Croatian craze

Seems we had a visitor from Croatia check out Sideline Views sometime during the night, well, our night.

I have actually seen Croatia play in the World Cup. I was there in person for Croatia-Mexico in the 2002 World Cup, a game won by Mexico 1-0 on a Cuauhtemoc Blanco penalty kick. Boris Zivkovic was sent off after he fouled Blanco inside the area (I remember the play but not the Croatian's name, had to look that up).

Croatia did well to beat Italy the next game but collapsed against Ecuador in the group stage finale. More recently, Croatia narrowly missed out on another second round when they tied Australia 2-2 in Germany last summer.

More locally, a couple of Croatians play locally. Ante Razov (born in L.A. to Croatian parents) and Ante Jazic (born in Canada to Croatian parents) play for Chivas USA and the LA Galaxy, respectively.

Greetings to our Croatian audience.