From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
Bruno Zdunić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Dugopolje and Zadar in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match26 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Dugopolje against Zadar
2‑4 to Zadar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Dominik Balić
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match26 Sep 2026
The run is over for Dugopolje
4 matches without defeat, and then Zadar. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Match28 Sep 2026
The half-term report on Dugopolje
Position 3, 18 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Dugopolje are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑4 Hrvoje Colak left the room before anybody could ask which.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Sep 2026
Dugopolje refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 18 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Ante Utrobičić at 20 — 7.61
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ante Utrobičić did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match19 Sep 2026
Dugopolje make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dugopolje have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Dugopolje
Bruno Zdunić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match19 Sep 2026
Imotski made Dugopolje work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.23 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Hrvoje Colak on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Rudes spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Match12 Sep 2026
Dugopolje cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
No deal for Marco Grbic at that price
Dugopolje offered $90.0K; Zadar said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Dugopolje asked and Borussia Mönchengladbach said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bruno Kovacevic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mario Bilic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match12 Sep 2026
Three points for Dugopolje, 1‑0 the final word against Rudes in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.55 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad14 Sep 2026
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Zoran Nižić
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Looking ahead
Duje Biuk faces his old club
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Dimitar Trajkov takes the afternoon — 9.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dimitar Trajkov provided it, and the 9.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 17 in, 1 out at Dugopolje
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
An offer of $90.0K for Marco Grbic
Dugopolje have gone to Zadar with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dimitar Trajkov. 4‑3 against Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match5 Sep 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Dugopolje and Hrvatski Dragovoljac in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Bruno Zdunić at his very best
Marked 8.59. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dugopolje.
Squad7 Sep 2026
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Josip Balić
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bruno Zdunić. 1‑0 against Sibenik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ivan Delić runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Mijo Caktaš
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Dugopolje are still strangers to each other
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Market31 Aug 2026
Anastas Arnaudovski is 19, and Dugopolje have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Dugopolje
1‑2 against Rudes, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Duje Biuk
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market24 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Dugopolje, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$150.0K on the table at NK Varazdin. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Legia have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Dimitar Trajkov scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Segesta, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan move for Nick Homan is in the works
Dugopolje have made the call to AZ. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Andro Sokač was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Bruno Zdunić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 3‑1 win over Lucko, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Niko Garić
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
AZ have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Zadar: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Cibalia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Dugopolje did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Niko Garić pops up at the right end — 7.63
7.63, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Legia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Bruno Zdunić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zadar have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match8 Aug 2026
Niko Garić scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Cibalia, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vedran Kovacevic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Milan Lovren has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ivica Knezevic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 Aug 2026
Lucko come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Dugopolje did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ivan Delić commits to Dugopolje for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Bruno Zdunić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dimitar Trajkov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dimitar Trajkov. 1‑0 against Sesvete, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Dugopolje are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
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Player ratings
Dimitar Trajkov stands above it all
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Antonio Čolak is in the works
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict