[giani_82]

2-1 for Croatia Kovac will score at least once...and Henry will be the scorer for France.

 

[Driver X]

Final predictions, what do you think the result will be?

Croatia will be looking for some revenge fromt he 1998 WC semi-final.

 

[EclipsE]

1 - 1 or 2 -2.

In any case, a tie seems appropriate.

 

[IVO]

Hopefully the senior citizens can win this one.

 

[Driver X]

What do you mean by senior citizens?

I think Henry has a big chance of being on target, aswell as Trezeguet, France will score at least 2 goals, hopefully Croatia too, so it will be a draw, but I think France will win, by just 1 goal.

 

[Argentina]

it is going to be 2-3 for croatia

 

[IVO]

Suker, Asanovic, Jarni, Stimac and Ladic. Hopefully they've eaten their bran flakes before the game.

 

[labas]

I can agree on many of them, but Jarni is "only" 31. That's not all that much and Suker for his age is just superb! Whatever one sais he is one of the best STRIKERS of the past decade.

 

[IVO]

I'll agree that he WAS one of the best strikers of the decade, but it's time to move over and let someone else in.

Who's gonna bench Suker?? Not Blazevic, that's for sure.

They should have followed Boban's lead and retired from the NT. They're not playing out of love for Croatia anymore, they're playing for glory now.

Suker would rather play in West Ham than come back to Dinamo. Jarni would rather play in the Spanish second division, than go back to Hajduk.

As much as I love Suker, he has every intention of being a starting striker at WC 2002, even though he'll be 34 by then. If Blazevic even tries to bench him, he'll raise such a stink, and the media will support him. That's not good for the team, it's only good for him.


Because of Ciro's policy of not changing the team, we lost a couple of good players. Ivica Vastic now plays for Austria. He's not better than SUker of Boksic, but at least he could have been given the chance. He's sure better than Vlaovic, but old Goran was given a lot of chances.

Branko Strupar is another guy. He now plays for Belgium.

There's a lot of politics in Croatian football(like everywhere else). Guys like Suker and Jarni are "made men" so to speak. They'll leave the NT only when they want to, and will not be played out of a spot(they may be played out of one, but won't lose the spot).


Don't get me wrong, I appreciate everything they did for the NT and will always love them as players, but there comes a time in every players career when he has to step down, they just don't think it applies to them.


BTW Croatia-France 0-2.

Only the second game we ever lost at home.


But why make changes, we should be content being on the level of a Belgium and Scotland.

 

[Driver X]

2-0 to France

France may have played superbly, especially Zidane, but it was a pretty poor performance from Croatia, not a fraction of the side that lost 2-1 to France in teh semi-final of the WC 98. Suker should have buried it, and then Stanic hitting the post on teh re-bound was really awful.

Good Luck in the future Croatia, Hopefully you'll qualify for WC 2002

 

[EclipsE]

Damnit, Croatia and Romania got taken out! Sorry IVO. Better luck with the WC qualifiers.

About Suker, it's too bad that he is so influential and will demand a starting job for WC2002 even though his time is done.

But you never know by that time he may lose all his form or get hit by injuries so don't count on him being there.