Croatian Sports Could Have Achieved More in 2008

The Croatian sports audience is constantly being thrilled by basketball players and occasionally football players, but this year was special because most joy was brought by those least expected. 

Greatest success in history with a silver medal

Everything started as usual, with handball. It was the European Championship in Norway in January and coach Lino Cervar and his team aspired to reach the summit they never have. But although their good will was there was good will, the injuries definitely jeopardised their chances because Ivano Balic had more trouble than ever, as did Metlicic and Lackovic. So incapacitated, they went for the impossible, with their hearts leading the way.

Their playing was unrecognisable. In the group, the never better Danes crushed Croatia and not much was expected, but victories against Poland and the host brought the team back to life. Croatia’s best athletes got to the semi-finals where their greatest opponents, France, were waiting for them. But this time, Croatia did not concede. It went through to the finals and secured greatest achievement in the history of Croatia’s handball.

Unfortunately, the last obstacle were again the Danes, truly stronger than ever. The match ended with a four goal difference for the Danes, but the Croatians got the silver medal, which could not be ignored. Of course, there are those who say “they could have done better”, but they should be ignored.

A bit later, the Snjezna Kraljica ski tournament was held in Zagreb, for the first time with the men’s slalom, as well as the PBZ Indoors tennis tournament. But it will all be remembered by Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic standing up on the pedestal, although he did not manage to win that first slalom for men in the history of Mount Sljeme overlooking Zagreb. But somebody else constantly stood on the winning pedestal. Blanka Vlasic.

European championship in the sign of Turkey

The Split-based athlete who flies two metres off the ground kept winning endlessly and nobody could stop her. One competition after another, height after height, it looked like she would break the all-time record of Stefka Kostadinova. She did not manage to break the record, but experts know best and their predictions might come true. According to them, Blanka could break the world record by the end of 2009.

Then there was a pause between great victories. For the second consecutive year, Dinamo was dominant in the Croatian Football League, the Zadar basketball team were working their way to the championship title next to the never weaker Cibona, the Mladost and Jug water polo teams became two of the best four European teams.

Regarding football, a great tragedy occurred for the national team. Martin taylor broke Croatia’s Eduardo da Silva’s foot during a match. Everybody was shocked, his career was on the line, as was the team’s playing. This became painfully obvious when The Netherlands won 3:0, Moldova was defeated with difficulty, while the game with Scotland was played in a peaceful manner. But the positive thing was that Luka Modric was sold to Tottenham for a record amount.

The Olympics were the event of the year

The quarter-finals game with the Turks was a match that will be remembered. After the ordinary part of the game and Ivica Olic et al having missed opportunity after opportunity, Ivan Klasnic scored a leading goal for the Croatian team in the last minute of the second extension. The euphoria was amazing, Croatia had the finals on the palm of their hand and then … the referee did not allow coach Bilic to make an exchange, breaking the rules of football. And the players also made a mistake by being completely confused.

As it happens, a player pays for his mistake, a referee does not. The Turks equalised the score and easily won in the penalty area. The referee, Italian Rosseti, later refereed the finals and definitely must have felt regret for what he did in the quarterfinals. Spain won the championship in finals with the Germans.

At the beginning of summer, football was everything, despite the fact that the water polo players came in fourth at the European Championships. It was not important that Nadal beat Federer in the Wimbledon finals, nor the fact that the Croatian national television completely ignored the Croatian basketball team’s greatest success in 12 years and their entrance into the Olympic Games in Beijing. Everything was about football.

Expectations in 2009 never greater

And then the Olympic Games arrived. Blanka Vlasic and Filip Ude took silver medals, while Pejcic, Zubcic and Saric took the bronze. Team sports lacked. The water polo players only managed to prepare enough for the quarter finals, the handball players burnt out competing for the bronze medal, but the basketball team achieved a miracle by entering the quarter-finals after beating Russia.

But the Paralympics athletes achieved great success. Antonija Balek won two gold medals, Darko Kralj won a gold medal and Branimir Budetic won silver. But after the games, speculation arose about whether Antonija Balek was a fake and could actually walk, which is absurd.

By the end of the year we witnessed Dinamo getting kicked out of Europe again, we were defeated by England in football, we won gold in karate and there were some scandals about the construction of sports halls. But now everybody is looking towards 2009, which, although there will not be so many great competitions, should be somewhat more successful.