Croatian football

[TonyQuinn]

I'm a journalist and have been assigned Croatia to follow at this summer's Euro 2012. Football isn't the subject matter I usually write about and Croatia is a team I know very little about. Is there anyone around who can give me a crash course on the team, the players etc. Pint or two I can offer!

[titch juicy]

don't know too much, but can tell you of the current crop, a fair few have played in the premier league:

luka modric & niko krancjar at spurs, vedran corluka (on loan from spurs with bayer leverkusen)

eduardo- formerly of arsenal, now with shaktar donetsk

nikica jelavic- with everton

ivan klasnic- with bolton

luka modric is almost certainly their star player at present

[maxxi]

Fanatical supporters (saw a game in Pula once while on holiday in Istria) all dressed in red and white check and chanting Hrvatska! Hrvatska! but that was in the golden days when Suker was still playing.

Slaven Bilic (ex West ham and Everton) manager - they humiliated England twice in 2008 Euro qualies which contributed to Steve McClaren being sacked as England manager.

Tough group for Euros though - Spain, Italy, Ireland.

[TonyQuinn]

This is all good stuff.....any anecdotes, references I can drop in gratefully received. I will also reference Dulwich in my copy at some stage!

[DJKillaQueen]

This is a wind up surely ;)

[TonyQuinn]

This is not a wind-up. I'm a normal journalist who gets sent to footie tournaments for my news organisation. So any info would be greatly appreciated. My preview story likely to center on the role of football in the forging of Croatian identity following collapse of Yugoslavia. A brief journey of the last 20 years.

[kpc]

Ah, so this is what passes for research nowadays. Suggest you track down a copy of Adrian Chiles programme he did a few years ago about being a Croatian fan, write down what he says and put it in your story.

[Townleygreen]

I think this journalist should do his own research. This thread seems to suggest laziness on his part.

Or am I being unreasonable?

(?)

[maxxi]

Townleygreen Wrote:

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

> I think this journalist should do his own

> research. This thread seems to suggest laziness on

> his part.

> Or am I being unreasonable?

>

> (?)

Come on - the Streatham Guardian is a small paper and those Spring Fairs won't cover themselves.

[DJKillaQueen]

Asking someone who knows nothing about international football to follow a national team during a major football tournament doesn't exactly make me want to go out and read anything that journalist writes I'm afraid.

[Huguenot]

Oh come on guys - this is how it works!

Football reviews don't have to be written by pathological obsessives. If you want to read that crap you go on the Football thread - a duller piece of repetitive brain vomit you'd be unfortunate to read ;-)

I'd be very pleased to read a review populated with anecdote and perspective.

I don't think that football is 'owned' by the people whose desperate personality problems are illustrated by their obsession with a bunch of overpaid teenagers.

I think 90% of enthusiasts out there are just having a bit of fun.

I'm offended that any OCDC freak out there thinks they can take football away from me because I'm not 'a proper fan'.

You go for it Tony - have a laugh, tell some stories, make the people real - and you'll get ten times the number of reads compared with the football retards.

[DJKillaQueen]

LOL OCDC indeed.... ;)

[Huguenot]

Only teasing pookie :))

[El Pibe]

Ohio Cooperative Development Center?

Or is this a pun about people who are obsessively finickety about who they sleep with but not about their gender?

[TonyQuinn]

Some interesting comments, some typically rude Dulwich comments, that seem to dominate this forum nowadays. This is research Townleygreen. Do you really think that asking a few locals in my manor represents the sum of my endeavours on this front? KPC, thanks for reminding me about Adrian Chiles, even though your comment was laced with something else.

[maxxi]

Huguenot Wrote:

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

> Oh come on guys - this is how it works!

>

> Football reviews don't have to be written by

> pathological obsessives. If you want to read that

> crap you go on the Football thread - a duller

> piece of repetitive brain vomit you'd be

> unfortunate to read ;-)

Unless they stumbled onto one of your love spats with UDT ;-)

[Lost Yorkshire Man]

Am I wrong in thinking that the Yugoslav war kicked off (so to speak) after a dust up at a football match?

[Lost Yorkshire Man]

The Match That Started a War

[Razors]

Take me with you on your free ride and I'll write the *%?"ing thing for you.

[woodrot]

tony - you have a dream job lined up - having to spend time learning the minutae of a Balkan national team would be an absolute joy - leave the turgid toss about Ingerland to the tiresome nobs who churn out this stuff as they get nearer to another finals and the inevitable failure.

I cant help you much on Hrvatska, but maybe you should get down to a game or two in Zagreb or Split to get a feel for the place and the supporters - Been there a couple of times for games - its pretty intense.

good luck