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Greece - Germany


Irlandos

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I didn't think they could beat Russia and they did. But they have a few problems.

1. Ninis I don't think has been the same since he was injured in the Israel game.

2. I don't know why Santos won't play Fetzfatzidis. To suddenly throw him into the frying pan against Germany is going to be reckless.

3. Who will give us a spark? Torosidis might, since he's more offensively minded than all the midfield players who will start on Friday.

4. 25 year old Makos with very limited experience has to fill in for one of the greatest soccer players in Greek history?

I don't like to blame referees, but honestly this has been crazy. Against Poland we had our cb red carded, he was missing against the Czechs and we had to have a midfielder cover for him and got ripped into shreds. We played full strength against Russia and won, but that horrible referee has made sure that in our game against Germany our midfield engineer is missing.

Whatever the case, this to me is a greater triumph as 2004. We had referees who acted like they were ordered to make every call against Greece yet we managed to make it through to the quarters. This proves that Greece is among the top eight soccer teams in Europe, that 2004 was no fluke, and though in our lifetime we may never win another tournament, we are not one of those teams that just makes up the numbers and goes home.

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I didn't think they could beat Russia and they did. But they have a few problems.

1. Ninis I don't think has been the same since he was injured in the Israel game.

2. I don't know why Santos won't play Fetzfatzidis. To suddenly throw him into the frying pan against Germany is going to be reckless.

3. Who will give us a spark? Torosidis might, since he's more offensively minded than all the midfield players who will start on Friday.

4. 25 year old Makos with very limited experience has to fill in for one of the greatest soccer players in Greek history?

I don't like to blame referees, but honestly this has been crazy. Against Poland we had our cb red carded, he was missing against the Czechs and we had to have a midfielder cover for him and got ripped into shreds. We played full strength against Russia and won, but that horrible referee has made sure that in our game against Germany our midfield engineer is missing.

Whatever the case, this to me is a greater triumph as 2004. We had referees who acted like they were ordered to make every call against Greece yet we managed to make it through to the quarters. This proves that Greece is among the top eight soccer teams in Europe, that 2004 was no fluke, and though in our lifetime we may never win another tournament, we are not one of those teams that just makes up the numbers and goes home.

First off, our midfield engineer hit the off switches and should have retired a year ago. He is not creative and is more focused on his John Barrymore/Rudolph Valentino influenced acting skills, as well as his diving performances.

Why Makos filling in? How about Fotakis and Ninis?

I don't think you have to throw Fetfa into the frying pan; you can bring him in the second half and if he plays for at least half an hour, he'll do just fine.

Torosidis is not more offensively minded than Fortounis, Ninis, Fotakis or Fetfa. And we don't know the starting line up yet.

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Ninis got two chances so far, and he didn't cut it. The boy needs time to find his form again. He'll be crucial in the World Cup qualifiers no doubt. But right now he's a liability for the Ethniki :(

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Interesting stat:

The last four Euro Champions (Germany, France, Greece, Spain) were in a division that consisted of the Russian NT, be it the Qualifying Stage (France in Euro 2000), or the Group Stage (Germany Euro 1996, Greece Euro 2004, Spain Euro 2008).

Based on this, the Euro Champion of 2012 will be either the Czech Republic or Greece :tup:

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for your reading pleasure-

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/euro-underdog...34421--sow.html

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/euro-greece-f...22254--sow.html

the collective consciousness of experts, commentators, analysts, and idiots all contribute to the respect or lack thereof the for the Greek National team.....there is one way to shut everyone up - just go out and win.........

ballack and lalas are very entertaining on their commentary on espn...particularly when they were discussing the english team, lalas saying "they did what they had to do to win" while Ballack criticized them for playing too defensively...same old story..its odd that when italy plays "catanacchio" its brilliant football tactics and when Greece does it it's "smash and grab" football...... dont they realize how inconsistent they are and throws their credibility right out the window?

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Have we ever beaten Germany in Competition?

Greek - German Monty Python skit.

Socrates with the winner.

By the way....did everyone realize that the Euro 2016 is going to 24 teams and a round of 16 elimination phase.

Some expect the overall quality to go down but I actually think it good overall. It certainly makes it a lot easier for Greece to qualify in the future and it gives some smaller nations a real shot of getting in when in the past, they had basically no chance at all.

http://www.tsn.ca/euro2012/story/?id=398789

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Q. When is Germany not Germany?

A. When it's the All-World XI!

From Sportaction

Oh dear! Makes you wonder what the point is. The beauty of international football is that players represent their country. Cacau was born in Brazil, played there for a few years and then represented Germany! That means anyone of us could potentially represent Fiji, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso or whatever other country we have no links with.

Anyway in a previous post we spoke about the foreign media undermining Greece when it comes to football. In the "Greece: A Jekyl & Hyde Team" article I wrote for www.phantis.com I mentioned that we have ourselves to blame for some of this. However this made me laugh! I mean this reporter for goal.com deserves the sack! He single-handedly humiliates their entire website! His name is Andrew Kennedy, and he places Kyriakos Papadopoulos in the worst XI at Euro 2012 of the teams that have made the last 8! Kyriakos has been a beast yet this fool considers him to be a flop! :LOL: Unbelievable how this idiots get employed in this field! http://www.goal.com/en/news/2898/euro-2012...o-the-euro-2012

On another note, Olympiakos' Modesto has frequently spoken in glowing terms about Greece and Greeks and his latest interview is no different. Personally i find it touching to hear this sort of thing from foreign players living in Greece:

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euro, waxing poetic as always....great article....

most of these guys in the media either 1. have not watched the team and only know what they are handed in pre game prep; or

2. maybe be soccer fans to varying degrees and have some kind of axe to grind.

Occasionally a soccer commentator / analyst who writes more serious analysis MAY pick up on a few nuances that we all see since we watch the games with a microscope.

But the fact is, and euro we talked about this before, the ascension of greek soccer in the collective consciousness of the international soccer community goes something like this: won in 04, flopped in confederations cup ,flopped in 08, flopped in the world cup - nothing noteworthy prior to that except 1994 record for eating the fastest goal in word cup history - argentina, i was there -- is that the second fastest goal now? ---- anyway, .....thats what you always hear....is it fair? of course, thats what happened...but to us, its success because we never used to qualify. So, respect really comes from winning, advancing, going deep in to tournaments. As that becomes a "normal" occurrence more and more "commentators" will acknowledge the consistency of the teams international success and begin to look at the team, not as minnows, but as a force to be reckoned with.

Russia is a perfect point. I knew we had a great chance to win that game and i did not consider us huge underdogs at all... THe pundits all saw it as a HUGE upset. Why? Because Russia demolished checks 4-1? A closer look at that game and u can see why. It was plainly obvious Russia was not gonna get that kind of space from us...but everyone read into the 4-1 score and determined Russia was unstoppable...well the scoreboard tells the story. doesn't it.

But still its the "smash and grab" greeks again....what escapes mostly everyone is that you can't measure heart...you cant measure sacrifice. When the right team shows up that's how they play...talent is NOT just dribbling and pace....its subtle stuff not easily ascertained if you dont know what to watch for....and its players building on the strengths of each other so the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.....

Let me ask you and anyone else who cares to chime in...what shot do give us friday? i think kara out is HUGE....this game is won or lost before u even step out onto the field....i really think his leadership will be sorely missed....how will they compensate? any ideas?

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I don't want to be a prophet of doom, but without a leader we don't have a chance. Don't forget we had Zagorakis in the game against Portugal, he was our natural leader, made the most tackles, and kept us tight.

Can Katsou fill in for him? I don't think so.

Sadly in Euro 2008, we had a horrible game against Sweden, against Russia we played better in 2008 than we did against them in 2004. Gekas was called for offside even though that goal should have stood and Nikopolids acted like a maniac running out of his goal for a ball that his defenders would have no problem clearing and against Spain we had an aging Dellas slip and we were going home then. So let's put things in perspective. In 2008, we had a horrible game and two decent ones.

Once you lose your first game you're always behind the eight-ball.

If we want to have any chance. We have to attack early and play the most unpredictable game you can conjur. In Otto's match against England in the WC qualifier, we attacked and had the Brits flustered.

My outside tip is that every team in this tournament will have a bad game, will Germany have a bad game and if so when? Salpi, Gekas, and Karagounis scored--isn't it time that Samaras gets a goal? How about Torosides, how about even Katsouranis, he has 9 goals for his country? Let's say Ninis dazzles. Let's say the stars aligned create having two of these players score and shutting out the Germans or resctricting them to one goal?

I doubt any of this will happen but minute 70 if there is no score, the Germans will feel the pressure and know that they will be ridiculed if they lost to the Greeks, that type of pressure can make one make mistakes.

Don't forget the burden of being a favorite is really heavy.

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yes andrew......attack or rather "not defend" - its simple math. if the krauts fear our offensive thrusts they will either keep more guys back or, at the very least dont push up too much in our end....

we do need to be careful of a quick counter early on, but we do need to stretch the game into their zone consistently to keep them honest or else they will just flood our end and then its gonna be a long day.....

santos MUST motivate and inspire theses guys. he's not gonna teach them how to dribble and pass at this point.. the skills are what they are and, they are more than good enough if they play their A game.....they need an A game to win....

against poles and checks, i felt a B game, may be B plus game could do it....against russia b plus to A minus game - which they were due to pull off....here its an A game they need....if the right team shows up they win this game - no question.

again SANTOS must not let them go in there intimidated, nervous or shy....they must knock gomez on his ASS immediately, knock schwein on his ASS immediately, and let them know they are on the pitch with MEN who will knock the shti out of them for 90 minutes and that they, the krauts are going to have to play their best game if they expect to win..

WE NEED TO SEND THAT MESSAGE EARLY AND OFTEN....i am convinced of that.

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We are getting yellow-carded for no reason whatsoever, if we play aggressively, the refs will show us cards in every colour of the rainbow!

I say we must rely on the defence that stifled the Russians for 90 minutes and then take things from there.

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ir, good point. but we cant sit back and try to absorb for 90 minutes either....we cant come out tentative....we did against south korea, we did agaisnt sweden, we did against checks a look what happened.....defense yes, of course, but parking the bus in front of the goal, no way....

its no coincidence that the games we do best in, we come out "not just sitting back" but look to push the issue forward with a little more spirit....

we are not playing argentina....is that what you would like us to do? play like that? scared? no confidence moving forward?

if u refering to "knocking people on their butts" yes obviously we cant do that in a dirty way...my point is - DONT BACK THE FUKC DOWN - TO NOBODY !!!!!

The krauts gonna come out and try to physically assert themselves....we need to send the message that they cant and they won't....thats my point.

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Nothing but mindless chatter that fills pages, and sells newspapers, is all I see/read in the rags. Unadulterated scatology that means nothing! On this tread's offense vs. defense chatter I say they will both be needed, equally, but games are won in the middle and with controlling the ball. So, it's no revelation all 3 will be equally necessary today, at their max! The refs once again worry me but the team can't control their obvious set-ups thus far, nor should they worry about it, game time. What they can control is the quality of their game and I MUST believe that especially today they WILL!

Germany is the better, most consistent team and no one can deny this fact. Can we beat them? YES!!! Will we do it? As an Ellinas I MUST believe we WILL!

:gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: all the way!

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we must assert ourselves early and often....wether its O or D, we MUST send the clear message that "we are as good a team as you and if we play our game we will BEAT you"......

its not so much for the krauts (they approach every game professionally) but for us - we CANT enter the match intimidated...how we send the message - tactics, physical imposition, etc - thats the coaches job....

if we play an A game we can win....but we need an A game.

but irlandos made a point, and the more i think about it more i agree with him.....we MUST be careful not to be over zealous physically for fear of yellow/reds cards....

looking forward to this game big time....

PREDICTION: well i thought we would qualify eeking into second place (thumbs up), thought Poland would have been our toughest game (neutral) thought we would beat chekcs (thumbs down) thought we would beat russia (thumbs up) ...today?

hmmm...im not pessimistic. if andorra played their A plus game they still would be crushed by the germans....but with us if our D shows up and plays an A game, we can pull it out...skill wise we're more than good enough, i think germany has the pressure on them, i think out guys are motivated because of all the surrounding political stuff.....

possible maaaaybe scenario- we score first...then sit back, germans tie late and then its anybody's game, maybe goes to shoot outs.....

but its a toss up....at this level anyone can beat anyone...who is gonna show up thats the key

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Asserting ourselves goes without saying, at every game, but especially in do or die situations. Our lackadaisical attitudes until the chips are down depicts a much larger Hellenic mentality at play, for all things.

manga, are you trying to convince us or yourself? :LOL: Not complaining mind you, we need all the encouragement we can get among us!

My house is draped in galanolefka xromata in preparation of the big win my friends and I expect to celebrate.

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