Omonoia9 Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 The ethniki are off to Helsinki to visit the Finns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
js1000 Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 the squad is as follows: O Karnezis(Udinese), P Glykos(PAOK), S Kapino(Mainz), S Dioudis(Club Brugge) V Torosidis, K Manolas(both Roma), S Papastathopoulos(Borussia Dortmund), L Vyntra(Levante) V Moras(Verona), K Stafylidis(Fulham), K Giannoulis, G Maniatis(both Olympiakos), G Skondras(PAOK). P Tachtsidis(Verona), A Samaris(Benfica), K Fortounis(Olympiakos), P Mandalos(AEK), C Mavrias(Sunderland) A Tziolis(PAOK). G Samaras(WBA), K Mitroglou,(Olympiakos), D Salpingidis, S Athanasiadis(both PAOK), N Karelis(Panathinaikos). lots of injuries, players like laz kone and holebas are out, but a disappointing squad picked by the clueless ranieri, Gekas not included despite banging in 6 goals in 5 games for his club, Karelis is in the squad despite not being good enough to start for PAO, Mavrias has got a call up even though he hasn't played a single minute for sunderland, fortounis is included with only 12 minutes of football under his belt this season and quite why you need 4 keepers is beyond me when 2 should be enough, and another call up for Mandalos, we're down to calling up greek 2nd division players. also there is a doubt over torosidis. on the plus side Finland are not as good as Romania and players like samaras mitroglou tachtsidis and samaris have some game time and are now match fit which wasn't the case against romania, as we got claudio the clown managing us i can see this one being a draw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bleedblueandwhite Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 i dont understand this coach....at all... 4 fukcing goalies? what is the logic? can anybody shed some light on that? from the moment he did not have any friendlies in spite of knowing the roster would be overhauled was, in my book, a very clear defining moment.... i dont get it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bleedblueandwhite Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 karnezis has the worst reaction time i have ever seen... same old story folks...granted it was a second string squad but WTF is this coach doin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
js1000 Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 as we got claudio the clown managing us i can see this one being a draw. he started with karilis mavrias and athanasiadis up front, surprised we even got a draw, gekas is omitted purely because he's 34. i know we have injuries but why didn't samaras and mitroglou start and if he wants to give youth a chance well why not play stafylidis instead of switching toro to left back and playing vyntra on the right. claudio the clown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarvis1981 Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Well I welcome the influx of new young players. I don't know the quality of each player but surely the new coach will eventually figure it out. What I couldn't understand is why Greece seemed to sit back after getting the first goal. I thought that they would keep attacking but they didn't. Greece is in a transition phase of getting younger and playing more attacking football. They only did one of the two this past game and need to do both. The good news is that the Europe Cup has been expanded so that more teams get in for 2016. This is the perfect time to change the landscape of Greek football. They now have a tradition of getting into tournaments but they now have to play more than just defensive football. Maybe I'm not giving Finland enough credit but I saw Greek players falling to the ground when they were barely touched and if they tried to stay up they would have found that they had numbers or a chance for a play on goal. Greek diving has to be reduced in order for the program to be moved forward. I still want to see the young players next game with maybe a couple of changes. The old guard has done it's job by providing a tradition but the team has to move forward. Give the youngsters a chance. I'll be interested to see how they do next game. Did they improve , Did they keep the pressure on if they get a lead. This group is not a gimme but Greece still has the most talent and should prevail if they grow as a team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
js1000 Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 jarvis you can only give youngsters a chance if they are good enough not just because they're young, mavrias hasn't played a single minute for sunderland this season and karelis isn't good enough at this level, why should gekas who's still got a lot to offer make way for these 2 just because he's 34?? also there's a case for mitroglou who also missed out, if you want to try youngsters who don't play for their clubs then arrange a friendly, we got a tournament to qualify for. ranieri even played mantalos in the first game for heavens sake. the youngster who should of had a game in the absence of holebas was stafylidis who's played every game for fulham and was perfect for the left back position instead ranieri went for torosidis at left back and vyntra (33years old and plays central defence for levante) at right back, stafylidis is young, playing regularly and IS a left back why not give him a try???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bleedblueandwhite Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 claudio is in a no lose situation; he inherited a winning tradition, with a very old group.... he cant keep the older guys becuae come tournament time they will be two years older; he MUST infuse ALOT of new guys....and we all know by now, soccer is a team game and for greece, they must play as a cohesive unit.... but there is a better way to do this, and making wholesale changes is disruptive to whatever continuity we had with the kara/kats/salpi era.... MIDFIELD is the key...gekas (natural scorer) scores because he gets the ball from his suporting cast...if our mids dont produce pele, etec etc could get a good shot on net... his choices are suspect, but look, everyone who has always cried out "give the young guys a chance" well here you go....this is what the plan is apparently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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