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Croatian Embassy brings a day of sports history to the Alexandria hotel where its team stayed

Thirty-six years after Croatia’s first match as a national side, the man who scored its first goal and the American who scored against him sat on the same panel.

,   and  Ryan Belmore
5 min read
From left, moderator Antonija Tušek of Croatians Online; Aljoša Asanović, who scored Croatia’s first goal in its first match as a national side in 1990; former Croatian Football Federation President Mladen Vedriš; an interpreter; and Troy Dayak, who scored for the United States in the same match, during a panel at the Croatian Embassy’s sports conference at The Satire on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (Ryan Belmore/The Alexandria Brief)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Thirty-six years after they met in Zagreb, the man who scored Croatia’s first goal as a national side and the American who scored against him sat a few feet apart in an Alexandria hotel ballroom on Monday.

The Embassy of the Republic of Croatia brought a day-long conference on Croatian and American sports ties to The Satire, the hotel where its national team lived during this summer’s World Cup. The event, “Croatia-USA in Sports: Where history meets greatness,” was attended by approximately 100 people and ran from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The embassy framed it as its contribution to the 250th anniversary of American independence.

Ambassador Pjer Šimunović, Mayor Alyia Gaskins and Stephane Vogel, the hotel’s managing director, gave the opening remarks shortly after 10 a.m. Along the side and back walls, the embassy mounted a display of Croatian sports memorabilia: framed and signed jerseys, among them a Hajduk Split shirt, an NBA jersey and a Croatian national basketball jersey, and a limited-edition commemorative baseball bat displayed with its certificate.

Everything on The Alexandria Brief is free to read.

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