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Croatian national football team manager Zlatko Kranjcar
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Croatian national football team manager Zlatko Kranjcar touched a sensitive spot in Japan when he told a sports magazine there Koreans are better at football. "I really don¡¯t want to upset the people of Japan, who I have great affection for, but it is true that the Koreans¡¯ skills are greater than the Japanese," the Sports Nippon quoted Kranjcar as saying on Wednesday. It headlined the interview "Japan Below Korea."
Croatia, one of Eastern Europe's strongest teams, has been placed along with Australia, Brazil and Japan in Group H. But first, the former Yugoslav republic is to face Korea in the Carlsberg Cup on Jan. 29 in Hong Kong, and to warm up for the challenge it settled on what it seems to view as an easy match against Japan. Kranjcar has made it clear that Japan barely figures on his sporting map, saying when the final World Cup group draw was announced, ¡°We¡¯ll triumph over teams at the level of Japan and Australia.¡±
Croatia¡¯s team captain Niko Kovac joined in the taunts. ¡°For us, the match against Japan will be just us scoring goals,¡± he said. Meanwhile, Iran manager Branko Ivankovic, also a Croatian who has experienced matches against Japan in Asian preliminaries, pledged to let his countrymen know how to conquer Japan. He is expected to give a video of his team¡¯s match against the island country to Kranjcar. As psychological warfare goes, the confrontation between the two teams is already well advanced.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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