[dinamovac11]

Just thinking about the way Croatia has prepared and the build up it has taken, it is totally different to what other teams have done. I mean, we didn't play any of the top teams in lead up friendlies. Jozic instead chose to go with lower ranked teams where the team would get confidence and be able to win games. It must be said that it paid off in a way because I think it gave everybody confidence but do you people think that maybe at least one game against a good team would have been worthwhile just to see where the team really stands. Even last night I see that many world cup teams were playing each other yet Croatia chose to play against a club team instead.

It also must be said that due to injuries, the team didn't have alot of games together where it actually could gel as a unit. Just think of the game againt Hungary......when you look at it that game did nothing for this current world cup team because hardly any of them played. People are saying that we have prepared enough but I still think there are some question marks about how good this team really is. And by this I don't mean player selections and who should play and who shouldn't, I mean as a whole.

 

[Ero]

That's exactly what we're building, a unit. I too would have prefered more top ranked teams, but then after qualification our big guns were missing for most of the games, so why get hammered? It would have taken our morale and spirit.

Many teams, all in our group, played against Jap club sides. I feel happy with the preperations from what I've read. The atmosphere os great, we've had more time in Japan than most others and the team just needs to finetune set pieces and strategies.

The players are happy, Prosinecki is in the form few expected him to reach and the unit is breathing as one. Markovic says that these are the best preparations the NT has ever had. The fascilities and accomodation are superb in Japan, and the city loves us.

We have a friendly vs. England in Poljud after the WC, that should be a good one to lure the Torcida out of their chairs into the ljepotica.

 

[JureM]

Good question Dinamo...personally the way I feel is that we should have done something like this...

1. Play some weak teams that we can beat, i.e. Hungary and BiH.

2. Play a team that can give us a challenge, i.e Czech Republic

3. Play a "top" team like a Brazil, Argentina, or England.

Playing the top teams can simulate what we can expect in the World Cup. The only drawback is that it's not a guarantee that the top teams will field its best players.

Well, there's no use crying now, preparations are over and business is alomst at hand. We shall see how we perform. one thing about our teams, I never take what we do in the friendly games to heart, we are very similar to the Italians in that we bring our best game when it counts and that is in the tournaments.

A few more days.....and I'm starting to get a bit nervous...

 

[Tommy]

Yeah that friendly vs England will certainly be great Hopefully we can teach those pommies a lesson

I dunno about you guys but as the World Cup gets closer i am feeling more confident of our chances

The players seem to be confident and hopefully like in 98 they will have self-belief. I remember in the first game vs Jamaica in France everyone was pumped up from the kick off and u could see the entire squad was full of self belief and confidence and a lot of that is owed to Ciro who did a fantastic job motivating the players. Whether Jozic can motivate the players the same way is questionable but as long as the players and everyone is full of self belief i think we can have a successfull World Cup campaign

Regarding the prepartion i think it has been decent like 98 where we didnt play any of the big teams except for a 7-0 win over Australia I think we are keeping a lot of things under up our sleeves and it will be harder for our oppenents to analyse us properly since we havent really all had our big guns playing at games.

 

[majstor]

Does any1 know the date for that friendly in Split?(CRO-ENG)...

 

[mARZ]

Yeah that friendly vs England will certainly be great Hopefully we can teach those pommies a lesson

Oh ye.. if there is one team i wanna thrash thats the english :finger: they r so overrated its not funny :rollani:

Oops.. there is another team i wanna thrash more than england.. i think we all know who that is

 

[IVO]

Majstore, I think the game is August 16th, but I'm not positive, I know it's in august for sure though.

On the surface, the preparations don't seem to be all that good, but the players, most of them, seem pretty happy with it and so does Jozic and apparently Markovic.

If they feel they're ready we gotta figure they are. They all know the value of playing better friendlies then we did, but they're still confident so I'm sure they right when they say they feel ready.

 

[baraba]

Majstore, I think the game is August 16th, but I'm not positive, I know it's in august for sure though.

Really!!!! I'll be in Split at that time. I hope you're right Ivo cause it could be my chance to see the NT live!

 

[IVO]

Croatia to host England
SPLIT, Croatia, May 16 (DSA) - Croatian Football Federation president Vlatko Markovic said Croatia could host England in a friendly next August. According to Markovic, the exact date is still to be fixed, but host city would be Adriatic port of Split.


http://www.dailysoccer.com/article.php?Article=97853


Sorry Baraba, I remembered it being in August and remembered the "16th" for some reason but that was the date of the article

Anyways, you'll have to wait to hear the official date.