all in all, a solid game.

The best players, Srna no. 1!!

This kid is amazing, a level of skill and detirmination only shown by world superstars ! he belongs with the best, no doubt about it. He made 10 or so crosses, all were of the highest quality. Ball control is superb, he litterraly catches the ball with his right foot. Dead balls? G. Srna is the man, perfect deliveries. Look out Europe, if Srna plays like this, there is no stopping him!

Prso impressed in the second when he ventured back to help out the sometimes lack lustre midfeild. Great game again from Dado, the star of this generation just keeps re affirming his leadership position.

N. Kovac, played like a captain should, didn't try too much, nice acurrate passes and some great defensive work. Two goals aren't too shabby either, but his long balls to no one, arguing with the ref and some dubious runs let him down today. But he showed some leadership qualities.

Simunic. Joe played great today, easy answers to all questions posed of him, and dangerous in the box on set pieces, players like him thrive off qiality deliveries like Srna's, Kranjcar's and Leko's.

Surprise inclusions...

Niko Kranjcar !! Great play for about 70 minutes. Crosses were of the highest quality, nearly scored twice and defensively....defensively? Sliding tackles, no fear of going for the 50-50 ball, in the air and flings his elbows to great effect. A few neat passes, one to Klasnic that only Niko saw, spun two defenders and had eyes in the back of his head to find the streaking Bremen striker. Too bad no goal resulted.

Seric...or Serich? whatever, great game on the left, especially in the first. Not too many good crosses though, and not enough breaking through, but neat passes and great control, nice runs as well we have to use more. Look out Babic...suddenly that left hand side isn't our sore spot anymore.

Mention also to Tudor untill 3-0 when he thought he was Van Basten and Maradona in one..

Klasnic should have scored that volley. we would see a different game from him had he nailed it.

All in all, a good game, but we were let down in the first half with some choppy play.

I love the way we were hungry even after 1-0. and 2-0. and 3-0. And even 4-0.

Baric must be pulling his hair that he let these boys ride pine...

Malta is no easy game, there are no more easy games...we must get all 3 and go to Sofia for some vengence.

HRVATSKA !!!!

__________________
Volim Hrvatsku
Više od majke
I od oca svog
Volim Hrvatsku
Silu Evropsku !

Agreed Srna#1 he is Croatia NT.......i can't imagine what the team would be without him. Lets see without Srna 1-0 :P with 3-0..........the next becks
hes great to watch!

Without him offence is totally flat cause our lack of a solid mid. Even though Nico Kovac knocked in two i still dont want him on the NT. HIs passing today was garbage, totally off his mark like he usually is. He does not deserve to be capo.

Srna is fantastic but im worried because we are only getting goals on set pieces when srna is taking the kick. 1 goal was created during free play by prso, he had to do it alone. there was no co-operative bulid up on offence. Our mid is to blame, Kovac is not uniting the mid.

this is turning into a niko hate post but i can't help it. The nt could be much more with a better leader. Rapaic would be a better fit in my opinon, or vugrenec. Get him out and move on.






Nico Kranjcar could be this leader. We all need to be patient and let him find his role. He could be a great leader in time or just a role player. But hes still very young and i think everyone is expecting too much of him.


mid

babic----kranjcar-----rapaic----srna
(vugrenec)


put soldo in! anyone !


I HATE NIKO KOVAC! hahah

You hate Niko Kovac, who scored 9 goals for us, who gave a lot of good balls (and of course a few crap ones), who ran his arse off, who behaves like a captain should etc...but yet you find room in the team for Rapaic to start, and as a central midfielder next to Srna...forgetting that Rapaic's defense is horrible and he isn't exactly shining in his club.

And Vugrinec? Come on tvrtko, you cannot be serious? Forgetting the fact that he's never played on the left, and he hasn't played for 4 years...

I think Kranjcar needs to WANT the ball a lot more, he needs to assert himself in that midfield and make the sort of runs N. Kovac makes off the ball.

__________________
Volim Hrvatsku
Više od majke
I od oca svog
Volim Hrvatsku
Silu Evropsku !

Ero, agreed!!! Tvrtko, are you serious man??? I think Vugrinec retired 2 years ago. Niko isn't the most skilled of players, but the guy has a heart as big as Zagreb, and he scored 2 goals man!! All in all a solid performance and let's hope we can bang in a few more against Malta and improve our goal difference a little more. Naprijed Hrvatska!!!

__________________
Ruke cemo skupa za bile dici, ko
jedno srce za Hajduk cemo biti!!!!!!!

HNK HAJDUK SPLIT PRVAK HRVATSKE 2004-2005 F.C. BARCELONA CAMPIONS DE ESPANA 2004-2005

Yeah after scoring two I don't understand the slagging of N.Kovac. I wasn't the biggest N.Kovac fan either but he's producing.

Ero, great point about Kranjcar in the middle. When people criticize him I think it's because he seems rather indifferent at times. He needs to become a better player without the ball for sure, but his skill and vision when it's there have definitely helped our successful run for sure.

Cheers

__________________
I'm not on the XT payroll.

I repeat: I'm not on the XT payroll.

Over and out....

I agree on all the above, as for Niko he just needs more time to adjust and become comfortable. He will produce more and become the leader like we all know he is. Just give him time to mature.

If you don't think Niko Kovac is the problem in mid then what is?? There wasnt much built up in mid for Prso or Klasnic. Prso had to be everywhere and, create something for himself. Thats why he picked up so many fouls and got a yellow himself. Klasnic was invisible except for his one volley! and the only time i saw olic was when he got subbed in. They're invisible cause the mid isnt feeding them.

All we had was great set plays and as long as we have srna set plays will be our game i guess. Relying on that is scary to me.

What happened near the end, did Butina hit Tudor when he kicked that ball out?

Whats with Tudor saying that Pleti should have at least been a back up!

Im guessing Tudor must think that Pleti being the #5 at Shakter is better than Joey being the number #1 in Austria

N. kovac is by far the hardest working player on our NT. And he seems like a real captain. He has a knack of scoring critical goals (Latvia). Remember the great job he did in the midfield against the Swedes the Swedes developed nothing in the midfield. The Kovac brothers by far are the two hardest workers on the pitch we got. Nico deserves zero criticism.


As Niko Kranjcar, i think all us did a 180 on this kid. Last year we were calling for him in the lineup, he was tearing up the youth ranks with kids who were 3-4 years older than him. I think we forget that he's only 20 YEARS OLD and he's playing arguably the most difficult position in football. The kid has plenty of time on his side and will be a great player for us. I thought yesterday was the best he's ever looked in the NT. He played a full 90 he had opportunity and like someone said he hustled, played DEFENSE and did alot of positive things. Was he great no, was he better yes, will he be better than yesterday yes. I think by the end of qualifying some of us on this board will think differently of Niko.

And this criticism about relying too much on Srna, in the first half i thought we played well and the ball was distributed well in the midfield. Kranjcar, Seric, Srna all had a good amount of the ball. In the second half i think everybody realized that Srna had the hot foot and they just kept on feeding him. If Michael jordan is on fire are you going to say give the ball to Kukoc to give the other guys an opportunity? So why would you say that about Srna and the percieved lack of production in our midfield.

People cheer up, at the halfway point we're going to be leading this group, and yet it seems that we have so many problems. We're sounding like little Baric, down all the time. We're playing well we really haven't played a bad game in qualfying yet. We have problems surely but not too many if we're leading the group.

Licki, why do you keep exagerrating. You started with Pleti being the 3rd keeper in Shiktar to 4th and now 5th. I don't think that they even have 5 goalies (no normal club does). Tudor is absolutely right. Pletikosa was great for the NT before his injury and now everybody is shitting on him. Kick a man while he is down. Honestly, that's pathetic. He saved the NT so many times that it wouldn't hurt to have him just called up to the NT as the 23rd player. It would be good for his confidence.

Look at Biscan, a lot of people are saying that he should be given a 2nd chance yet he betrayed the NT and his peers. Why is it ok to give him a chance and not Pletikosa. Pisscan shouldn't be allowed to even come near the NT.

__________________
Borat vs. Svrbia 2:1

Give me a break. You come here criticize Niko Kovac and then provide a solution of Vugrinec and Rapaic. Didn't you know that Vugrinec is a sub in a third division team in Italy while Rapaic is playing in Belgium? Why not provide a real solution before picking on one of our hardest working players.

__________________
Borat vs. Svrbia 2:1

Did i say he wasnt a hard worker? no. Its more a question of creativity. Which N kovac lacks.

Klasnic n Prso need someone that can get them some passes. Its frustrating
when u think of the strikers we have and the potential the team has.

hell Zivkovic is a hard worker.......

Yet again you provided no solution. Vugrinec and Rapaic certainly are not it.

__________________
Borat vs. Svrbia 2:1

Just had to say this after watching the highlites of the game...Maximir is an absolute disgrace. How Poljud doesn't get more qualifying games is beyond me. I can only imagine what people think who aren't Croatian when they see something like this...either fix the place up, build something new, or bring the games to Split.

__________________

That the war is still going on.....

Oh and I too back in the day was one of those people that used to be tough on Niko Kovac due to his innability to be creative out there on the pitch, but his hard work and nack of scoring important goals have more than won me over and from what I see here, some others on this board as well. If we really want to blame the center midfield for lack of proper passes then we should be blaming Ivan Leko and Niko Kranjcar(because that is more their jobs than Kovac's) but I recall many through(high) balls being called offside when they clearly weren't(once again bad refereeing) and if we were expecting nice 1-2's against Iceland playing the bunker in their own 18 then you were hoping we were watching Ronaldinho and even he couldn't do anything nice against a defend at all costs team, lets judge the central midfielders after the next big game(Bulgaria) thats where we were run over in the first game against them. With Vranjes out now I think we can only get better in that area. I agree Prso and Klasnic need more better services, but that will come with more space on the field and gelling of the players(this was the first time Seric and I.Leko played a competitive game alongside Srna-N.Kovac-Kranjcar)

__________________
DALEKO DALEKO IZA DEVET SELA