New England has welcomed Scotland fans who are drinking the towns dry. Mexican cities have gladly accepted the Iranian players who have made their temporary home on the nation’s West Coast. Meanwhile, the D.C. region has embraced the checkered jerseys and flags of the Croatian squad that’s training in nearby Alexandria, Virginia.
The Croatian fans arrived in droves on Wednesday for an official watch party celebrating their nation’s World Cup opening match against England. Franklin Hall, the beer garden near the District’s U Street corridor, played host to more than 100 Croatian fans who were eager to cheer on their team.
Passionate fans of the “Vatreni” donned checkered jerseys, shoes and hats, congregating throughout the establishment as they celebrated their beloved soccer team with explosive enthusiasm.
They greeted an opening goal by England’s Harry Kane with an eruption of jeers. But 24 minutes later, Croatia’s Martin Baturina created a symphony for his supporters as he scored an equalizer.
The watch party continued in that rhythm, marching the back-and-forth affair on the pitch that was tied 2-2 at halftime.
Croatia — with a population of less than 4 million — has a penchant for surprising onlookers on the pitch.
They’ve qualified for seven World Cups since earning their independence from Yugoslavia in 1998.
The Vatreni aren’t content to say they qualified for this year’s World Cup, either. The Croatian squad has developed a reputation as perennial overachievers. They made the final and finished as runners-up in 2018. They appeared in the semi-final in 2022.
The squad is a unifying force for the small but passionate group of Croatian ex-pats who have made homes in the District.
“It’s pretty remarkable,” Filip Bonavac, an Alexandria resident originally from Croatia, said. “I think it shows what great spirit and national pride we have.”
The fervent supporters turned out in force to welcome the squad to a hotel in Alexandria last week. It started with an impromptu email to members of a local Croatian group and ended with dozens of fans in checkered jerseys — and one with a mask of 40-year-old midfielder Luka Modric.
No other nation is training this close to the District. The city won’t host any World Cup matches, either.
Croatia has, in turn, become an unofficial team for the District’s soccer fans.
“I was surprised. It was so many people — and non-Croatians — who showed up,” said Tomislav Ivakovic, the vice president for the Washington Chapter of the Association of Croatian American Professionals. “It was great. I didn’t expect it; it was all spontaneous.”
That was only a warm-up. On Wednesday, as Croatia’s World Cup campaign began in earnest, they parked a bus outside of Franklin Hall. A makeshift stage saw folk music performed in Croatian, building excitement for the tournament itself.
The D.C.-based Croatians have been looking forward to this World Cup for months, since Croatia confirmed that it would host its training camp at Episcopal High School.
The squad from Southern Europe was one of more than a half-dozen national teams that considered using Episcopal as a base of operations.
The private, Catholic institution has hosted a handful of elite soccer teams, including the 2024 U.S. women’s Olympic squad and Premier League sides Everton and Brentford. Becoming the home of a World Cup team is different, and not just because of the intense inspections from FIFA to ensure the facilities were up to par.
“We’re seeing a lot more buzz, a lot more Croatian flags in the area,” said Dan O’Neil, Episcopal’s director of auxiliary programs. “It’s one of these pride moments that we’re really excited to be a part of.”
The Croatian fans who gathered for Wednesday’s watch party know about pride. Even qualifying for the World Cup in a hyper-competitive continent like Europe is an achievement. Italy, a former powerhouse that won the tournament in 2006, hasn’t qualified since 2014 as competition stiffened.
Regularly outperforming rival nations with better facilities, larger populations and more name recognition helped cement Croatian fandom.
“We are a huge outlier,” Ivakovic said. “When you already did overachieve, the game is just fun.”
As dozens of fans in checkered jerseys sang the Croatian national anthem arm-in-arm, they were fulfilling an identity that has helped define the country on a global stage. The Croatian fans — like every major team from Europe — will drink, sing and cheer loud enough to rock a city block. But the Croatians say their team, and the fan culture surrounding it, is different.
“It’s our ability not to give up and to prove others that, even though we are small nation, we can compete with anyone in the world,” Ivakovic said. “To show that our team can play its best against the so-called favorites. In everyone’s eyes, we are the underdogs.”
That doesn’t mean expectations are low. After three trips to the semifinals in seven World Cups, the Croatian squad won’t catch anyone by surprise — even if the fans still believe they’re rooting for David against a European continent filled with metaphorical Goliaths like Spain, France, Portugal and England.
“They are our knights. They bring home the trophies,” said Bonavac, who noted that the continued World Cup success has helped put the country on the map. “The expectations are surprisingly high. We rely on this team to be the ambassador for our state. It’s extraordinarily important. We don’t hold it against them, because it’s still a small team, but when they do well, it’s a sense of enormous national pride.”
The Croatian squad continues Group L play with a match against Panama in Toronto on Tuesday. They’ll then return to the U.S. to face Ghana on June 27 in Philadelphia for their final group-stage match.
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