Soprano76

Take this w/ a grain of salt, but I read that he has a history of pulmonary embolisms, which can be pretty serious. Let's hope he can stay healthy even beyond the pitch.

Ti epathe o Karelis?

Don't you think saying Donis is overhyped is an exaggeration? I thought Donis looked very solid out there, but he did have one mistake and that was not shooting the ball one his breakaway.

Greece had a 10 year run of form that included 3 Euro appearances (1 championship, 1 quarterfinal) and 2 WC appearances (1 round of 16). Realistically, with the type of football that Greece played coupled with the quality of their players, they likely overachieved in that time span and had a lot of things that had to go their way, such as relatively easy group draws and scraping out 1-0 wins (who remembers that game vs Slovakia where the only goal was the blunder by the GK?! haha). EPO, the players and whomever else should have known that the run of luck and "park the bus to win" was going to end sooner or later and that they would have to step up their game if they wanted to make regular appearances at major tournaments. Where did all the money and exposure from these tournaments go? Why wasn't any of this reinvested in Greek football? The 2014 WC squad reportedly gave their bonuses to the EPO for better training facilities and investment, but what happened with that? The problems with the NT are merely a symptom of what I believe to be a much larger problem. There's no proper investment, vision, or cooperation to produce technically skilled players that can elevate Greece to the next level. Look at Iceland, population of 300k but they put a plan in place and it's paid off for them now two tournament cycles in a row; same can be said for Germany and the changes they made over 10 years ago. And it's all such a shame too. You have probably one of the best CB trios in the world along with a 4th CB who is going to be a star someday and a very good striker in MItroglou but the pieces around them are severely lacking and thus their NT careers are being wasted.

I don't understand how this team can be so technically inept.. what is it? Why is this team allergic to scoring goals? It honestly baffles me. This team plays worse than their collective talent would dictate.. they have a bunch of players at solid squads all across Europe yet they can't score a goal and have been having terrible defensive lapses for a few years at this point. I don't watch much soccer at all so I don't pretend to be an expert but these performances are so gutless; the team just went dead after the Swiss goal.

Fortounis always has this lackadaisical look about him and he seems to blow a good amount of good chances while in scoring position. Though, I understand appearance doesn't always match reality and he may actually be passionate, just introverted about it. Donis has excellent pace and brings a much needed spark to the team but he seems to have some issues with finishing. He should have shot that one opportunity he had on the breakaway. He needs to be in the starting 11 every match from now on though; no more Baka and Mantalos on the wing please.

I'm digging Greece's new jerseys haha. Need to see them in HD before I can make a better judge though.

Who are some of the big prospects that are looking to have a bright future for the NT? Has Spanoudakis been playing for the youth team yet? I know he came up thru the German system and was with them for a while. There's also that Albanian striker for Oly, named Vrusaj or something. I wonder who he'd pick if he has a choice.

Yea it's in that general area. I had some questions revolving around the more-modern history that goes into the naming dispute. We all know the ancient Macedonians were a Greek tribe, and that has been pretty well attested to in archaeology and via surviving texts. My question is, how many of the Greeks in Makedonia today are "ntopioi" whose families have been there for centuries and not either Pontic refugees or just Hellenized Slavs? For example, I've seen youtube videos of ethnic Skopjian folklore songs being played at paniyiria up in Edessa and Florina. When I briefly visited Edessa, I didn't get the impression that there were many Slavophones there other than some touristy types. It seems like prior to the population exchange, the majority of Greeks in Makedonia were concentrated around Thessaloniki. It's kind of off-topic and tangential to the naming dispute but it's something I've always wondered and not known too well about

Fokida.. in some xorio up in the bouna, small place.

Yeah, basically the majority of Greeks in Chicago are from Tripoli or thereabout. There's a sizeable group of Roumeliotes (which is where I'm from) and then one church that I know of for sure that's made up of all nisiotes. I know two families by me that are from Makedonia, and one is Ponti. And then there's your occasional Kritiko or someone from Ipiro mixed in as well. The Skopianoi in America are definitely a small group, however they're still pretty brainwashed. One of the Skop churches near my house has a large Vergina Sun plaque on their main sign facing a big road. There's a big billboard across the street and I kind of feel like trolling them by renting out the billboard and having it say "Macedonia is Greek" lol. The longer this issue goes on, the more Greeks lose in the court of public opinion. Most Americans are poorly educated about world affairs, there's no way they know the difference between Makedonia and FYROM. That's why I'm so disappointed in my fellow Greeks because they perpetuate the falsehoods. There was an interesting traveling exhibit at the Field Museum here two years ago called "The Greeks: From Agamemnon to Alexander the Great" that had a good chunk about the ancient Makedonoi and their Hellenic background. Hopefully that stuck for the American visitors.

The Greeks where I'm from in Chicago really do a terrible job with this whole issue. Granted, there are very few people from Makedonia or Thrace that I've met here but mostly everyone refers to the Skops as "Masos" or Macedonians and don't know about our history. It's sad.

I suppose, but most people I've seen in the states wear soccer stuff as a piece of "style." I've worn my Salpi jersey 2 times... once at a Greek fest and another at the US vs Belgium Round of 16 that was being shown on the jumbotron at soldier field lol. Definitely got some sideways glances with that.

There's been a lot in the news lately about this data firm known as Cambridge Analytica that worked under the directives of the Trump campaign to accumulate Facebook data for targeted messaging. Seems like the connections between Trump's campaign, the alt-right, data groups and Russian oligarchs run very deep. At this point, it seems an awful lot like the Trump campaign acted either illegally or unethically w/ regards to outside influence. Compound that with Trump's pattern of covering up these past behaviors (Comey firing) and general incompetence, it's hard not to feel a real animosity to the people who still fanatically support the man.

That would be nice, IMO. Don't countries put a gold one for their World Cup championships? I'm not sure if anyone does it for the Euro's but why not start the trend. The jersey that I mentioned actually has "UEFA Euro 2004 Champions" stitched on the inside collar

I haven't been too fond of the jerseys Greece has had lately. The best one they had recently, in my opinion, was their blue Euro 2012 kit. The dark blue jerseys with a light blue cross that met at the patch. I have a Salpigidis one of those.

Right at the end of the game as he was shaking Panachaiki's coach's hand (around minute 12:04 in the video above)

If Oly are able to somehow weasle their way to first place after all of these point deductions, I'll probably just laugh my *** off. I just want to see someone new (preferably PAOK) win it this year.

I agree, having clubs like Aris, OFI, and Panachaiki in the Superleague instead of Platanias, Levadiakos, etc is better for the overall health of Greek soccer Manos is having a great year for OFI but I feel like at 23 years old he should be nearing the "prime" of his career and frankly, if he were a star wouldn't he at least be playing for one of the big 4 in Greece? Panachaiki has a 16 year old, whose name I forget, that has scored once this year and is apparently a very good prospect. To be honest, after seeing the effort and work Katsourani has done to foster a strong team made up of Greek players, I kind of feel bad for bagging on him while he was playing for the Ethniki. Seems like he's very passionate about this and PanaX has come out better as a result.

Haha did anybody see the frappe that hit Aris' coach?

There was a rally in NY yesterday, not sure how many people made it out but I had heard about 10k.

Just tuned in to the watch the game.. Panachaiki has a pretty big crowd for this game, bigger than most of the Superleague games I've watched this season. We'll see if Aris can pull it out.

when should we expect a ruling on the outcome of this game and/or the one against Oly?

It seems so odd to me that Fetfa has been essentially blacklisted from NT these past few years. Is it really because he's playing in Saudi Arabia? I find that hard to believe. Not saying the guy is a world beater by any means, but he's pacey and provides the type of spark that the Ethniki is largely missing.

Trump's presidency has been a circus. I'm still surprised by the sheer number of Americans who were able to fall for his incoherent speeches and essentially deify him. Perhaps what's most disheartening is that the majority of the GOP is following him down this road of right wing populism and demagoguery (but her emails!!!!). Republicans are slowly becoming a party strictly for Evangelicals, rural old-timers and unemployed factory workers. The middle class suburbanites and highly educated folks are flocking to the Democratic party who are having a bit of an identity crisis of their own. Both parties are at an interesting crossroads, whereas the Republicans are marching to the right, the mainstream Democrats have so far resisted become the party of democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders. What I fear is that with increasing polarization, a large number of Americans (including myself) will find themselves stuck in the middle with no voice to represent them.