Brklyngrk

Austerity in itself does not work but austerity coupled with investment and incentives to spur investments does. The problem you have in Greece is that you have a bloated public sector, social programs (like pension) which cannot be supported by the current population and bureaucratic barriers that hinder investment. Greece has a very educated young population which can be employed at a discount to European peers, year round great weather, very advantageous position in the world (China has taken notice hence its investments in our infrastructure). Every major company should be knocking on Greece's door wanting to invest. However, everyone is scared to.

The issue is that while we accepted bail outs, the accompanying reforms were never implemented or if implemented, at a very slow pace. When the reforms that were implemented finally got some traction, we had elections and Syriza came into power. They were able to do everything the Greek people had done the previous 5 years in just months. This current administration set back the country 10 years!! ( I am being generous). Many of the required programs requested by the creditors have been necessary and long overdue. They have the intellectual capital, just not at the political level.

There is blame to go around....In Greece, while the people may not have taken out the loans, they were complicit in allowing the govn't to function. Any administration that would have said to cut spending would have been thrown out in minutes. The EU gave Greece loans as a way to integrate it more in the Eurozone but they also were complicit and turned a blind eye to any warning signs. In the US, we may have $19 trillion in debt but we are still looked at as center of the financial world, if that doesn't define success, not sure what does. Having said that, most Americans do believe that reforms must be made to lower the national debt. The debt is not sustainable and most people know that.

if he keeps getting clean sheets, why not??? you play the best 11!!!

No grexit - deal was reached.

Apparently Kontonis wants concessions from EPO in order to relent with UEFA. So it's a game of chicken, let's see who wins. We all know who loses.

Not sure how banning an entire league/national federation from international competitions is a good thing? You are setting back Greece at least another 4 years. Crazy how things just seem to get worst...

The team looked better than it had at any point under the last two coaches. The coach is trying to see what he has, whether it be Moras or even Tziolis. He is seeing this team for the first time and as we all know, injuries can and do happen. The thing I like is that he is trying to use the best 11 players and not necessarily limiting them to defined positions. Many of us have stated that Holebas may be better off playing up as a winger in games were we need pace. By putting Stafylidis in there in mid, not his natural position, he showed that he would be willing to do that. I rather he experiment and learn about the players now then doing this in September.

We all can agree there is a significant drop in quality from Papastathopoulos/Manolas to Moras/Oikonomou. This was a friendly were the coach decided to try different things, hopefully lessons were learned and we can go on. The positive is that Fortounis has shown to be a difference maker. He will only get better as he continues to play with the team. Say what you want about Karnezis but he is not as bad as many make him out to be. Currently, we do not have anyone better than him. I remember watching Kpaps a few years ago when he was at Schalke. Shalke was playing Benfica in the CL. He must have put in one of the best games I can ever remember him playing as a DM. He was everywhere!!! Sadly, he can not stay healthy.

We also have to remember that we played with a completely different back 3 + goalie. This was probably the first (and last) time they have played together. He was trying to guys who are for the most part unknowns. He couldn't keep all the starters out but we can all agree that 8 of the starting 11 will not be starting come September.

The Greek international defender seems to be clutching his groin. Youngster, Eric Durm replaces him at centre-back. Didn't specify any injury status/update.

The EU was mad at Greece for not doing its part in documenting the refugees and letting them go through Europe unabated. Greece had similar issues (some may say that we still do) with Turkey. Italy sees that if it doesn't stop the refugees at the Greek border, they will not stop in Albania, but go right into Italy. There is blame to go around.

The main reason for the decline in the league is the loss of revenues. Loss of revenues is a direct reflection to the general economy in Greece. People have less disposable income to spend on discretionary items such as going to soccer matches....

Not sure that you can call OLY second class citizens in the Europe when for the last few years, they have been unlucky not to progress to the knockouts in the CL. They also beat some pretty good teams along the way including last year's runner's up.

Regardless of whether or not OLY won, they still managed to score 9 points in a tough group. Arsenal and Bayern have 5 times the resources that OLY has. To say their campaign has been a failure, would not be fair. The super league needs OLY in the CL as for the moment, they represent the best chance they have to gain any exposure for the Greek league. If OLY keeps beating top teams, scouts will look at the Greek league more closely and invest in our players, buying some for a nice amount. Then in theory, that amount would be reinvested in player development for younger players. It is a model that has worked quite nicely in Portugal/the Netherlands. I'm a PAO fan but they have not been able to have a strong European campaign in a while.

Regardless of what the issues are, reacting in the manner that was shown on Saturday is inexcusable. Injuring police officers and putting fans lives at risk is not an acceptable way to act. You are going to a sporting event to enjoy yourself, not to find yourself in the middle of riot police.

I bought ZAAP tv for my mom, works really well. She has about 100 greek channels plus 50 Cypriot channels... No subscription fee, just a one time payment for the initial purchase ( I believe it was about $400). She loves it, she has had it for about a year

if you got to sports24.gr, they have a live stream

if you got to sports24.gr, they have a live stream

One of my Portuguese friends is a huge Benfica fan, tells me that the fans are generally happy with his play. They think he was a good find, not as confident with Mitroglou though...

These are friendlies, doesn't really matter if he calls them up. At least he gets to see them in practice and make a decision based on how they perform for him. If he feels that they are not good, he will not call them up again. Also, if you look at the average age of the team, it is probably closer to 25 than 30.

I doubt that Greece is the most polluted country in the EU. We have the 2nd or 1st most blue flagged beaches in the world. While garbage collection is an issue, industry is what causes the most pollution and sadly, we definitely lack far behind the rest of Europe... I do agree that the mine incident is purely political, for some reason job creation is not a top priority in Greece...

There are always teams that do well on leaner budgets than their peers...Didn't APOEL make the CL quarterfinals a few years back? Not exactly spending $50 million. And spending doesn't guarantee you a title either. For a country with the size and economy of Greece, we should be following the Portuguese/Dutch model. They do not outspend their European counterparts. They have developed a good solid infrastructure with solid scouting. Benfica/Porto routinely go head to head with the top teams of the world even though they are outspent 3 to 1.

The league is improving from were it was a few years ago (PAO almost being declared bankrupt and AEK being relegated). While it can't compete with the 1st tier of leagues, it can definitely stand in the 2nd tier. Remember, while I am not an OLY fan, they have more than held their own against some top teams in the CL (Atletico, Juventus, Arsenal). We are now seeing some more competiveness from our 2-5 teams.

Karellis is still not a finished product but he does score goals. Regarding Karnezis, you can not say he is crap because while he hasn't had that many great games for the national team, he has played very well for Udinese, getting quite a few man of the match awards. We have no other goal keeper starting in a competitive league that is doing as well.