Are you not tired of your team always forcing games into penalty shootouts? You've had more penalty shootouts than shots on target so far. Fall back, wait for a counterattack, and force games into overtime because the luck of penalties is always on your side.
Not at all, especially against teams like Brazil. Croatia has a population of less then 4M, if we assume that half of that are men, that is 2M men of which I don't know maybe 100k is of age that can play competitive football and I have no idea how many of them are actually doing it at least semi professionally. Maybe 5k? Brazil has over 2.1M active football players at this moment. When a team with that much choice looses against us I am taking the win however it came.
If I were born in Croatia, I would probably play football for the Croatian national team because those who are not interested in football outnumber those who are. I was born in a country of over 200 million people, where approximately 70% are men and approximately 45% of the men play grassroot football, 10% are either dead or old enough to do anything, and the remaining percentage I have no idea where they belong hahah
But you can't call it luck. Once or twice is luck, after that it becomes something more. Just remember how Real got their last CL. They should have lost all the knockout matches all the way to the final and they prevailed in all of them. I guess Modrić is the link between Real and Croatia and it could be a whole different story once he retires at age 70 or something
You are correct about Real Madrid last season; they were the second best team in the final and still won. Do not worry, Modric will retire after another heartbreak by next week. He gave everything for the team; now it's time for him to concentrate on his club career.
Just peeped at the spreadsheet and not a single one of you took the risk to name Ronaldo in your squad haha. Surprised also only casperBGD went for 0-0, and was also only 1 of 2 to pick the Martinez/di Maria benchings. Not bad, I would have thought di Maria starts but they kept him out of the game for so long. Smart, in a way, fresh for the semis.
Right now, the bench is the most comfortable place for him; he should get used to it. He fade up so quickly. Modric is 37, Messi is 35, Pepe is 39, and T. Silva is 37, and all of them are still playing at a high level. Ronaldo is 38 years old, but his abilities make him appear to be 40..
edit; oh my GOD it's finally coming home.
I'm sure trofo wanted Netherlands, sorry mate but you have to face the GOAT
Really want Messi to pass, but Croatia doing the same in their own way is equally satisfying for me (not to mention they made me win pretty big on a hedge so I'm not as bad in my betting balance as before the game). Trofo putting the stats in terms of population sums up why I think I can live with them playing that way (and why I admire Uruguay for their intense footballing prowess being only a country with 3.4m and over 20% living below poverty line). If these nations need to play their way with what they got, it makes football beautiful.
in other word they should win the world cup for having a beautiful history with lesser population?