[MaidenMadness]

Dunno if we ever had this thread before. i guess there probably was one ages ago but there area lot new members so lets do this now.

which nt result you have most regrets about.

for me personally its versus france in wc98. jugoslavija in zagreb in euro00 qualifiers, ecuador at wc02, germany at euro96, australia on wc06 they were all bad results, tragedies but france was something completely different, whole other level. in retrospect now 10 years later it is clearly visible that whoever won the france-croatia semi was going to be the new world champion and there we had the lead the final in our hands and we blew it thanks to boban. a chance to go into history books. seriously i believe that what 54 final is to hungarians the 98 semifinal is for us.

 

[grba2]

France 98 semi, and Zagreb against Sugoslavija Euro00 qualifier for me. Euro 96 quarter against Germany was bad as well. I hate to say it but the most painful for me was the Jugosranija match, that was a horrible day.:moan: The drubbing that htey took from the NL made up for it though.:thumbsup:

 

[HajdukSplit]

semi-finals in 1998, as Bilic said, if they held on for 5 minutes to the lead, they would have been in the finals and who knows what would happen from there...

I agree with Ecuador in 2002, though I believe the fans, players and Jozic underestimated them. Ecuador are a good team and finished ahead of Brazil in the SA qualifiers that year. Though the way we played was horrible, it seemed like they didn't care and I don't think they had one clear chance on goal. I know Boksic hit the post but that was a lucky shot and Vugrinec had a good long range effort.

In Euro 2004 I'll say Switzerland, but realistically we overachieved in the draw to France. That tournament I knew Croatia would be out quick, in fact we were very lucky just to qualify.

World 2006, the Japan and Australia game both hurt equally. Especially coming off a decent performance against Brazil and the fact we have "home field" for all three matches. The players obviously weren't fit enough and unprepared.

Don't forget the youth national teams, I can go on forever with them :howler:

 

[Hrvatino]

Against France, no doubt... we had it in our hand but was still kind of celebraiting and everything changed in like 5 minutes... I'm still mourning

 

[Ante]

and we blew it thanks to boban.

:thmbdown::thmbdown::frustrat:


We won and lost as a team. If you pin the entire loss on Boban, then are you giving him credit for all our other great results?

If you pin the 1st goal on Boban, do you pin the second on Jarni? Or Ladic?


Anyways...

To me that loss was devestating as wel...I still remember like it was yesterday the moment Suker scored...we hold on there, we would have beat Brazil (that whole Ronaldo "fit" incident just handed the French the WC without breaking a sweat).

Two other losses really stood out for me...but it was due to our "effort" or lack thereof in the matches.

WC 2002 against Mexico was sickening to watch. A disgrace.

Euro qualifying 2004 in Bulgaria...one of the worst NT efforts ever.

 

[MaidenMadness]

:thmbdown::thmbdown::frustrat:


We won and lost as a team. If you pin the entire loss on Boban, then are you giving him credit for all our other great results?

If you pin the 1st goal on Boban, do you pin the second on Jarni? Or Ladic?

well the 1st goal brought them back into match. i am with the had we held onto the lead for 5 minutes we would have won it philosophy.
i agree we lost it as a team but boban does take the blame for the 1st goal. thats a fact. i don't think any less of him because of that mistake but it was his mistake.

ciro has his faults as well prosinecki should have played that game and not maric. ciro allowed his personal feud with prosinecki get ahead of the interests of the nation

 

[JureM]

Thuram pushed Jarni off on that 2nd goal like he was a rag doll! I hate Thuram!! lol.

I wouldn't consider the Euro96 loss to Germany a disappointment..it was our first tournament and we did well and hung with the eventual champions.

There were a lot of disappointing losses and ties but a few:

1. vs. France in 98. I still think we should have went further and I still think that if we got by France we would have beaten Brazil who was sh.it in that final.

2. Entire Euro2000 qualifying campaign...especially that first game against Ireland and the Macedonia game. it was frustrating which led to that tie in the final game in Zagreb.

3. WC2002...the Mexico game and the Equador game...but the Equador game even more because we still had a chance to move on to the next round and played like we just wanted to go home against a team we underestimated.

4. Euro2004...as much as the Switzerland game was a disappointment...I think the England game was even worse....we score first and Otto desides to play bunker for 80 minutes thinking that goal was enough rather than continue attacking.

5. WC2006..the game against Croatia Jr. when Cico was "gesticulating."

 

[baraba]

It all depends what you mean by regrets. The game that personally hit me the hardest was the one that knocked us out of Euro2000. I swear I was depressed for a month after that. It wasn't even about who we lost against as much as the fact that it eliminated a team that could have done well at that tourney.
The France game hurts but beating the Netherlands a few days later took the sting out a bit.
Equador was so disappointing because it seemed to signal how we were a team on the decline.
The Switzerland game highlighted the fact that we were not good enough and that we would not make it out of our group.
Australia would probably be second for me because we played so stupidly and those cocky Aussies loved sticking it to us.
The Germany Euro96 was tough but more because of the awful officiating than anything our boys did.

Man, we need to open a "greatest victories" thread because thinking of all these games is making me feel depressed.
Switzerlan

 

[Ero]

1. France semi in 1998
2. Shuga fluking it in Zagreb in 1999
3. Aussie disaster in 2006

 

[IVO]

For me it's the 98 semi by far. At the time I took for granted how hard it is to get there. We had a solid team for four years by that point and it seemed like we always would.

 

[IVO]

btw this is a great topic going into EURO

 

[Ero]

yep, really sends a good vibe through the forum :howler:

 

[Hajduk_Hrvatska]

Biggest regret was the France game, nothing else compares.

The lowest point for the NT was when Cico got fired. The first two qualifying games vs. Belgium and Scotland were absolutely dreadful.

 

[radman]

Biggest regret was the France game, nothing else compares.

The lowest point for the NT was when Cico got fired. The first two qualifying games vs. Belgium and Scotland were absolutely dreadful.

Every loss hurts! None were more painful than the France 98 match. Draws to Jugo and Aussie hurt more than every other loss apart from the French.

 

[petro]

I agree Radman... they all hurt... and France 98 was toughest to swallow... especially when you think how close they were... at the same time, wondering if they will ever get that close again.

Like the old cliche goes... "it's better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all."

Hrvatska :heart:

 

[Ljubuski]

The only regret I have is the loss of a fully fit and functioning Alen Boksic before France 98.

The semi loss was a direct result of this, as we would have been unbeatable, in my humble estimation, had Boka been available.

That ekipa we had was legendary and I'm almost convinced we would have not only won the tourney but butchered opponents along the way.

Cheersch

ps. Not to mention the lack of picking our optimum bench either, but I won't get into Ciro's faults, he at least got us into the semi's.

 

[Super Hrvoje]

1)France '98. The World Cup, man, the World Cup.:doh:

 

[coreuptrec]

well France of course, not so much a bad game by the team but disapointing because it was within reach! After that Mexico because it was just a brutal showing, Australia because it was a comedy of errors and really Croatia should have won, and finally the game against the Netherlands which wasnt an important game but it was the first time under the Bilic regime that the team looked like crap.

 

[gnk_dz]

France '98... what a stupid game that was

 

[CroatTommy]

The worst game I ever watched the NT play was the first game of WC 2002 against Mexico absolutely dreadful! Esspecially since it was the first time we were in a major tournament since 98, I guess we got used to beautiful soccer from our boys and then we got that sh*t. The most dissappointing were I guess like everyone else said the ones against France in 98(one second we're in heaven the next in hell) and against yugoslavia 2-2 in Zagreb for Euro 2000 qualifying, we were better but it didn't show up on the score sheet, what a dissapointment esspecially to them:yuck:p