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Nikopolidis


Omonoia9

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So it's all but a certainty that we're going to win the league, and with Nikopolidis having been riding the pine since Week 6, certainly he's going to retire after the season. Shame to see the best Greek goalkeeper in history ending his career as backup keeper for his club. The last match of the season is at home, do you think as a gesture of respect he should start in goal at Karaiskaki one last time?

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Of course he should have a testimonial, after all he's been an Olympiakos fan all his life! :LOL:

Ok, ok, he definitely deserves some sort of honour. He def should play in the last game of the season. Perhaps even a testimonial with all the proceeds going to a charity to help those on the poverty line in Greece now that the economic crisis has hit so hard? That would be a nice gesture.

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Of course he should have a testimonial, after all he's been an Olympiakos fan all his life! :LOL:

Ok, ok, he definitely deserves some sort of honour. He def should play in the last game of the season. Perhaps even a testimonial with all the proceeds going to a charity to help those on the poverty line in Greece now that the economic crisis has hit so hard? That would be a nice gesture.

I wasn't talking about anything more than being in goal to celebrate the final game of not only a championship season, but what should be the end of his career.
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I really hope they do something special.

All those guys from the Euro team and those guys that have had those long careers should be honoured.

Karagounis is another one.

I think benching him was wrong in the first place, so I'll take just him starting in goal the last home game which is against Larissa. Anything else would be a bonus. You talk about the Euro team, I think he was the biggest reason why we were able to do it. Opportunistic offense and great team defense sure, but Nikopolidis made a lot of heroic saves and always kept us in those games.
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  • 4 weeks later...

3 matches to go, there is literally no way we can lose at this point. So will Valverde do the right thing? Let the speculation begin!

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Best Greek goalkeeper to ever live. AINEC

well footballs all about opinions and i think he's very average and well overrated, if he's greece's best ever than that says more about the standard of greek goalkeeping than it does about niko's ability.

1 decent game vs czech republic in 2004 and countless errors since. sifakis is already better than niko ever was, and he hasn't even peaked yet

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well footballs all about opinions and i think he's very average and well overrated, if he's greece's best ever than that says more about the standard of greek goalkeeping than it does about niko's ability.

1 decent game vs czech republic in 2004 and countless errors since. sifakis is already better than niko ever was, and he hasn't even peaked yet

I never rated Nikopolidis but he did have some superb performances. He was very good vs the Czech Rep, amazing against Arsenal at the Emirates and in Turkey when PAO drew 1-1 with Fener. But the isolated examples of brilliance were countered with examples of nightmarish displays: for Olymp vs Roseborg, AEK too and at home to Tukey in that 4-1 defeat, without him we'd have probably won that day which says it all. Sifakis has yet to prove himself at the highest level so I wouldn't get too excited yet but I would say that our keepers are on a par with African keepers which pretty much says it all
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as euro pointed out sifakis has yet to do it at the highest level, however he's still better than niko, the fact that he hasn't won a major tournament for greece doesn't make niko better, greece could have casillas in goal now and would still not win another major tournament.

success at euro 2004 was achieved with a strong defence seitaridis dellas and kapsis were immense, they deserve even more credit when you consider who was behind them. since that tournament(even at that tournament he only played one standout game) he's been terrible, a liabilty remember euro08? greece even dropped him for HALKIAS(abysmal keeper) in order to even qualify for 08.

don't get me wrong he can have a testimonial, i'm not concerned with what olympiakos do for him, but to be remembered as great keeper is simply not true the fact his whole career was spent in greece was because he wouldn't cut it consistently over a whole season at a higher level

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the fact his whole career was spent in greece was because he wouldn't cut it consistently over a whole season at a higher level

The reason he never left Greece is because of the Greek mentality.

Most players would rather be treated like "gods" in Greece than attempt to become true gods in other leagues.

The Greek league is second rate to the the big 4.

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I'm somewhere in between you guys. Nikopolidis was fantastic in one on one situations, as a shot stopper of low shots he was also superb because he got down quickly and had brilliant reflexes. He was a great penalty saver too. However his clangers were common place, his feet were terrible which always meant that as a fan you have your heart in your mouth each time a high ball goes into the box, and he had major lapses in concentration.

In this video against Arsenal you can see how amazing he was at getting down quickly.

This save against AEK was the best i've ever seen him make and agains it's all to do with lightening reflexes and his ability to get down quickly:

As for penalty saves, there are endless saves he made. In penalty shoot outs, against Roma, against PAO, a very good one against Xanthi, etc.

BUT then there was this side of him. The one against Rosenborg on 1:10 is one of the most ridiculous goals I have ever seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0208aWzni0...feature=related

These are unacceptable clangers from a goalkeeper at the top level. So i'd say that in terms of ability he wasn't great. I can't comment on comparing him to other goalkeepers because in my life time Greece has had some terrible goalkeepers but in terms of achievement and his presence/image he is a Greek legend. Much like Charisteas, a legend but not necessarily top class

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All the things you say Nikopolidis lacks, Sifakis also doesn't have. No Greek 'keeper has ever made it outside of Greece, so your point is moot. To discount Euro '04 is insane. The defense and team defense was excellent for sure, but even they got beaten sometimes, and Nikopolidis was there to make some brilliant saves. Qualification for Euro 2008, yes Chalkias got the next couple starts after the home loss to Turkey, but he did re-assert himself as the starter by the time the tournament rolled around. You can slam Nikopolidis all you want, but you fail to explain what makes Sifakis any better.

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heres some food for thought..sifakis is 26 and has played over 150 professional super league matches. when nikopolidis was 26, he started his first REAL regular season of play with pao. since that year he had played over 20 club matches consistantly. nikopolidis after that year, excelled tremendously.

its difficult to judge the two keepers, at his age sifakis yes was better than nikopolidis. but that doesnt mean he will have as successful a career or will be better than nikopolidis at the age of 30. keepers are tricky bc its not uncommon for them to be playing in their late 30s...i would even argue that alot of keepers dont hit the peak of their career until they are in their 30s.

its hard to argue that nikopolidis is not one of the best goalkeepers greece has ever had. but as euro pointed out, some of his bloopers are inexcusable and sometimes the man would give me a heart attack. he was not a complete all around gk. he had alot of trouble with crosses and balls played back to him. but then again, its hard to find all around COMPLETE keepers that are world class at reflex saves, long range shots, crosses and ball handling etc. even some of histories best gks didnt possess all of those abilities. still, despite this, nikopolidis is a legend. if not for anything, for our euro victory :D

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You can slam Nikopolidis all you want, but you fail to explain what makes Sifakis any better.

sifakis is average but i would rather have him in goal than niko because niko is error prone, sifakis is more reliable and rarely makes blunders like niko. but being the best in greece is meaningless anyway with the standard of keeping being so bad. i'll add also that niko was also a very lucky keeper, the amount of spills that went unpunished were amazing he tended to get away with an awful lot.

nikopolidis was a liability. sifakis - despite achieving less - is not.

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  • 2 weeks later...

well footballs all about opinions and i think he's very average and well overrated, if he's greece's best ever than that says more about the standard of greek goalkeeping than it does about niko's ability.

1 decent game vs czech republic in 2004 and countless errors since. sifakis is already better than niko ever was, and he hasn't even peaked yet

I couldn't agree more with you.

My personal opinion of Nikopolidis is he is an absolute disaster in goals. His retirement from the national team was almost celebrated as much as the Euro 2004 win by family.

Nikopolidis is NOT the best goalkeeper that Greece has produced. Some of the older guys might recall players like Sarganis, Plitsis, Minou, Kelesidis, Oikonomopoulos who were not as bad as Nikopolidis.

He has made classic blunders. Enough to fill hours of recorded space. The 1-4 against the Turks was a joke. I also remember a couple of years back him looking a fool against Asteras Tripolis with a rubbish kick out and that came back quickly and ended up in the goals.

Also no one has brought up his Statue impersonation against England when Beckham announced himself as the "star" of English football with that freekick! He didn't even move a muscle! He looked like a royal twat!

In the 2008 Euro he decided to go for a fishing trip against Russia and they scored a karagiozistiko goal!

The list is endless how error prone and bad he is. he wasn't great in the air and he has also been too slow and ineffective on the ground. So what good has he been?

To sum up how he is regarded around the world I will describe an experience I had 4 years ago as I walking with a Spanish friend (Calatan) in Athens. We walked past a periptero with a number of footballers of the big 3 when my fellow traveller spotted Nikopolidis in his best Olymapiakos gear and he turned to me and said "Ohh he is....eehhhh" "Nikpolidis" I answer thinking he couldn't recall his name. "No" my Catalan friend replies quickly, "he is...how you say...he is merda...he is S#!T goal keeper!"

I laughed because he was emphatic upon seeing Nikopolidis! This is how he will be remembered! He was NOT great, not even average. He was a joke and a distaster who helped our opposition just as much as he helped his own team.

Thanks for the memories Antoni...now F**k off and be a

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What a way for him to go out. In goal for Olympiakos who downed Larissa 6-0 today in Piraeus, and at the end of the 90 minutes, Olympiakos are crowned champions, and Nikopolidis himself is crowned champion one last time, and he ends his career with a clean sheet. He started just 6 matches here in his final season, but I'm glad Valverde at least had the class to let him end his career in goal, and not on the bench. Thank you Antonis Nikopolidis! He started his career with the enemy in Athens, and you Panathinaikos fans should be proud of him, too. In 2004 he made the short trip to Piraeus to join Olympiakos and in all but 1 season, he helped his new team to more championships. Above all, though, he was in goal for our country, when we won UEFA Euro 2004, in by far the greatest triumph in modern Greek sports history, and he played one of the biggest parts in making that happen.

Euxaristo re Clooney! :gr: :gr: :gr:

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