Croatia is a coastline with a country attached to it. Population 3.8 million, fewer people than the city of Los Angeles — and yet here they are again, qualifying out of a manageable UEFA group, walking into their seventh World Cup with the same coach (Zlatko Dalić, in charge since 2017) and the same midfielder (Luka Modrić, who has been Croatia's captain for so long that the players he now leads grew up watching him).
The headline is Modrić. He is 40 years old. He left Real Madrid last summer for AC Milan because he wanted to play for a club that needed him in the spring. He has said this is his last World Cup. He plays the position — central midfielder — that you cannot fake at his age, and he is somehow still doing it. If you watch one player in the group stage out of pure historical curiosity, make it him.
The rest of the team is the post-Modrić Croatia in waiting. Gvardiol is a generational center-back. Kovačić is the heir at No. 10. The wingers — Pašalić, Kramarić — are veterans now, and a new generation around Petar Sučić is ready. The math is simple: Croatia has medaled at three of the last seven World Cups. Doing it again would be one of the great running jokes in international soccer. They are absolutely capable of it. They are also one bad knee away from going home in the group.
Week 1 Update: A two-goal loss to England in the opener — and Modrić's farewell tour got off to the kind of start that makes a country hold its breath. Croatia were second-best from the first whistle, the defense that's carried them through three medal runs looked old, and zero points from one match means everything rides on the remaining two games. The bad-knee scenario just got uncomfortably close to reality. Dalić needs answers, and he needs them fast.
Matchday 2 Update: Croatia 1, Panama 0 — and Modrić's farewell isn't over yet. Ante Budimir came on at halftime and scored the winner, Livaković made a spectacular save in the 23rd minute, and Croatia grind their way to three points. Still alive after the 4-2 opening loss to England, they'll need results to go their way on MD3 — but this is a team that has medaled at three of the last seven World Cups for a reason. They don't quit.
Matchday 3 Update: Croatia 2-1 Ghana — Sučić opened at 31', Luckassen equalized at 73' and had the stadium briefly quiet, then Vlašić headed home a Modrić corner in the 83rd to send the Vatreni through. The 40-year-old didn't score. He didn't need to. He sent in the cross, and let his teammates do what he spent his career teaching them to do. Croatia advance as Group L runners-up to face Portugal in Toronto. The kid who learned soccer in a parking lot in wartime Zadar is still here, still setting things up.
Round of 32 (July 2): Portugal 2-1 Croatia — and Modrić's last World Cup match ended the way his career has: fighting until the very last moment, not quite enough. Ivan Perišić — himself returning from a career-threatening ACL — gave Croatia the lead at 53' with a run-and-finish that reminded everyone why he's still here. Then Ronaldo's penalty in the 68th minute tied it. Then Gonçalo Ramos glanced a Leão cross home in added time. Croatia thought they'd equalized in the dying seconds — Pasalić was on the end of it — but VAR ruled Matanović had nudged it first from offside, and it was gone. The kid from the hotel parking lot in Zadar made his final walk off a World Cup pitch. The farewell is written.
