Jump to content
Phantis Forums

Greece v. Sweden @ Euro 2008


athinaios

Recommended Posts

nikopolidis is the key man here. nikopolidis can use his hands. jump and use your hands to claim a ball on your goaline.

last time i checked - nikopolidis was rolled into a ball, semi fetal position-semi airplane crash postion, in no way invloved in the play. that has to be called what it is - ridiculous goalkeeping. something all to common with nikopolidis.

I would even blame him for the first goal. He needed to be in the middle of his line and a good goalkeeper does not conceade from kicks outside the box.

The second goal is a joke, 100% fault of Nikopolidis and Abysmal Seitaridis.

It is time for Seitaridis to spend a few months on the bench too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 312
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Inconsistency has plagued this team. We show we can keep beating a team like Portugal who I am tipping to win Euro 2008 yet we lose to Turkey 4-1 at home. We were in good form when we played Portugal in the friendly prior to the tournament but then we played terrible against Hungary. It was evident of the Hungary game that we had issues in the back and these were not rectified so we carried this bad form into this Sweden game.

Credit to Sweden they knew we wanted them to attack us so we can hurt them on the brake so they frustrated us by also adopting a defensive approach. In 04 no team did this against us, we played attacking sides such as Portugal, Czech Republic, Spain, France.

i think you sum it up perfectly in the bold part.

the problem actually isnt incosistency just our problem with making the play. we simply can t. only in turkey did we offer some sort of attacking play. it was my hope that this would be an indication of our euro play.

if the other team doesnt play we have no options open. we are not italy who have classy players whose moments of brilliance can change a whole game. so basically it could well be that we fare much better against spain than against russia. russia will probably wait for us and then play their counterattack football which could be more dangerous than sweden even.

bottom line is for starters our players have to move. i dont think otto orders the players not to make runs without the ball.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We are dissapointed and hurt.

In summary, we handled the game and the 3 points in a plate to Sweden.

Will we be forgiven for this fatal mistake? We will know if we deserve to be forgiven initially on Saturday.

I will the benefit of the doubt to Otto and the NT and wait until after the game to make further comments.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To me, the biggest difference between this year and 4 years ago is workrate. Go watch the first game against Portugal. Are guys never stopped running. We didnt let them hold on to the ball. We intercepted passes. And we were successful at it, which built our confidence. We played defense then but had the energy throughout the midfield to pressure them to make mistakes and then counterattack. Watch our goals in 2004, thats how we did it then.

Against Sweden the team was lathargic. Yes, I am sure that Otto told them to play defensive, but I doubt he told them to sit and watch Sweden play... "Do not attack the ball". "Do not try to disrupt their attacks". I do not see these as being part of Otto's strategy. Karagounis (who I believe should play in the middle) did not run like his usually motor-self. Was Katsouranis even on the field? Very poor work rate. All the players seemed like they were just going thru the motions. Maybe they were all hung over or something. :blink:

IMO, I think if we had played a more offensive line-up we would have still played like crap. No workrate=bad play. They were not even trying to make things happen. And I also think that if we had used an offensive line-up we would have let in 3-4 goals.

If we play with the same workrate/spirit against Russia, lets see 4-5 down our throats. Russia is pissed that they let in so many against Spain and are looking to get revenge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

as fans, we are on the outside looking in and really have 10% of the real story....we dont know what was said, what was omitted, etc..between the players and the coach....and we never will as public comments are always editorialized to suit the interests of the speaker....

all we know is what we see, and allthough we all were watching the same thing, everyone has their own slant on what happened and why....

i think sweden is mediocre at best....i also agree that the work rate was not there...i dont know how much was the players and how much was the coach...i dont think sweden played "our game"...makes no sense...we are not an attacking side so whats the benefit of playing defensively....????? if they saw a 531 lineup isnt that clear of our intentions?

i think that this team is not as good as the 04 team in defense, and all the improved "firepower" everybody has been yapping about is not there....just becuase you have gekas amanatidis and the tsitsifiongo smara on the squad does not make you an offensive juggernaut....without a "team" approach to offesne their is nothing but forwardds being left out to dr with no support from behind......

what we are asking is for the team to come uo with a neew identity in four days....can they do it? lets see.....

another thing i dont get.....if all of us (well not me) but the more informed soccer affcionados on this board can see lineup and player positioining issues, why cant otto see them? is he really that stubborn? or does he have a much better read on the talent level? its very confusing to try and come up with a rational explanation...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just finished watching the Kroatia vs. Germany game. What a great display of skill, heart, and desire by both teams to win!! True professionalism if not nationalism/patriotism. Unfortunately all the must have qualities we lacked against Sweden.

Lets see if our players have been embarrassed enough by their recent performances to truly come out and play against Russia, if not win. I doubt they will but one can only hope at this stage.

A, ksexasa kai tous Tourkous xthes pou gia mia akomh fora dixan oti exoun, an mi ti allo, yperifania.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just don't know if this team (GR) can play a much different game. Sure, it can play with more heart, and stop passing the ball in the back endlessly. However, this team was never set up to play like the Croatians today (or other teams).

If you're trained to play a particular style, have developed a particular mentality, it's not all that easy to get up one day and play much differently. It's easier said than done.

At best, I'd expect some more passion and effort, and with some adjustments in team formation, a better game can be seen against the Russians, but not by all that much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with you Athinaios and my question to you is why not? Why should we always display such lackluster performances on the pitch? Such lack of pride and work ethic? Why are our players so lazy and careless with our patrida's stature, even abroad? Their attitude stinks but I'm afraid it's embedded in all of us way too deep to root out! Maybe in a few more generations but we've regressed instead of becoming better. Where's today's Koudas, Domazos, Paridis, Antoniadis, Kapsis....We've been reduced to admitting we can't score and accept this crap as fact. Why? Once again because the work ethic and the pride is not there. Shame on all of us for what we've grown to accept as natural!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone think we werent prepared for the tournament because horible choises of friendlies? Why did we play cyprus, hungary and armenia. We played agasnt sweeden as if we were playing one of those teams.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

paxiotis7, we are not ready and have not been ready since 2004. That was a bright moment in our football's history because of a team that gave it its all! Even if they did not win the cup I'd still be proud of their representation of Ellas. This team has a totally different attitude, the typical "I don't give a s%$#!" attitude of ours. Always too little too late!

Look back, most of the games we won in our group were won by the skin of our teeth which indicates a systemic problem the solution of which is still escaping Otto and the team. Systemic problems require rizikes alages and now's much too late for that. Our lack of WC qualification should have been the wake-up call for all our pros but the powers that be continued/continue to sleep ton upno tou dikeou. It's over, at least for this go around.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

aek 66 you say you'd like examples of don't care attitudes? Here's a few. They got out-runned, out shot, and out classed by the Swedes, why? Because they have this don't care attitude. They get out dribbled, out-styled and out smarted on the pitch throughout the game passing backward when they are 2 goals down and time's running out. That's a don't care attitude. They've won most of their qual games by the skin of their teeth and that too is don't care attitude (do barely enough to get by). They follow Otto's wrong schema because they want to be in the team and that's a don't care attitude. They lost to Hungary heavy and why? Because it's a friendly and that's a don't care attitude. In their interviews to the press after getting stumped by the Swedes

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...