The truth that needs to be said
I was just watching the Croatia vs. Australia match of the World Cup in Germany and I cannot believe the level of denial people can maintain just so they can avoid facing the truth! I mean, really!!!
We have had 3 games so far, 3 games where we managed to score 2 goals only in the last one and the only thing I've been hearing from everyone since the World Cup started is "We're good, we're good, we're just not lucky enough to get the ball to go into the opponent's goal!" What?!? Are you people for real?!? Of course the ball is not going to go into the opponent's goal all by itself!!! It generally needs a little help from the players of your team!!! Or have I been mistaught since I was a kid to believe that things don't happen all by themselves, but because you (or someone else, for that matter) make them happen??? And now everyone is shocked and confused and not believing that Croatia is not moving into the second round of the World Cup.
And what is this with everyone believing the Croatian team is absolutely the best team in the world, just that we're not getting a fair break?!?! It's like our team has a God-given right to be in the final of the World Cup every time. Okay, so we won 3rd place in the World Cup in France back in 1998, but HELLOOOOOO *DING*DING*DING*DING* - that was 8 (EIGHT) years ago!!! And since then we have changed like a dozen different national teams and players...
There is one more thing I noticed as symptomatic about my nation in general (apart from the fact that absolutely everyone is a football fan) and that is that every time the Croatian team loses (or sometimes even when it comes to local teams losing to one another in a national championship) this is the list of explanations that are offered as the "official" evaluation of the game by the relevant competent people:
1. The team played a good game, but we just didn't get lucky today
2. The other team was too aggressive/fast for us and/or had 70% possession of the ball during the game (notice how it is not stated that OUR team WASN'T aggressive/fast enough and/or DIDN'T have the possession of the ball for the equal amount of time during the game)
3. This and that player of the team was badly injured and still hasn't recovered
and my all-time personal favorite:
4. The referees were biased against our team and made some shady judgement calls
Now I ask you this: do you think that we (or anyone else in the same situation, for that matter) will ever be able to move ahead and actually become world champions, or whatever else, if we are not able to look our team and ourselves in the eye and speak the truth - we were just not good enough for this World Cup!!! It's not a tragedy, it's not the end of the world - it's our wake-up call which we shouldn't be ignoring, but rather hear it and start really working on the things we need to fix.
I might come off as unpatriotic and harsh, maybe even mean, but I think I've just managed to keep a shred of realism in all this football frenzy everyone is experiencing the last few weeks. Well, whatever you may think of me, or my opinion, the facts still stay the same: there is no master plan for Croatia not to enter the second round of the World Cup... The Croatian team WASN'T GOOD enough, they DIDN'T SCORE enough goals, they DIDN'T WIN and they will now be COMING HOME instead of preparing for the next game of the World Cup. That's it! It is high time we started learning from our mistakes instead of trying to sweep them under the carpet like they haven't happened or were not our fault and pretend we are still the greatest team ever, when things just aren't so... There is just one thing we can all do to make things get better: face the situation, deal with it and move on!!!
That's it! Fin! Ende!
THE END!!!
We have had 3 games so far, 3 games where we managed to score 2 goals only in the last one and the only thing I've been hearing from everyone since the World Cup started is "We're good, we're good, we're just not lucky enough to get the ball to go into the opponent's goal!" What?!? Are you people for real?!? Of course the ball is not going to go into the opponent's goal all by itself!!! It generally needs a little help from the players of your team!!! Or have I been mistaught since I was a kid to believe that things don't happen all by themselves, but because you (or someone else, for that matter) make them happen??? And now everyone is shocked and confused and not believing that Croatia is not moving into the second round of the World Cup.
And what is this with everyone believing the Croatian team is absolutely the best team in the world, just that we're not getting a fair break?!?! It's like our team has a God-given right to be in the final of the World Cup every time. Okay, so we won 3rd place in the World Cup in France back in 1998, but HELLOOOOOO *DING*DING*DING*DING* - that was 8 (EIGHT) years ago!!! And since then we have changed like a dozen different national teams and players...
There is one more thing I noticed as symptomatic about my nation in general (apart from the fact that absolutely everyone is a football fan) and that is that every time the Croatian team loses (or sometimes even when it comes to local teams losing to one another in a national championship) this is the list of explanations that are offered as the "official" evaluation of the game by the relevant competent people:
1. The team played a good game, but we just didn't get lucky today
2. The other team was too aggressive/fast for us and/or had 70% possession of the ball during the game (notice how it is not stated that OUR team WASN'T aggressive/fast enough and/or DIDN'T have the possession of the ball for the equal amount of time during the game)
3. This and that player of the team was badly injured and still hasn't recovered
and my all-time personal favorite:
4. The referees were biased against our team and made some shady judgement calls
Now I ask you this: do you think that we (or anyone else in the same situation, for that matter) will ever be able to move ahead and actually become world champions, or whatever else, if we are not able to look our team and ourselves in the eye and speak the truth - we were just not good enough for this World Cup!!! It's not a tragedy, it's not the end of the world - it's our wake-up call which we shouldn't be ignoring, but rather hear it and start really working on the things we need to fix.
I might come off as unpatriotic and harsh, maybe even mean, but I think I've just managed to keep a shred of realism in all this football frenzy everyone is experiencing the last few weeks. Well, whatever you may think of me, or my opinion, the facts still stay the same: there is no master plan for Croatia not to enter the second round of the World Cup... The Croatian team WASN'T GOOD enough, they DIDN'T SCORE enough goals, they DIDN'T WIN and they will now be COMING HOME instead of preparing for the next game of the World Cup. That's it! It is high time we started learning from our mistakes instead of trying to sweep them under the carpet like they haven't happened or were not our fault and pretend we are still the greatest team ever, when things just aren't so... There is just one thing we can all do to make things get better: face the situation, deal with it and move on!!!
That's it! Fin! Ende!
THE END!!!
posted by Ivna R. @ 11:03 PM
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