Posted on 07/14/2018 6:37:38 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
How is it that four million Croats could build a team good enough to make it to the World Cup final, beating Argentina (43 million), England (53 million) and hosts Russia (144 million) along the way?
The country famously didn’t even exist the last time England made it to a World Cup semi-final in 1990.
The country declared independence in 1991, but was embroiled in the war in the Balkans as Yugoslavia split for several years. Most Croats were living in what is now Croatia, but a large minority existed in what are now Serbia and Bosnia especially. What ensued involved ethnic cleansing and bitter enmity between the nations which speak almost identical languages and had been part of same country for most of a century.
Star player Luka Modric, who was born in 1985, himself lived through some horrifying childhood events. He fled his hometown of Modrici at the age of six in the face of conflict. His father then joined the Croatian army – and his grandfather was shot, along with other elderly civilians, by a band of Croatian Serb rebels. His house was burned down.
“These were tough times,” Modric later recalled. “I remember them vividly, but it’s not something you want to think about. The war made me stronger.”
The war affected many of this generation of Croatian players directly. Mario Mandzukic grew up partly in Germany, where he began playing before returning to Croatia at the age of 10, while Ivan Rakitic was born and grew up in Switzerland, where he started his career with Basel. Vedran Corluka was born in Bosnia but fled for Croatia in 1992 amid the war.
The collective memory of a such a recent upheaval may have gone some way to motivate and unify the national team...
(Excerpt) Read more at inews.co.uk ...
Not much! That YouTube clip is a classic. Someone posted one with that Neymar guy rolling all over the world ... in traffic, past famous landmarks, etc. LOL.
That was a fun read...my church has a sister church in Split.
What???
I'll tell you what's "Un-American"....A three-hour football game with 300+ pound behemoths knocking the the snot out of each other, just to be decided in the end by some pip-squeak foreigner kicker coming on the field saying, "I gonna keeck a touchdown!"
Mexico can compete with any South American country.
Given the right coach, they should go much further in World Cups than they usually do.
Heh. :D
Why does Alabama, the 23rd most populated State, dominate college football (between Bama and Auburn)?
The former Yugoslavia was also very good in basketball, although I think it’s the Serbs who are better. But there have been good Croatian basketball players as well.
It would cap off a nice few months for Modric, a Champions League title with Real Madrid to go along with it.
Regards,
????? Is Soccer that game foreigners play where you want to commit seppuku after watching it for five minutes?
LoL! I admit, I find America’s soccer isolationism endearing...the World Cup may be going on, engrossing the world, but here people just be minding their own business...and in L.A. of course the big news was about Lebron James joining the Lakers on a 158 million dollar contract. Oh, America...and our priorities...
I believe that is how we will ultimately win the world. All we have to do is toss a soccer ball across enemy lines and then mow them down when they try to sent it back.
In soccer, players often run 10-12 kilometers per game, much of it sprinting. There are no time outs, and only 3 substitutions allowed per game. It is a physical sport, and if you watched the athleticism you would be impressed. That doesn’t mean you have to like it, but it is definitely not the emasculation of men.
Yep. Tony Kukoc who was part of the Bulls during their repeat three-peat years is one who comes to mind.
You may be right. If you are not distracted by a wide range of different sports, you can focus and become very good at the one or few that you do.
Yes, it got to a point where if he didn’t win the World Cup (and they’re already eliminated) he has to wear a bag on his head for the rest of his life.
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