After the short Easter break, Group B kicks off as Austria look to emulate their co-hosts Switzerland and notch up an early victory. In their way stand Croatia. Listen to the MP3s below then click on the “more” for managerial comment, analysis, the poll, match reports and previews and, erm, young communist girls in tiny shorts.
AUSTRIA: Stereotyp & Al Hace – “Blaze ‘n’ Cook (Kruder’s Jiggy Remix)”
The manager says: The manager has decided to let his team do their talking on the pitch on this occasion.
Our analyst says: This looks like a defensive formation from the Austrians – they know the way the Croatians play and they’re looking to frustrate them with a tight back four and some intricate midfield play. Very much a possession game, this, and the question has to be whether their striker has the pace needed to score on the counter.
CROATIA: Grupi Zeris – “Da, Da Tako Je”
(IMPORTANT NOTE: It turns out that this is in fact a SERBIAN record, though we’re satisfied the Croatian management team had no intent to mislead. However you may wish to consider this as a voting factor.)
The manager says: “Following extensive scouting by both the Director of Bosh and First
Team Coach, we’ve uncovered this litle gem “Da, da tako je” by early 80s girl group “Grupa Žeris” (pictured). Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find out any more about them, but I know what I like and it’s breathy vocals over a stompy abba-esque track with plenty of handclaps, oh and polyester shorts, it’s just like The Big Match Revisited…”
Our analyst says: Traditional pop tactics haven’t had a good showing at this tournament so far but this Croatian side know the virtues of keeping it simple and direct. They’ve got a very solid back line and a striker who knows where the goal is, and that might just be all they need.
HOW TO VOTE: Listen to the tracks and tick the one you like best. The poll closes on Monday 31st at 10 AM.
Austria vs Croatia: Which of these tracks do you prefer? [ballot]
- Croatia: Grupa Zeris 57%
- Austria: Stereotyp & Al Hace 43%
Total Voters: 23
Poll closes: 31 Mar 2008 @ 10:00
Loading ...COMING NEXT: Tomorrow’s game is a historic grudge match – Germany v Poland. Expect fireworks. The German camp is reportedly highly confident and new manager The Lex has been putting his boys through some extremely intensive fitness training, facing down a nervous press who questioned the decision to hire the former USA coach after his failure at the Pop World Cup. Poland meanwhile are employing former Ecuador coach William Bloody Swygart, whose international scouting network has few rivals: can he mastermind a rare victory for Poland over their neighbours and arch-enemies?
MATCH REPORT: Switzerland 3 Czech Republic 1
Urged on by a passionate home crowd the Swiss raced to an early two-goal lead against a Czech side who looked unprepared for their direct tactics. The Czechs fought their way back into the game after half time but under constant pressure from the physical Swiss they wilted, and were lucky not to concede more than three. A big boost for Switzerland, who will have to guard against complacency in their second game against Turkey. The Czechs’ next opponents are Portugal – a re-run of the 2006 Pop World Cup Final which is suddenly a must-win game for the shaken world champions.
No contest whatsoever here I’m afraid. The Austrian track is my favourite entry so far by some distance. The Croats look a bit lightweight up against Austria’s muscular, physical midfield, and although Croatia try a range of cute little flicks and short passes, none of them really come off.
Also, no chance against anything that has the gall to call itself JIGGY REMIX.
Excellent by both sides. I love the Austrians’ deadpan Caribbean sexiness, which’s got a nice dark threat, aided by a David Bowie type who periodically tells us, in a voice of deadpan horror, to raise our foot – to prevent the black burning embers from scorching our feet, no doubt.
The Croations, meanwhile, sing a terrifically pretty cowboy melody and, by keeping its merriness to a whisper, and throwing in little flecks of eeriness, avoid preciousness. Very nice, so the match comes to Austrian pressure vs. Croation ease.
Damn, don’t know how I’ll vote, since I like whichever one I’m listening to.
By the way, about the two tracks so far that are from 2007 (“Ask Sakizi” and “Blaze N’ Cook”): did either hit fairly late in the year (so that I could get away with putting them onto my Pazz & Jop list)?
The Turkish management regrets to inform that Ask Sakizi (aka ‘Love Gum’) was an early 2007 release (from a 2006 album).
Missing statement from the coach:
“Always there is pressure on a host nation but I urge our opponents to prepare for the pressure we play with on pitch. We don’t have the strength in depth of the bigger nations but we have some surprises up our short sleeves for sure. My players possess an awareness of the modern game that some may underestimate – the technique is most definitely up there with the will to progress to the later stages.”
Vienna-born Stereotyp’s been around for a while and tho a lot of his dancehall and ragga based stuff is derivative there are a few standout tracks in his repertoire. In addition to this collab with Al HacA (A not E on the end – my bad) which immediately reminded me of Seeed I was particularly taken with ‘Cree’ on his myspace plus ‘Ladies Do’, from 2006’s ‘Keepin Me’ LP which sounds like Lauryn Hill remixed by Terranova. Wunderbar!
koganbot, the ‘Blaze N’ Cook’ remix is actually from 2005: http://www.discogs.com/release/410121
sorry if I mis-tagged
so stevem did you actually manage to mis-tag the act’s name AND the title of the song (discogs says it’s PK’s Jiggy Remix) AND the year of release? in a match as tightly fought as this the slightest slip-up could be fatal.
though that said I reserve some suspicions about this so-called “Grupa Žeris”, who don’t even seem to have a presence on last.fm, with or without diacritical mark!
which is to say, I don’t know which I’ll vote for yet: I played AUT first and thought they had it sewn up, loving the groove and the vocals and the fact that it somehow simultaneously has both a street party vibe AND a club-at-4am vibe. impressive.
and then I played CRO! and it’s amazingly irresistible! a style which has been known to turn me off but they deploy their greatest strength to SUPERB effect – those lovely lovely vocals are ridiculously gorgeous.
I played them both again, and still can’t make up my mind. they will both go to the ipod and a decision will be made accordingly, later.
Oh poo, my Top 80 for 2008 only has ten songs on it, five of which (“Early Winter,” “Outta My Head,” “Shawty Get Loose,” “Gunpowder and Lead”) were in my last year’s Top 80 but are all singles making impact this year (well, “Outta My Head” never did make impact, despite being way better than anything on Timbo’s own album), and one of which (“Be Mine!”) was in my 2005’s Top 80 (and as soon as those five drop out of my Top 10 they’ll be gone from my list, though I think “Early Winter” could hold on)(and even though I don’t think “Shawty Get Loose” is quite good enough for the final ballot, I like it more than “Lip Gloss” AND it just jumped from 92 to 19 on the Hot 100!).
I finally voted for the Austrians, but if Croatia keeps up the good play I’ll think kindly of their squad next time they face a tiebreaker.
And as long as I’m being compulsive-neurotic about it, is it “Blaze ‘N’ Cook” or “Blaze N’ Cook”?
Or “Blaze ‘N Cook”?!?
I usually go with ‘n – two apostrophes just seems like needless complication.
No contest – from the lovely vocals to the organ to the handclaps, the Croatians are playing my kind of game. I count a goal for each handclap, so the poor Austrians (solid, but clearly lacking in flair) are getting hammered here.
i’m from Croatia and i have never heard of this Grupa Zeris! quick googling reveals they were a one-minor-hit-wonder. also, it reveals they’re not from Croatia – they’re actually Serbian :\
FIPA’s disciplinary committee is digesting this important new information. However FIPA’s disciplinary committee is quite a slow-moving organisation and may take several months – in the meantime voters must search their consciences and ask if this might tip the balance of their voting…
Just thought – given the (probable) date of this record’s release, would this not count as a Yugoslavian entry? Not that either the Serbs or the Croats would be happy with that. Argh! Balkan pop politics is a minefield!
not as messy a minefield as one would expect, actually! while “Da, da, tako je” was recorded in Yugoslavia, Serbians (and everyone else in former Yugoslavia) would consider it to be Serbian – since the girls are from Serbia, they sing in Serbian (which is not radically different from Croatian language, but there are still some u+k differences), the song was written and arranged by a Serbian dude, and so on… so basically any Yugo-era song by a Croatian artist is fair game.
a question for the FIPA bods: are the Croatian managers allowed to have any more side-help with scouting for talent? (if the answer is yes and the Croatian management is interested in further tactical tips, they can drop me a mail at djevojke@yahoo.com)
SCANDAL!
The Croatian Pop Association would like to humbly apologise to FIPA, the other competing nations and to the worldwide Euro Pop Cup audience. It was an honest mistake, based on a lack of solid information on the website Grupa Zeris were found (which has a .hr suffix and many croatian acts on it). I can only ask that those voting think of Tony Cascarino before judging us too harshly (and also, look at that pic again, bless them, how could we not introduce you all to it).
…and we would’ve gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for you meddling croat kidsThe CPA is delighted to announce that they will be employing Mind Taker in an advisory capacity for the remainder of the competition, which they hope will be a long time.If you haven’t voted in this you have a little under 24 hours before the poll closes!
i’m guessing the poll is still on GMT rather than summer time, hence the results not showing up yet.
No, it’s on some weird time of its own!
Austrian coach Steve M is philosophical after salvaging a precious point in the opening group match with the tenacious Croats.
“We are fortunate” he concedes, “they had quite a lot more possession in the end – we could not create enough chances this time but we were solid at the back apart from on the set piece. The question mark over the eligibilty of their goalscorer is not an issue for us but hopefully it will not be a deciding factor in who progresses from this group.”
So this is one of those situations where if you’d offered me this result at the beginning of the match, I’d have snapped your hand off at the elbow, and where given the whole Cascarino-pop affair I should be grateful. But but but Croatia were so close to victory (like one vote, by my dodgy maths!) that I can’t help but be a little disappointed.
Then again this was a good result against class opponents, gives us a platform to build on and move forward, especially with our newly enhanced coaching staff.
I have a feeling Germany v Poland could be heading for a draw as well, in which case this group is WIDE OPEN.