Croatian First League half-season preview

[Alessan]

I don't know how many of you bet on Croatian first league, but since I've noticed some great tips from my fellow Croats, I'll try to compile a small analysis of the changes and some news from Croatia. All additions and opinions are welcome. First of all, it was announced that the winter break in croatian leagues will be a week longer than expected. All fixtures got pushed for a week, so the second part starts on 27. Feb 2010. The clubs will be mentioned in the same order as the current table standings, so I'll start with: NK DINAMO ZAGREB ( www.nk-dinamo.hr ) Current league position: 1st Last season ending pos: 1st Prediciton for this season: 1st + cup winners The strongest club in Croatia at the moment is flying high. Reclaiming the title looks like a walk in the park, and recent form, along with the form in friendlies during their preparations in Turkey give a lot of reasons for optimism. Dinamo have let go the awful Greek ex-striker Papadopulous (went to Celta Vigo), and unfortunately sold great defender Lovren to Lyon. They might miss him, but Executive vice-president Zdravko Mamic (alpha and omega in the club) likes the scent of the money. Now, without Lovren, the defense looks a bit hollow, and with Igor Biscan, ex-Liverpool player, injured, and with Robert Kovac old and tired, everything rests on young Tomecak, Vrsaljko, Barbaric and Argentinians Cufre and Ibanez. Seems just a bit thin to me, unless Vrsaljko swiftly proves that he is the most talented defender in Croatia. . In the middle, Dinamo is formidable: great Milan Badelj and Pedro Morales, good Calello and Vrdoljak, strange Sammir and young Antolic are all at least decent players, and that line is unmatched in Croatia. The main strike force of Dinamo rests in Mario Mandzukic (if he doesn't get sold to Ukraine), alongside the veteran Slepicka, young gun Kramaric, and the new addition Dodo - a young, fast attacker from Brasil. Dinamo also signed Karlo Primorac from Osijek on a free transfer. So with Dodo and Kramaric Dinamo has a long-term soluton in case Mandzukic leaves. This season Dinamo goes for double crown, and with that concentration of young talents from own school - they seem destined to win most of the domestic trophies in next few years. Dinamo's young domestic talents and their south-american legion (minus Sammir, no-one belives in him any more) bring lot of confidence to coach Jurcic and boss Mamic. Depending on strikers - Dinamo should beat a lot of handicaps, draw few, and lose even fewer matches, so I guess that some handicap betting might bring in money. I'll be on them - their recent international friendlies read 4 wins and a draw: against Cluj (4:0), Hiroshima (2:1), Teplice (1:0), FC Moscow (2:0), Lech (1:1) EDIT: First match against bottom-dwellers Croatia Sesvete that ended up in 6:0 trashing shows that Dinamo has the motive and the quality to dominate the league.

[Alessan]

Re: Croatian First League half-season preview I'm a bit too busy at work to post every day, but I'll get it done by weekend... I hope that info on Dinamo Zagreb was good enough for a short preview, so let's go on: HNK CIBALIA VINKOVCI ( www.hnk-cibalia.hr ) Current league position: 2nd Last season ending pos: 8th Prediciton for this season: 3rd - 5th One of the surprises of this season, Cibalia stands at second place, with great performance at home (5-3-0) and they are surely up fired up to stay near the top to get a place in European League qualifications. To show that they are a disciplined team, I can only say that they held both Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split to a draw - a feat that validates their claim for Europe. Cibalia isn't a team with a lot of big names, they don't even have a star striker, but as a team - they play well. Top scorers this season are: striker Kresinger (5), and midfielder Pavličić (5). Cibalia's defense is the best in league, with 8 conceieved goals in league atm. That said, it seems that Cibalia is a great team to tip "unders", as they score 1.5 and concieve less than 0.5 goals per game. 12 games out of 17 finished with less than 2.5 goals this season. Their first upcoming match is against Inter (Z) in Vinkovci, and Cibalia should start the second part of the season with all three points. It's a bit hard to be on the spot with the prediciton on Cibalia's final standing in the league. Their form doesn't oscillate, and their defensive approach is getting them points. Let's say it this way - if competition slips they could even end in second or third place, but it's more realistic to expect they are going a bit down, ending fourth or fifth. EDIT: First match against Inter (Z) resulted in 2:0 win. Cibalia did a good job preparing players for the second part of season, and should be able to fight for the second place.

[Alessan]

Re: Croatian First League half-season preview HNK ŠIBENIK: ( hnk-sibenik.hr ) Current league position: 3rd Last season ending pos: 6th Prediciton for this season: 3rd - 6th I don't know how the club with only +1 goal difference holds a high third place on the league table, but OK. They'll try to keep it, but as always they boost with great results in the first half of the season, and later they drop like a rock. Never a real threat to the "big boys" - Dinamo and Hajduk, and more like their incubator of young talents. Sibenik doesn't score much, 1 per game, and they take 1 per game too, so it just remains to see what will happen to their form after the break, and will they lose just a couple of positions or more. Their key player is Ermin Zec (22 years) with 8 goals this season (which makes for almost a half of their total scored) and they depend on him for a decent result. He was rumored to transfer out, but that failed, and his motivation for the rest of the season remains to be seen. He claims that he is fully ready and set for a successful ending of the season. They have some decent players in the middle, namely in their young captain, my namesake Arijan Ademi and Alispahić, scorer of three goals. The rest of the season for Šibenik, and their results depend on these players, so if you get some team news saying that Zec isn't available for the game - lay them, they are really impotent without him. Also, they got to the cup semi-final, so if they pass Varteks, they will most probably get their asses handed over to them by Dinamo. It would be great for their morale to beat Varteks and reach the final game, so even that might be worth a bet. EDIT: First match (18. round) against their neighbours on the coast, the NK Zadar ended up in a disappointing home draw since the guests are 15 pts below them, and not playing well.

[Box3r]

Re: Croatian First League half-season preview Sorry. Just to add something about Ermin Zec. The rumour is he might not even play the 2nd part of the season cause of the work permit. Alessan pretty much every person here who bets on Cro league doesn't read our news so they can'tknow this fact. :) That matter will be finish soon by the words of Šibenik's trainer. Hope it helps to somebody. + I think we can expect that Hajduk will be very difficult to predict. They have very good young players but they kicked Vejić, Buljat, and few more players who had big salaries. For me Vejić is one of the best defenders in the league so he would be difficult to replace. I don't think they could do something with youngsters but Ibričić could make a difference.

[Alessan]

Re: Croatian First League half-season preview

Sorry. Just to add something about Ermin Zec. The rumour is he might not even play the 2nd part of the season cause of the work permit.

I know that in December there were some issues regarding that, but that was two months ago and I reckoned that it's been taken care off. All the newspapers (including "Sportske novosti") have Zec in their previews, Šibenik lists Zec as their player, so it seems that everything has been taken care off. UPDATE: Ermin Zec received his working permit, and he is eligible to play for HNK Šibenik. So that settles it finally.

[Alessan]

Re: Croatian First League half-season preview NK OSIJEK: ( http://www.nk-osijek.hr ) League position at the break: 4th Last season ending pos: 7th Prediciton for this season: 2nd - 5th Osijek is a club with big tradition and some good results in Croatia. At the moment they are having some financial troubles, but they boost themselves for having one of the best players of the first part of the season - Domagoj Vida. Their key player Domagoj Vida (20 years) is very useful defender/midfielder that keeps their game on a higher level, while the attack scores a lot, making them the second best offensive team in league Their first game in the second part of season was a 1:0 loss away to Karlovac, which was somewhat expected since Karlovac is a tight defensive sqad winning a lot of tough matches with one goal and a clean sheet. But, they lost a couple of positions downwards, and are currently sixth in a pretty crowded part of the table. I think that Osijek has the potential to finish in a top 3 position (not counting first place, which Dinamo will keep) if their attack keeps delivering. And of course if they tighten the defensive game a bit. With their goal difference 35-25 in first 17 games, and the average of 3.53 goals per game, it seems that overs will be a good bet against all teams lower than 5th-6th position.

[Alessan]

Re: Croatian First League half-season preview NK KARLOVAC: ( http://www.nk-karlovac.hr ) League position at the break: 5th Last season ending pos: promoted from 2nd league Prediciton for this season: 6th - 8th Karlovac is the greatest surprise of this season, since nobody gave them much chance other from the relegation battle. They do have one strong card, their manager - Igor Pamić. He is a strict trainer, somewhat of a hard-ass, and he keeps Karlovac playing a tight, closed style which got them where they are now. The first two rounds after the break earned them 4 points, a tight 1:0 home win and an away draw in Zadar. From some time now there is a debate how long can Karlovac maintain their position on the table and I think that they are going to sink a bit in the last ten rounds. Pamić is working with a talented team, but I think they lack expirience and towards the end of the season the somewhat short bench might take its toll too... They don't score much, and when someone cracks their tight defense - they go down. Their goal difference is 21-13 in (now) 19 games, with last two played under 2.5, and with their style, unders on them seem like a good bet almost any given day.

[croato]

Re: Croatian First League half-season preview Good evening everybody...I am new on this forum!!! coming from Croatia and a big fan of Hajduk Split...

[Alessan]

Re: Croatian First League half-season preview NK SLAVEN BELUPO: ( www.nk-slaven-belupo.hr ) League position at the break: 6th Last season ending pos: 4th Prediciton for this season: 6th - 8th The club from Koprivnica is a regular first league club, with some European expirience, and usually a club that manages to finish in forst 5 positions in the league. Their ambitions seem a bit too high this season, especially compared to their form and results after the break. With a couple of expirienced players (ex-players of NK Dinamo and NK Varteks) "Farmaceuti" from Koprivnica on paper seem like a serious contenders for a spot in the next year qualifications in European League. On paper. Best scorer are Delić and Tipurić, 5 goals each, while striker Vojnović (2 goals from 15 matches) was injured in a friendly match two days ago and is unavailable until the end of the season. One of their best players Bojan Vručina was sold to Hapoel Tel Aviv, so they are a bit weaker than in the autumn part of the season. Other notable players would be defender Maras and midfielder Posavec. Their goal difference is 32-33 in (now) 19 games, after a heavy defeat against Hajduk (5:0) and a home draw against Å ibenik (2:2). It's obvious to see that their defense tends to leak a lot of goals (20 conceded on away matches), averaging 1,73 per game, and that 6 of 10 of their games go over.

[Djordje]

Re: Croatian First League half-season preview great stuff, Alessan :clap