World Cup semi-finalist Croatia, a small country big on team sports

How is it possible that Croatia, a country with only 3.8 million people, is in the semi-finals for the second World Cup in a row? At the previous World Cup in 2018, Croatia even reached the final, which was lost to France.

This country is not only at the top in football, but also in handball, basketball and water polo. How can a small country achieve such great sports performance?

“The secret of our success is that we are a close-knit team,” said Croatian defender Josep Juranovic ahead of the semi-final against Argentina. “We play as a unit. As a family. Everyone fights for each other.”

First that family feeling, what exactly does he mean by that?

Being a small country means many players have known each other since they were ten years old. Most have their origins in clubs such as Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split, and know each other from school, street or football club. They are not teammates, but friends, Slaven Bilic, former Croatia defender and now head coach of English club Watford, told The Athletic.

Bilic said he was surprised when he heard from England internationals that they always have separate tables for players from Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool. Those players know each other and stick together. In Croatia it is different, he explains, where you know each other from your childhood, you call each other every day and everyone eats together, no matter with whom.

Even if you don’t know that Croatia is so big in team sports, you could tell by the environment, says Croatia expert Wessel Penning. He describes how sports fields can be found everywhere.

“Every village and every school has its own concrete football or basketball field. In every picturesque harbor on the Adriatic coast there are at least two water polo goals. Children play sports and games outside much more than in the Netherlands.”

The country does not really have a club life, says Penning, as in the Netherlands, where it is teeming with children and parents at sports clubs on Saturdays. In Croatia, many football clubs only have “one field, one youth team and one adult team”.

Sports are part of the culture. A culture that is also steeped in nationalism, according to Penning. “While it sounds like the Wilhelmus, it remains to be seen whether all football players will sing along, you know that for sure with the Croats, they sing along at the top of their lungs.”

This has to do with Croatian pride in their country, which declared independence in 1991 when the republic of Yugoslavia fell apart.

A country that had to endure a bloody civil war until 1995. Most players of the team have not experienced it themselves, captain and star player Luka Modric, for example, has.

“To be honest, I don’t like thinking about the war,” Modric says in a video on the FIFA YouTube channel. “I was very young. We had to flee from our house and to refugee hotels. It was not easy to live in that period. I heard sirens and bombs being dropped. Also rockets.”

The ball played an important role in his life at the time, he says. “I was always busy with a ball. Football was definitely an escape from everything that was going on around us.

Most of Modric’s teammates were born after the war, but it also has an impact on them, says striker Bruno Petkovic.

“We are young, we have not seen with our own eyes how our country came to be. How we fought for our independence in the 1990s. We learned that from our parents and we have carried it with us all our lives. You fight , you work hard. If you don’t, you won’t achieve anything in your life.”

Croatia connoisseur Penning recognizes that special Croatian fighter mentality. “If your parents have been through the war, you know what you are doing it for. That is an extra motivation to want to win. You want to fight on the field for the flag.”

He calls Croatian society one of every man for himself, where the rich call the shots. “If you are not rich, sport is a means to climb up.”

Where Spain and the Netherlands went down on penalties at this World Cup, the Croatians cannot wait for penalties. They are good at that.

At the previous World Cup in Russia, they went through against Denmark in the round of 16 on penalties, and then again against Russia in the quarter-finals. This World Cup they won against Japan in the eighth final and against Brazil in the quarter finals, both games on penalties.

The big question tonight will not be which team has the best player, with Modric or Lionel Messi or any other player, but who is the best team.