MY WORLD CUP QUEST: CROAT AT LARGE, ICELAND AT NOTHING

25/32 WORLD CUP TEAMS COMPLETED

ENTERING THE FINAL QUARTER LONG BEFORE THE QUARTER FINAL

I started this challenge without knowing where it would take me. I had no idea if I could complete it or if it was even possible. But here I was on day 12 of the World Cup with 24 teams in the bag. I had little or no time to make plans more than a day ahead and last minute cancellations were happening quite often. Many of the countries were playing their last game of the World Cup this week. If I missed at team at this juncture then the jig would be up and I'd fall short of the 32 teams.

EASY DOES IT

But day 12 was not one of those stressful days. I had lined up a Croatian fan over the internet to watch the game with. Croatia had already qualified so this was just helping me get another team off my list at my leisure. I had already watched a game with the other 7 countries playing on day 12. As it turned out Croatia would have plenty more football to play at this World Cup.

Croat was a pleasure to watch the game with. He agreed to meet this potential internet weirdo (me) late at night to watch the game even though he had an early morning flight to catch. Croat was not some bandwagon-hopper as we talked Croatian football as far back as I could stretch. I didn't tell him how much I hate Davor Suker for scoring a goal six minutes into injury time against Ireland in 1999. There's a time and a place. (It cost us a place at Euro 2000. It still hurts.)