- ‘We’re going to go and eff Croatia,’ Herdman had said
- Paper prompts Englishman to try and defuse tensions
Canada had just lost the first men’s World Cup match they had played in 36 years, outplaying Belgium for much of a 1-0 defeat, and an emotional John Herdman revealed in the on-field interview what he had just told his players during a post-game huddle. “I told them they belong here. And we’re going to go and eff Croatia,” the coach said with a smile, attempting to avoid a televised profanity. “That’s as simple as it gets.”
His words reverberated all the way to Zagreb as Sunday’s Croatia-Canada game approaches. Croatia’s 24 Sata (24 Hours) tabloid ran a full-page photo of a naked Herdman with Maple Leaf flags over his mouth and private parts and a headline that translated to: “You have the mouth, but do you have the balls as well?”
