Croatia is 2nd smallest country to make WC final - who is the smallest?

am wrote:

Iceland is by far the smallest. Panama is about the same as Croatia.

I think the question was around making the WC final. Bit of a difference.

my theory wrote:

Yeah, well you're a homo! wrote:

Rojo has probably never heard of Uruguay. He likely thought one of the announcers kept saying "You're a Gay"

I'm 99% sure that Rojo just started this thread because he thinks ur-a-gay is a hilarious name for a country and he just wanted to see people type it in LR posts. He's probably been hitting refresh and giggling all evening.

He's also planning on asking what the seventh planet from the sun is..

I'm happy for Croatia after all the suffering the region went through in the 90s. I bet the bullet holes still permeate many buildings in the area.

In my state, Phoenix is bigger than Croatia. I will be rooting for them Sunday!

https://wiseolmanager.com/2018/07/11/time-to-takeoff-high-jump/

Coevett wrote:

It's interesting to note that since Yugoslavia broke up , the independent states have performed much better as footballing nations than Yugoslavia ever did. Croatia has qualified for all or nearly all the major tournaments since it became independent.

Croatia was also 3rd in the table of Olympic gold medals won per population number in Rio, second behind Jamaica and the Bahamas, so top if you discounted doped up sprinters.

http://archive.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/population/estimates_and_projections/olympics-2016.aspx

Very interesting, thank you.

And I think that Croatia medals in various sports, unlike Hungary who got many medals in swimming (one of the only sports where 1 athlete can get several medals).

I wonder what are the reasons Croatians are so good performers in sports. I know they're taller than average, and it certainly helps in many sports but it can't be the only thing (Dutch are also taller than average and they are not as good as Croatians).

The Dutch actually achieved a creditable 11th place in the golds per population table.

Another interesting fact about the Croats and the other East European countries is that unlike many others in the West (such as the USA, Uk, France) they don't have a multi-ethnic population to 'specialize' in certain events, as for example Afro-Caribbeans win sprinting and boxing medals for the USA and GB etc.

If you look at the entire table, all the former Yugoslavian states finish in the top 20, even Kosovo! Kosovo was 9th in Rio, Slovenia 10th, and Serbia 20th. All countries are still recovering from the wars of 20 years ago, and Serbia from having NATO bomb the hell out of it which killed thousands. You walk around Belgrade and you still see buildings that have been completely blown out.

Maybe the competition and rivalry between the Balkan states since independence plays a part?

Also, if you look at Kenya, it finishes 35th in the golds per population table, and 49th in the medals per population. It won 13 medals in Rio, and every one of them in athetics (12 in running and one silver in the javelin).

rojo wrote:

They keep repeating that stat? Anyone know they smallest?

Is it Hungary? If that's the case, then it's misleading as Hungary is twice as big as Croatia now but may not have been 50 years ago.

Coevett wrote:

Also, if you look at Kenya, it finishes 35th in the golds per population table, and 49th in the medals per population. It won 13 medals in Rio, and every one of them in athetics (12 in running and one silver in the javelin).

http://www.medalspercapita.com/#golds-per-capita:2016

LOL You managed to bring Kenya into this. xD

Urkawk

prostitutitiona wrote:

Urkawk

Urquhart?

Coevett wrote:

They also had the 'baddest man on the planet', the UFC heavyweight champion until 4 days ago, and he (Stipe Miocic) only lost because his opponent eye poked him deliberately.

Croatians, and the Balkans and Hungarians in general, are pretty much the baddest asses on the planet. They were the human bulwark against Turkish expansion into Europe for hundreds of years. Natural selection.

I agree with you and I often wonder, if the world cared about American Football as much as we do who would be the best.

Coevett wrote:

They also had the 'baddest man on the planet', the UFC heavyweight champion until 4 days ago, and he (Stipe Miocic) only lost because his opponent eye poked him deliberately.

Croatians, and the Balkans and Hungarians in general, are pretty much the baddest asses on the planet. They were the human bulwark against Turkish expansion into Europe for hundreds of years. Natural selection.

Lol at these excuses. The fact that a rather short, 40 years old guy, who came from an inferior bodyweight category (and who had to become fatter that he already was ) managed to finish off the current HW champion in less than one round is rather a sad testimony ofwhat this sport and that division is (a very shallow talent pool) .

Coevett wrote:

They also had the 'baddest man on the planet', the UFC heavyweight champion until 4 days ago, and he (Stipe Miocic) only lost because his opponent eye poked him deliberately.

Croatians, and the Balkans and Hungarians in general, are pretty much the baddest asses on the planet. They were the human bulwark against Turkish expansion into Europe for hundreds of years. Natural selection.

Yea, and they're white, so a racist like you can't accuse them of doping!

how did you miss this? wrote:

rojo wrote:

They keep repeating that stat?

They repeated that Uruguay was the smallest almost as many times as they repeated that Croatia is the second smallest. I honestly don't know how you managed to hear the stat about Croatia without hearing the one about Uruguay.

Uruguay also won the World Cup in 1950 when they still had less population than Croatia, unless the country expanded and then contracted. I did notice that the commentators failed to mention that.

What's also interesting is that Croatia and other Balkan countries actually are multi-ethnic, in the sense that most have a mix of Croats, Serbs, Bosnians, Albanians, and others. But nuance beyond black and white seems too difficult for your pea brain, so I can't expect you to understand that.

You're beating a dead horse by mentionning the "per capita" argument. It has already been said 10000 times that it is impossible for large countries to compete on this basis because of various factors that I wont explain here , that would be too long.

Kosovo finished high because one single athlete managed to win a medal, the same way Grenada, an island of 100,000 as been performing well above their weight in the last two olympics because of the lone Kirani James.

In order to perform as well as such a small nation, the US would have to win 3000 medals for one won by them (there is a total of only about 970 medals distributed in one summer olympic).

When compared with Croatia, the USA would have to win 82 medal for one medal won by a Croatian athlete (China, about 350). This is impossible. There is a limited number of sport, athletes allowed to compete for medals, athletes allowed to compete. Some sport allow only one athlete per nation to enter, some distribute several bronze medals, etc..

The per Capita argument is generally used by people with inferiority complex ....

Hi there wrote:

am wrote:

Iceland is by far the smallest. Panama is about the same as Croatia.

I think the question was around making the WC final. Bit of a difference.

It's always been a pet peeve of mine the way the people refer to the entire 32-team tournament as the finals (as though the qualifying rounds are part of the tournament) because it leads to this kind of confusion.

Rhode Island

Iceland didn't make the final, but they're pretty impressive for having a smaller population than Tulsa.

http://oddstuffmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Iceland-selected-World-Cup-team.jpg

am wrote:

Iceland is by far the smallest. Panama is about the same as Croatia.

If you can tell me when Iceland made the WC final, I will give Jamin a rim job and post the video on letsrun