pash

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Like, fewer playoff games is good for us. But it also feels kind of insulting for teams 5-8? Is that just me?

Filipe Soares is off to SC Farense officially. Looking at their lineup, if he can't get major minutes with them...he's a lost cause.

Is this the same guy? Seems weird to replace an attacking midfielder with a striker. Either way, we have a need up there.

NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION

They're gonna be real cheap when we lose these next two games!

Yikes, that's rough. Explains their rather tragic looking lineup. PAOK is probably footing the bill for this game, in other words. Unrelated to that, the Kedziora black-out apparently is now due to the Russian missile strikes on Kyiv last night, including the one that hit a children's hospital. I am not sure I buy this is the reason, because Kedziora could have signed the day before that happened, but do with that info what you will!

Looks like that last friendly is going to be vs Vitesse: https://www.transfermarkt.us/vitesse-arnheim/startseite/verein/499 Didn't we loan someone out to them a few years back? https://www.sdna.gr/podosfairo/1214803_neo-filiko-gia-ton-paok-kontra-stin-fitese

Sport24 is saying that the Belgians are saying that both PAOK and AEK are interested in Tarik Tissoudali, who is a striker playing for Gent. https://www.transfermarkt.com/tarik-tissoudali/profil/spieler/245228 Not sure why they'd want to sell him (and so he'd probably be relatively expensive). But looks like he had a decent season last year, with 21 goals / 12 assists in 51 games. That games number is a bit misleading as his minutes played (3,317) implies that he was a substitute for a big chunk of those games.

Was taking a look at this article just now, about TV rights. Still pathetic that we earn so much less than the Athenian clubs. But for me, the big takeaway is that the value proposition for getting that overseas Novasports subscription is...well, basically nonexistent. https://dailymedia.com.gr/media/sports-media/58234/tileoptika-dikaiomata-super-league-kai-kentriki-diacheirisi-i-analysi-kai-to-ti-ischyei.html So you're guaranteed to miss half of our derbies, I guess? I also think the Cup isn't included either, right?

Some Turkish twitter account is saying that they're interested in Kedziora, which inPAOK is scoffing at. I wouldn't be so sure - everyone is assuming he has been in the Netherlands since yesterday, but I have seen nothing to indicate he actually is there. Hopefully I'm just being paranoid.

For what it's worth, the random phone app I use still lists it as our next game. Lucescu also mentions both the "wednesday game" being two sixty minute halves (and that he wants two games on the same day for the last friendly), about six minutes into this video. It's probably still on, I would guess.

Hey, this is the time of year to see how these guys - esp the newer faces - look. I have no problem with the loss (and I like that our "worse" lineup did not give up a goal in the second half). That first goal looked like a Kotarski mistake btw; so maybe Tsiftsis is not a lost cause!

Was there something wrong with Brandon's goal? I'm watching on mute again so don't have the commentary 😞

What can I say; it's expensive keeping up this lifestyle. There's another rumor that we (and every team in Athens) are all trying to sign Bruno Petkovic, who you might remember from our games vs Dinamo Zagreb: https://www.transfermarkt.us/bruno-petkovic/profil/spieler/256358

Sounds like Kedziora is finally on his way. "Cleaned out his locker," allegedly. If true, then we can probably expect him in the Netherlands by Saturday/Sunday, depending on if he has to go to SKG first.

Hmmm I wonder which lineup he's looking to use for the actual game... Η πρώτη απαρτίζονταν από τους: Ταλιχμανίδη, Ότο, Μπάμπα, Θυμιάνη, Μιχαηλίδη, Οζντόεφ, Τσιγγάρα, Κουαλιάτα, Γκούμα, Βιεϊρίνια, Σαμάτα. Στην δεύτερη χρησιμοποίησε τους: Κοτάρσκι, Σάστρε, Ράφα Σοάρες, Εκόνγκ, Κουλιεράκη, Καμαρά, Σβαμπ, Ντεσπόντοφ, Τάισον, Μουργκ, Μπράντον.

Game was fine. Not much to take from that. Quagliata's a quick little guy, but the first half of the game my stream was terrible so it was hard to tell what was going on. -edit- I had missed the 2-1 - wow, that was a dumb miss/mistake by Tsiftsis...

I am not sure now where that first goal came from; maybe they eventually gave it to Schwab (who scored with his head). The second goal was Murg, using those supple legs of his.

First goal of the preseason, our own natural born killer, Schwab -edit- apparently it was disallowed? I'm watching on mute in the office so don't really know why

Here's one that seems destined for the B team: https://www.transfermarkt.us/christos-kourfalidis/profil/spieler/650224 He moved to Italy when he was 17; man's spent more time there than El Kaddouri, huh?

Some more names: Cyriel Dessers - striker for Rangers; I very much doubt there's truth to this, considering they just hired him, he played a lot last season, and seems to have been very successful there. https://www.transfermarkt.com/cyriel-dessers/profil/spieler/317806 Tiago Gouveia - winger for Benfica; seems to play mostly on the right. Reportedly Benfica already rejected a big offer for him from some other team. https://www.transfermarkt.com/tiago-gouveia/profil/spieler/479638

Warda about to sign with Garcia's Atromitos. These guys looove each other hahaha

Well for one, we're talking about the second stringers here. You might not have noticed, but the B team did not actually travel to Holland. As for that team, you would write off an entire program because it didn't result in star players after three seasons? What if I told you that Koulierakis played 22 games for the B team, before getting called up to the senior squad?

How?

Yeah, I was thinking that since we'll almost certainly see different lineups for every half on the other friendlies, this might give him a chance to instead play a full game for each squad, without alternating half the team. I don't hate the idea! Plus, I think we kind of showed last season that we don't really have a "B" team exactly. A lot of those positions are pretty fluid. Like is Despodov really only a backup to Zivkovic? Doubtful.