Canada's Herdman admits Croatia comments were 'too honest'
Published
Canada head coach John Herdman admitted to TSN’s James Duthie Saturday that his “eff Croatia” comment might have been a little too honest.
A day before Canada gets set to take on Croatia in a crucial Group F showdown at the FIFA World Cup, Herdman made light of a Croatian newspaper’s reaction to his comment and added he would learn from a comment he says was made in an emotional moment.
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“Look, I think those moments, you know after that game, it was an emotional moment I had in the flash interview. I think it’s a learning moment. I was a little bit too honest to the question and, yeah, you get those moments in your career. My first World Cup. Yeah, I’ll learn from that one and just keep moving forward,” Herdman said with a smile.
“But I think, hey, the beauty is for our boys, we’ve kept it light and bright. We’re having a good laugh behind the scenes. Yeah. Just excited at this opportunity,” he added.
Herdman made the comment following Canada’s narrow 1-0 loss to Belgium in their World Cup opener on Wednesday.
"I told them they belong here and we're going to go and eff Croatia. That's as simple as it gets," he said.
Herdman later said the comment was meant to represent Canada's mindset going forward and was not intended in a disrespectful way toward Croatia.
Croatian head coach Zlatko Dalic didn’t appear to see Herdman’s comments the same way.
"The Croatian team deserves respect from everyone … We respect everyone, equally so," he said through an interpreter. "We expect our opposing teams to respect us. We are worthy of their respect. The Canadians must also have respect for us. This way of putting words together is not a sign of respect. We are the [2018 World Cup runners-up], not Brazil, Spain or other countries."
"I shall not focus or comment on any other people's comments," he added. "We will be prepared (Sunday), we will be fit and we will demonstrate respect for Canada … and for everyone else. We expect respect just as we exercise this view"
"I second the head coach and I cannot wait for the match to begin,” Croatian forward Ivan Perisic said.
Canada must secure at least a draw to have a hope of advancing to the knockout round as they’re the only team in Group F without a point thus far. Croatia drew 0-0 with Morocco in their opening match earlier this week.