pash

Well hopefully all their best youngsters are with the senior team already. I will look forward to watching these games though - we are too thin in too many positions to not need to hope for a breakthrough from one of these guys. Chatsidis, make me proud!

I missed both of the previous Pats games because of the STIPIKI matches. Don't regret it at all, though!

Didn't realize there was a concern about losing either of them. Seems like two players who are very much in our camp, you know? Still, good to know that there's nothing to panic over yet.

:: takes a drag from a cigarette :: Kalamata? There's a name I haven't heard in a while.

Or you can trust that Olympiakos journo who claimed it's because he's secretly a Jehova's Witness and no longer believes in ethnicity. My guess is that it is simply because of his son, though. That is more than enough of a reason to refuse call ups for one set of games. It's certainly possible that the coach's continued use of subpar players over him (Bakasetas, mainly) played a role in his leaving. But, that doesn't seem to be part of his character. He never made problems while at PAOK, and Lucescu was if anything more stubborn than the NT coach. Ultimately I'd be more concerned if he refuses callups after his recovery is complete. It would also be an enormous loss to the STIPIKI (bonus points if you're old enough to remember that reference). He could well be the most talented guy we've had in decades.

The irony here is that even if Konstantelias comes back, we have so many CFs that we might not see him (or anyone else) as a #10. Though I'm sure Bakasetas will get called up again at some point and Jovanovic will cream his jeans at the thought of shoehorning him in, so maybe I'm wrong there. I just want to call out that not initially including Pelkas was a real boneheaded move. He's a better player than Masouras and would at least have provided some depth on the wings. We also had no actual #10 in the squad until he showed up. Kind of makes our formation pretty predictable/inflexible. Tzolis probably will be recovered by the next games, but I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't get called up since it will be very close. Going into those matches, what's Jovanovic going to do? I'm very doubtful that we can play for a draw in Holland with at least one of our "golden generation" missing. Perhaps we'll see a 3-5-2 and just rely on wingbacks? Giannoulis is better going forward so perhaps that will help cover up any gaps on the left (though it still leaves RWB without cover): --Tzolakis-- --Retsos--Mavropanos--Koulierakis-- --Saliakas--Zafeiris--Karetsas--Kourbelis--Tsimikas-- --Kostoulas--Pavlidis-- I do like the idea of Karetsas actually playing his main position, tbh.

Why does your font look like you're yelling

Yeah, this Germany is much, much weaker than back in the day. It'll take time for them to gel, too. This game showed us just how little depth we have on the wings. Gagatsis needs to go on a complete charm offensive to get Konstantelias back once he's healthy. But even with him, we'd be without competition (or backup) for Karetsas on the right. You all better be hoping your club teams can make their youth take that next leap (I'm looking at you, Chatsidis).

Was just watching the team's posted highlights of that senior vs B team match and I noticed Hatzidiakos was playing. And of course Louchet scoring means he should be good to go too. Also saw Taylor at what I thought was LB, so unsurprisingly Giannoulis was still out.

Deserved to be called up in the first place! Wing is a position where we have very little depth. Better late than never I guess.

Made the mistake of listening to that Hellas Footy podcast and had to turn it off when they decided collectively that we had to play like cowards (and the spastic-chipmunk-sounding-guy trash talking Thessaloniki didn't help, but I guess you can't expect miracles when a bunch of fans of Athens teams get together). Anyway. Bitterly disappointing here. We can hold our own against any f***ing team, which the first 60 or so minutes showed us today. When we revert to scared tactics, we get our assholes torn open. Big frigging shock.

I love how every player I don't like, scores. Time to start hating Pavlidis.

ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE

His mother is (either fully or half) Cypriot. Not sure why he'd be a candidate for the Greek NT.

Saw on SDNA that Tsiftsis is getting a new contract with a one year extension. Corroborates earlier speculation that we'll stick with him as the #1 while Pavlenka is out. And realistically, unless he starts to drastically underperform, it's probably his job going forward after as well. Good luck to him, I like him.

I think they're also both sold out, which is great. Hopefully we make it our traditional cauldron. Didn't it host the Euro 2004 people vs PAOK, too? I seem to remember you angrily saying the 2004 team could probably still beat our club at the time. -edit- only being somewhat tongue in cheek when I call their reunion game an official NT game!

Don't worry dutchy I still love you Tsapras was just announced as a late call up for these last two games. I'm sure just depth, but RB is one of our biggest holes these last few years...

Might speak more to the caliber of the German team. We should not get ahead of ourselves. Our defense and midfield need a lot of work. However, taking advantage of their weakness in order to guarantee we stay in the better "league" (and lock down a pot 1 spot for Euro 2028 qualifiers) will let us build on this by continuing to play against better competition and then having an 'easier' run at qualification. Steel sharpens steel or whatever.

Kind of an ugly win. When we actually gathered the balls to attack, we looked pretty decent. I think we're still defensively not great (where's Koulierakis??) but whatever, they got the job done. Goal was kind of a fluke but I'll take it. From what I see, we are now favorites for second place. Pity the league B team that draws Germany in the play off. Inexplicable to play Ioannidis over Douvikas. I was iffy on Tetteh starting but he was pretty decent. I assume our next game vs Germany will be against the guys who walked out of their fancy box after we scored?

If you have five strikers who are all doing well, you gotta figure out how to play them. Some variation of a 4-4-2/3-5-2/whatever should be tried. Playing without a clear #10 isn't the end of the world, assuming you have the midfield to support it (which we do, when you have players like Zafeiris and Mouzakitis). Counting my blessings that Bakasetas was not selected. We would have lost. I think our defense still doesn't look great. This might be the start of an era where Greece has a ton of attacking threat but cops easy goals, as strange as it is to say. That run by Tsimikas, btw, was only possible because Michailidis used his weirdly good deep lying passing ability to open Tsimikas up for his run. I am wondering why Koulierakis did not play, but I guess it's possible the coach wanted him rested for Germany (and thought this would be a game where we'd be attacking more than defending).

Very solid (and entertaining) game away vs Georgia today, 0-3 win. We are likely heading to the playoffs as the second place group, though the first placed team of the group of 2nd placed teams (that's a mouthful) will get direct qualification too. Right now that's Italy and we are level with them on points. So we want either Germany to drop the ball vs Malta and/or Georgia or Italy to drop points vs Poland and/or Armenia (and of course, for us to beat both Latvia and Northern Ireland).

I was just thinking how if there's any time we can sneak away with a result against Germany, this might be it - before Klopp gets his game properly instilled in a German team that's probably still reeling after the cup. We'll see!

And set up Tsimikas for his run/assist, in fact

Blackhawk are the choices of which games are televised simply a factor of how good the teams are? I.e., Larisa being a much bigger market than our previous opponents?

Yeah I was thinking Pavlenka is probably worse off there, but it seems a lot depends on exactly what needs to get repaired. I definitely hope Ali will be back in three months (and this issue will be actually corrected moving forward). This is probably going to accelerate Lisci's move to his preferred formations, especially since Giannoulis will be back up and running soon enough. Hope this works out.