we suck. Just take a look at the croatian past friendlys and qualification games, we did not lose ONE game!!

pheew…Croatia and Australia in the same level…yea right thats like me saying croatia and brazil are on the same level, actualy we can beat them, cuz we have players that are talented enough. Unlike someone we know….

Yea so you guys have croatian players and its all cool and stuff, but seriously you guys have one realy good forwad(VIDUKA) and thats it. He is your guys only hope. He is the Davor Suker of Australia, all I recomend to you Australians is not to get to excited because it will just hurt more when you guys dont make it in the first round trust, me I know how it feels!! 2002 was a sad year.

Posted from  United States

Denis mate, you talk a bloody good talk…..You guys aren’t even close to the same level of soccer as Croatia is…..Austria probably plays better than Australia. Thanks, some of your best.

Yeah mate, we have Australian born players of Croatian descent and you guys have too, so I don’t know where you going with that. It don’t matter what their heritage, at the end of the day, they are playing for Australia and that’s all that matters.

Denis Susac,

You are obviously ignorant to world football, and the Australian NT.
Remember this game: Malta 1 Croatia 1? HAHAHAHAHA
Malta couldn’t play its way out of a paper bag, and Croatia’s strongest team couldn’t beat them. What chance have you guys got at the world cup?
Croatia beat Argentina, yes, but they were very, very lucky. I watched that game, and Messi & Co. played all over Croatia that day and should have put 6 goals past them. There is no way on earth that Croatia will beat Argentina again. So dont mention the Argentina game to rate your team, because that is just laughable!
Australia played England last year and beat them 3-1. Australia easily outplayed England that day, with Harry Kewell making Rio Ferdinand look like a real goose.
As I recall, England thrashed Croatia 4-2 at the last Euro, and could have won by more.
MYTH BUSTED DENIS!
I am sorry, but it is you who will be crying when Brazil & AUSTRALIA make it through to the round of 16!

Posted from  Australia

Well said!!!!!

Let’s stop the “my team is better than your’s”. It really is quite ridiculous of you to suggest a 7-0 thrashing.

Just shows how ignorant you really are. Look, as past results show…football is a funny game. I’m not going to sit here and say Australia is going to beat Croatia. BUT, you have to accept the fact that Australia certainly have the ability to do so.

Martin and Bigone have made legitimate points. Having re-read your post…i barely see any sensible points?

Uruguay were unlucky that day? Ok i’ll give you that…yes perhaps they could have scored and it would have been another world cup qualifying game that ended in tears for us. However, fact of the matter is…Australia won. We not only held on in extra time, but we created chances.

The boys that are there have played against the best and they are match hardened against players of the highest calibre. As Bigone said, England were completely outplayed in that game…

Anyway, back to my point. I think it’s going to be a real dogfight but like i said. That’s the beautiful game of footy.

If we get a good result against Japan, we could be onto something. On the other hand, if Croatia get a result against Brazil…it could be all on. Either way, even if Croatia and Australia lose their opening games, I still think they both have enough class to get through.

Just have to wait and see I guess!

Posted from  Australia

Ritz, well said. Don’t want the Aussie posts to get like some of the Croatian and Serbian posts where it’s just full on bickering.

Posted from  United States

hey hey hey…you gys started by saying croatia sucks because we tied against iran…how ignorant is that..I know you guys think you’re soo cool now because you made it to the world cup. I only got a bit mad and told you guys how I felt about australias team.

Posted from  United States

Regardless of what’s been said, Iran aren’t actually that bad a side. They upstaged USA in France 98 and have been playing reasonably good soccer.

Wouldn’t be too surprised if they were to sneak in to the round of 16 alongside Portual.

Anyway, back to the topic of “Croatian Hope”, what do you lads think about the controversy brewing around the coach playing his son in the central midfield role?

I don’t know much about him so would like to hear some croatian view on this. Is he actually good enough to be there or is there some poor bas**** sitting on the bench as a result?

Posted from  New Zealand

I watched the Iran game in full yesterday, and was pretty disappointed in a two players, being Niko Kranjcar & Igor Tudor.
Niko is just too slow, he seems a step off the pace all the time. In the Iran game he was never first to the ball and lost out on most challanges. He is supposed to be creative, that’s a laugh, how can he create anything when he is too slow and never gets the ball.
Secondly, Igor Tudor looks like a big, hulking, slow giant. Midfield is just not his position, and its little wonder Juventus let him go to Siena. Again, just too slow and always late in challanges. I just hope he doesn’t mark-up on Ronaldinho, as he will run rings around Tudor. A real problem here, but I thought that Modric & Vranjes played well when they came on.
I definitely think we should replace Niko with Modric, and Tudor with Vranjes. Otherwise Brazil will just eat us alive.

Posted from  Australia

if Australia’s friendly with Holland is anything to go by, then Australia will kick Japan back to the land of the rising sun! As for croatia, Australia is now at least as good as the Croats and I think although Australia probably wont beat brazil they certainly will give them a run for theyre money!

Posted from  Australia

As for all the nay sayers (looking in dennis direction), its time to close your mouths because the socceroos just played against Holland and considering were 48th in the world playing against 3rd in the world, with a man down on our side and having not having participated in the world cup for 20 or more years I’d say that we have a chance to do just about anything this year.

Posted from  Australia

As for all the nay sayers (I’m looking in dennis direction), its time to close your mouths because the socceroos just played against Holland and considering were 48th in the world playing against 3rd in the world, with a man down on our side and having not having participated in the world cup for 20 or more years I’d say that we have a chance to do just about anything this year.

Posted from  Australia

lol…so all you croatian fellas…what have you got to say now?

Posted from  Australia

BYE BYE CROATIA! On your bike! Time to go home.

“in your dreams guys croatia will cream oz ”

Shows how much you know about the Socceroos.

Posted from  Australia

aus sucks 2-2 was croatia game from the start see the kick

u got a pealyt cheap ass

Posted from  Canada

yes we did get a penalty…and from what it looked like we should have had 2 penalties…cheap handballs…

Posted from  Australia