Greece

nikos24 · 18-11-2009, 21:28

GREECE

Greece is officially one of the 32 participants in the World Cup next year in South Africa. They qualified tonight through a play-off victory against Ukraine. 0-0 in Athens, 1-0 in Donetsk.

I can't express how happy, relieved I am for qualifying tonight. It was a nail biting two match affair that could have gone either way. Considering our group when qualifying we shouldn't have made it to this stage. But we did and when the result needed to come they delivered. Not only did they secure qualification but a victory as well.

Our players are more or less the same from Euro 08 however of course with a few changes. Torosidis, Ninis, Fotakis, Tzorvas, Papastathopoulos are among the new bloods. Karagounis is now the captain and along with Katsouranis they hold the midfield. In defense we rely on Kyrgiakos and Moras with Spyropoulos and Torosidis as our wingers. And in attack well, golden boy Gekas and Charisteas are usually starters. But Samaras is getting a shot very recently and he played big tonight. Salpigidis compliments Samaras as the second striker.

Otto Rehhagel still in charge of the team (despite numerous Otto bashers, not including me though) incase you might ask. And we know at Euro 2008 we were abysmal with his old tactics. There were no surprises anymore, people knew us and nullified us.

But finally the man is having some balls and starts fielding in some young bloods and mixing them with experienced veterans. We are still a "defense first approach" team, but somehow we use it very effectively and that's been proven over two games with Ukraine. I sense some optimism in the way we have been playing lately and hope this carries on to next year.

I expect more stuff from this thread come next summer but for now, we are going to party!!

uA - 1905 · 18-11-2009, 23:22

Well done neighbors.

muscularmatt · 18-11-2009, 23:27

Well done Greece. They probably won't get past the first round.

HH · 19-11-2009, 01:48

I still dont think that is ever a wise thing to say about any team since 2004.Even if it was a complete fluke.

muscularmatt · 19-11-2009, 02:18

You know I remember seeing 125-1 on Greece in the paper before Euro 2004, and thinking 'Hmmm, not bad'.

Still pissed off to this day I didn't put it on

nacerh · 19-11-2009, 13:39

congratulation

,,

nikos24 · 26-11-2009, 14:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by uA - 1905

Well done neighbors.

Thanks, much appreciated from you. Quite surprised how Turkey fell during the campaign, but then again you have Spain and an inform Bosnia, it was difficult. Was letting Terim go a good decision?

uA - 1905 · 27-11-2009, 02:00

Yeah, I think he lost the plot after leaving Fiorentina, and that was like 9 years ago. He's done shitly everywhere he's been since.

nikos24 · 04-12-2009, 18:35

Greece's group for the World Cup, Group B.

Argentina, Nigeria, Korea, Greece

uA - 1905 · 04-12-2009, 21:25

Is that Tzorvas in your avatar? He was quite useless on Thursday. You better not have him in goal for Greece this summer.

nikos24 · 06-12-2009, 11:29

Yes, it is Tzorvas. Unfortunately he's probably the top rated goalkeeper for Greece now, ahead of Sifakis and veteran Chalkias. Life is difficult w/o Nikopolidis.

Hopefully in six months Tzorvas develops much more.

nikos24 · 27-01-2010, 15:44

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ThX-HayQvU - Alex Tzorvas' superb save against Aris. We all hope he continues this form to the World Cup.

nikos24 · 09-06-2010, 14:37

Vaggelis Moras will be Rehhagel's sole concern in the upcoming clash against S. Korea, he will miss the match due to injury. Well, we still have Kyrgiakos!

nikos24 · 09-09-2010, 19:56

Old news but Fernando Santos is our new coach, replacing Otto Rehhagel.

Anyway. Ioannis Amanatidis has retired from international football and shockingly so has Kyrgiakos and now Gekas. There must be something brewing within the squad. Surprisingly, all these players who retired play the club football in Germany. What the fuck is going? I wish I knew.

**Dragonfly** · 09-09-2010, 20:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikos24

Old news but Fernando Santos is our new coach, replacing Otto Rehhagel.

Anyway. Ioannis Amanatidis has retired from international football and shockingly so has Kyrgiakos and now Gekas. There must be something brewing within the squad. Surprisingly, all these players who retired play the club football in Germany. What the fuck is going? I wish I knew.

Your players, from what I've just read.