Crotia may win !!
July 15,
2018
MOSCOW —
Something was bothering Croatia’s players and staff members as they reflected
on the game that had brought them to the brink of greatness, and on the month
that may culminate in what would — by most estimations — be the greatest achievement
in World Cup history.
Luka Modric,
the captain, suggested his team had been “underestimated” by the British news
media in the days preceding Croatia’s semifinal win over England. He advised
that, in the future, journalists and television analysts should be “more
humble, and respect their opponents more.”
A perceived
lack of respect was something of a theme. Coach Zlatko Dalic, who would
scarcely have been recognized in the streets of Zagreb before being handed the
reins of the national team when qualification for this tournament was in doubt
last year, picked up on it, too.
“Maybe
England, or the English media, did not show enough respect to the Croatian
team,” he said. “We deserved it, especially when you look at the clubs our
players play for. Maybe this gave us extra motivation.”
Walking out
of Luzhniki Stadium in the small hours of Thursday morning, he passed by the
waiting English press cohort with a broad smile. “It’s not coming home, huh?”
he said. He had made much the same joke a few days previously, after Croatia
had seen off Russia in the quarterfinals. He was obviously pleased with it.
But much as
blaming the English news media for various ills is a common trope in soccer —
by fans and players of all nationalities, including the English themselves —
Croatia’s sense that it has been overlooked seems to run deeper than simply
feeling belittled by the sport’s most convenient ogre.
Croatia and
its fans hope to have one more celebration before they leave Russia.CreditDamir
Sagolj/Reuters
It was
curious to note Dejan Lovren, the Croatian defender who plays professionally
for Liverpool, claiming “people had mocked” Croatia for believing that its
stellar victory over Argentina in the group stage might be a sign that it could
go the distance in Russia.
Precisely
which people he was referring to was not readily apparent: This has been a
tournament marked by its openness, by the traditional favorites’ failure to
justify their billing. By most estimations, Croatia’s win against Argentina ranked
as the first truly significant performance of this World Cup.
To many,
even before Croatia arrived in Russia, it had the air of a team that could pose
problems for most opponents. Several observers picked Lovren and his teammates
out as possible dark horses, the class of their midfield, of Modric and Ivan
Rakitic, and the battle-scarred industry of Mario Mandzukic a clear threat to
anyone who should cross their path.
Of course,
that is not to suggest anyone could have foreseen quite how far they would go,
quite how long they would last.
It should
not be considered disrespectful to suggest that Croatia, should it overcome
France at Luzhniki Stadium on Sunday, would be the unlikeliest champion in
World Cup history.
True, it
would not be the least populated country ever to be crowned world champion:
That honor is unlikely to be removed from Uruguay, the victor in 1930 and 1950.
But those triumphs came when this was a very different competition, one
contested by just 13 countries, in a very different age.
The
tournament itself was not quite so demanding, quite so exacting, and the
circumstances of the sport were drastically different, too. Soccer was not so
stratified, with its power hierarchies set, its resources concentrated in a
handful of powerful nations in Western Europe. The gap between the consumers
and the producers of talent had not yet yawned into a chasm.
