Canada head coach John Herdman will probably take one big lesson away from this World Cup: watch your mouth.
Herdman shared the details of his post-game speech to Canada after they played well in a 1-0 loss to Belgium, saying that his remarks could be boiled down to telling his players that they would “F Croatia” in their next match.
Herdman said this in a post-game, televised interview during a World Cup, and so this extremely normal and predictable attempt to motivate a team followed an extremely normal and predictable path to going viral. Herdman was eventually mocked by Croatian tabloids, and his opposite number Zlatko Dalić told reporters ahead of the game that his team — the overwhelming favorites in Sunday’s Group B clash — deserves respect.
Andrej Kramarić and Croatia were listening, in other words, and after some ruthless finishing saw them beat Canada 4-1, the Hoffenheim striker let everyone know what he thought of Herdman’s motivational strategy.
“These are words that have motivated the whole of Croatia,” said Kramarić, who had a brace on the night, to reporters after the match. “I want to thank the coach of Canada for the motivation. He could have chosen better words. He could have formulated it a bit differently. In the end Croatia demonstrated who F’d whom.”
Full quote from Kramaric: "These are words that have motivated the whole of Croatia. I want to thank the coach of Canada for the motivation. He could have chosen better words. He could have formulated it a bit differently. In the end Croatia demonstrated who F’d whom."
— Joe Callaghan (@JoeCallaghan84) November 27, 2022
Herdman’s speech wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, and every coach in this tournament has probably struck a similar note at some point in their careers. Kramarić, in saying that the message could have simply been slightly refined, even acknowledged that the language and bluntness were far more the problem than anything else.
However, that’s the lesson here. If Herdman had told the world that his message to his squad was merely one about believing they could beat Croatia, no one would have batted an eye. Instead, it became a rallying cry for a Croatian team that hardly needed one, and the letter “F” will probably follow Herdman for a long time to come.
[lawrence-related id=10543,10457]