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ALEXANDRIA, Va. - For most of the Croatian national team, the 2026 World Cup is being played in a faraway country. For Marco Pašalić, it is being played at home.
The winger — who has spent the past two seasons starring for Orlando City in Major League Soccer — was one of two players Croatia made available at its Alexandria base camp Saturday, and his answer to the local outlet in the room captured something none of his teammates could quite say the same way.
"I feel right at home here in the United States," Pašalić said, asked by The Alexandria Brief whether playing his club football in America changes anything about competing at a World Cup hosted here. He said he had adapted quickly to life in the States since joining Orlando, that the conditions that might unsettle a newcomer had not troubled him, and that he was glad the U.S. is hosting the tournament — a development he believes has drawn bigger names to MLS and raised the league's profile.
Pašalić is one of only two MLS-based players on Croatia's 26-man roster, alongside FC Dallas striker Petar Musa. That makes him a rare figure in this squad — and a familiar one to American soccer fans, including the many in soccer-loving Alexandria who have begun adopting Croatia as their team for the tournament.
A man who knows American weather
Pašalić's time in MLS has also made him the squad's resident expert on a subject that has loomed over Croatia's preparations here: the heat, and the storms that can interrupt it.
Extreme heat and sudden weather have been a recurring theme of this World Cup, and Pašalić has lived the American version of it. He recalled a match in Orlando scheduled for 7:30 p.m. that was suspended for roughly three and a half hours; the team did not begin playing until 11 p.m. and did not get home until around 4 a.m. — a strain on recovery and rhythm, he noted. (Orlando City had a home match against Sporting Kansas City delayed by inclement weather last season.) But if it happens at the World Cup, he said, he is confident it will be well organized.
The weather has been no small thing in Alexandria, where temperatures climbed into the 90s during the team's stay. Croatia has trained through it at Episcopal High School, the West End campus serving as its home for the group stage.
Eyes on England — and on Harry Kane
Saturday's session, like the others this week, eventually turned to England, the world-class side Croatia faces Wednesday in its tournament opener. The other player on the podium, Fiorentina defender Marin Pongračić, addressed the challenge of containing one of the game's most dangerous attacks.
Asked about England captain Harry Kane, Pongračić did not hesitate to call him the best forward in the world, pointing to his season at Bayern Munich and noting that Kane does far more than score — he builds play, too. But England is not one man, Pongračić cautioned, rattling off the threats around Kane and stressing that Croatia must defend as a collective, staying aggressive and disciplined.
Pongračić, a physical centre-back who anchors Fiorentina's defense, framed the team's defensive identity broadly: it starts with the forwards, he said, and runs through the whole side. Any team that wants to compete, he added, has to begin with a good defense — and he described the competition for places in Croatia's back line as a healthy, quality-pushing thing rather than a worry.
Veterans preaching calm
Even with two deep World Cup runs behind them, the players pushed back gently on the idea of pressure. Asked whether Croatia's recent success — finalists in 2018, semifinalists in 2022 — is a burden or a boost, Pongračić said the team should not weigh itself down with expectation. People expect a lot because the team has delivered, he acknowledged, and Croatia wants to repeat it — but the approach, he said, is to stay humble, focus on each game step by step, and let results follow.
On the logistics of a tournament spread across a continent, Pongračić was unbothered. The game itself is a bigger challenge than the travel, he said, noting the team had eight days to acclimate in Alexandria and will fly to Dallas two days before facing England. The tighter turnaround, he suggested, will come between the second and third group games — but in general, he does not see travel as a major obstacle in the group stage.
A son of exiles, back in form
Pašalić's road to this World Cup has been anything but ordinary. Born and raised in Karlsruhe, Germany, to parents who emigrated as refugees during the wars that broke apart the former Yugoslavia, he came up through German academy football before a move to Croatia's HNK Rijeka in 2023 reconnected him with his family's homeland — and revived a career that had stalled in Germany's lower and reserve ranks.
On Saturday, he credited both of his coaches — at Orlando, for giving him the chance to learn a new position and become a better player, and with Croatia, for the opportunity to be at the World Cup at all. He sets no personal expectations, he said; it is the coach's job to decide who plays, and his own to work as hard as he can.
For now, that work continues in Alexandria. Croatia trains at Episcopal before traveling to Texas for Wednesday's opener against England, followed by Panama on June 23 in Toronto and Ghana on June 27 in Philadelphia. The team will return to its Alexandria base after each match — though for one member of the squad, the whole country already feels like one.
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