Brazil to come to Croatia - Page 12

davor_suker · 08-18-2005, 02:02 PM

cheers for the pics...just look at Olic guys..i reckon he actually LOOKS at the post before he shoots, which means his balls always hit them.

Ivan7637 · 08-19-2005, 04:28 AM

More Pictures From The Game...

Brazil's national team soccer player Roberto Carlos, left, gestures on decision of German referee Florian Meyer during friendly soccer match between Croatia and Brazil

Croatia's soccer players, left to right, Ivan Klasnic, Igor Tudor, Niko Kranjcar and Marko Babic, celebrate after scoring a goal against Brazil during their friendly soccer match at Poljud stadium in Split

Fireworks lit up the sky at the end of friendly soccer match betwen Croatia and Brazil

Brazilian soccer fans support their national team during freindly soccer match with Croatia

Brazilian soccer player Ze Roberto, right, is challenged by Croatia's Josip Simunic , left, during their friendly soccer match

Brazilian soccer player Kaka, right, challenges Croatia's Niko Kovac, left, during their friendly soccer match

Brazilian soccer player Ronaldo , back, challenges Croatia's Stjepan Tomas , front, during their friendly soccer match

Brazilian national team soccer player Cafu is challenged by Croatia's Niko Kranjcar during their friendly soccer match

Brazilian soccer player Ronaldo, left, gets a knock from Croatia's Stjepan Tomas , right, during their friendly soccer match

Brazilian national team soccer player Antonio , left, challenges Croatia's Niko Kovac , right, during their friendly soccer match

Brazil's national team soccer player Adriano passes through the Croatian defence during their friendly soccer match

Brazil's soccer player Ricardo , right, is challenged by Croatia's Igor Tudor , left, during their friendly soccer match

Brazil's national team soccer player Robinho, right, is challenged by Croatia's Niko Kovac, left, during their friendly International soccer match

Brazil's national team soccer player Lucio, right , is challenged by Croatia's Niko Kovac , left, during their friendly soccer match

Julio Baptista (R) of Brazil fights for the ball with Dario Simic (L) of Croatia during their friendly football match

Brazil's player Ricardo Rodrigues, right,in duel with Croatian Ivan Klasnic, left, during a friendly match betwen Brazilian and Croatian team

Brazil's player Ronaldo gestures during friendly match between Brazilian and Croatian team

Brazil's Cafu, left, challenges Croatia's Niko Kranjcar, right, during their friendly soccer match

That's all I got.

davor_suker · 08-19-2005, 10:38 AM

Thanks a lot for the pics. Looks like Ronaldo got a fair knock by Tomas! Guys i know a good site where i will be able to get the game from, its not uploaded yet but i will post the link here when its up.

Ivan7637 · 08-19-2005, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davor_suker

Thanks a lot for the pics. Looks like Ronaldo got a fair knock by Tomas! Guys i know a good site where i will be able to get the game from, its not uploaded yet but i will post the link here when its up.

Alright thanks.

davor_suker · 08-20-2005, 06:36 AM

This is a review taken from FF from a poster called Ljubuski, i thought it was a fantastic review so ill paste it here.

---------------------------------------

Overall the match was great to watch. There was great footy in the first half, with a great team spirit shown however it appeared the squad was rather nervous or taken aback by playing Brazil which I thought was ridiculous but again, it's easy to say the 5-time World Champions are nothing from a small useless soccer country like Canada compared to actually walking the pitch to face them in Split.

Our attack looked great until we hit their final third of the pitch. Other our guys were scared or lost, or Cico didn't prepare enough tactically, I found it hard to fathom why we couldn't hold the ball more in their end. One thing that I can say for certain from Canada is that Brazil are not a good defending squad...their players get caught ball watching as much as any other and they are notorious for being poor in the air. We didn't take advantage of this and the fact Cico didn't either say to give the ball to N. Kranjcar or at least stress to look for him in the Brazilian end shows a coaching flaw here. Maybe he's scared to show up his son or what not, but if Niko is going to play that position as a 'lazy striker' or as a 'support striker' then he should be the main targe in their half. Furthermore, with his skill, it's natural that we want to find him there, just like Brazil strove to find Kaka and did so to great effect.

Here is a tactical layout..(Croatia attacking the Brazilian half)

.......................................Kranjcar... ..................
CD /\ CD
Babic................................../...\.............................................
...............................DM....
.................................................. ...DM.......................Srna
..........................N. Kovac....................
.................................................. ........Tudor.......

The ball whenever in the feet of Tudor or Kovac seemed to automatically go to the flanks which is great but I believe that more would have been accomplished had Niko fought/or the team been directed to look for him more. Having him on the ball outside the Brazilian 18 would have been devastating. Kaka was continuously used to lay off balls to other players by the Brazilians. They formed triangles nicely and Kaka's one touches and megs around his marker was effective in creating space for the weak-side man. That's why the Brazilians managed to hold the ball so well in our half. We didn' read it properly, and it showed. Niko MUST be given priority in this. If you see the lines drawing back from 'Kranjcar' he has to find the 'windows' to break the central defense down and create space for the other players. Maybe Niko isn't working enough for this, but in this match he played well, or maybe Cico isn't directing this enough but we MUST hold the ball more in their end. Simply relying on our great D all the time will not suffice come tournament time.

Inversely defending the wonderful Brazilian triangles or litte 'shevas' was a major problem on our side. We seemed to give them too much space, or simply were too lazy to read the play properly...

Brazil attacking our half...Ball is in 'LB' position..

................................CM............Kran jcar...........CM.....................LB

..................RM.............................. .N. Kovac..................................Srna

........................................Tudor..... .KAKA...........
.................................................. ...................................Ronaldo
.................................................. .............R. Kovac

In this case and it can be duplicated in many parts of the pitch, the LB would find the open man easily and re-take the pass, meanwhile KAKA and the other CM would drive to the play/ball and get the inside position on their defender, in this case N. Kovac or Tudor...hence KAKA in this scenario receives the pass and delivers the ball to the strong side CM, as this is going on, Kranjcar, would be too late to make a tackle and the originator of the play the LB would find space behind Ronaldo who would run out of the play and take his man out and the LB would have loads of space to run into after receiving the pass from the CM.

It was quite brilliant, they used 3 or 4 passes to accomplish a pass/play that many countries would try to accomplish in one, namely England. Meanwhile our defenders were too nervous or scared to commit a tackle on the first pass, and the other defenders were busy ball watching rather than sticking to their man, who was 2 or 3 passes away from delivering a pass. The Brazilians did this to perfection across our half, with KAKA a magnificent outlet, always absorbing a pass and taking a minor dribble or relaying the play to the open Brazilian who was not marked because our player was too slow in reading the situation.

Brazil do this often, and it's rather easy to break down. We just need immediate pressure from the strikers and smart play from our CM's to take away the initial passing, the one that's designed to lure in our players and draw them away from the third or fourth man in the passing sequence.

Croatia defending our half with again Brazil attacking...LB in possession

................................CM............Kran jcar...........CM.....................LB

..................RM...........................N. Kovac(hard on CM)....Srna(hard on LB)

..............................................KAKA ,Tudor...........
.................................................. ...................................Ronaldo..
.................................................. .............R. Kovac..............Tomas..

Had our players forced a quicker pass to begin with, the Brazilians would not have had so much time, and the other covering players would have to to take the inside position on the Brazilians and make them work harder to receive the ball. There was simply too much respect and space given to Brazil in this respect. In addition, R. Kovac needed to step in more on occasion, I couldn't believe the amount of time some of the Brazilian attackers had.

That's why I think Brazil are beatable, they don't like to be pressured and if we give them respect they'll have all the time in the world to make those triangles work.

Some have stated, how 'well' Tomas played. That's great to see him play well, but he played well according to the standards of Stjepan Tomas. If, I say if, we are to use Srna more we need a RB who can handle the ball and get it too him. In international football, a player who only defends and can't pass is wasting a position. I'm not saying Tomas is useless but if Srna isn't getting the play it's because there's no one there to back the guy up witn build-up passes.

.........................................Srna..

Tudor..................

.................................................. Tomas....

Ye can't expect the only passes for Srna to get from Tudor or a Central Defender. Sense dictates that lofting passes or quick build-up passing from the back HAS to come through the position supporting Srna, which in this case is Tomas. He can do it, but if he's only there to man mark we're not utilizing what could be our best player. Moreover, Srna's ability to draw tackles lies in the fact there's no overlapping support to draw attention away form the defender on Srna. If there's no threat that the RB might overlap the RM, why would the defenders be scared NOT to take a shot on Dario? He's exposed and in particular when we are in their half. Tomas HAS to become more involved in the attacking aspect of our team, if not then he's only mitigating Srna for the other side.

.................................

Player Evaluations:

Goalies:

Butina: Lovely save on Ronaldo and didn't do a thing to take himself out of the starting position. As much as some would love to see Pleti come back, Butina is as solid as we've had. Only one stupid mistake against Bulgaria, only one.

Pletikosa: Has much better height than Butina, but that's about it at the moment. His play on the ball was decent but the match was far too developed to see how well he'd do in Germany. He really needs to work on his fitness, it doesn't help coming back into the NT overweight like that.

Defenders:

Tomas: Closed down the attackers nicely and performed well, but seriously needs to help Srna on the flank. He can't keep leaving Srna out to dry so Dario can become the next Pavel Nedved and keep getting his legs chopped off, after he makes a dribble past a player. But he played hard and didn't make one blunder.

R. Kovac: A part from one senseless lapse, he was solid. Worked well with the other two and quite frankly I'm seriously confident with him back there. One thing however, I would have like to see him step up more on some plays and break up the Brazilian possession.

Simunic: Legend at the back, really what else can I say. Great ball control and great reader of the game. He's not fast, but doesn't need to be. His type of outlet passing to Babic is what Tomas could do more.

Midfielders:

Babic: Some great runs up the flank, but needs to be more decisive in the opponents 18. Could have played better defensively.

N. Kovac: True workhorse and played well. Defensively strong and made some decent passes though creatively he's lacking.

Tudor: Legendo, Legendo, Legendo.....what else can I say? Broke up the play brilliantly at times and distributed very well. Won the ball in the air, and made some great long passes, though it felt like one or two too many. What a renaissance he's having under Cico, and good on Cico for having faith in Tudor..I'll have more words later on this.

N. Kranjcar: Great passing, and made some decent tackles, and of course he bagged the goal. NEEDS to get the ball more, I don't care how, but he needs to get the ball more. I don't know, maybe he needs to get mad or something to play with more drive...I had a coach once tell me to 'play with that madness' because I played better, well maybe Niko needs the same thing.

Attackers:

Klasnic: It's coming, and to be honest this match was weak, but his confidence is down and he'll need more time. He's not going anywhere either after the injury to Olic so we'll see how long it'll take for him to explode.

Olic: Creator of the goal, and his running is second to none. Created problems for Brazil even and if the guy could ever get a touch on the ball....watch out. Sad to see him get injured though.

Subs:

Nobody other than Da Silva and Balaban played long enough to bother to comment, but it's hard to guage even them. Brazil's treatment of Da Silva is sick to be honest and I hope FIFA get notified of it. Balaban should have scored but the ball is round so what can you do?

----------------------------

Final Observations:

I thought the game could have been more positive but nonetheless it's made believers out of so many of us...the team has no excuses now, we expect Deuthschland next year and nothing less. So hopefully the games coming up will show great results.

The fans could have been better though, didn't really notice them, and hopefully the Prso affair will blow over quickly.

In as much as I'd hate to admit this but I think a player that might actually fit into the squad, seeing how holding the ball was a bit of a problem is Biscan. Now I know some will cringe at the thought, but he's worth 5 minutes of possession. I don't know who to replace him with, but it wouldn't be a bad option for Cico to have.

Something else also happened which I think was very symbolic in the history of Croatian football. The substitution of N. Kovac led to the passing of the armband to Igor Tudor. We've been calling for Tudor to be the leader of the NT for some time and quite frankly N. Kovac is getting old and Tudor has been the upcoming successor to Boban's armband now for some time. It was great to see Igor in the role and it's indicative of his new role on the team in the central part of the park. I've always love the guy and now we know we'll have a worthy successor to N. Kovac in the armband.

Cheersch, hope it wasn't too long or boring....

ps. It was nice to see our NT play a full match at home in a real stadium for once, but that's for another thread.

Ivan7637 · 08-21-2005, 12:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davor_suker

This is a review taken from FF from a poster called Ljubuski, i thought it was a fantastic review so ill paste it here.

---------------------------------------

Overall the match was great to watch. There was great footy in the first half, with a great team spirit shown however it appeared the squad was rather nervous or taken aback by playing Brazil which I thought was ridiculous but again, it's easy to say the 5-time World Champions are nothing from a small useless soccer country like Canada compared to actually walking the pitch to face them in Split.

Our attack looked great until we hit their final third of the pitch. Other our guys were scared or lost, or Cico didn't prepare enough tactically, I found it hard to fathom why we couldn't hold the ball more in their end. One thing that I can say for certain from Canada is that Brazil are not a good defending squad...their players get caught ball watching as much as any other and they are notorious for being poor in the air. We didn't take advantage of this and the fact Cico didn't either say to give the ball to N. Kranjcar or at least stress to look for him in the Brazilian end shows a coaching flaw here. Maybe he's scared to show up his son or what not, but if Niko is going to play that position as a 'lazy striker' or as a 'support striker' then he should be the main targe in their half. Furthermore, with his skill, it's natural that we want to find him there, just like Brazil strove to find Kaka and did so to great effect.

Here is a tactical layout..(Croatia attacking the Brazilian half)

.......................................Kranjcar... ..................
CD /\ CD
Babic................................../...\.............................................
...............................DM....
.................................................. ...DM.......................Srna
..........................N. Kovac....................
.................................................. ........Tudor.......

The ball whenever in the feet of Tudor or Kovac seemed to automatically go to the flanks which is great but I believe that more would have been accomplished had Niko fought/or the team been directed to look for him more. Having him on the ball outside the Brazilian 18 would have been devastating. Kaka was continuously used to lay off balls to other players by the Brazilians. They formed triangles nicely and Kaka's one touches and megs around his marker was effective in creating space for the weak-side man. That's why the Brazilians managed to hold the ball so well in our half. We didn' read it properly, and it showed. Niko MUST be given priority in this. If you see the lines drawing back from 'Kranjcar' he has to find the 'windows' to break the central defense down and create space for the other players. Maybe Niko isn't working enough for this, but in this match he played well, or maybe Cico isn't directing this enough but we MUST hold the ball more in their end. Simply relying on our great D all the time will not suffice come tournament time.

Inversely defending the wonderful Brazilian triangles or litte 'shevas' was a major problem on our side. We seemed to give them too much space, or simply were too lazy to read the play properly...

Brazil attacking our half...Ball is in 'LB' position..

................................CM............Kran jcar...........CM.....................LB

..................RM.............................. .N. Kovac..................................Srna

........................................Tudor..... .KAKA...........
.................................................. ...................................Ronaldo
.................................................. .............R. Kovac

In this case and it can be duplicated in many parts of the pitch, the LB would find the open man easily and re-take the pass, meanwhile KAKA and the other CM would drive to the play/ball and get the inside position on their defender, in this case N. Kovac or Tudor...hence KAKA in this scenario receives the pass and delivers the ball to the strong side CM, as this is going on, Kranjcar, would be too late to make a tackle and the originator of the play the LB would find space behind Ronaldo who would run out of the play and take his man out and the LB would have loads of space to run into after receiving the pass from the CM.

It was quite brilliant, they used 3 or 4 passes to accomplish a pass/play that many countries would try to accomplish in one, namely England. Meanwhile our defenders were too nervous or scared to commit a tackle on the first pass, and the other defenders were busy ball watching rather than sticking to their man, who was 2 or 3 passes away from delivering a pass. The Brazilians did this to perfection across our half, with KAKA a magnificent outlet, always absorbing a pass and taking a minor dribble or relaying the play to the open Brazilian who was not marked because our player was too slow in reading the situation.

Brazil do this often, and it's rather easy to break down. We just need immediate pressure from the strikers and smart play from our CM's to take away the initial passing, the one that's designed to lure in our players and draw them away from the third or fourth man in the passing sequence.

Croatia defending our half with again Brazil attacking...LB in possession

................................CM............Kran jcar...........CM.....................LB

..................RM...........................N. Kovac(hard on CM)....Srna(hard on LB)

..............................................KAKA ,Tudor...........
.................................................. ...................................Ronaldo..
.................................................. .............R. Kovac..............Tomas..

Had our players forced a quicker pass to begin with, the Brazilians would not have had so much time, and the other covering players would have to to take the inside position on the Brazilians and make them work harder to receive the ball. There was simply too much respect and space given to Brazil in this respect. In addition, R. Kovac needed to step in more on occasion, I couldn't believe the amount of time some of the Brazilian attackers had.

That's why I think Brazil are beatable, they don't like to be pressured and if we give them respect they'll have all the time in the world to make those triangles work.

Some have stated, how 'well' Tomas played. That's great to see him play well, but he played well according to the standards of Stjepan Tomas. If, I say if, we are to use Srna more we need a RB who can handle the ball and get it too him. In international football, a player who only defends and can't pass is wasting a position. I'm not saying Tomas is useless but if Srna isn't getting the play it's because there's no one there to back the guy up witn build-up passes.

.........................................Srna..

Tudor..................

.................................................. Tomas....

Ye can't expect the only passes for Srna to get from Tudor or a Central Defender. Sense dictates that lofting passes or quick build-up passing from the back HAS to come through the position supporting Srna, which in this case is Tomas. He can do it, but if he's only there to man mark we're not utilizing what could be our best player. Moreover, Srna's ability to draw tackles lies in the fact there's no overlapping support to draw attention away form the defender on Srna. If there's no threat that the RB might overlap the RM, why would the defenders be scared NOT to take a shot on Dario? He's exposed and in particular when we are in their half. Tomas HAS to become more involved in the attacking aspect of our team, if not then he's only mitigating Srna for the other side.

.................................

Player Evaluations:

Goalies:

Butina: Lovely save on Ronaldo and didn't do a thing to take himself out of the starting position. As much as some would love to see Pleti come back, Butina is as solid as we've had. Only one stupid mistake against Bulgaria, only one.

Pletikosa: Has much better height than Butina, but that's about it at the moment. His play on the ball was decent but the match was far too developed to see how well he'd do in Germany. He really needs to work on his fitness, it doesn't help coming back into the NT overweight like that.

Defenders:

Tomas: Closed down the attackers nicely and performed well, but seriously needs to help Srna on the flank. He can't keep leaving Srna out to dry so Dario can become the next Pavel Nedved and keep getting his legs chopped off, after he makes a dribble past a player. But he played hard and didn't make one blunder.

R. Kovac: A part from one senseless lapse, he was solid. Worked well with the other two and quite frankly I'm seriously confident with him back there. One thing however, I would have like to see him step up more on some plays and break up the Brazilian possession.

Simunic: Legend at the back, really what else can I say. Great ball control and great reader of the game. He's not fast, but doesn't need to be. His type of outlet passing to Babic is what Tomas could do more.

Midfielders:

Babic: Some great runs up the flank, but needs to be more decisive in the opponents 18. Could have played better defensively.

N. Kovac: True workhorse and played well. Defensively strong and made some decent passes though creatively he's lacking.

Tudor: Legendo, Legendo, Legendo.....what else can I say? Broke up the play brilliantly at times and distributed very well. Won the ball in the air, and made some great long passes, though it felt like one or two too many. What a renaissance he's having under Cico, and good on Cico for having faith in Tudor..I'll have more words later on this.

N. Kranjcar: Great passing, and made some decent tackles, and of course he bagged the goal. NEEDS to get the ball more, I don't care how, but he needs to get the ball more. I don't know, maybe he needs to get mad or something to play with more drive...I had a coach once tell me to 'play with that madness' because I played better, well maybe Niko needs the same thing.

Attackers:

Klasnic: It's coming, and to be honest this match was weak, but his confidence is down and he'll need more time. He's not going anywhere either after the injury to Olic so we'll see how long it'll take for him to explode.

Olic: Creator of the goal, and his running is second to none. Created problems for Brazil even and if the guy could ever get a touch on the ball....watch out. Sad to see him get injured though.

Subs:

Nobody other than Da Silva and Balaban played long enough to bother to comment, but it's hard to guage even them. Brazil's treatment of Da Silva is sick to be honest and I hope FIFA get notified of it. Balaban should have scored but the ball is round so what can you do?

----------------------------

Final Observations:

I thought the game could have been more positive but nonetheless it's made believers out of so many of us...the team has no excuses now, we expect Deuthschland next year and nothing less. So hopefully the games coming up will show great results.

The fans could have been better though, didn't really notice them, and hopefully the Prso affair will blow over quickly.

In as much as I'd hate to admit this but I think a player that might actually fit into the squad, seeing how holding the ball was a bit of a problem is Biscan. Now I know some will cringe at the thought, but he's worth 5 minutes of possession. I don't know who to replace him with, but it wouldn't be a bad option for Cico to have.

Something else also happened which I think was very symbolic in the history of Croatian football. The substitution of N. Kovac led to the passing of the armband to Igor Tudor. We've been calling for Tudor to be the leader of the NT for some time and quite frankly N. Kovac is getting old and Tudor has been the upcoming successor to Boban's armband now for some time. It was great to see Igor in the role and it's indicative of his new role on the team in the central part of the park. I've always love the guy and now we know we'll have a worthy successor to N. Kovac in the armband.

Cheersch, hope it wasn't too long or boring....

ps. It was nice to see our NT play a full match at home in a real stadium for once, but that's for another thread.

Thanks Davor.

Hey guys you can go to this website and download the higlights of the game and such...

http://sport.hrt.hr/htvsport/nogomet/index-hnl.html

This was my first time seing the highlights and i'm sorry guys but Butina could have saved that shot. Our goal was funny, didas mistake. Dario Simic said we gave them to much respect.

Anyways, you can download the highlights here if you have RealPlayer and watch it. It will also show the remaining world cup qualifying games and so on..

again

http://sport.hrt.hr/htvsport/nogomet/index-hnl.html