Guest geok Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 at that time, dellas was much more mobile - especially in the qualifiers, being able to move up the pitch with the ball. we don't have this now. I think it is safe to say that nowdays Dellas needs a taxi to move up and down the pitch :LOL: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aekrossoponti Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 what gives me a minor headache is my reading of ottos DM policy. it seems to me that otto will resort to Antzas in case one of our the three midfielders is out. this is very unorthodox and worked in turkey. i just doubt it will work again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest geok Posted May 29, 2008 Share Posted May 29, 2008 as long as dellas is confined to a relative smaller space to defend as a sweeper, i'm not real nervous about this player. recent world-class euro defenders like sammer, blanc or hierro weren't speed burners at all. time and injuries have been very cruel to this player...and he could have quit, but this player is not a quitter. this season with aek saw dellas at times surprisingly kefatos with the ball, showing glimpses of his play from perugia days. i suppose this is what we have to look forward to while getting old...some good days, more bad days. it was obvious when dellas and the greek u-21 defensive unit defeated micheal owen and england in the 1997 u-21 playoffs that this player was going to be special. We love Dellas, he gave us the silver goal against Czech Republic and so much more...Nowdays he has other characteristics and he can still be good without speed, as long as he is complemented by other players. It will be important for us if Dellas is in top form in his most likely last EURO. I am sure he will give his 110% like everyone else really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drakos13 Posted May 29, 2008 Share Posted May 29, 2008 Dont know how many of you watching Greek TV, but here are two great Trapeza Pireaos commercials for the Euro...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNRxIFidwIE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9WwRfWpiCI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DUDE Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 I hate to report on a player's injury as "good news" for Greece because it sounds so cruel, but the reality is the Greek players will be happy to hear that Russia's striker (and joint top scorer in the UEFA Cup) Pavel Pogrebnyak (who is a paixtara btw) is in a battle to be fit for Euro 2008 after getting injured in Russia's friendly against Serbia. http://www.euro2008.uefa.com/news/kind=1/n...sid=702862.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paxiotis7 Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 this is pure fantasy...only found in the sport pages of the former publications pravda and izvestia. stelios and amanatidis play as forwards for the greece side. there should only be 4 names under 'midfielders', but the person writing or editing this article probably couldn't believe that greece is going to a euro tournament with 4 total midfielders. If one of our midfielders gets injured or gets into card trouble, we are screwed. Which is probably going to happen I can guarente it. Stoltidis was stupied to turn down otto when he had the chance. We could have really used him this tourney. Anyways we have to hope that the mid does not get into card trouble or injured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest geok Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 I hate to report on a player's injury as "good news" for Greece because it sounds so cruel, but the reality is the Greek players will be happy to hear that Russia's striker (and joint top scorer in the UEFA Cup) Pavel Pogrebnyak (who is a paixtara btw) is in a battle to be fit for Euro 2008 after getting injured in Russia's friendly against Serbia. http://www.euro2008.uefa.com/news/kind=1/n...sid=702862.html Although this is a blow for Russia, they have a lot of attacking solutions and it is not an unsolvable problem for them.He has 16 days to recover until our game so I don't think we will injured till then, most likely he will feature against us or Sweden. We will see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest geok Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 Stoltidis was stupied to turn down otto when he had the chance. We could have really used him this tourney. Anyways we have to hope that the mid does not get into card trouble or injured. Stoltidis does not deserve a place in the Greek National Team. End of the story. We don't want players who don't really want to play for the team. He is more of a problem than a solution. I'd rather have Ninis than Stoltidis.The mid will inevitably get into card trouble (but I hope no injuries) but someone should talk to kara to be careful this time around because he is really irreplaceable for us and we all know that he is prone to card collecting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcoutavas Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 Just wondering if anyone else had read this analysis on ESPNsoccernet.com. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story...uro2008&cc=5901 Two things jump out at me: 1. "Otto Rehhagel remains at the helm from that triumph in Portugal, one of the greatest shocks in international football, though few will be surprised by the crude and defensive tactics deployed by the German this time." 2. "Key player: Vasilis Torosidis" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drakos13 Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 HHAHAH WHAT A MORON......HOnestly do they even LOOK at teams before they write on them? Youd think the European Champions would at least get 5 minutes to see we borught 6 forwards.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drakos13 Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 Well if anyone wants to point out to this guy defense is our weakness, and that were taking SIX forwards and 5 midfielders to the Euros.... "Any thoughts? Then you can email Dale Johnson. [email protected]" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyberfish Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 Just wondering if anyone else had read this analysis on ESPNsoccernet.com. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story...uro2008&cc=5901 Two things jump out at me: 1. "Otto Rehhagel remains at the helm from that triumph in Portugal, one of the greatest shocks in international football, though few will be surprised by the crude and defensive tactics deployed by the German this time." 2. "Key player: Vasilis Torosidis" I just read it. Another article thick on words but thin on facts and insight."Rehhagel built Greece's Euro 2004 success on defence, known to favour two big, strong centre-backs. But one of the stars of his team was Traianos Dellas, the AS Roma player, who would sit in front of the back four and bring the ball out much in the style of Beckenbauer." Either the author has never seen Beckenbauer or I have never seen Delas. We'll see a lot of this drivel as the games approach. A left wingback is very difficult to become the key for the NT in such a touranment (epsecially a right-footed one). But the author gives away his bias in his first paragraph "though few will be surprised by the crude and defensive tactics deployed by the German this time." Personally, I am tired of reading such biased articles. No one was surprised by Greece's attention to defense in EURO 04. "Surprise" was not that gave us the cup. All opponents expected this kind of game. What surprised them was that they were not good enough to beat us. We held opponents from scoring, and we scored at least one more than they did. That's brutally simple. OTH, Greece was underestimated last EURO, and these kinds of articles can lead our opponents make the same mistake once again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest geok Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 I think we all agree that foreign journalists don't know even after all these years the Greek NT. That is excellent news for us I think. We will surprize them again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drakos13 Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 cyber you are 100% correct... I cant stand all the retun of this BITTER media (its not just that, most of them HAVENT actually seen Greece play or followed them, rather than check up on some analysis, they dont know the players, they dont know anything except a few names.... Honestly is there a team out there that didnt know what to expect? Just because pundits and moron fans had never seen Greece before, you think Portugal had no idea about them (Portugal were actually outplayed by Greece in a 1-1 Friendly in the Dragao Stadium a few months before, with Greece playing with 10 men for 70 minutes and still taking the lead)..... Yeah right. They didnt know what to expect in the final after the opener, and the friendly??? HA! Btw Saw no attacking football from them, esp vs Greece......why is that? Spain was in the group stages with us, they had already played us twice and in the more recent game lost at home (something that hadnt happened since the 80's) with the Giannakopoulos beauty... :nw: They knew exactly what had to be done and failed to beat us. Honestly, when an underdog does well everybody rants and raves, but when they win they all bicker and piss and moan!!! Some VERY interesting facts about Greece's Euro 2004 Triumph - We didnt have a single controversial issue in our matches that bosted us (aka red cards, diving in the box, offsides goals allowed, goals disallowed lucky dumb penatlies) In the group stages we defeated all our opponents (the defending champion, the favourites, and the host favourites) ON THE PITCH IN PLAY.... We didn't rely on taking a draw to penalty kicks to decide on us going through ***cough PORTUGAL*** Also we had NO home advantage.... We didnt host our tournament... Says something because most of the teams that only won something once are usually helped by being the hosts..... Greece had no favours, no advantages, no good odds, and they won. People should love this story, but no, people are angry because of some myth about attacking football (since when have European sides been flaired attacking anyways???) Also Portugal scored 8 goals.......we scored 7 with 15 minutes less laying time in that tournament...... :LOL: .......so attacking football eh? As for luck luck luck........well why the hell cant they beat us? Greece played Portugal 4 times recently.... Greece won 3, tied 1. 3 of those matches were in Portugal, 1 in neutral venue. Greece played Czech Rep 3 times since 2004: Greece won 2, tied 1..... Greece was simply the better team on the pitch vs France. I dont need to go into details. We should have won at least 2-0. Greece goes and gets 31 points (more than any other team) from the qualifying......If were so awful and lucky, how is it we managed to do so well, I mean the group was not a group of death, but all groups are hard in UEFA, and get THAT many points as opposed to just getting the minimum? Olympiakos beats Bremen, Lazio and moves on to the next stage of CL Aris is eliminating Real Zaragoza, AEL gettting Blackburn, Panionios taking out Sochaux.... Gkekas took the top scorer award in Germany... Why is it we should not be taken seriously and called a fluke when were actually a solid european football nation??? Im tired of this....The Euro is back and now all were hearing is this crap and garbage about Greece in 2004.....What sore, sore, ignorant losers. I hope Greece can make it to the elimination stage just so we dont have to hear their idiotic "analyses" and stupid comments like "Greece a 1 hit wonder etc"...........Esp since teams like Spain, England, have never even won a EURO but still given massive amounts of respect..... I guess England 1966 was a one hit wonder of England....:LOL: And what about USA? They make 1 run in the world cup and get eliminated easily the next (and previous) and theyre never having anything said bad about them internationally. and seriously - France goes to World Cup final on 1-0 wins playing solid defense and not making hardly any chances ( not to mention cheating Swtizerland, and cheating Spain) and everybody lavishes them with praise.......what trash... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loup Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 Bullshit walks pathyia Its all about the results You can't fluke a tournament, a game yes, but no tournament You can't fluke the best qualifying record in EURO qualifying You can't fluke a #8 world ranking Honestly, screw them all - all I know is we lifted the cup -----enjoy your memories, nobody can taint them or take them away :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DUDE Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 Bullshit walks pathyia Its all about the results You can't fluke a tournament, a game yes, but no tournament You can't fluke the best qualifying record in EURO qualifying You can't fluke a #8 world ranking Honestly, screw them all - all I know is we lifted the cup -----enjoy your memories, nobody can taint them or take them away :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :tup: :tup: :tup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aekrossoponti Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 i share your sentiments here. if you look at the 06 world cup, i daresay portugal, france and italy played somewhat "greek football". i dont see anyone complaining. i just dont know why they keep bashing our trophy run. o.k.perhaps from a purely football perspective i think denmarks trophy lift was more enjoyable. but compared to the world cup, i d say we didnt play less attractive than portugal, italy and france although these teams boast some of the worlds best players. plus at times had the benefit of very dodgy calls, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DUDE Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 i share your sentiments here. if you look at the 06 world cup, i daresay portugal, france and italy played somewhat "greek football". i dont see anyone complaining. i just dont know why they keep bashing our trophy run. It's jealousy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drakos13 Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 Its definitley jealousy, either that + the fact that I feel western europeans absolutley hate Balkan/southeastern european countries.....(its true, dont really understand it).... they think were all "dirty and uncivilized"......Greeks, Southern Italians, Serbs, Cros, Albs, Turks, Bulgarians..they cant stand us and worse they cant stand that they were beaten by a team with no big superstars. The English supposedly value a high work ethic on the pitch, but when its not them (or some culture very similar to theirs) they lose their mind...And Americans (like ESPN Soccernet) yes count as British peoples in the footballing world, because football wise in their mentality they all worship the EPL alone, as well as the English national team, Beckham - and more importantly all their "sources" for news on football are via British sources... They should be happy, afterall Greece has proven how difficult and competitive UEFA countries really are - theyre pretty much all capable of making big runs and even winning cups in some instances.... At least the Germans are nice to us... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aekrossoponti Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 At least the Germans are nice to us... no...they are among the masters of greek bashing. during the euro all you heard was otto, after the world cup fiasco, all you heard was how weak the greek players were. now its all otto again. at the end of the day though german media has no love for greece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loup Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 The funny thing is the Italians have been proudly playing "defensive" football for years Go to Greece in the summer and see what the German's think of us -- again who cares though :gr: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
as5664 Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 Its definitley jealousy, either that + the fact that I feel western europeans absolutley hate Balkan/southeastern european countries.....(its true, dont really understand it).... they think were all "dirty and uncivilized"......Greeks, Southern Italians, Serbs, Cros, Albs, Turks, Bulgarians..they cant stand us and worse they cant stand that they were beaten by a team with no big superstars. The English supposedly value a high work ethic on the pitch, but when its not them (or some culture very similar to theirs) they lose their mind...And Americans (like ESPN Soccernet) yes count as British peoples in the footballing world, because football wise in their mentality they all worship the EPL alone, as well as the English national team, Beckham - and more importantly all their "sources" for news on football are via British sources... They should be happy, afterall Greece has proven how difficult and competitive UEFA countries really are - theyre pretty much all capable of making big runs and even winning cups in some instances.... At least the Germans are nice to us... As a Greek, I don't consider myself even remotely comparable to Bulgarians, Albanians, Croats and southern Italians. For the most part, all of these aformentioned ethinc groups -- apart from themselves harboring hatred for us -- are generally looked upon by the west with ambivilence, if not outright admiration in some instances. No my friend, their prejudice is directed exclusively at us. Not so much Americans, but British and Canadians, which I assume Dale Johnson is by his use of the word "football" rather than "soccer." Why do they hate us? It's very simple....they can't dominate us. We have what can only be described as Elliniko tharos. We are not submissive people. We come to their countries and force them to assimilate to our culture, rather than vice versa. We are aggressive and proudly refuse to be pushed around. And when we succeed where they can't, they simply cannot accept it. The British have won 0 European championships They praise the premier league, but conveniently overlook that practically 75% is comprised of foreign players. They criticized us left and right during and before the Olympics, but in the end they ate their words. Lets see if the Olymics in Beijing or London (whose opening ceremony I'm guessing will be centered around some gay Elton John theme)will rival that of Athens in 04. If you ask me, I prefer their scorn rather than praise. Lets take it as a compliment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DUDE Posted May 31, 2008 Share Posted May 31, 2008 Its definitley jealousy, either that + the fact that I feel western europeans absolutley hate Balkan/southeastern european countries.....(its true, dont really understand it).... they think were all "dirty and uncivilized"......Greeks, Southern Italians, Serbs, Cros, Albs, Turks, Bulgarians..they cant stand us and worse they cant stand that they were beaten by a team with no big superstars. The English supposedly value a high work ethic on the pitch, but when its not them (or some culture very similar to theirs) they lose their mind...And Americans (like ESPN Soccernet) yes count as British peoples in the footballing world, because football wise in their mentality they all worship the EPL alone, as well as the English national team, Beckham - and more importantly all their "sources" for news on football are via British sources... They should be happy, afterall Greece has proven how difficult and competitive UEFA countries really are - theyre pretty much all capable of making big runs and even winning cups in some instances.... At least the Germans are nice to us... As a Greek, I don't consider myself even remotely comparable to Bulgarians, Albanians, Croats and southern Italians. For the most part, all of these aformentioned ethinc groups -- apart from themselves harboring hatred for us -- are generally looked upon by the west with ambivilence, if not outright admiration in some instances. No my friend, their prejudice is directed exclusively at us. Not so much Americans, but British and Canadians, which I assume Dale Johnson is by his use of the word "football" rather than "soccer." Why do they hate us? It's very simple....they can't dominate us. We have what can only be described as Elliniko tharos. We are not submissive people. We come to their countries and force them to assimilate to our culture, rather than vice versa. We are aggressive and proudly refuse to be pushed around. And when we succeed where they can't, they simply cannot accept it. The British have won 0 European championships They praise the premier league, but conveniently overlook that practically 75% is comprised of foreign players. They criticized us left and right during and before the Olympics, but in the end they ate their words. Lets see if the Olymics in Beijing or London (whose opening ceremony I'm guessing will be centered around some gay Elton John theme)will rival that of Athens in 04. If you ask me, I prefer their scorn rather than praise. Lets take it as a compliment. :tup: :tup: :tup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AEK-MTL Posted May 31, 2008 Share Posted May 31, 2008 Everyone knows that it will take time for Greece to establish itself as a serious footballing country and thus gain the "respect" of the media. Frankly, I've read so many inaccurate and misinformed editorials and reports about Greece that I barely glance at them anymore. In the future (post-Otto), I can see Greece being in the same "category" of teams such as Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, and the Czech Republic. In other words, just a level below the "perennial contenders": Italy, France, Germany, Netherlands, England ( :whistle: ). It's unrealistic to expect that Greece will compete for every tournament the way Italy and France do but I think we're very capable of qualifying for tournaments and making it out of the group stages. Give it some time. People will come around eventually. Sure they might not really believe teams like Sweden and the Czech Republic will win the tourney, but they are nonetheless very well-respected teams; a status which I think is very attainable for Greece. With respect comes a better understanding and more thorough analysis and (hopefully) a more accurate portrayal in the media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drakos13 Posted May 31, 2008 Share Posted May 31, 2008 As a Greek, I don't consider myself even remotely comparable to Bulgarians, Albanians, Croats and southern Italians. For the most part, all of these aformentioned ethinc groups -- apart from themselves harboring hatred for us -- are generally looked upon by the west with ambivilence, if not outright admiration in some instances. No my friend, their prejudice is directed exclusively at us. Not so much Americans, but British and Canadians, which I assume Dale Johnson is by his use of the word "football" rather than "soccer." Why do they hate us? It's very simple....they can't dominate us. We have what can only be described as Elliniko tharos. We are not submissive people. We come to their countries and force them to assimilate to our culture, rather than vice versa. We are aggressive and proudly refuse to be pushed around. And when we succeed where they can't, they simply cannot accept it. The British have won 0 European championships They praise the premier league, but conveniently overlook that practically 75% is comprised of foreign players. They criticized us left and right during and before the Olympics, but in the end they ate their words. Lets see if the Olymics in Beijing or London (whose opening ceremony I'm guessing will be centered around some gay Elton John theme)will rival that of Athens in 04. If you ask me, I prefer their scorn rather than praise. Lets take it as a compliment. to western europeans we definitley are comparable. Greeks and Balkan/Mediteranean peoples are pretty similar in contrast to Western Europeans....The bias I am talking about is of seeing us all as crude and uncivilized.... And again I feel like generally when its done by Western Europeans its art or culture, and when its done by Greeks or other Balkans its considered crude....food and wine being great examples there, Italian food is almost all peasant food, but its elite same with wines... Ex an identical Greek wine has a bad reputation, and sort of like the food and wines etc Italians got defensive football labeled as an art......we got shunned.....for the exact same thing. just like all their village food and wine is art and elegant, but crude when its from Greeks (even when its virtually exact same things).... Whatever this isnt an ethnic arguement, my point is weve been categorized with a people they always seem to have a disdain for in terms of region...... But you are probably right, its definitly amplified because we WON it... But why when Senegal makes a big run every body is yay Senegal, or look at USA can play football, but when Greece wins its a fluke (as opposed to a sign like LOOK, Greece is a solid european footballing nation) I mean even our u-19 is a European finalist !!! hello europe Greece is on the footballing map and we do deserve to be there. Whatever happens, I hope its a kick in the teeth to all these people who wont drop the hate... I hope the leontaria make us proud again, and shouldnt have to prove that theyre good enough to be there because they really have repeatedly.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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