In SP, Croatians explode with classification over Brazil

About sixty people gathered at the Sociedade Amigos da Dalmácia, Sada, in São Paulo, to watch the match between Brazil and Croatia, this Friday (9). Even telling the report that they were divided, the majority surrendered to Croatian glory in the clash against the Brazilian attack, exploding at the end of the penalties.

In the crowd, red and yellow mantles were mixed. The atmosphere was friendly: many, even wearing plaid, supported both teams.

Aline Bischoff, 26, a student and descendant, was one of them: she would celebrate the goal regardless of who scored, but she saw Brazil as the favorite. Marisa Cruz, 34, who accompanied her, has no roots in the country, but fell in love with its culture and ended up wearing the Croatian shirt even in the face of the decision against Brazil. Still, she said she was torn among the fans.

Housewife Margarida Franulovich, 78, was rooting for both, but leaning towards the Croatians. She was born in Brazil, the daughter of immigrants, but lived for ten years on the Adriatic coast and married another Croatian. She likes Brazil a lot, but criticized the pride of the canarinho crowd.

“The Brazilians are chubby. They used to sing of victory before, they said it would be easy, but look at that!”

“Wow, you’ve already been champions five times! Croatia tries so hard, it almost arrives, but it never won! Croatia deserves it”, added Margarida.

In danger plays, she turned her back and avoided looking at the screen. But there were not many danger moves during the game, and optimism grew among chess fans as time passed. Businessman Gabriel Farac, 28, was already confident even before the start: he bet on a goalless draw and celebrated his success after the first ninety minutes.

Actor Lucas Zuber, 28, was in it. Even though he was born in Brazil, he only supported Croatia, and he was already proud of the tie achieved until the second half.

The mystique started in the previous edition of the Cup, in Russia, was maintained: the team reached the final in 2018, taking all the knockout matches at least until extra time. Against the Danes and Russians, in the round of 16 and quarterfinals, he won on penalties. They also overthrew England in the semifinal, with a goal in extra time, dispensing with penalties.

“It’s their strategy!” shouted census agent Renato Pinheiro, 40. According to him, even tired, the Croatians were testing the physique of the Brazilian team to take the game to penalties, something confirmed by the goalkeeper after the match. Dressed in a Brazilian shirt, he sang songs from the crowd and had nothing to do with Croatians, if not for his friendship with journalist Boris Franulovich, 36.

Boris was one of the confident ones, but he felt the blow when Neymar scored the first goal, in stoppage time in the first half of extra time. Even so, he said he was happy with his team’s struggle to hold back the Brazilian attack.

Croatia has 3.8 million inhabitants. For comparison purposes, the east zone of São Paulo has 3.9 million. Brazilians, in turn, are 215 million, according to projections by the IBGE.

“We are like a neighborhood in a Brazilian city,” said Zlatko Dalic, 56, the team’s coach.

Despite having a small population and being a young country, declared independent from the former Yugoslavia in 1991, Croatia took off good results in World Cups: in its first, in 1998, it won third place. Twenty years later, in the last edition, he hit the post and was runner-up.

And the mystique did not fail this time: at the end of the second period of extra time, Petković scored with a deflected kick on Marquinhos’ leg, tying 1-1 and taking the match to penalties. By 4 to 2, the discreet —except for the chess— East European country knocked out Brazil, one of the favorites for the title.

The Croatian center in Mooca erupted in celebration. Even if divided, the fans’ passion for Croatian wrestling was visible. Between charges and classification, the hall shouted the name of the country in its native language: “Hrvatska!”.

Margarida recalled that Modrić, the star of the national team, had a difficult life.

“I feel sorry for him, he lived through the war, went through a lot of pain. He really deserves to win, he’s a good person”. The player lost his grandfather during the conflict, when the country was fighting for its independence, in the 90s.

He even compared the victory over Brazil to the country’s independence.

“Even Brazilians like him”, recalled the housewife, referring to Modrić’s relationship with Casemiro, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo, colleagues at Real Madrid.

The name of the Croatian star was stamped on the plaid shirt of Klaudio Tarantino, 69, born in Croatia. The physics professor came to Brazil when he was still small, at the age of seven, by ship —according to him, the journey was tortuous.

Stories similar to yours were common in the salon — most Croats came to Brazil in search of better living conditions, in the face of the consecutive conflicts that devastated the region in the 20th century: the First and Second War, in addition to the War of Independence.

According to Katia Gavranich, 56, cultural producer and president of Sada, many of these immigrants came to Brazil on the promises of the coffee barons, and ended up working on plantations in the interior of São Paulo. Afterwards, they migrated to São Paulo in search of work in the factories, and settled in industrial neighborhoods, such as Mooca, where the community is located.

There, they reconstituted the villages they had to leave behind in the diaspora.

Founded in the 1950s, the Friends of Dalmatia Society is symbolic in this sense. It was built by immigrants with their own hands. Today, it is maintained with membership fees, events held and incentives from the Croatian government. It takes the name of one of the main regions of the country.

Its lounge awaits Argentina, opponents in the clash on Tuesday (13), in the semifinals of the 2022 World Cup.