Goooooooooooal...!!!

OK, so I'm sitting here obviously watching a soccer game... Croatia v Israel in Tel Aviv (how weird to see Hebrew next to Croatian). It's a qualifying round for Euro 2008 or whatever it's called. Last game I watched , Croatia beat England 2-0 in Zagreb. That was exciting. Right now the score is 3-1 - go Croatia!

Hmmmm... that's not the best picture of the team, but it's the only one I've been able to find.

I feel badly because it has been my intention to write something every week about Croatia, to help you get to know my soon-to-be home, and to keep me accountable to learn about my soon-to-be home :) So, today is the second installment of "Things you never knew and things you may not want to know about Croatia, but I'm going to tell you anyway..."

The Croatian Football team has played since its independence from Yugoslavia. On October 17, 1990, Croatia played its first international game in Zagreb against, of all countries, the United States. Croatia won 2-1... I'm not sure how I feel about that. :) Technically, before World War II, Croatia did play under its own flag (for some political reason that I'm not exactly sure about), and on April 2, 1940 they beat Switzerland in Zagreb 4-0.

A little more history... Football has been played in Croatia from the early 20th century, but the country was not independent. Before that, Croatian players played for teams of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1919-1939) Banovia of Croatia (1939-1941) the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945) and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945-1990.)


I am so getting my hair cut like this... Just in time for my sister's wedding! And I think everyone in the wedding party should wear these cool hats! At least the hats would hide the hair... I love European soccer fans!! But how much do I love my sister?? (cue evil laughter!)


Ok, some current facts about the Croatian National Football Team: In 1998 they finished third in the World Cup and the Golden Boot winner was also from Croatia - Davor Šuker. They have qualified for every World Cup since 1990. The team was FIFA's "Best Mover of the Year" in 1994 and 1998. In the FIFA world rankings, the have been as high as THIRD, and as low as 125th (that's kind of a huge spread!). Since gaining independence, Croatia has not lost a single competitive game on home turf.

(All information was gathered from www.wikipedia.org)

Ok, well, there you go - more info than you ever wanted on the Croatian National Soccer Team! Oh, I won't post this for a few minutes till the game is over so you can know the score...

And the score is... Israel 3 :4 Croatia ...and Croatia pulls ahead of England to lead their group! Yea!! (Ok, it was quite close there at the end... kind of scary, but they won!!)