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ALEXANDRIA, Va. - It was a loud weekend around the Croatian national team's Alexandria hotel — and that, it turns out, is no problem for men who grew up under flight paths.
Two days before Croatia opens its World Cup against England, the team held a press conference Monday morning at Episcopal High School, where the Brief asked strikers Ante Budimir and midfielder Nikola Moro a distinctly local question: with fireworks and a military flyover lighting up the skies near their hotel late into the weekend, had any of it reached them — or are they too locked into a pre-match routine to notice?
Their answer, in short: they hardly noticed, and they sleep fine.
Budimir explained that he grew up in Velika Gorica, the town beside Zagreb's main airport, and is long accustomed to the noise of aircraft. Moro said he has had no trouble sleeping in Alexandria either, adding that the players are used to military planes back home, too. For a squad chasing a third straight deep World Cup run, a few late-night booms on and across the river barely registered.
A genuinely loud weekend
The players weren't imagining the commotion. The team's stay coincided with back-to-back nights of fireworks in the region.
On Saturday, fireworks lit the Alexandria waterfront as part of Sails on the Potomac. On Sunday, the bigger show came from across the river: an AlertDC notice warned residents of a fireworks display near the National Mall at approximately 11:30 p.m., cautioning of "loud noises, flashing lights." The late-night fireworks accompanied UFC Freedom 250, the mixed martial arts event staged on the South Lawn of the White House as part of the nation's 250th-anniversary celebrations. A military flyover passed over the area around the same hour.
For Alexandria residents, the weekend was a reminder of the team's curious circumstance: a World Cup side preparing in the relative quiet of a campus, a short drive from one of the loudest weekends the capital region has seen in a while.
Focused on England
If the festivities didn't rattle them, neither, they insisted, does the moment. Budimir — the 34-year-old Osasuna striker enjoying one of the best seasons of his career — said the best way for a forward to help the team is to score, but that he would gladly "sign right now" to repeat Croatia's third-place finish from Qatar, regardless of who finds the net.
Moro, the Bologna midfielder, called playing in a World Cup a childhood dream, and said part of his reason for leaving Russia for Italy was to be closer to the national team. Neither would be drawn into bold predictions two days out — just quiet confidence, and, evidently, a good night's sleep.
Croatia trains in Alexandria this morning before traveling to Texas later today for Wednesday's opener against England, then returns to its Alexandria base on Wednesday night to continue training ahead of group matches against Panama on June 23 in Toronto and Ghana on June 27 in Philadelphia.
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Publisher: Ryan Belmore, an Alexandria resident and journalist. Send feedback, questions, story ideas, and news tips to ryan@alexandriabrief.com.
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