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ALEXANDRIA, Va. - For nearly a month, the question of how long Croatia would call Alexandria home kind of stayed open. On Sunday, it finally got an answer — and so did the question of how the team pulled its World Cup back from the brink.
Speaking at a press conference at Episcopal High School, the day after Croatia reached the Round of 32 with a 2-1 win over Ghana, head coach Zlatko Dalić offered a candid look at the turnaround behind the run — and the federation confirmed the team's stay in the city is now on the clock. Croatia will remain at its Alexandria base through Tuesday before leaving for Toronto and its knockout match with Portugal, ending a base-camp stay that began in early June.
"I took responsibility"
The turnaround, by Dalić's account, was as much psychological as tactical.
After Croatia opened with a 4-2 loss to England and labored through the early going, the coach said, the team was short on confidence. So he made a deliberate choice: to stand in front of his players and take public responsibility for the poor performances, signaling that he believed in them and expected more.
The goal, he said, was to restore the squad's self-belief. The team had not played as badly against England as the scoreline suggested, Dalić maintained — Croatia had "gifted" the opponent three goals — but the deficit in confidence was real, and he set out to repair it. Two wins over Panama and Ghana followed, and Croatia advanced from the group with six points after a start that had left it bottom of the table.
Dalić said the team is getting stronger as the tournament goes on, and that Saturday's win was its best performance yet — but he repeatedly returned to a refrain: the important part of the World Cup begins now.
Praise for the goalscorers
The coach reserved warm words for the two players who beat Ghana. Petar Sučić, he said, is an example of a young player who rose quickly — from Dinamo Zagreb to Inter Milan, where he won a league title, to the national team — on the strength of his determination and quality, and he contributed on the defensive side before scoring. Nikola Vlašić, who has weathered ups and downs in his career, arrived at camp healthy and sharp after a strong season at Torino, Dalić said, and finished the winner with the shooting ability he had shown in training. The coach noted he had urged his players to shoot, given a wet pitch.
A question of preparation
Asked by The Brief whether his coaching and preparation change once a tournament reaches the knockout stage, Dalić suggested they largely do not. The team will analyze Portugal thoroughly, he said, has roughly three days to prepare — enough, in his view — and already has a clear idea of its approach that it does not intend to alter much. A Croatian scout watched Portugal's group finale in Miami, he added, and the squad appears healthy heading into the week.
He did not lack respect for the opponent. Portugal is among the favorites to win the tournament, Dalić said, with players at top European clubs and, in Cristiano Ronaldo, a figure he likened to Croatia's own Luka Modrić. But he said his team would not approach the match with fear.
A countdown for Alexandria
For the city that has hosted Croatia since early June, Sunday's press conference marked the start of a goodbye. On Tuesday, Croatia departs for Toronto and does not plan to return to Alexandria.
Croatia faces Portugal at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 2, in Toronto. Win or lose, the team's monthlong residency in Alexandria — a stay that turned a Northern Virginia city into a temporary home for one of the world's best soccer teams — ends this week.
