Croatia national football team

And like, you know, who knows what's going to happen? It's potential for prison time.

And I was looking back, I was thinking, the 2018 World Cup semi-final that England played in against Croatia.

I was like, he would have definitely played that game.

He was a star at that time.

So if you are there, let the GSX folks know how they did.

In the meantime, I'm your host, Brendan Howard, and our guest today is James Westin, who just wrapped a gig as team base camp security specialist for FIFA and the Croatian team, who trained, practiced, and rested in Alexandria, Virginia for their North American matches.

Uh, James, who has previously worked for the State Department and then global security for McDonald's, shares a little of what's inspired him about the Croatian team, what's nice about working for FIFA, and whether anything went really bad on-site this year.

First, James, exactly what did you do before and during Croatia's 2026 World Cup experience?

I worked at the base camp in Alexandria, Virginia, which was used by the Croatian national team for both their hotel and daily training facility.

So I had to provide security for both of those locations.

Um, I did that every day during the, during the tournament time, including when they were away playing other matches.

Pero el equipo jugó muy bien.

Yo vi un equipo contra Croacia espectacular.

Creo que es el mejor partido que he visto de mis equipos, es el mejor que he visto.

Sí.

O sea, y, y, y, ¿cuál es el contexto de poner por qué se convirtió en un gran partido? Porque en el mundial del 2014 nosotros le damos un paseo a, a Croacia, le ganamos y le dimos un baile.

Y en el mu-mundial de 2018, Croacia es finalista.

Claro.

Con el mismo equipo cambiaron dos jugadores.

¿Cómo era? Platícame un poco.

Cuadraditos, cuadraditos rojos, blancos, ¿ya te acordaste? Como Croacia.

Ah, bueno...

No, la neta no, pero un buen uniforme era el de Toros Nessa, ¿te acuerdas?

So we know the task in hand, but I think most of our focus and attention will be on ourselves because I do believe we've got a good young squad here that... can go and get three points in Slovakia.

And I think we proved in the June win though, how competitive the squad is because we played against Croatia who are running away with their group at the minute and a really good team Croatia and for us to go there in their place and put on a really impressive show we're happy with so we've got to build on that so first and foremost Slovakia is the big game for us and then you know hopefully we can get three points there and then to finish the campaign two games two games in Tornos Cross that we're looking forward to you know certainly given the Cork public and the wider audience something to cheer about because Cork has been always really good for us they've been a really important squad player for us the Cork public for games you only have to look at the game against Slovakia where we showed character and grit but that was all brought on too as well as the players ability but from the fans who are at the game cheering on the players and that's important and You look at the wider picture with all under-21s games across the board, we get one of the highest home attendances per game.

You know, we've never had anything lower than 3,000 in Turner's Cross and, you know, that to me is going to be really important for us for the game against Kazakhstan and England a week later.

So, looking forward to winning to the window, looking forward to meeting up with the players again and, and, Because it's important, you know, playing in high pressure games is important for our young players, for them with regards to their own development, you know, so no better sort of game than travelling away to Slovakia to sort of the favourites in this particular game because of the age profile of their squad compared to ours and going and turning them over.

We've not won it.

Okay? Um, but when we played against Croatia, even though we lost, there were moments in this game that Croatia couldn't even come out of the box out of the game, off the pitch.

Ghana pinned them.

There was Ghana being in control of that game in that period.

Portuguese.

Croatia game.

No,

that was a great game.

That ending was nuts.

It was.

I think obviously Croatia won, right? Pretty sure.

Yeah.