South Korea vs Togo 2-1

Till Abolo was sent off in the 53rd minute, Togo competed well versus South Korea. They had even scored one courtesy Mohammed Kader in the first half. It looked like Togo might sneak a famous victory. Then, there was the red card. Moments later, South Korea equalled via Chun-Soo Lee. From there, South Korea dominated. Togo looked tired and slow in the second half regardless of the 10 men factor. The South Koreans weren’t impressive in the match though. There were many shots way off target and the team could very well struggle against Switzerland.

Switzerland vs France 0-0

The goal jinx for France continues. They had several chances but failed to score. Even Switzerland had chances and they could have easily won with a little luck. For France, the big question is - are they missing Cisse? I failed to understand why Giully should not be in the French squad having seen him closely over the last two years. France shouldn’t have problems qualifying for round 2 but you never know!

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Zvonimir from Croatia joins us for part 27. Zvonimir is twenty and lives in the capital, Zagreb. He has been following the national team since the EC ‘96 qualifiers when he was 8. The first match he went to was Croatia-Ukraine 4-0 in ‘95. He is also a Dinamo Zagreb supporter.

I think Zvonimir for agreeing to the interview.

Tell us a bit about the Croatia football history and the football culture which exists.

Although the Repubilc of Croatia is a teenager, we have a rich football history. The first football club was HASK, founded in 1903 in Zagreb (the tradition of HASK will later be continued by Dinamo Zagreb). Back then Croatia was a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. After the WWI Croatia entered the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and this country was admitted into FIFa. In 1930 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (the same country but renamed in 1929) participated in the first World Cup in Uruguay.

During the WWII football didn’t die in the Independent State of Croatia but obviously people had other worries on their minds. A couple of friendlies were played with national teams like Switzerland and Slovakia. After the WWII the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia was formed, which Croatia was a part of, and that’s how it stayed until the declaration of independance in the early 90’s. Croatian players participated in the Yugoslavian EC and WC campaignes with a lot of success, a Croat Dražan Jerkovic shared the top goalscorer title in Chile ‘62.

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