Are you Croatian, a football (er, soccer) fan, and live in the United States? This might be your golden opportunity to catch the Croatian national football team.
While the Croatian Football Federation has yet to announce the news, we have the President of the Peru Football Federation, Edwin Oviedo, to thank for revealing that the Peru national team would play against Croatia in a friendly match scheduled for March 23, 2018, in Miami, Florida. The news was announced on Monday, reports Goal.hr on December 18, 2017. The Peru national team are scheduled to play against Iceland four days later in New York.
Until now, Croatia has never played a match against Peru - a team that will play in the World Cup for the first time since 1982.
"I learned that we would play against Croatia and Iceland. Croatia is a great team, and it will help a lot to get used to the European style of play,” said Jose Carvallo, the goalkeeper of Peru, at the presentation of their new kits.
"I am calm, I am enjoying the holidays, but I am also training and looking forward to being in good shape. I hope to have a good season and to be on the list of 23 players who will go to the World Cup," added 31-year-old Carvallo who has five appearances for the South American team.
The Croatia national football team's debut in the United States was just this year, in May 2017. The team made of mostly Croatian First League players and no superstars defeated Mexico 1:2 at the Los Angeles Coliseum in California. You can read more about the match here.
Now, with the 1.2 million Croats living in the United States, we’re sure at least a couple thousand will make the trip to Miami in the spring to cheer on Croatia's beloved “Vatreni” stateside. And while there might be more Croatian American’s located in the Mid-West (over 100,000), California (45,537), and New York (26,607), did you know that the state of Florida has a Croatian population of just over 16,000? And, let’s not forget about the NBA’s “Super Mario” Mario Hezonja of Dubrovnik who plays for the Orlando Magic who will surely be there to represent ( will you, Mario?).
Tickets and more information should on the way soon, so be sure to watch this space if this is a Croatia national team event you don’t want to miss.
Peru is in Group C with France, Australia and Denmark, and is a potential opponent of Croatia and Iceland already in the round of 16 of the World Cup. Croatia and Iceland are in Group D of the World Cup with Argentina and Nigeria, which crosses over with Group C.
