pash

BTW the commentator on the bleacherreport stream is excellent

Halftime. Our players are such pussies. Once they started trying to attack (with only about 7 minutes left in the half), we had a massive improvement. Jaba EASILY is our best player of the half. Mauricio, Hatseridi tragic. Whole team has been completely incapable of passing the goddamn ball. Get Prijo in for Shakhov, Biseswar for El Kaddouri, and depending on who tires first, Pelkas or Jaba for Limnios.

Is that really so defensive? We're basically playing our three most aggressive midfielders there (though you all are probably tired of hearing me say how much I hate seeing him as an attacking mid). If Pelkas scores a goal he will achieve God status. -edit- the "him" is Shakhov

LAOLA1 is still advertising the Greek Cup, but it might be a holdover from last season. I don't see a schedule posted on their site to confirm. Incidentally - I just saw that they had CL games. Interesting!

Playing a pair of false nines is....interesting. You know what this looks like? The old W-M formation of the prewar years. --Pashalakis-- --Vieirinha--Varela--Hatseridis--Tosca-- --Shakhov--Mauricio-- --Jaba--Pelkas--El Kaddouri--Biseswar-- Pretty attacking lineup, though I'd prefer Vieirinha just sit out with Kitsiou playing there.

Seems Lucescu also tested Pelkas as a center forward. Pelkanggidis?

$2.00 on bleacherreport live Great defeatist attitude, boys! Let's roll over and die!

Sounds like he completed most of his training today and may make it in time for this game. Don't say I didn't warn ya!

Chelsea reportedly planning on a big rotation for this match. Of greatest importance to us, is that Hazard may not play. One can only hope!

Koulouris scored his third league goal in their win vs Lamia. He's really started off strong; good to see that when given a chance a Greek player can actually score. Chatziisaias also played in that match, with Giannoulis taking the wingback position (they played a 3-5-2). For Giannina, Mistakidis started in their win vs Smyrni. Klaus had (his debut?) playing time as a sub in the 80th minute, taking GM27's place.

I'm going to repeat what the commentator said during the broadcast - good atmosphere with both team's fans being pretty chill. This is how every game should be in Greece.

Not sure why anyone's surprised; he gets very animated every time we score a goal. Honestly his celebrations are some of the most intense. We'll survive with him sitting out a game. Looking forward to Rey stepping up.

Oh come on, after that initial screw up, Canas wasn't that bad. The Wernbloom bad touch was bad, but OFI immediately lost possession so no harm. Karelis looked decent. Had a great opportunity in the dying seconds that he ruined by shooting on his first touch. It was over by then anyway though. Would have liked to see Akpom there personally.

Warda coming on for Jaba

Is that his first goal with the team? Good goal too, didn't think he'd get it from that angle.

What was going on in the last minute there?

Wow my stream is like fully two minutes behind yours

Wernbloom, Pelkas, Warda warming up

Absolutely eerie how close to some of our past jerseys this looks.

Lineup. Surprised Karelis is starting

Kitsiou being out for a short while makes me think he won't start, though I can't see him having worse chemistry with the players than Tosca, who only just joined. Will be interesting to see what Lucescu comes up with. My lineup for tomorrow: --Pashalakis-- --Matos--Varela--Crespo--Tosca-- --Shakhov--Canas-- --Jaba--Biseswar--Warda-- --Akpom--

The city I was born in has a Greek population in the low-five figures that is almost exclusively descended from my mom's village, which has a winter time population of about 1,000. Be fruitful and multiply, indeed.

Don't be so hard on him. He looks like he has trouble getting up for anything.

Here are the players selected: Ρέι , Πασχαλάκης , Τόσκα , Μάτος , Βιεϊρίνια , Βαρέλα , Κρέσπο , Σάκχοφ , Βέρνμπλουμ , Μαουρίσιο , Κάνιας , Μπίσεσβαρ , Πέλκας , Ελ Καντουρί , Ζαμπά , Ουάρντα , Άκπομ , Καρέλης No surprises here, good to see Jaba back in the lineup.

Makes me wonder if they released him