Hungary vs Greece

[cyberfish]

Well, I wathced the game and I couldn't imagine a worst game in all facets.

I could not believe we fielded three CBs with Kyriakos playing deep :blink: Injury to Basinas looked bad, and I hope he is ok.

This was a horrible formation with three CBs, no wingers (oh, sure we had some players there, but might as well field nine instead of eleven).

Chalkias was not responsible for any of the goals, but then again he didn't stop any of them. Going to EURO with such "had no responsibility" performances will land us in the annals of embarrassment.

Seitaridis was not too bad, but not too good either. Torosidis was a black hole on the left. Kyriakos, Atzas, Delas looked bad. Three CBs and three goals from the center of your defense is as bad as it gets. Strenghtening the CB position with numbers weakens midfield = no good for your CBs or FBs.

I can't decide which of the tree CBs was worst. It's a tie between Atzas and Delas. Sometimes Kyriakos dropped so deep, the Hungarians could fit half a football team between the three CBs.

Basinas showed why he is without a team again, Katsouranis looked pretty bad to me, and for the life of me I can't remember who else was in midfield (that's how bad it was).

Gekas was atrocious and Charisteas on the right was worst than Gekas. Oh yeah, Amanatidis too. I don't know, he was running around out there on the left.

How in the world we scored two goals is beyond me. Against a serious team we would not even pass midfield (we barely did today anyway).

Oh, man! I know it was a friendly and really our lads looked like they were treating it with contempt, but it backfired and now I hope Otto snaps out of this pathetic formation and the players build up some confidence or it's not going to be a good EURO experience.

The only sure passes we could exchange were in our half between Kyriakos and Dellas, and once the Hungarians decided to press, even these passes looked iffy.

On a positive note, we were lucky once again. We were lucky we were playing a not so great a team, and we were lucky we only conceded three goals, and we were lucky we lost only by one.

I take back my earlier vote to cut Papastathopoulos. Put the kid in next to Kyriakos, plug Spyropoulos on the left and put Torosidis in a place where he can play. Starting Lyberopoulos next to Gekas seems like a pretty good idea right now, and calling Ninis to at least have another AM in case Karagounis can't go is the obvious thing to do.

Boy, they have a lot of work to do between now and two weeks from now.

[athinaios]

Well, I'm glad this happened now. Maybe it's a wakeup call. I think the team needs a thrashing once in a while so they realize that there are no easy teams, especially in the Euro.

Few other observations: Halkias shouldn't be playing, not just because of today, but he just isn't good enough to really make the BIG play. Tzorvas & Kotsolis are better. Ninis should be called.

I think our main strategy is to have a good defense but today we saw that things can unravel quickly.

All I hope is that the team can bounce back and give 100%... luck also is welcome.

[Genome]

A good slap on the face of Otto and the players that will wake them up ahead of the Euro.

Exactly ... better now than when it really counts. Tbh I could see this coming from the first minutes of the game ... or no, actually from our game vs Cyprus where despite the result we looked very bad too.

Also guys don't worry about Nikopolidis, I think he'll be fine, that's why they took him off immediately from as soon as he felt something wrong, to take no risks.

Basinas on the other hand ...

Oh and don't you all slap me at once :D but Kalomira got third place (out of 43 participants, 25 today) ... :tup:

[Genome]

[Genome]

An UEFA article:

Greece suffer from Koeman influence

Hungary 3-2 Greece

Erwin Koeman celebrated his debut at the helm of the Hungarian national squad by handing Greece their first defeat since last August.

Second-half comeback

The Dutch coach saw his side play with greater vigour than their opponents in Budapest to turn the match around after they had fallen behind just before the interval to an Ioannis Amanatidis goal. Goals from Balazs Dzsudzsak, Roland Juhasz, Krisztian Vadocz after the break left Greece reeling with a late Nikolaos Liberopoulos effort of little consolation.

Read the full article here.

[Guest geok]

[loup]

prior to the finals in 2004 we lost to the Dutch 4-0 and Poland 1-0

so the result is a non-issue

the inuries are anotherthing

[PAO_OR_DEATH]

oh my Gosh, well wtf can i say, "its a friendly" its "ok"

s%$#! otto needs to seriously kick those lads up the backside!!!

2weeks to find form!!!

i still have faith

[aekrossoponti]

prior to the finals in 2004 we lost to the Dutch 4-0 and Poland 1-0

so the result is a non-issue

the inuries are anotherthing

i have just seen glimpses of the game. i am thinking its just a friendly, the important thing is that the team is ready vs sweden.

Still, i am not buying the before the euro we lost to poland parallelism. for starters, poland is much stronger than hungary and was back then. poland at home can probably beat any team in the world.we lost 1-0 with a major kapsis gkela. yesterdays magyars managed to score three against us...

the problems aek66 outlined in his post will probably stay with the ethniki. what will change though is the attitude of the players, etc. i personally am hoping for turkey away style pathos and performance which could make us forget for a moment at least the obvious drawbacks this side has.

[Euro2004]

Any news on the injuries?

[Genome]

Yup ... good news :tup: :

[Guest geok]

lets not get tooooooo carried away....a) lets hope basinas and nikopolidi are okay....b)it was only a friendly game and as Otto said a very good time to get a wake up call....i remember holland beat us 4-0 some days b4 the euro 2004 campaign...

calm is needed....!!!

yes...we also lost to poland on a kapsis own-goal, if i remember correctly.

-- oops, i see that loup mentioned the poland loss.

The worrying stuff is that defeats against Poland and Holland 4 years ago did not happen 2 weeks before the EURO...

Maybe it is better for us this way. We will again be given the title of outsider, which we know to use well...

[Guest geok]

I'm ###### fuming!!!! I don't remember the last time i've been so angry over a game! A confidence blowing defeat, disorganization and injuries to Nikopolidis and Basinas! WTF??!!! :angry:

I share the same feelings with DUDE. I am furious with Chalkias too, in the first goal he appeared as if he was reluctant to dive, absolute abysmal performance from him too.

The team is not ready for the EURO but I think that Otto knows that and he will take the appropriate steps to rectify the situation. I have faith on him.

But I am also displeased with the players. They should talk more on the pitch than outside it.

[aekrossoponti]

i think the poland deafeat was fairly close to the euro 04. just looked it up it was on the 29.5 so similar to this years hungary tie. in any case we also had a horrible 1-0 against lichtenstein just before the euro.

i wouldnt put too much stake into these friendlies. no one wants to loose but players also dont want to get injured. i dont know whether cards here transfer into the euro. coaches want top keep a low profile as to potential tactis, formations, etc.

we all know what this team lacks. aek66 brilliantly summed it up some posts above me. the question is whether the team can make us forget its limitations by giving it 100% in the euros and showing its A-game. all my optimism stems from the away game in turkey. if then we play the kind of concentrated, error free football we played at the euro04, i think we should make the last 8.

[drakos13]

is Nikopolidis injured? because if so were done for with Xalkias and this defense...

I am 100% for putting Tzorvas in goal over Xalkias. Id rather not hear the "experience" excuse either. Tzorvas can do it better than Kosta, and thats all that really matters.

Basinas is injured???

Well were about finished before we start...... Rehagel picked a handful of midfielders...we wont have the depth to go through, as it was necesary to take 2 extra strikers.

I think this is going to be a short Euro for us.....

Were not going to be able to stop Spain or Russia from walking over our defense....

[drakos13]

anybody else notice we are taking FOUR midfielders to the Euro ??????????

[Genome]

Both injured but both nothing serious. Both will have recovered in less than seven days (Basinas earlier than Nikopolidis, although it looked the other way around).

[AEK-MTL]

is Nikopolidis injured? because if so were done for with Xalkias and this defense...

I am 100% for putting Tzorvas in goal over Xalkias. Id rather not hear the "experience" excuse either. Tzorvas can do it better than Kosta, and thats all that really matters.

Basinas is injured???

Well were about finished before we start...... Rehagel picked a handful of midfielders...we wont have the depth to go through, as it was necesary to take 2 extra strikers.

I think this is going to be a short Euro for us.....

Were not going to be able to stop Spain or Russia from walking over our defense....

According to Genome's link from sportfm.gr, the injuries don't appear to be serious and everyone should be ready to go for the Sweden game. And btw, we are in fact taking 5 midfielders: Karagounis, Katsouranis, Basinas, Giannakopoulos, and Tziolis (not counting Patsa and Antzas who have been used in midfield as well).

That being said, we seem to be bringing a lot of passengers along for the tournament. It seems like beyond the starting 11, nobody on the bench is Euro-quality (besides maybe the strikers). Our supposed "depth" at CB isn't all too encouraging since our back-ups include Goumas and Antzas :tdown: and our midfield is seriously thin if one of the starting 3 goes down (Stelios doesn't cut it anymore and Tziolis isn't anything special; not to mention that Antzas is horrendous as a DM and Patsa barely decent as a CM/RM).

I hope that Otto cuts either: 1) Patsa (bench player who isn't needed considering we have both Giourka and Torosidis who can play RB); 2) Vyntra (another bench player not needed since we have Torosidis who can play RB or LB, and Spyropoulos who can play LB); or 3) Antzas (even worse than Goumas IMO)

[as5664]

I share the same feelings with DUDE. I am furious with Chalkias too, in the first goal he appeared as if he was reluctant to dive, absolute abysmal performance from him too.

The team is not ready for the EURO but I think that Otto knows that and he will take the appropriate steps to rectify the situation. I have faith on him.

But I am also displeased with the players. They should talk more on the pitch than outside it.

yes - chalkias is chalkias. there are many skills to goalkeeping, not just shot-stopping (at times, chalkias is very good at this skill). agreed, the 1st goal was bad...though, chalkias in his career, has 4 hours of film of poor goals allowed.

as far as otto, what can otto do to rectify things? ninis is now tied to the u-19's and makos is on summer break (i hope he's vacationing in franfurt). otto has until 28 may to announce a final squad, it would be a real long shot if otto called another player to the squad besides a papastathopoulos.

will otto change tactical schemes, going to the familiar 5-3-2 that absolutely paralyzed the greek attack between 2004 and 2006?

the only thing i can see is otto take each player, review a bit of film with them and lecture/cousel/remind them of their offensive/defensive duties with the greece squad.

Why is Ninis tied to U-19? What a waste. You are right 100%, though, I really don't see any major changes...that's not Otto's style. I doubt we will be seing any unfamiliar faces in the 23.

If I know Otto, then you should be expecting that 5-3-2, especially against Spain.

And I sure hope we don't have another fiasco like the Confederations cup on our hands. I was saying to myself then: "this must be one of Otto's tactics...deliberately play bad, remain the underdogs, and somehow that helps us", or "...good that we are losing now, we can improve our play for the World Cup, learn from our mistakes." Sadly, nothing ever changes. But somehow Otto makes things work, many times through sheer luck, but by golly here we are ranked 8 in the world, and we don't even have a left foot! :rolleyes:

Sometimes, I feel that our team is like when the Wiley Coyote from Looney Tunes ventures off a cliff, but keeps running, and only falls when he becomes consciously aware that there is no ground underfoot.

[Tsalgik]

I share the same feelings with DUDE. I am furious with Chalkias too, in the first goal he appeared as if he was reluctant to dive, absolute abysmal performance from him too.

The team is not ready for the EURO but I think that Otto knows that and he will take the appropriate steps to rectify the situation. I have faith on him.

But I am also displeased with the players. They should talk more on the pitch than outside it.

yes - chalkias is chalkias. there are many skills to goalkeeping, not just shot-stopping (at times, chalkias is very good at this skill). agreed, the 1st goal was bad...though, chalkias in his career, has 4 hours of film of poor goals allowed.

as far as otto, what can otto do to rectify things? ninis is now tied to the u-19's and makos is on summer break (i hope he's vacationing in franfurt). otto has until 28 may to announce a final squad, it would be a real long shot if otto called another player to the squad besides a papastathopoulos.

will otto change tactical schemes, going to the familiar 5-3-2 that absolutely paralyzed the greek attack between 2004 and 2006?

the only thing i can see is otto take each player, review a bit of film with them and lecture/cousel/remind them of their offensive/defensive duties with the greece squad.

Why is Ninis tied to U-19? What a waste. You are right 100%, though, I really don't see any major changes...that's not Otto's style. I doubt we will be seing any unfamiliar faces in the 23.

If I know Otto, then you should be expecting that 5-3-2, especially against Spain.

And I sure hope we don't have another fiasco like the Confederations cup on our hands. I was saying to myself then: "this must be one of Otto's tactics...deliberately play bad, remain the underdogs, and somehow that helps us", or "...good that we are losing now, we can improve our play for the World Cup, learn from our mistakes." Sadly, nothing ever changes. But somehow Otto makes things work, many times through sheer luck, but by golly here we are ranked 8 in the world, and we don't even have a left foot! :rolleyes:

Sometimes, I feel that our team is like when the Wiley Coyote from Looney Tunes ventures off a cliff, but keeps running, and only falls when he becomes consciously aware that there is no ground underfoot.

[aekrossoponti]

I hope that Otto cuts either: 1) Patsa (bench player who isn't needed considering we have both Giourka and Torosidis who can play RB); 2) Vyntra (another bench player not needed since we have Torosidis who can play RB or LB, and Spyropoulos who can play LB); or 3) Antzas (even worse than Goumas IMO)

i agree with all these cuts and with your reasoning. unfortunately, only 1 can go to add a class player such as papastathopoulos.

to make things worse, first reports indicate that papastathopoulos didnt get to choose a jersey number which may mean he is the one being cut.

lets hope it doesnt mean anything because whats the point of him travelling with the team to get cut without even playing a single minute.

http://www.sport24.gr/html/ent/758/ent.235758.asp

[plato-ny]

Did anyone notice that Russia beat Kazakhstan at home 6-0 and Turkey lost at home to Uruguay 2-3?

[DUDE]

Thank God the injuries are not serious! That's seriously improved my mood. I'm sure Otto will motivate the team now. We saw against Turkey that our midfielders can play box to box so hopefully they'll be motivated enough for us to see that now. I still think Ninis and Papastathopoulos should go... but even if they don't, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that Karagounis and the central defence are on top form so that we don't need them.

[paxiotis7]

I'd just like to say why would we play hungary? A team that we already played twice in qualifying. Not only did we play them twice but we have other friendly agasnt worst bottum feaders. Im not likeing ootto's approach to the tourney. Three week teams and trying to get our confidence up. If your giong to to that be sure to win that game. Its demoralising to lose to a team like hungary. If we play like thta agasnt hungary, can you imagine how were going to play agasnt spain?

Anyways... good to see that the injurys arent bad. Thats all i care about. I dont even wanna write bauot this game. Cant really remember details too well but i know we played crap.

[Guest geok]