The Preliminary Squad for the Euro 08

[dark_horse]

If you want to have your posted edited, just PM me and I'll fix it. ;)

It's real funny you brought up Machlas into the pitcure, that player is washed up. :LOL:

[AEK-MTL]

Well, although plenty of things can change before the start of EURO 2008, what we'll likely see is the team we had during qualifying.

Goalkeepers: Chalkias, Nikopolidis, and Kotsolis

Defenders: Dellas, Seitaridis, Kyriakos, Torosidis, Patsatzoglou, Spyropoulos, Goumas, Antzas

Midfielders: Katsouranis, Karagounis, Basinas, Giannakopoulos, Tziolis

Forwards: Samaras, Charisteas, Amanatidis, Salpignidis, Lyberopoulos, Gekas, Papadopoulos

From these players, we'll likely see the usual suspects in the starting 11, which isn't bad since I think we have a good team as long as we cut down on some of the defensive lapses and capitalize on our chances (I know, easier said than done).

[DUDE]

If I'm not mistaken Larissa's striker Clayton has received Greek citizenship this week. He may be considered if he has a good season. I'm still not sure about having a foreigner in the squad, but just thought I'd bring it to your attention that he's eligible.

[js1000]

i'm all for having foreign players if it benefits the NT but up front is the one position where we have alot of players not sure we need cleyton

[DUDE]

i'm all for having foreign players if it benefits the NT but up front is the one position where we have alot of players not sure we need cleyton

From a footballing perspective, I think Cleyton could offer something different. However, personally I'm against having foreign players. Imagine Greece ending up like France with 10 Africans and 1 French keeper. This is International football ffs. Imo you should only be eligible to play if you have blood ties or were born in that country otherwise no. Before Petr Cech went to Chelsea there was talk of Carlo Cuducini playing for England. That's ridiculous re gamoto... imagine the interview...

Interviewer: "Good 1-0 win for England today Carlo, how do you feel?"

Cudicini: "Ia very haappy with the clean shittta, and the uno zero win. I am especially haappy because... mama mia... they put us lots of pressure."

Interviewer: "Thanks Carlo"

Cudicini: "Grazzi".

:P

International football is for your countrymen, club football is for transfers.

[js1000]

you're right but other countries are benefiting from foreign players. imagine having castillo playing for us. awesome

[Guest geok]

I don't think Otto will call Cleyton, and even if he does in the future, for the bench only.

Seitaridis is definitely out, so I would like to see Spyropoulos in for that one and Torosidis on the other side exactly as aek66 explained. It would be great like that.

I think on Saturday many of us will be looking on an unexpected match, just for the sake of the rankings for WC2010: the game between FYROM-Croatia. For the first and I hope only time in my life will hope for a FYROM victory. And next week a good result for us would be England to win. Otherwise (if Croatia wins in Scopia) we would want Croatia to win again in England. We also want a victory for Italy this weekend against Scotland (my apologies to the Scots) and two consecutive defeats of Romania in the last 2 of their games. If we get all these results and we get 6 points in the last 2 games will be seeded in the first group and would therefore have a great chance of going to WC2010.

I think we will win this one against Malta and I hope to see some new players and a test of tactics in this game, if the scoreline in the second half allows it.

Other big games during the weekend: Israel-Russia, Scotland-Italy. With a victory the Scots go through and most likely leave Italy out!!! That will be a great game.

Best to focus on us: :gr: :gr: :gr:

[plato-ny]

Since some of you feel that the Greek NT should be only Greek players, the shouldnt the coach be Greek as well?

[as5664]

Since some of you feel that the Greek NT should be only Greek players, the shouldnt the coach be Greek as well?

Well, Otto is not hispanic. Anyway, you have a point. All that I would ask is that they make his name Alexandros Cleitonas :D

Brazil is so nice, we should give them one of our players for their national team...Chariteas, Anatolakis :la:

[loup]

not 81-1 but still a good bet

Outright winner

Sunday, June 01, 2008

EURO 2008, Europe

EURO 2008 - 6:00 AM

Germany 5.00

Italy 7.00

France 8.00

Netherlands 9.00

Spain 10.00

Portugal 10.00

England 17.00

Switzerland 19.00

Czech Republic 19.00

Croatia 21.00

Greece 26.00

Sweden 29.00

Romania 29.00

Russia 29.00

Norway 51.00

Poland 67.00

Austria 67.00

Turkey 81.00

Scotland 101.00

Serbia 126.00

Finland 351.00

Denmark 1001.00

Bulgaria 2001.00

Northern Ireland 2001.00

[NikosVazelas]

the greek u-21 team played today and lost 4-3 in athens to croatia. the goals were scored by petropoulos,tripotseris and a wicked goal by dimoutsos.

the reason i say this is because, this team, the u-21 team i mean has great midfield presence but our defence is really shaky. i can see dimoutsos making the transistion tot he big team by next summer as a reserve especially if he continues playing the way he has for pao and the u-21`s.

i think our midfield should look like this. Tziolis, Basinas, Katsouranis, Dimoutsos, Stelios, Karagounis,Ninis and maybe lagos if he can stay healthy and also gets playing time with aek. Mind you i add Ninis and Dimoutsos,not as a pao fan, but as reserves for the team to help them gain experience for the future. they are 17 and 19 respectively and i think it would help if they go along to austria if only for the experience. they do also have speed and soemtimes in certain games in might help to have a fast midfield. even though i think the midfield of kara katsou and basinas is never gonna be replaced unless they retire.

i would also put in christodoulopoulos because everytime i have seen him play he has been dangerous. he is a great player in the box but , and although it might surprise you to hear this, i think his best position would be behind the two center forwards.

[Olympiakosthyra7]

ya niko but wut about mitroglou he might have the most potential out of the three of them

[Genome]

Well, Otto is not hispanic. Anyway, you have a point. All that I would ask is that they make his name Alexandros Cleitonas :D

Or Otto Roxamis :P

[DUDE]

i believe queen elizabeth has lineage to byzantine royalty and her husband has lineage to greek royalty, does this mean that henry and william are eligible to play for the modern hellenic nation as wide midfielders?

i don't like quick citizenship granted just for that reason.

now, the children of let's say a boublis or batista...if they were born and grew up in greece, they have every right to play for the greek national team as a 'pedro' batista or 'ramon' rocha jr. as someone named andreas from patra or dimitrios from thessaloniki.

if kone played, i wouldn't think twice about it.

as far as cleyton, a great finisher for sure. calm..cool. but, i don't think he's needed.

The only links they have with Greece is that Prince Phillip was born in Greece. No blood ties at all. Defining identity is very difficult in today's globalised world. Some people claim that blood relations make you Greek, but not all those people consider themselves Greek. Is Jason Koumas more Greek than my friend Pete who's is of Italian and Armenian origin but was born in Cyprus, is Greek Orthodox, and Greek is his first language? Or is Stan Lazaridis more Greek than those Turks who were Orthodox and came over during the population exchange with the Ottomans?

Would that logic mean that religion make you Greek then? Would that make an ethnic Albanian who is Greek Orthodox more Greek than our fellow member here Akritis who is a self-proclaimed atheist?

Does culture make you Greek then? If so would an ethnic Englishman who has grown up in Greece and enjoys the cafe culture lifestyle be more Greek than an ethnic Greek who's grown up in Australia and prefers going to the pub for a beer?

It's impossible to determine, so I would use blood ties and birth place as the criteria. That way, if you do have either of those and feel Greek then you'll chose Greece. Otherwise you'll chose another nation, like Koumas did. ;)

But I heard Cleyton got Italian citizenship in the end so this argument won't be relevant for a while yet I suspect.

[as5664]

Or is Stan Lazaridis more Greek than those Turks who were Orthodox and came over during the population exchange with the Ottomans?

Those were not "Orthodox Turks", but ethnic Greeks living in their native (Ottoman ruled) lands. There was a time when all of Greece was ruled by Turks; were they "Orthodox Turks" as well???

Half of the Greek NT are pontoi, are they Turks as well???

I thought the bias against poor mikrasiates disappeared 70 years ago; has it been resurrected in Greeks abroad??

[Akritis_1944]

Good news for post Euro ethniki.

As quoted on sport.gr

"

[Akritis_1944]

Or is Stan Lazaridis more Greek than those Turks who were Orthodox and came over during the population exchange with the Ottomans?

Those were not "Orthodox Turks", but ethnic Greeks living in their native (Ottoman ruled) lands. There was a time when all of Greece was ruled by Turks; were they "Orthodox Turks" as well???

Half of the Greek NT are pontoi, are they Turks as well???

I thought the bias against poor mikrasiates disappeared 70 years ago; has it been resurrected in Greeks abroad??

As I was brought into the discussion somehow, I think I should add the following.

I consider myself Greek first before and beyond any other label, (be it christian, socialist, Australian etc) because of my culture, which is deeply influenced by the Greek orthodox religion, yet I am not a subscriber to the tenets of the Greek Orthodox church or the whole notion that there was a man named Jesus who was born 2000 years ago in Israel and he is the the son of God. Discussion for anther time and forum. Anyway....

I was born and raised in Australia however I will always feel Greek and proud of it. If I was good enough a player as I think I am in my head I would only play for Hellas. I enjoyed the benefits of growing up in Australia, however I have never attended a tax payer footballing academy like Anthony Seric or Josip Simunic.

As for Stan Lazaridis. I have met him and he openly told me he is a proud Greek and his conscious of his Pontian roots. He was born in Australia and played his football here so he naturally followed the logical route and made himself available for Australian selection.

The same situation was on offer with PAO's Anthony Seric, however he was seduced into playing for Croatia and he (and his family -his father at least) has regretted this decision ever since.

And NO, the biases against Mikr-Asiates hasn't been resurrected abroad!

[aek21]

Good news for post Euro ethniki.

As quoted on sport.gr

"

[Guest geok]

It seems that there are some plans for friendlies against similar teams with the ones that we will face in the first stage of Euro 2008, which is an excellent idea by Otto & EPO. I expect that in those games there will be tactical tests of the starting eleven (different formations-tactics) and some players from the current bench will also be tested to see if they can be good substitutes. At this point I am sorry to dissapoint you but you should not realistically expect any addition to the current team (as we all expect form Otto) apart from:

-Past members of the team who can be re-called to be tested (eg Lagos).

I can't really see anything new here. Already we need to choose 23 players and the current players that Otto considers are more, so there must be a cut out. You should not be dissapointed, my fellow Greek compatriots, because this is a 30 days tournament, so people that you want to see in the team (many of you mention Tavlaridis among other players) are likely to appear in the next qualification campaign as Dellas and some other players definitely will retire after the coming EURO (especially if we do well). Refreshment of the team is a forced necessity as players naturally retire.

So, to sum it up, I expect to see some trusted players recalled after injuries (eg lagos) but I don't expect to see any new faces for the EURO 2008 and in my opinion rightly so. But I hope to see some few new faces after EURO 2008.

:gr: :gr: :gr:

[Akritis_1944]

After the form Stoltidis this season, I think he should be in the squad for Euro.

The guy is a machine. I don't think there is a tougher player in Europe. I reckon he'd crush Thomas Gravesen

Why shouldn't he be given another chance?

This is a quote from Lemons after the Werder match tonight :

"Stoltidis is having an excellent season – apart from his technical qualities he is a born winner."

I couldn't agree more!

Stoltidis for the ethniki and for President! :tup:

[aekrossoponti]

Goalkeepers

Nikopolidis

Chalkias

Defenders

Dellas

Kiriakos

Antzas

Goumas

Kapsis

Vyntra

Toro

Spyropoulos

Giourkas

Patsa

Midfielders

Basinas

Katsouranis

Karagounis

Stelios

Tziolis

Strikers

Charisteas

Gekas

Lympe

Amanatidis

Samaras

Salpi

at the moment this would probably still be the most likely euro squad. the bold players probably are all safe if they dont get injured.

the only slight questionmark concerning the safe guys would be stelios. but i dont see otto dropping him to take a dimoutsos or ninis along.

speaking of whom, ninis has shown very little to even dream of a callup. he will need time to fully recover from his injury and probably the euro is too early for him.

dimoutsos on the other had is having a good season with pao. he is older than ninis. the euro 08 could be the right time for him. still i doubt otto will leave out stelios to fit in dimoutsos.

players that may still fall out of otto roster are kapsis, vyntra, tziolis and salpi.

kapsis is agood player and a good guy but has nothing to offer to a competitve side and actually doesnt desrve a place. i hope that papastathopoulos may be able to snatch his place. but i doubt it.

in the event that otto decides for toro as his leftback starter :angry: and both giourkas and patsa and fit, vyntra could be omitted from the squad. we would have two option for right (actually three) and left back position which would normally be enough. but then again, patsa is a time bomb and most viewers of the bremen match will agree, that its better to be prepared for another injury which could come even in the tournament itself. personally i would be in favour of ommiting vyntra but i would be more comfortable in doing so if we had a true leftback alternative to spyropoulos which we dont.

salpi may not make the final team as i dont think otto likes him. on the other hand if he continues scoring as he does it will be hard for otto not to take him along. in any case i believe otto wil take six strikers whethter salpi or papadopoulos is the sixth man doesnt really matter although papadopoulos maybe the more versatile player. i dont see any room for mantzios to be honest.

tziolis is hard decision. he plays a good season wiht pao. the problem is stoltidis plays a fantastic cl season with olympiakos and scores which tziolis doesnt. on the other hand stoltidis is much older and will probably be very tired come the summer as he is the olympiakos ironman starting every game even against the tsipouradika allstars olympiakos face in cup and friendly games. if ti wasn t for the fatigue aspect, i would take stoltidis over tziolis because i know he will give everything and its his last chance to prove himself at the euro level. plus more danger from the midfield will help us. but fatigue could be an issue here. difficult one.

things will become even more difficult if otto takes a third keeper along. this would mean one field player will have to leave. bear in mind that i am still very keen to have lagos on the squad. the question remains, where could we fit him and who would be out for lagos? perhaps salpi?

it becomes clear that the team will be alot deeper than the euro04 team since ideally we wont have any of the kafes, georgiadis, venetidis, lakis, dabizas filler type players on it.

[AEK-MTL]

Well, although plenty of things can change before the start of EURO 2008, what we'll likely see is the team we had during qualifying.

Goalkeepers: Chalkias, Nikopolidis, and Kotsolis

Defenders: Dellas, Seitaridis, Kyriakos, Torosidis, Patsatzoglou, Spyropoulos, Goumas, Antzas

Midfielders: Katsouranis, Karagounis, Basinas, Giannakopoulos, Tziolis

Forwards: Samaras, Charisteas, Amanatidis, Salpignidis, Lyberopoulos, Gekas, Papadopoulos

From these players, we'll likely see the usual suspects in the starting 11, which isn't bad since I think we have a good team as long as we cut down on some of the defensive lapses and capitalize on our chances (I know, easier said than done).

Just looking back at my previous post, I would consider dropping Papadopoulos from the squad and including Stoltidis if Stoltidis continues his stellar play. I'd definitely like to see him in a friendly or 2 before including him however. Nonetheless, I think 7 strikers is excessive. Otto will probably go with 6. I also think Goumas should get called as a back-up CB. Out of all the "back-up" CBs that Otto calls to the squad (Anatolakis, Kapsis, Goumas), Goumas is probably the most reliable one (as I recall he was solid in the game he started for the Ethniki during qualifying). I know people want Tavlaridis but Otto won't call him so that's that.

I don't think Kapsis, Anatolakis, Georgeas, or Vyntra belong on the squad. I also don't think guys like Ninis and Mitroglou have earned a shot yet either. As for those calling for Lagos; although it'd be nice to have a true LM on the team, he hasn't done enough with AEK to deserve a call-up.

[Kolokotronis]

Good news for post Euro ethniki.

As quoted on sport.gr

"

[loup]

with keepers it cant be about talent or potential - it must be about results

wins, trophies, caps

and to some extent the lack of terrible mistakes

[AEK-MTL]

Awhile back, I remember hoping to see Otto call up Ele for a friendly but I guess that's just not going to happen now. I wonder if Kotsolis or Sifakis will get a chance to play in a friendly before the Euro...