Triple Double

By: Mario | June 5th, 2009

Wow, what a season. I’ve sort of opened the tin with this post right here, so I guess it’s time to spill the beans all the way out. So we went into the match with Hajduk Split, the so called “Eternal derby” (or “Vjecni derbi” to be true to our roots) with a slim 1 point lead, and with our rivals riding high on waves of self confidence, things looked rather grim from our point of view, to say the least. As mentioned earlier, we had reinstalled Vlak at the helm, and while the atmosphere around the club did pick up a little, the team still looked unimpressive and lacking in determination. We lost the derby 2:0 after taking more of a physical beating, rather then a footballing one.

The fact of the matter is while there were quite a few controversial calls (and most of these went against the visiting side, us), you could say we failed to response to force – with force. And for that we were punished, and consequentially got dethroned after no less then 3 and a half years of supremacy. But what has taken us 3 and a 1/2 years, our dear southern rivals managed to pull it of in just a month or two period, as they, almost literally, imploded. To cut the long story short, after the derby loss everyone predicted that the title race will eventually be prolonged and eventually Hajduk would host Dinamo in a title decider on the final week of the season. To our delight, that didn’t happen. They bottled it, we didn’t. Simple as that. And perhaps the biggest reason for us not “bottling it” lies in yet another controversial call by the Mamic brothers.

I mentioned earlier that Vlak was gonna be with us for only a short while, or to be more precise, on the 5th or March, after only a handful of matches, The Brothers decided to take a risk by bringing in a young but already promising coach, a former Dinamo and Croatian NT player Kruno Jurcic.

He too had a rough start, as despite picking up crucial points, the team looked tired and completely lacking in ideas going forward. But, somehow, somewhere, something clicked (lets call it a slight adjustment in formation) and Dinamo, after coming from behind to beat Cibalia 4:3 (down 2:0 with 15 minutes to go), showed they had the mentality to give this final sprint a real go. Players were confident, the atmosphere around the club finally picked up, and as soon as these 2 things had collided, points started pouring in Championship style. Such was our form that we had secured the title in early May, thus effectively changing the outlook of the so called “title decider” into a casual Sunday evening show, devoid of tension and passion the derby usually comes with.

Parallel with the championship race, the cup trophy was also up for grabs, as both Dinamo and Hajduk saw off their opponents with expected ease (Slaven Belupo might object this though). And riding high with self confidence after just nicking the 11th championship title, Dinamo players came out stronger in the first leg, defeating their fierce rivals with a convincing 3:0 victory. But, as they say, it’s not over till the fat lady sings, and it turns out this particular lady had no intention of displaying her lovely voice anytime soon.

As expected, Dinamo players came into the return leg with obvious attention to try and hold the hosts at 0:0 as long as possible, instead of coming out strong and scoring a goal that would kill the game off early on. And what we asked for, we definitely got, as despite the game being scoreless at half time, the hosts nicked a goal at the best possible time for them, adding another merely a minute later.

And so, having only now pressed the large red button indicating “panic”, Kruno Jurcic failed to mobilize Dinamo’s troops which were in, I’m guessing in 9 out 10 times, always gonna concede that 3d and overall equalizing goal. Concede we did, and the tie which looked pretty much over after the first 90 minutes, was now back at the beginning after the second 90 were up. Penalties were to decide. And while the home crowd was buzzing with excitement, and our players still unaware of the advantage they let had let slip, we somehow managed to find that extra cool and win the lottery that the penalty shootout really is.

Cruel on the hosts, poor on our behalf, but sweet as it gets in the end. The fat lady finally let loose her voice. And a sweet melody it was for Dinamo, as it signaled we could now raise our 3rd Croatian Cup in a row (10th overall), making it a third season in a row we had won the Double. Triple Double!