Croatia is not happy with Canada coach John Herdman ahead of Sunday’s potentially decisive Group F meeting.
The reasons are pretty straightforward: Herdman was interviewed on the field after Canada’s narrow loss to Belgium — a defeat that saw Canada draw praise for largely outplaying the favored Belgians — and admitted that his post-game speech to the team was not exactly deferential to Croatia.
“I told them they belong here, and we’re gonna go and ‘F’ Croatia,” said Herdman with a laugh. “That’s as simple as it gets.”
As far as speeches to a huddle of players go, it’s pretty tame stuff. Coaches and players have been talking themselves up by saying whatever the equivalent of “F Croatia” is for their situation for as long as there have been competitive sports.
Canada manager John Herdman isn’t in the business of mincing his words
“we’re going to go and F Croatia, it’s as simple as it gets”#FIFAWorldCup #CanMNT pic.twitter.com/pzt2W7sJvH
— Jack Pollard (@JackPollardUK) November 23, 2022
Unfortunately for Herdman, the global nature of the World Cup means that his speech aimed at a group of a couple dozen Canada players and staffers has made its way to a team that apparently didn’t enjoy it as much: Croatia.
“The Croatian national team deserves respect from everyone. We’ve earned it with our performances, behavior and results,” Zlatko Dalić, Croatia’s head coach, told reporters on Thursday. “Each of us has our own way of communication, he expressed himself like that, I don’t know how nice that is. I will not look back on it, we have to show on the field that we are a better team.
“We have to and we will certainly talk about it. It can only motivate us. We must not accept any negativity, we are worthy when we play and it is crucial that we focus on our football.”
If Dalić was mildly put-off by Herdman’s quote, the Croatian tabloids were ready to take things to the next level. The outlet 24sata put a nearly naked rendering of Herdman, with two strategically-placed maple leaves, on its cover, an extremely unsubtle hint that they believe the Canada manager has more of a big mouth than he can back up.
Herdman explains his remarks
Herdman was somewhat bemused that this became anything of a controversy, telling reporters that he didn’t see it as particularly abnormal.
“You say those things in an impassioned moment trying to inspire your team in a huddle,” said Herdman. “When you’re asked the question ‘What did you say in that huddle?,’ yeah, it’s what I said.”
Herdman added that for him at least, the statement was “not massively respectful to Croatian people and the Croatian national team.”
However, if Croatia was hoping to hear an apology, it wasn’t coming.
“I mean no disrespect to the Croatian team and Croatian people, but at the end of the day it’s a mindset that Canada is going to have if we’re going to have three points against one of the top teams in the world,” said Herdman. “It’s the mindset we took to Belgium. We have to, it’s part of ‘New Canada.'”
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