Torontoblue

I'm hoping for win, but my gut feeling is a tie. Cyprus is not just going to lay down. They will come out firing on all cylinders. Bosnia was 2-0 and lost 3-2 to Cyprus.

i thought I remembered reading that. Thsnks for finding

except the last group. Group I has only 5 teams so it won't affect them. this system is in place because of groups with only 5 teams. Wouldn't be fair to them. The rest of the groups the results against the 6th place team won't count. Gilbraltar won't matter( but still have to win of coure?)Cyprus is the one that counts especially on the goals scored.

We s%$#! the bed against Estonia. Those 2pts missed are going to come back to haunt us. I believe we will get 2nd. No way Bosnia beat Belgium. but with the way they do the 2nd place most likely we will end up as worst. The only hope we have is group D. Depending on their games today. theres 9 groups but 8 groups have 6 teams. Means that the results against the last place team won't count. So we could smash 30 goals against Gilbratar and it wouldn't matter. At the moment we would be the worst 2nd and no playoffs. Estonia was a big screw up. Those 2 pts damn. Cyprus also won't be easy. We need the 3 pts plus as much goals as possible.

I like the dream, now can it come true? I don't think so. Belgium will be to much for us. They will finish 1st. They have to much talent. I'm hoping and praying we can at least get 2nd spot then it becomes 50/50. But I really think we will finish 3rd. I'm probably going to get shot for that. But I see no hope. Coach who's lost, players with no passion to put on the shirt. Greece needs to invest in the youth. We need a world class facility, proper youth coaches. Proper youth system.

Get use to this boys and girls. We won't see the NT qualifying for major finals for a long time. The next round of qualifying starts a year from now. We won't qualify for Russia. Only the 1st place qualifies and best 8 2nd place teams in playoff. With this team we are not going anywhere. This is going to get worse. We are going to drop farther down the rankings. It's going to be a nightmare. We need a complete overhaul. It won't happen overnight.

This the problem with Greece, and most Greeks think the same way. This is why the country is F***ed up the way it is.

We wil not beat the finns with this team. Sorry. Do you think the players on the national team giver a s%$#! about the crisis? As long as the millions are rolling in and they can take care of their families, i doubt this economic situation will motivate them. There minds will still be in Mykonos. Greece will need many years to recover from this. The Fifa rankings play a big part. When your seeded lower it makes it difficult to qualify for tournaments. Thus sliding down further in the rankings. The economic situation will also affect the kids the most. No proper infrastructure, no proper training, nutrition, coaches, it will set Greece back 20 years for sure. We were in the easiest group, Qualifying assured. We could have moved up in the rankings. But no. It all went backwards. If it wasn't for the economic situation i would say we will bonce back. But not now. Not for a long time.

I take it your American jvc. But i got news for you. Your country will not bail out Greece. The Americans will not step on German toes. There is bigger fish to fry than Greece. Like Russia, the Middle East, China. Do you think the Americans want to anger Germany?? They need the Germans more than they need Greece. LMAO

Tsipras is a motherF***er. Hes to blame for his mickey mouse approach. He ruined Greece in his 7 months in office.

Tsipras, Varoufakis and Syriza are to blame for all of this. Yes of course past Governments started all this. But Syriza came to power with all their lies to the people. They made the people believe they were the saviors of Greece. They would return Greece to all its glory. tell the rich countries to F U. How can the EU trust Greece after all the lies. They dragged this on for so long and even called a referendum. Now Tspiras turns his back on Greece, tells the NO voters to FU instead, and the world is laughing at us. Check message boards from all the news sites. Everyone thinks Greeks are mental cases, lol. WTF. Some of you saying America will come to our rescue. Yeah right. You think the Americans want to anger Germany and it allies? The Americans plate is full with the Middle East, Russia and China. They could less about Greece right now.

LMAO, Tsipras and Syriza get elected on " No more Austerity" "Enough is Enough" " The Greek people have suffered enough". He rejects deal after deal, he even calls a referendum to see what the Greek people want. A big NO is passed, people dancing, drinking , celebrating on the streets. What does he do? He brings the same deal that was offered months ago, back to the table. WTF??? The elderly and sick are suffering, banks are closed, people can't even get to their money. suffering all around. Everyone blaming the wealthy Europeans for all of this. I would say Tsipras is the blame of all of this. He really is a mental case ,a failure. The world world is laughing at Greece now. Who will take this country serious. Its like a person hiding and making excuses to a debt collector when they owe money on a credit card. Making excuse after excuse. My poor Greece.

All this talk. Nothing will change. Tsipras promised the banks opened Tues. Its now Thurs and still closed till Monday, LMAO. Taxes will go up, pensions down, no debt forgiveness. Tsipras will bow to Germany. He has no choice. All those poor souls dancing last sunday after the vote will be in for a shock come this Monday Morning.

This is just the start. Its going to get worse. We will be seeded in the lower pots from now on. That won't help the cause. And the Economic situation in Greece will make our soccer infrastructure go to s%$#!. 3rd world style. Its going to be like the 70'and 80's and 90's again. How i remember those decades. LOL

Best post on this thread so far!!

Turns out the banks will remain closed till Friday, but looking more likely to be closed till Monday, open Tuesday if a deal is made..What are the NO voters thinking now? LMAO Do the NO voters really think Austerity will end? All of a sudden debt gets wiped clean and they give us more money? If it were that easy i would max out my 3 credit cards and credit line, and tell the banks a big F*** you i'm not paying, then ask for more money. LOL

I cant believe some of you want the people to vote NO. Thats crazy, suicidal. Leave the Euro, a strong real currency and go back to the Drachmas. LOL. The Drachmas wouldn't be worth the paper its printed on. Greece would be worse off. That currency would be so de-valued. Think Zimbabwean dollars? What trade would happen with the drachmas? Who would want to do business with that? The only happy people would be the foreigners, who could vacation and live in Greece like kings with their money. LOL I see no other out come tomorrow but a YES vote. The Greek people aren't stupid. Austerity is painful, but a life under the Drachma would be worse.

But in global strength Greece is ranked 65 out of 126 countries, they are ranked in Europe 20th out of 28 countries, They might have Equipment, but no one to man them. In available manpower they are ranked 74 out of 126 countries and in fit men ready for action they are ranked 71 out of 126. The only thing the Greek military is ready for is to fight those poor pensioners with canes, LOL. I'm a proud Greek, but i know that this country is in more trouble than the Military or Government can fix. They need debt forgiveness, and start fresh. Just like a normal person who does a bankruptcy can get a chance to do.

I watched the game. Sweden got lucky. Portugal controlled the whole game, they had Sweden pegged back. They hit the post, and had so many shots. Sweden only really showed up in the last 10 mins. Portugal should have been champs, but that is soccer,You don't score, you don't win. I said it before but Greece should look at Portugal for inspiration on their youth teams. What is Portugal doing different? Portugal made it to the finals of the under 20 world cup 2 yrs ago losing to Brazil on Penalties, this year the under 20 world cup they went out in Penalties to Brazil in the quarters, unlucky because Portugal were the better team. At the under 21's they make the finals. They thrashed the Germans 5-0 in the semis. Clearly Portugal is doing something right. I watch a lot of Portuguese football because my wife is Portuguese. They have another golden generation of players coming up. Greece needs to follow the same program.

What an embarrassment, lol Greece becomes the first modern country to not be able to pay back the IMF. We join such illustrious countries as Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Sudan, Cuba. WTF?? What has happened to Greece? Thank god my Grandfathers decided to come to Canada back in the 50's. Greece has now only became a place for me to visit for a few weeks, but i would never want to live there. I feel sorry for the Greeks there.

Hahaha, had a good laugh. Some of you still holding out that we will make third place? Forget about it. Its over. Do you think Greece will win the next 4 games? Beat Romania and N. Ireland away? I admire the optimism, but the fat lady has sung and left the building, lol. Nothing to look forward to till the qualifiers for the world cup. Even that is not promising. We are in pot 3.

Next qualifiers for 2018 only 13 Euro teams qualify.( i said 14 in my last post, was wrong) The nine 1st place teams go through and the best 8, 2nd place teams go into a playoff for the final 4 spots. The way the team is now, and with a chance of getting 2 big boys in the same group, i see no chance. The Fa and the government has to start investing money into the youth, the leagues, infrastructure, development, coaches, etc etc. Why do you think a country like Portugal thats small like Greece, poor, same problems has been a regular player on the big stage? Back in the 80's Carlos Queiroz drew up a blue print for youth soccer. What happened, Portugal went on to win back to back under 20 world cups in 89 and 91. Their youth teams are usually qualify for youth tournaments. they have also been winners in the under 16's, under 18's, under 21's. Since Euro 96 they have only missed out on France 98. And checking the standings they are 1st place in their group at the moment. The USA in the early 90's hired Carlos Queiroz to over haul their youth system in that country. Look at them now. I'm not saying hire Carlos Queiroz( ok maybe, lol) but we need to give the youth in the country the right tools to become better players.

We better prepare ourselves for a decade or more of just qualifiers and not tournaments. There is no way Greece will even qualify for 2018, or the Euros after that. We are ranked 25 in the world right now, with 15 Euro teams ahead of us. After Saturdays embarrassment we will drop further down the chain. we will probably end up in pot 4 for the next round of qualifiers. If we can't get out of the easiest group during these qualifiers, and as the seeded team and to rub salt into the wound the top 2 qualify with the 3rd place going into the playoff's, how the hell are we going to qualify when we aren't even top seed or 2nd seed? Only 14 European teams qualify for the World cup. Its going to be down hill from here. The only solution is to invest in the youth. New infrastructure, proper youth development. We got to forget about this crop of players and think ahead about 10-15 yrs. The FA and government has to invest in the youth. Its the only way. But of course it won't happen with the financial situation going on in Greece. I'm old enough to remember what it was like to go years with out qualifying. When we qualified for the 1980 Euros(first time ever) it was like something unbelievable. then we had to wait 14 yrs for USA 94 and us Greeks were so proud, but thats what we were use to. Qualify every 15yrs was awesome. We got spoiled this last decade. I feel bad for the youth who are so use to having a team guaranteed every summer there is a tournament. Better prepare for some dark decades ahead.