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Slaven Bilic Like his Players Happy

June 12th, 2008 | By: Laurie | 6 Comments »

Anybody think the Croatian players today looked calm on the field? Relaxed? Maybe even…happy?

They have coach Slaven Bilic to thank. Because in addition to being a smoking rock star with a diamond earring, Bilic has a liberal policy on “visits” by the players’ wives and girlfriends.

Croatia coach Slaven Bilic has banned visits to his Euro 2008 camp by friends and acquaintances but he is happy to let his players enjoy an afternoon with their wives and girlfriends … as long as they announce their visits in advance and don’t disrupt the morning and evening training sessions.

(Anybody else amused by the “don’t disrupt the morning and evening training sessions”?)

This has been a hot topic among coaches over the years — whether or not to allow conjugal visits. Good for the team, or bad?

In World Cup 2006, Brazil, Italy, the US and Germany said yes. Costa Rica, Ecuador and Saudi Arabia said no.

And Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin said yes, but only if his players reached the semis. (They went out in the quarter-finals against Italy. And I know there’s an interesting study in psychology there somewhere.)

Italy, a “yes” team, won. And Bilic is apparently following their example.

This seems to have been an effective strategy for him, as Croatia demolished a favored but sluggish German side today, 2-1.

This provides a lesson for other teams. Friends and acquaintances and general fans? No. Wives and girlfriends? Yes.

Of course, there’s no word on how long a relationship has to have been going on for someone to qualify as an official “girlfriend.”

Our guess? Two hours. Because anything less is just…cheap.

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Comments

By goran071 | June 12th, 2008 at 5:01 pm

THat is the way how to coach.
Get team together and let them play.I am so proud of our new coach because he is only about game not about politics like some of them before.
Slavene bilicu najbolji si za sada.

hrvatska je ponosna imajuci tebe za trenera.

pozdrav from ontario CANADA.

ps. I was thinking the best players used to be ivica surjak ,jurica jerkovic,buljan,zungul,braca vujovic,sliskovic,gudelj, …but now we have new stars olic,srna,braca kovac,and stipe pletikosa..

go go cro go go cro go croatiaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!

By goran071 | June 12th, 2008 at 5:09 pm

one comment get kranjcar out from team
he is not ready yet, young but no final touch.He can play but not with this team can not handle pressure,he missing 100% chance.that is not ok.he will be ready for next euro 2012.

sorry i have to be objective.

the rest of players are 110 % ok and on the right positions.

comment on yellow cards : sorry guys but you have deserve all of it .
sudija will not tolerate that on euro 2008.be smart do not get again for something like that.

I love you croatiaaaaaa. go go go go go ……no fear………

By goran071 | June 12th, 2008 at 5:19 pm

one more thing

let poland score one goal to go in the next round and germany and austrija will not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ha ha ha ha ha h croatia play smart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By goran071 | June 12th, 2008 at 5:19 pm

thank you

hvala lijepo

By terminator | June 12th, 2008 at 8:19 pm

To be honest… well this isn’t the triathlon. in the euro’s, the thing everyone lacks is composure, particularly teams like russia & switzerland.. simply too nervous.

as basic human psychology goes, stress & performance appears as an upside-down ‘U’ on a graph. Stress initially elevates a persons performance, but when it reaches a certain point of being too much, it starts to work negatively.

So a night with your lover might bring a worried player back down to earth. even in combat sports.. its not so much about pure adrenaline anymore… these days with so many distractions from the media, etc. its more about having a cool head

Posted from United States