PAO Filika 2009

[drakos13]

Summer Season:

PAO will be taking place in the Uhren Cup, taking place in Grechen, Switzerland (near Bern) We play Young Boys Bern & Basel.....Shaxtar is the 4th team, we will not meet them.

[drakos13]

PAO beat Young Boys Bern 2-1.......Salpiggidis and Karagkounis goals.

I'm quite disapointed. I mean only 2-1?

They were playing against Young boys! :LOL:

[Kojak]

having watched the game...the played nothing like young boys lol, they thought it was a champions league final...i was cringeing in tackles...our boys were hacked on every occasion.

for the new guys..

kante..can't say much played DM not CB...has skill and can pass..unlike vyntra/sarriegi.

stambolziev- played LM but not his position...quick, possibly the most skillful player we have had in ages...nini is nothing compared to him skill wise.....his big weaknesses are height and strength...but he is young.

mensah...looks like a very talented CB even though he was at RB. didnt lose a header, held the ball well, no mistakes in passes, didnt panic. Definetly a CB though, doesnt like attacking at all. id even keep in the roster now.. if simao worked out he definetly will....

pantidos..played Rb, attacked well, decent skill, played better than all the young guys overall, was solid all round...only deficiency strength.

another thing to note which i love is...the fact that vyntra, jumps in fiercely to support any of his players that get hacked, pushed, any argument that breaks out you see him just run across the pitch to get involved..... i love it...

[drakos13]

stambolziev- played LM but not his position...quick, possibly the most skillful player we have had in ages...nini is nothing compared to him skill wise.....his big weaknesses are height and strength...but he is young.

oh come on.... thats BS.

Ninis is 10x that player man, he can pass, has vision, speed of a much older player.

I dont care if he's good. I dont want Stambolziev and his Australo-Skopian nonsense in my team or my league. Young talents come and go.

[Kojak]

stambolziev- played LM but not his position...quick, possibly the most skillful player we have had in ages...nini is nothing compared to him skill wise.....his big weaknesses are height and strength...but he is young.

oh come on.... thats BS.

Ninis is 10x that player man, he can pass, has vision, speed of a much older player.

I dont care if he's good. I dont want Stambolziev and his Australo-Skopian nonsense in my team or my league. Young talents come and go.

its not BS read what i said, didnt mention vision speed etc, i only frakken mentioned skill, and made no other comparison...

footballing brain, and over all skills, which inlcude positioning, vision etc, is something i didnt talk about at all, in which case ninis craps all over stambolziev.

i repeat i said skill wise.... stambolziev isn't even ninis left testi when it comes to all the rest, well yet anyways....

think about your last comment, whats his natio got to do with anything, if they are good, you give them a go...and thats not BS!!!

[drakos13]

we lost 2-0 to Basel today..... Karagkounis red carded, and because FIFA rules are the the worlds biggest joke, the ban in a friendly will carry over into real matches. A friendly in Switzerland with 2 yellow means you can miss the league game with Ergotelis.

However, if a player is given a red card in a Greek Cup game, he is not punished for either the Greek League, the European play, or even International friendly.

FIFA - Sports most idiotic governing body since 1904.

Bad news for our signings:

[cyberfish]

It's still early but these friendlies take place so the coach can assess the state of the team, the new players, and to adjust. Besides the whole team being out of whack, which is probably caused by fatigue at this stage, there were a few things Ten Cate should have noted.

First it was our complete lack of presence in the opposing box. We hope Cisse will solve this, but we don't have a plan B in case he gets injured/carded/out of form. Salpigidis did his usual running but the chances he misses are becoming a bad habit. None of our three AMs were able to support or penetrate in the box. This needs improvement.

Then there were the defensive problems and errors that I am not so sure were caused by fatigue. First I noted that Kante lost all battles in the air. Then I noted that he was out of place many times and then he had this horrid error that caused the first goal. I am Greek so I believe that "h kalh mera ap' to proi fainetai". I hope they buy another CB soon or we'll be out of title contention early once again. I hope I am wrong, but I don't think so. I won't mention Melissi's game on the right because I am sure this is the last we see of him. Maybe we can pay PAOK to take him back. It was nice to see Katrouranis in Green and I liked Spyropoulos on the left. Mattos was pretty bad I thought, and Simao is not going to give up his starting spot easily. I see either Gilberto or Katsouranis on the bench. Tzorvas did a couple of spectacular things but he can't defend the high balls and it drives me crazy that can't shot the ball beyond the center line.

Karagounis' card was idiotic. There was no reason to shot the ball to the stands and the ref should not have pulled it. In friendlies they call the bench and ask the coach to replace the player. Second time this happened to us in preseason. I think he will miss the first SL game against Ergotelis which is not a big deal, but he needs to be more collected out there.

[NikosVazelas]

Actually considering it was an official friendly TOURNAMENT, it counts as a contest where a red card is directly applicable to the next official game which is the first of the CL QUALIFIERS>

Fortunately, the ref didnt write in the "filou agona'' and all is well.

[drakos13]

Actually considering it was an official friendly TOURNAMENT, it counts as a contest where a red card is directly applicable to the next official game which is the first of the CL QUALIFIERS>

Fortunately, the ref didnt write in the "filou agona'' and all is well.

if it is a TOURNAMENT, I understand.

But it is a friendly tournament. That still ignores the point.

A player can hack another, get a red card in a league match which is a TOURNAMENT, yet still be perfectly eligble for his other TOURNAMENT in the Champions League. It makes honestly ZERO sense.

I heard Karagkounis isnt going to be reported by the ref, which is fair. good on the ref, for being sensible. 2 yellows in a July Friendly is not fair to suspend the player on the European matches. Its plain ridiculous.

Basically I am angered by this because I am still pissed at U-gayFA about Salpiggidis getting a BS red card in a FRIENDLY vs Lazio, and somehow had to miss his Greek league opener vs OSFP. Man, that is the biggest load of BS you can get, and the truth is FIFA and UEFA have their head so far up their own arse its unbeleivable. A player should NEVER be punished in another tournament. Unless the red card was over a quite serious and dangerous offense with 100% certainty, and the referee reviews it on VIDEO after the match to decide upon whether it should hold. Bitching at the ref, minor crap and shirt pulling you do NOT supend a player over.

A player can get a red card in Greece, yet still play in UCL.

A player can get a red card in friendly but not play in Greece, or Europe afterwards.

A player can get a red card in Greece, but not have to miss a friendly.

:blink:

What next, maybe Karagkounis will find himself a red card and be banned from playing his NT game with Switzerland? :LOL: - with these morons and their "fair play fascism" which often makes no sense, I dont doubt theyll come up with that one either.

Its an incredibly stupid and utterly inconsistent rule, and call me narrow minded but we both know I'm right on this one mate.

[cyberfish]

I watched the friendly yesterday (except the first 15 minutes and missed the first two goals) and despite playing mostly with with the second-team we had a few good moments.

Mahlelis, a young Greek signed from Stutgard, palyed the whole game as RB and wasn't bad. It's interesting that Ten Cate still hasn't tried Moon at RB which tells me we are in the market for one. When moon came in he played as a RM. The announcer said Mahlelis can play either as RB or LB so it would be interesting to see if he stays as a backup this season.

Mensa, a CB from Ghana also played the whole game. Apparently he is on trial with PAO and hasn't signed. He didn't look special so I don't know if he will be signed, and if he does, he will be loaned for sure because he covers a "foreign" spot.

The above tells me that Ten Cate was interested mostly in seeing what his bench players can do more than establishing team coherence. They will probably get more chances, but from now on we'll see more of the team he plans to establish for the season, so the next couple of friendlies will be more interesting for us.

Melissis played the as a LB and showed that he can't play there either. The good news is that Ten Cate seems to have lost faith in him as CB or DM. The other news is the is still getting chances and I am not sure why. We would be better off if he was loaned out to prove himself with another team.

It looks like Kante is slated for the same role Wawrzyniak had last season. He played as CB where he was pretty good from what I saw. When he was moved to DM instead of Katsouranis, our midfield collapsed. He reminds me of Morris a lot with a little more power but less finesse.

Simao his usual self defensively, and I thought his ball holding and passing was pretty good as well.

Katsouranis brought a new dimension to midfield. He was quick to move forward as AM, making it look like we were playing with only Simao as DM, and he was quick to support the defense, always being back to receive the ball and to move it forward. He did a good job distributing the ball quickly left and right to move the team out of defense, and at certain times he sent nice 30m long passes to the wings when the opportunity was there. I didn't know he was such an accurate long passer, but I was happy to see it. It will keep other teams honest when they attack since they will have to keep their wings covered for these long passes.

I liked Ninis too. He does seem to be a little underpowered but he makes up with his vision. He played one half as a RM, and the second half as an AM. He had some good moments in both positions. This is his first real preseason and it should do miracles for his game.

Gabriel had an interesting role dropping deep as a RDM and often moving into the AM position. He also did pretty good.

Christodoulopoulos was his usual self, trying hard, but missing an open net shot that should had counted, and falling in the offside trap for no reason. But he did serve this very nice assist to Petropoulos too. He did better on the left wing than when he moved into the AM spot for 10-15 minutes in the second half. He has a ton of potential and he tries hard too.

Petropoulos was brilliant with the scoring shot. Good release and excellent marksmanship with a quick kick to the far post that kept the goalkeeper standing one moment too long. The rest of the game he moved around well but didn't do anything noteworthy. My belief is that the CF's job is to score at least once per game. I don't care if they sit around the rest of the time, so I like Petropoulos' killer instinct a lot. I'd love to see a formation with him and Sicce together.

Leto payed a lot in the second half and showed some skill and some speed on the left wing. He can hold the ball at will so he will be the one who does what Mantzios did last year when we move forward. I heard the bench calling him to go "larga" (long) on a couple of occasions when the other team was delivering a corner, so he will be leading our counter attacks in such situations.

Last, Cisse came in the last 15 minutes when we had trouble moving the ball beyond our midfield. The good news is that we probably erased the myths with these 15 minutes: He is human, he is not bigger than the others on the pitch, and his speed is only good when the ball is on the right spot. He didn't touch the ball much, and when he did it was far from the box and he gave it to opponents. He also looked apprehensive to put his feet in "the fire" as they say in Greece, but he doesnt have to impress anyone so it was expected. I still can't believe he was signed and he will be great when it counts. Welcome Cisse!

[drakos13]

Mahlelis? The Greek Makelele??? :LOL:

Well good to see the youth-roster is being refreshed.... I thought we'd probably be seein Tsitsis/Konstantinidis/Vlaxos etc....

[GS1905]

Mahlelis? The Greek Makelele??? :LOL:

Well good to see the youth-roster is being refreshed.... I thought we'd probably be seein Tsitsis/Konstantinidis/Vlaxos etc....

oh, do not forget Nikolaidis & Karagiannis, too... :tup:

hey, wait a minute..they are at the AEK Academy! Oh, Damnit! :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

[cyberfish]

We lost 1-0 to Hoffenheim yesterday with most of the projected starters playing most of the game.

------------------Galinovic-----------------

Moon---------Vintra--Sariegi----Spyropoulos

-------Gabriel----Mattos---Katsouranis----

Salpigidis-----------------------------Leto

-------------------Cisse---------------------

Ten Cate said he doesn't plan to play 4-3-3. I am not sure if he was being sarcastic, but I do suspect he wanted Gabriel to be more of an offensive player in midfield but Hoffenheim was pressing all the time forcing him to fall into his defensive role most of the time, making it look like we were playing 4-3-3 instead of 4-2-3-1.

In brief, we conceded one more goal off an individual unforced error (Vintra this time - Kante was on the last one). With Gabriel, Mattos, Katsouranis we could not move the ball beyond mifield and surprisingly could not keep Hoffenheim from shooting and passing at will from the edge of our box.

Best performance, and this was nothing spectacular, came from Salpigidis and Simao when he came in the game instead of Mattos. With Simao this is a different team. He is the only one who has the skill, speed, and power to actually disposess and displace opponents off the ball. Mattos, Katrouranis just try to channel opponents to one direction or another and rarely can dominate opponents.Ten Cate suggested that we are a different team with Simao on the pitch

Simao will be a starter this season.

Leto didn't do much at all, and Cisse never saw the ball. Petropoulos had the most exciting play in the end when he create space for himself to send a rocket of a shot just wide. Bjarsmyr played for 15 minutes as RCB next to Sariegi (Vintra moved to RB). He is an exclusive right-footed defender and I don't see the logic here. Are we planning to replace Vintra who was the better of the two CBs last season? Maybe Bjarsmyr can play on the left side as well, we'll see.

Karagounis was injured and didn't play, and neither did Gilberto.

[Cisseee13]

i just want to let everybody know Ibisevic scored for hoffenheim by making sariegi look like a 9 yearold watching Ibi do a stepover tap to the right and blast in a goal..i dont know whos worse sariegi or melises..i cant begin to explain how easily sarriegi let that guy go by for the goal..if i was HTC he would never see the field again..period

[Kojak]

i just want to let everybody know Ibisevic scored for hoffenheim by making sariegi look like a 9 yearold watching Ibi do a stepover tap to the right and blast in a goal..i dont know whos worse sariegi or melises..i cant begin to explain how easily sarriegi let that guy go by for the goal..if i was HTC he would never see the field again..period

hang on a sec...not that i am supporting sarriegi, melissi, vyntra or whoever.

The team was pathetic, im not gonna blame only a defender for 1 mistake in a game when the rest team was absolutely f&*ked..........

katsourani & mattos were glued together and made heaps of passes to each other cause they were practically holding hands, and then they would lose possession.

Spyropoulo & letos never ever connected on the left.

Moon well his head was in the moon.

i can go on and on for each player.

the only pleasant thing i saw, was that with the introduction of simao we instantly had more possession. If there was a steal statistic like in the basketball, hed be the leader every year.

we sucked, and considering they outplayed us 1-0 isnt that bad.

We didnt lose cause of defensive errors, but absolutely ZERO attacking options, i honestly believe our playmaker against hoffenheim was GALINOVIC, he certainly had the ball at his feet more than anyone. If cisse got as much ball as galinovic at his feet, we would have been 20-0 up.

but its only friendly...so i will try and erase it from my memory...

[NYPAO13]

other than Salpi, who played as if this was the CL, everyone else was dragging their feet.

I truely dont know how many more tragic mistakes Vyntra can make. He's already succeeding in sucking.

No creativity. The ball never made it to our strikers. Cisse couldnt even smell the ball.

[cyberfish]

A friendly is a friendly and the first "real" one for the starters can safely be erased from memory. Kojak is right. These friendlies don't really mean much. I remember how Seric looked like the best FB we've ever had, and how Romero scored more goals than our strikers in their first friendlies.

We'll be ready for Sparta and Karagounis/Gilberto/Simao make this a different team.

[NikosVazelas]

Not to mention how three years ago we won every friendly and then won only 2 of our first 6 games in the league.

And Oly being dominant in almost every friednly last year and then losing to anorthosis 3 -0

truth is... its the 18th of july and last year on todays date... we signes gilberto Silva... we are ahead of ourselves a bit

[Clover22]

We lost 1-0 to Hoffenheim yesterday with most of the projected starters playing most of the game.

------------------Galinovic-----------------

Moon---------Vintra--Sariegi----Spyropoulos

-------Gabriel----Mattos---Katsouranis----

Salpigidis-----------------------------Leto

-------------------Cisse---------------------

Ten Cate said he doesn't plan to play 4-3-3. I am not sure if he was being sarcastic, but I do suspect he wanted Gabriel to be more of an offensive player in midfield but Hoffenheim was pressing all the time forcing him to fall into his defensive role most of the time, making it look like we were playing 4-3-3 instead of 4-2-3-1.

In brief, we conceded one more goal off an individual unforced error (Vintra this time - Kante was on the last one). With Gabriel, Mattos, Katsouranis we could not move the ball beyond mifield and surprisingly could not keep Hoffenheim from shooting and passing at will from the edge of our box.

Best performance, and this was nothing spectacular, came from Salpigidis and Simao when he came in the game instead of Mattos. With Simao this is a different team. He is the only one who has the skill, speed, and power to actually disposess and displace opponents off the ball. Mattos, Katrouranis just try to channel opponents to one direction or another and rarely can dominate opponents.Ten Cate suggested that we are a different team with Simao on the pitch

Simao will be a starter this season.

Leto didn't do much at all, and Cisse never saw the ball. Petropoulos had the most exciting play in the end when he create space for himself to send a rocket of a shot just wide. Bjarsmyr played for 15 minutes as RCB next to Sariegi (Vintra moved to RB). He is an exclusive right-footed defender and I don't see the logic here. Are we planning to replace Vintra who was the better of the two CBs last season? Maybe Bjarsmyr can play on the left side as well, we'll see.

Karagounis was injured and didn't play, and neither did Gilberto.

With that line up I'm not surprised they couldn't move the ball around in midfield!

[drakos13]

well we beat Gladbach today, played decent but i didnt pay too much attention to give a great analysis.

Djibril Cisse played reasonably well, had some chances I felt he should have done much better, but at least he was alert, and his goal was quite a nice header, near perfect finish. I'm excited to see him in an official match, I think he really will end up a top signing. He didnt have that air of "uselesness" that surrounds a lot of PAO's big signings.

Bryce Moon had a great cross in for it, Bryce is a player I really do like, its just I still feel like we need more depth in that spot.

[cyberfish]

It looks like Ten Cate has established the core of the team and he keeps it on the pitch for most of the game.

The 1-0 win came with pretty good performance at times and some frustrating moments as well. It was interesting that Tzorvas played and he looked good. He has good reflexes and awareness, but he is very weak with the ball at his feet so I don't think he is ready to replace Galinovic just yet.

Moon on the right was pretty good. Defensively he does get lost at times and it could be costly in some games. I agree with Drakos that I'd feel better with one more decent fullback. The thought of signing Seitaridis to backup Moon is pretty appealing the more I think about it.

Vintra-Kante as the two CBs is interesting. Bjarsmyr didn't play and I hope Ten Cate gives him some games next to Vintra. Kante doesn't seem like an upgrade over Sariegi to me. Spyropoulos was pretty good and besides his atrocious first touch and lack of dribbling ability he was solid defensively and managed to get a couple of crosses through.

Simao is the best player right now. The lineup will start with him at the expense of heavier names. He was a force in midfield. Did you guys see how he attacks the ball and manages to displace or re-route the ball handler just with his body mass. Fantastic!

I thought Katsouranis was not very effective in his creative role. I thought Gilberto played the role much better when he came in.

Leto had a rough game again but he seems to be adjusting. He did have good combination plays down the left with Spyropoulos sporadically, and that's going to improve with time.

Same goes for Gabriel on the right. I have to say that I enjoy watching Leto and Gabriel stick the ball to their foot when they receive it. Gabriel is a very controlled player who is very methodical on the pitch. He does not have the flare and speed, but he does know how to do his work.

Salpigidis was slated on the AM/SS spot behind Cisse and it was evident that this role does not fit his skills. This is a very crowded area and he gets attacked immediately by two or three opponents. He doesn't have the skill to hold the ball or to move in tight space, and his speed is nullified. I think Ten Cate is dying to fit Salpi in the game and he hopes that he will learn the position (he tried him there unsuccessfully a few times last season). He had his usual high-work-rate game, but once Karagounis came in it became evident how this position needs to be played.

Cisse had a decent game against fairly slow defenders. He did miss a couple of shots but the goal he made was a difficult header that was perfectly placed under heavy pressure.

All in all a decent friendly that gave us a glimpse of some improvement, but also showed that the team needs a lot of work. It's still early and I wish we didn't have the CL qualifiers to worry about so soon.