Blackhawk

Done thing. Got voted in today 13-3. The new playoff format starts next season. SL with 14 teams start in 2018-19. There are some small countries that have this system, but none of the football powers would even think of having playoffs.

And then you have Malezas sitting almost all by himself.

PAOK players had a team dinner today after practice (see pic). At one table we have all the foreign players, while the other one are the young Greek players, each one of them with a smart phone in their hands planning their next likes for Tzavellas posts on Instagram.

It took longer than George Orwell predicted it, but it is here now.

During Superleague general meeting today it was decided with a vote of 13-3 (Larisa, Levadeiakos and Panaitolikos voted against) that starting with 2018-2019 season the Superleague will take place with 14 teams. It was also decided that starting with next season, the playoffs will take place with 6 teams, and it will include the team in first place after the regular season. Basically it means that the champion will be decided through a playoff system. Same thin applies to relegation. The teams finishing in places 7-14 will take part in a a play-out. In order to get to 14 teams, next season, the teams finishing in 15-16 will be relegated directly to Football League. teams finishing 13-14 will play a mini tournament with Football league teams finishing in places 2 & 3 during the regular season for one spot for Superleague. The winner of Football League will qualify automatically for Superleague.

VS MATCHUP: Atromitos Athens - P.A.O.K. Thessaloniki COMPETITION: Superleague – Round 27 DATE: 05-April-2017 TIME: 17:15 GR (17:15 GMT, 09:15 CDT, 00:15 AEST next day) CITY / STADIUM: Peristeri - Dimotiko Stadium (Capacity: 8,969) REFEREES: TELEVISION: Novasports (Greece), Sport Plus (USA/Canada) Atromitos vs. P.A.O.K. history Superleague 2015-2016: 1:2 (Berbatov, Mak) - Attendance: 1,219 2014-2015: 1:1 (Pereyra) - Attendance: 1,417 (playoffs) 2014-2015: 4:0 - Attendance: 1,640 2013-2014: 1:2 (Salpiggidis, Athanasiadis) - Attendance: 2,315 (playoffs) 2013-2014: 1:1 (Tzavellas) - Attendance: 2,894 2012-2013: 2:1 (Salpiggidis) - Attendance: 2,292 (playoffs) 2012-2013: 1:0 - Attendance: 3,910 2011-2012: 0:0 - Attendance: 3,274 2011-2012: 1:1 (Salpiggidis) - Attendance: 2,651 (playoffs) 2010-2011: 2:2 (Lino, El Zhar) - Attendance: no fans 2009-2010: 0:0 - Attendance: 4,020 Between 1981 - 2009 Atromitos was playing in lower divisions before merging with Chalkydona in 2008. Alpha Ethniki (Professional) 1980-1981: 0:2 (Triantafyllidis, Dimopoulos) - Attendance: ?? Alpha Ethniki (Amateur/Semi-Professional) 1976-1977: 1:6 (??) - Attendance: ?? (Leoforos Alexandras) 1975-1976: 0:1 (??) - Attendance: ?? 1974-1975: 0:1 (??) - Attendance: ?? 1972-1973: 0:2 (Sarafis, Apostolidis) - Attendance: ?? 1960-1961: 1:1 (Salusto) - Attendance: 2,000 (Karaiskaki Stadium) GAMES: 17 WINS: 7 TIES: 7 LOSSES: 3

Yes, although I think I made a mistake with Canas. He is eligible to play.

4:1 win against Finland. In last game today, if we beat Holland we would have qualified to the finals. Unfortunately we drew 0:0. the Dutch missed a penalty kick in the 80th minute.

PAOK men's handball team won the Greek Cup. In the final played in Kozani PAOK defeated Panellinios Athens 25:23.

Players not available for this game: Pelkas, Prijovic, Crespo, Canas, Cimirot, and possibly Campos

Ivan Savvidis along with four PAOK veterans (including Salpiggidis), to inaugurate the PAOK NY Fan Club, and be the Grand Marshall for the Greek Independence parade in NY tomorrow. Somebody on the east coast should go and have a talk with him and tell him to make the PAOK home games available on TV in the US/Canada/Australia.

It's for our next European game, for calling the Germans Nazis. How about the German fans at gate 8 waving 50 Euro bank notes at PAOK fans during the game?

Lost 2:0 to Ukraine in the Elite round of Euro. Tomorrow we play Finland.

I would take Zeca over Maniatis any day. The problem is that there are better players than Zeca that will not get a start.

Maduro who?

The semifnal Greek Cup schedule is as follows: April 12: Panathinaikos - PAOK April 13: Olympiakos - AEK ---------------------------------------- April 26: AEK - Olympiakos April 27: PAOK - Panathinaikos All games start at 19:00 EEST Also it was announced by EPO that the final will be played at a neutral venue, which means that if AEK makes it to the final it will not be played at OAKA. Stadiums in consideration are: OAKA - Athens Pagkrytio - Iraklio Kaftanzoglio - Thessaloniki AEL FC Arena - Larisa Pampeloponnisiako - Patra

The semifnal Greek Cup schedule is as follows: April 12: Panathinaikos - PAOK April 13: Olympiakos - AEK ---------------------------------------- April 26: AEK - Olympiakos April 27: PAOK - Panathinaikos All games start at 19:00 EEST Also it was announced by EPO that the final will be played at a neutral venue, which means that if AEK makes it to the final it will not be played at OAKA. Stadiums in consideration are: OAKA - Athens Pagkrytio - Iraklio Kaftanzoglio - Thessaloniki AEL FC Arena - Larisa Pampeloponnisiako - Patra

PAOK played in the Greek Cup final 17 times, winning it 4 times. Of those 17 finals only two were played in Thessaloniki, and that is because both finalists were from Thessaloniki. One of the finals was a double (home/away) game affair. The remaining 14 finals that PAOK took place in were all held in Athens/Piraeus.

First Chuck Berry and few days later Chuck Barris. Chuck Barris of the Gong Show fame (and producer of many other TV shows) dead at 87 years old. Used to love watching the Gong Show. Some great characters appeared on that show. RIP

The horse called PAOK:

I don't think our schedule is as tough as PAO's. Your next three SL games are against AEK, Panionios, and PAOK, If you drop points in those game you will need to make concerted effort to secure a playoff spot. In our case, if we beat Larisa in our next game (which we should easily), we are pretty much securely in the playoffs and then we can concentrate on the cup. I think it's 50-50 as far as who will progress. It will depend on who performs better in the two games. The result of the first game at Leoforo will be important. I also think whoever wins this semifinal tie will also win the cup, specially if Olympiakos will be in the final.

The game was played at Toumba of all places. On Saturday U21 plays in Poland.

We play them for SL on April 9 at home and then away for the cup 3 or 4 days later. We will need to be very careful as they are a sneaky team. Notice that they already chose to sit out some of their starters (Berg among them) in our SL game. They will have rested players for the first cup game. Our goal in the first game should be not to lose and if possible score. Then come to Toumba and take care of the qualification. The other good thing is that they have a tough schedule until then (AEK, Panionios). it will be a tough semifinal, but if we play like we can, our chances are fairly good to progress.

Glykos is good enough for the NT considering what the other options are. The issue is that he is not good enough to be a starter for PAOK.

RIP Chuck Berry and James Cotton. Both pioneers, Berry in rock & roll and Cotton in blues. Loved both their music throughout the years.