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ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The team that made Alexandria its home for a month is out of the World Cup.
Croatia's tournament ended Thursday night in Toronto, where Portugal rallied for a 2-1 win in the Round of 32 on a stoppage-time header — and where a disallowed goal in the dying moments denied the Vatreni a dramatic equalizer. Portugal advances to face Spain in the Round of 16; Croatia goes home.
For Alexandria, it is the end of an unlikely chapter that began in early June, when Croatia set up its base camp at Episcopal High School and, over the following weeks, turned a Northern Virginia city into an unexpected World Cup outpost.
How it unfolded
Croatia took the lead in the 53rd minute when veteran Ivan Perišić finished off a cross from Josip Stanišić. The advantage held until the 68th, when Cristiano Ronaldo — at 41, playing in his sixth World Cup — converted a penalty after Nikola Vlašić was called for a holding foul in the box.
The winner came in stoppage time. Substitute Gonçalo Ramos headed home to put Portugal ahead, and moments later the match descended into controversy. Croatia thought it had equalized in the final seconds, but after a lengthy delay, Mario Pašalić was ruled offside by video review. Croatian players and fans protested — the decision, both Croatia's Petar Sučić and Portugal coach Roberto Martínez said afterward, was triggered by the sensor chip inside the match ball.
It was one of multiple Croatia goals waved off during the night, a frustrating pattern that turned an already tense knockout match into a bitter ending for Zlatko Dalić's side.
Two legends, one last stage
The match had been framed as a meeting of eras: Ronaldo and Croatia's Luka Modrić, 40, longtime teammates at Real Madrid, each chasing a World Cup title that has eluded them. The two shared an embrace before kickoff and met again on the field afterward, with Ronaldo calling Modrić a legend of the game.
Modrić led Croatia to the World Cup final in 2018 and a third-place finish in 2022. Whether Thursday marked his final World Cup appearance, Dalić would not say definitively; the coach called it "probably" Modrić's last, per the AP, but declined to close the door.
For a captain who played his 200th match for the national team during this tournament — and who set up Croatia's decisive goal against Ghana just days earlier — it was a quiet, painful way for a possible final World Cup to end.
The end of Alexandria's month
Croatia's exit closes the local story that has unfolded since winter, when the Brief first reported the team had chosen Alexandria as its base camp over dozens of other North American sites. In the weeks that followed, the city embraced the Vatreni: hundreds of children turned out for a June community event, restaurants added Croatian dishes, shops flew the red-and-white checkers, and Mayor Alyia Gaskins traveled to Philadelphia for the team's group-stage win over Ghana.
The players, in their final days in the city, spoke warmly of the stay — of welcoming hotel and training-center staff, and of Episcopal's facilities. Dalić, at his last Alexandria news conference, called the city "beautiful" and "peaceful."
Alexandria's other World Cup connection remains alive, for now: Ghana, which was also briefly based in the city before the tournament, plays Colombia in its own Round of 32 match Friday night in Kansas City.
But the team that turned Alexandria into a home for a month is finished — bowing out on a Toronto night that, for the Vatreni and the city that hosted them, ended a game too soon.
Ryan Belmore
Ryan Belmore
Ryan Belmore
