Some relatively good reasons to celebrate Croatia

We hung our enormous Croatian flag from our balcony this week to celebrate two happy occasions — the exciting Croatian win over Panama in the World Cup, and Croatian Independence Day.

Then, two of my sisters in-law popped in for a visit and gave us another reason to hoist our glasses.

Živjeli!

I married into a Croatian family, and I’m admittedly a band wagon World Cup fan, but I don’t let that stop me from actively participating in the game-day family text chain.

“How could they leave him that open?” I raged when Harry Kane punched in England’s game-winning goal against Croatia last week. Rage is also relative here. It may even have been feigned.

I’ve never played soccer and I couldn’t design a set play if you paid me. It just seemed like a curious defensive choice.

In any case, Croatia came back to beat Panama and they play Ghana on Saturday to advance.

So, hopefully we’ll have reason to keep the flag up for a while.

My favorite part of the World Cup games are the national anthems they play before them. I love the sincerity and passion those songs inspire.

While last night’s U.S. National Anthem may have been a little speedier than we’re used to, it was still inspiring to see so many people singing along.

Of course, we’ve been cheering the U.S. team as well. We’re looking forward to seeing them again Wednesday night as they hopefully knock out Bosnia and Herzegovina. We love the Packer connection in Alex Freeman and note that another key U.S. player, Christian Pulisic, is also Croatian.

These are heady times for Croats — and the rest of us as well.

Let’s go!