Brklyngrk

Hopefully they follow through...

Sokratis' time has passed, I would put Mavropanos instead of him. Also, Tzolis also doesn't get any game time, I could see Masouras on his side and Limnios sliding in on the right.

That striker though is one of the best strikers in the world.

The problem with Fortounis is that he doesn't hustle and his workrate leaves a lot to be desired. Talented - for sure, but if you remember, he has been reprimanded his entire career for not taking the extra step. One of his former teammates (I believe it was Podence) called him out for his lack of practice. Doesn't exactly scream captain material.

He needs to earn the captaincy. Come back and play at a high level. Has anyone else noticed that Bakasetas hasn't been starting for his team anymore?

I thought that Sok and Manolas called out Anastasiadis for his lack of preparation. They were annoyed on how he didn't get the team prepared to play against Italy. They had four weeks to prepare and they hadn't even scouted Italy at all. In fact, right before game time, he wanted Siovas to play as either a RB or LB (don't remember), a position he had never played before. Siovas had to convince Anastasiadis that he was not comfortable there for lack of experience so he reverted to a back 3 instead, right before gametime. That is my recollection of those two.

Should be a good tie - PAOK got a reasonable good draw, especially given the alternatives.

Santos got results but his soccer left alot to be desired, the things my Portuguese friends are saying about him is what I remember about him when we had him...

OLY guaranteed a few more games. Now up to PAOK to get through...

Was talking to one of my Portuguese friends about Santos. They like him but they think he plays too defensive. In the game against Serbia, they scored the first goal and then stopped trying to score. They just sat back absorbing pressure for the majority of the game. They didn't start attacking again until the last few minutes. May have won them the Euro but with the team they have, they should have qualified for the WC as the first place team.

That's right - so they are incentivized to win....

They have a real shot, Fernabahce can beat Franfurt and OLY can beat Antwerp.

Need to keep winning, 15th place is the goal - that is the tier cutoff for places in Europe.

The problem is now who comes next.....

Realistically, PAOK should beat Imps and Copenhagen should beat Slavia. Copenhagen still has incentives to win (country coefficient, win share $).

They had a year to fix that stadium in Crete - instead, they gave up....

If Lazaro wasn't shellfish at that end of that game, we would have been through... Regarding coaches - Valverde, Santos, Donis in that order...

Not taking anything away from Santos, but we did have some luck in that tourney. We won one game that tournament and it was against the IC on a questionable penalty.

There are some grumblings in Portugal now that they are no longer happy with his performance...

I think they should start, but I can see you making an argument (depending on formation) to include Douvikas instead of Tziolis. Alexandropoulos hasn't played in the ethniki yet, can't pencil him as an automatic starter yet.

Vlacho, Mavropanos, Masouras - everyone else, you can make an argument for or against.

Saw the game yesterday, it was insane how much better Tsimikas is than the rest of the team. How many times did he have an amazing cross with no one on the other side getting to it or misfiring. If Masouras can finish half his chances, he would be a super star. Our biggest issue is that we can't create real chances. For all our dominance, it seemed like we did not know how to dribble in the final third. Mantalos should not be in this team.

I'd put Masouras and RW but yes, give the kids a chance!! JVS even said he was surprised how Saliakas hasn't gone to a bigger team....

Valverde was the coach Zagorakis wanted, when he didn't get him, he resigned. I think we will give JVS another contract, for better or worse.

I thought Sokratis and Manolas declined invites to the ethniki. He said as much in last interview. Siovas should have been called up.