[placebo]

Here is the 25 man squad:

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GOALKEEPERS: Stipe Pletikosa (Hajduk), Tomislav Butina (Dinamo), Vladimir Vasilj (Zagreb)

DEFENDERS:
Robert Jarni (Panathinaikos), Robert Kovac (Bayern), Goran Sablic (Hajduk), Daniel Šaric (Panathinaikos), Ante Šeric (Verona), Dario Šimic (Inter Milan), Josip Šimunic (Hertha), Boris Zivkovic (Bayer Leverkusen)

MIDFIELDERS:
Niko Kovac (Bayern), Robert Prosinecki (no club), Zvonimir Soldo (Stuttgart), Stjepan Tomas (Vicenza), Jurica Vranješ (Bayer Leverkusen), Davor Vugrinec (Lecce), Marko Babic (Bayer Leverkusen), Milan Rapaic (Fenerbahce), Mario Stanic (Chelsea)

ATTACKERS: Boško Balaban (Aston Villa), Alen Bokšic (Middlesbrough), Ivica Olic (Zagreb), Davor Šuker (Munich 1860), Goran Vlaovic (Panathinaikos)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[dinamovac11]

ha....I knew that Balaban would get picked ahead of T. Maric. He just hasn't had the chance to prove himself on international level. Marko Babic is a suprise though as is probably Daniel Saric.

Apart from that it is pretty straight forward. Good to see Seric in there aswell.

IDEMO HRVATSKA!!

 

[placebo]

what a fuc.king disgraceful selection. Bosko Balaban makes the world cup squad infont of Tomislav Maric. Jozic has dug his own grave. It seems nothing has changed in terms of team selection.
I feel for Maric. 13 goals in 12 games playing in the Bundesliga isnt good enough to get you into the squad, but someone who hasnt played a total of 100 minutes in an ordinary Villa side gets called up on the back of 4 goals against Latvia. Anyone can score against Latvia.

First we lose Tudor, and now we dont even select our most inform striker. crazy. the NT struggle to score goals now Jozic has made things even harder. Maric isnt even on standby. Jebote Petric is infront of him.

I have lost all respect for Mirko Jozic. what a hypocrite. i phucking cant stand hypocrites. He states that unless a player is playing regularly he will not be considered.....so he goes and calls up Bosko Balaban....great one genius. The only thing that would make me feel better is if Balaban is one of the two ommitted from the squad. phuck i am pissed.

 

[Tuco Ramirez]

Placebo,
I agree. Jozic has always given me a bad vibe.

Maric should have definitely been picked. Good point about Jozic picking players who play reguarly. Very hypocritical.

To play devils advocate here . I belive Jozic picked Balaban becuase of the qualifying experience. Maric didnt really impress against Hungary, and thats probably what did it. Lets be a little reasonable. Balaban is a good player. But not as in form as Maric.

Like i said, I belive he only picked him because of the qualifying experience, and the subsequent chemistry that came from it.

 

[placebo]

who is babic to have his name on the 25 man squad?

people were bagging myself and IVO when we were pressing for Silvio Maric, but Babic hasnt played 3 games for Leverkusen yet he is in the final 25 (will be ommitted, but that's not the point). Carevic should be ahead of him, And jebote, so should Tomislav Maric.

imo, Jozic is a good coach (sorry croguy )...i like him more than Blazevic but this is crazy. So T. Maric didnt impress against Hungary, jebiga. But scoring two goals away to Shalke is worth more than 5 against Hungary.

what pisses me off even more is that T.Maric is not even one of the 4 standby players.....Tokic, Hrman, Andric and Petric are. what is this? players should be picked on form. Maric is hot and deserves a spot.

Croguy, you are probably right about Balaban getting in based on past exerience. But Balaban has 0 form. he won't even get a run at the World Cup.

 

[mARZ]

Ye u certainly gotta feel for Maric.. scoring frequently in a world class league and still not making the squad.. hmmmmm

How he can u pick Olic ahead of Maric i will never know.

Damn i gotta put up with Vlaovic again.. well as long as Jozic keeps him on the bench i dont mind

 

[Tuco Ramirez]

well, the reason for picking Babic is because he is our U-21 captain, and has consistently played well for the U-21 NT. So, i can "kind of" see where he is coming from.

But, i stand by my anxiety over Jozic. I dont think I will ever really like him as coach of our NT. I mean , I wasnt such a Ciro fan either, but at least Ciro gave our vatreni confidence.

When this guy starts saying s*** like "we are 20% weaker now", ...........

hello? Earth to Jozic.

that does not help the team at all. not one bit.

Irregardless, Jozic has made his selection, so i guess we have to live with it. Although maybe he should have picked Biscan instead of Babic.

Although, as I was pleasantly reminded, Jozic will cut 2 players before May 21st. Maybe Babic, Seric, Zivkovic, Vranjes??

what do you guys think?

 

[spwolf]

guys, keep in mind that 2 out of these guys will not be in top 23... thats babic and balaban most likely... if he didnt consider Maric to be one of his top choices, then its better to call balaban and babic to be one of players getting experience

 

[CroatTommy]

overall good squad! and i think Babic is there just to get cut lol:tongue: but seriously i think maybe S.Maric and Carevic would have been a better choice for midfielders. The T.Maric question is a tough one since he is a great player for his club team but has almost no experience playing for the national team so i guess Jozic couldnt evaluate him well enough! only if Maric hadn't been injured for that Bulgaria friendly back in February maybe he would have been able to prove himself a lot more than he did while playing for our second team in Hungary this last game! anyways its all about Boksic and Prosinecki and perhaps even Suker and Stanic(lets never forget him)

U BOJ U BOJ ZA NAROD SVOJ

 

[spwolf]

well, its better to give experience to younger player than older, Balaban can use that experience in the future...

I wish Maric was included, but if Jozic wouldnt consider him even to sit on the bench then it doesnt make sense anyway... I would place him as a sub at least myself

Since we play with 2 strikers, its very doubtful that Jozic will go through our whole striker squad @ WC

 

[spwolf]

dont get me wrong... If we dont go far, I will blame ****ing Jozic for not calling Maric... just so thats understood

;-)

 

[Ljubuski]

Maric should be there.

If he's in form then no reason not to call him for this cup.

Balaban could have been picked along with him.

We have many midfielders who can play both mid and back so Balaban could take one of their places.

 

[CROCOYOTE]

In fairness to Jozic he is probably relying on 3-4 main strikers and obviously didnt think Maric was going to get play time.Therefore he has brought on likes of Balaban,Babic to gain experience for future.I am not saying this is the right approach but just trying to understand his motive.

Anyway in general a good stable squad which although nowhere near in comparison to first 11 from 98 has better depth.EG:we had some weaknesses in 98 squad such as Kozniku,Krpan,Mamic but this time around more of a emphasis on youth which is agood sign for the future.

Tudor would have been the icing on the cake but thats life and we move on giving someone else the chance to impress.

note:I know its a squad of 25 but Saric? i think i'd rather have a reserve at Liverpool (Biscan) then a Panathinaikos reserve.

Go VATRENI....

 

[Ero]

I think there were no surprises people. Balaban is a sure traveller to Japan, it would be insane not to call him. He's 24, he's our leading scorer, heck, he's the MOST RESPONSIBLE for getting us there.

T. Maric is a good striker, but where the hell was he the last 9 years? Nowhere, he has had one good season where he exploded, at age 29. He got his friendly call up, and he's happy. I'm looking forward to see T. Maric in the Euro2004 qualifiers, I hope he makes an impact.

No other surprises, except maybe Babic, but he's successfull at U21 so there's some experience, Carevic actually dissapointed mostly for our U21 squad.

Are you guys glad for Olic? Man, I wish him the best, he's probably the biggest talent to come out of Croatia in the last 10 years, and is tipped for fenomenal success.

 

[spwolf]

Ero, I doubt Balaban will play a second in the Japan...

 

[Ante]

Babic?

Guys, anyone see Babic play yet? I know he is with Vranjes at Bayer Lev. and that I beleive they both came from Osijek but I have never seen him...

As for Biscan, man oh man, he made a grave error going to Liverpool...I remember when our legend Zvone Boban said that he really like Biscan...and nbow the guy's career might be a bust?

 

[Ero]

True, tough times for Biscan. Balaban might not play, but if his training a nd fitness are good he might come off the bench sometimes. Maybe...


I knew he'd be there though, I would have also called him.

 

[dinamovac11]

I am sought of glad that Balaban is going but I suppose we will never know if Maric would have been a success or failure. I don't get how someone can do basically nothing up until the age of 29 then all of the sudden start banging in goals. Unfortunantley, due to injuries he only had one game to prove himself at international level.

Jozic said a long time ago that he will take some youngsters just for the ride and experience and with Babic being the under 21 captain, he is a natural selection. I am also happy for Olic, don't know if he will start but hopefully he does well.

oh yeah........who is that Suker guy, what has he done to make it in the national team? I guess another youngster just tagging along for the experience..

 

[spwolf]

all I know about Maric is that last year he scored 6 goals previous season for Volfsburg and before that he was top scorer in 2. Bundesliga for Stutgart Kickers... he was in Bundesliga before with Karlsruhe in 94/95 season when they got relegated I guess, he scored 5 goals then... bad luck for his team to get relegated...

on the other side, our players in Bundesliga never got much respect from Croatians, most of Croatians still think that Robert Kovac is nothing special, obviously Maric isnt good enough, etc, etc

 

[placebo]

now that i've had a good sleep and have calmed down, i would just like to know why Jozic ommitted Maric. And it better not be coz of his lack of international experience as that would be a lame ar.se excuse.

Who knows....maybe Balaban will do a Goran Ivanisevic and win us the World Cup...probably not, but consiering that i have been baging him constantly it wouldnt surpise me that he does do something. but by picking Balaban infront of Maric, that's not giving us an extra option upfront.

jebiga, what's done is done. seven 1-0 victories will do just fine and i think that is what Jozic is thinking aswell.