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Croatia - Greece ( Round 2, 1st Leg, 9 Nov. 2017, Stadion Maksimir, Zagreb )


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As bad as we played today (we gifted Croatia most of those goals), we did create chances.

 

If we can sure up our defense on Sunday, bring Monolas in and actually play a proper RB. I think we should win the return leg.

 

As crazy as it sounds I don't think this tie is as dead as people think. Croatia's defense is garbage and we need to just actually believe in ourselves and push forward. Impossible is Nothing!

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48 minutes ago, J1078 said:

No other team will get blown out like this in any game of the playoffs ffs. I'm speechless... The fact that we were down 4-1 and Our retarded coach didn't  bring on Laz or Giannatos or Pelkas to try and create a goal is mind blowing... wtf is he thinking?? 

 I am still steaming, we looked like a laughing stock. All the other ties will be closely contested. Our coach today coached like it was a friendly. The formation, starting Maniatis and Samaris. His substitutes throwing in Bakasetas who is brutal. 

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This performance reminds me of Greece in the 80's when we'd cop 4 from the Yugoslavs and with ease as well.

Time to stop with the vlakies.

Maniatis, Tziolis, Tzavellas, bye bye.

Have a team meeting with the rest.  If you're not playing regular football, you won't be selected in the NT anymore.  If you want to chase a big pay day, cool, go do that.  Enjoy.

Seriously.

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Our acadamies are not producing players like other balkan nations our players are not as hungry for glory! We should be the best in the Balkans! Population wise including the diaspora  we are way bigger than other nations in our region

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24 minutes ago, georgelaz said:

we lost the psychological battle by conceding early. The Croats wanted open balla and they got it. We obviously were playing to shut the game down - which we are usually successful at doing.

they were hammering that flank that Maniatis was defending. They knew he was the weakest link. A Torosidis and Manolas I assure u none of that would have happened.

I was just saying keep them off the board and there angst would start to rise. Then that passback and boom it’s a 1-0 and there it goes. Missing Manolas was a crime that FIFA should pay for, those arses. Not having Toro exposed us even more, it’s a shame at 2-1 our team and coaches plan should have been to lock it down and not concede and even losing 1-2 was manageable  but 3 minutes later another goal? 

Also why was Tsanas given the boot?

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euro 2004-we had play makers on the bench now we have absolute rubbish on field let alone the bench. unfortunately the golden era is over we might need to wait another 10 years hoping that the Greek FA get something right in the next decade. The big 4 must invest more in academies less foreigners in each team and create some young guns.  Someone earlier in the forum was speaking about adopting 8 on 8 on smaller field for the academies.

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... and another thing is im sick and tired of greeks taking club football so serious. this is where it counts for Godsake world cups & European cups. Club football comes no where near national team football. As an ethnos we hugely have problems amongst ourselves I couldn't care less who wins the championship it means nothing when you win it with 10 foreigners produce some players.

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1 hour ago, Megas said:

Our acadamies are not producing players like other balkan nations our players are not as hungry for glory! We should be the best in the Balkans! Population wise including the diaspora  we are way bigger than other nations in our region

You are right but when we have talent out of the academy like Retros and keep him on the bench because Skibbe is chicken s%$#! and started Maniatis because he is safer, then it comes down to not playing your talent that is there. 

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we all know the game should have been closer, we gifted them their 1st and 4th goals. Good teams can take advantage of mistakes.

We had a few really good opportunities to turn it back to 4-2 or even 4-3, the SOkratis chance in the 2nd half and the final play of the game, an simple pass to mitro would have secured the goal. 

This is what seperated the two teams on  the day, we needed a cool head during the tough times. 

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1 hour ago, Megas said:

... and another thing is im sick and tired of greeks taking club football so serious. this is where it counts for Godsake world cups & European cups. Club football comes no where near national team football. As an ethnos we hugely have problems amongst ourselves I couldn't care less who wins the championship it means nothing when you win it with 10 foreigners produce some players.

You will get lots of backlash for this. I think this all depends on the culture in which you grew up, both societal and domestic. Lots of people inherited love for their club from a parent or grandparent and grew up watching matches on Sundays. Truth is, there is a lot more action in club football as they play often, and gives a lot more for people to discuss. This was also rooted in the old days when most players in the league were Greek. Pre-2004 our NT didn't give Greeks much to cheer about and before the internet it was pretty hard to keep tabs on international football.

Even thought this point in my life, I feel a lot more connection with the Greek NT than any club, loyalty to a club is a personal sentiment and it is more than legitimate. 

Edited by Argy
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It was embarrassing right up there with the Faroes matches but this was the first game of a playoff tie to go to the WorldCup and the team was unorganized and most were not giving it there all on the field. Samaris, Tzavellas, Tziolis, Staf, Fortounis, Karnezis were abysmal as was our coach! The players were talking about securing a World Cup spot for there injured teammate Mandalos and this is the match they played. Absolute Garbage!

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honestly did not expect this bad of a performance thoughh. it is shocking copping 4. We only ever copped 2 from belgium in one game. everything else was 1 or 0.

manolas out was a huge loss. I do think his presence would have prevented a goal or two.

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2 hours ago, Megas said:

... and another thing is im sick and tired of greeks taking club football so serious. this is where it counts for Godsake world cups & European cups. Club football comes no where near national team football. As an ethnos we hugely have problems amongst ourselves I couldn't care less who wins the championship it means nothing when you win it with 10 foreigners produce some players.

Best post in the history of this forum. Well said, Megas

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Guys we can talk about how we played over the 90 but for me the early goal was what changed the game.  It gave them confidence and sank our players a bit.  You just cannot gift your opponent a goal like that so early in their home stadium.  Especially when they have talented players, a more talented side in general.  It went from there. 

Poor overall for sure.  Disappointing.  This was a tough draw for us.  Maybe tougher than Italy which would maybe have been a tighter low scoring affair.  I will say that certain players were exposed for the average players they are.  Maniatis and Tsavellas on the flanks.  Not good enough against an opponent like that.  In the middle not enough quality to turn and create.  

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Hi guys. Just joined the forum, I think it's great. Lots of awesome options & discussions. Wanted to add my 2 cents after what I saw today.

Putting a national team together is not easy. We saw with Ranieri that you can't just tinker with players and formations every match. That blew up right in our faces. We've had the most success from our current coach, Santos & Rehagael: they all had a closed club of players that continually got called up to play together for the Ethniki. But, I think there is an important balance that needs to be made here. I believe the Greeks who are in their best form should play; thus, you could argue having your set closed club of players is important, but the coach must also take into account current form. We saw at the end of the Rehagael era, and currently with Skibbe, that there are players in this closed club who are not in form. So this needs to be addressed properly. Obviously we don't need another Ranieri tenure; I think the lesson was learned there. But when you're facing world class players, you have to put your best out there. Maybe making the call ups more competitive somehow would actually get those who WANT to play for the national team and won't just WALK around the whole game. Some players have learned well as we can see. Their spots go untouched...

One reason why we have a problem here is that many of our Greek players are inconsistent. Why? (Let's exclude Sokratis, Manolas, Zeca from this). Injuries come along yes, but how can other players in the game give 100% more often than a lot of our best Greek players? Am I wrong guys? Especially in a game like today's, one of the most important in their careers one could argue.

Fortounis was playing as a right winger in the last Euro if I remember correctly. Maybe he's not made to be a number 10? This kid has some games and he blows me away. Most of the time now tho he's like a dead beat. I just don't understand it. One thing I haven't seen anyone talk about aside from the more common out- of- form guys playing on the team (Samaris, Maniatis, Tachtsidis, Vellios etc.) Is Stafylidis. He has only played ONE match this whole year. There have been 10 bundesliga matches. Most of the time he hasn't even been on the bench. What's the story here? Are we losing another of our "talents"? How do you go from playing 38 matches for Fulham not too long ago, to this? Do these guys have some self defeatist, learned helplessness psichologiko complex?

Give me a whole team of Sokratis Papastathopoulo's. That's the passion I want. Zeca wasn't even born in Greece and he's yelling the national anthem and giving his all every single match.

Whenever I look at our national team, I see a bunch of puzzle pieces that if we can just get right, we could be phenonomenal. I think it's there and the right moves have to be made. This however goes even deeper: our domestic league needs fixing, support is needed for our greek talents, bolstering our academies... etc. etc. The new EPO has a lot of work to do.

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2 hours ago, tantra129 said:

there are no serious academies. It’s all garbage  

Like everything else in Greece, it’s who will cash in first. Kick the Can down the road and no player development. 

 

when it comes to Player development,  there are many shadow organizations that make decisions, have the right contacts and cash in quickly  

Hence why greece is full of prodotes

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Our depth is killing us. This is why Samaris and Fortounis are not playing well. Gianniotas should of came on in the 2nd half. His grit and speed was needed. It's a shame. I don't know how we will play on Sunday but I feel like we will give 1000%. We didn't look like our usual selves. Since the first minute something was wrong. We had no one in attack. How can Papadopoulos square a pass to Mitroglou in that angle? What did was the best thing he could do. Zeca makes me proud. He is not even Greek but showed so much heart and passion. I wish Fortounis showed the same urgency.

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stafylidis has been one of our most consistent players, we won't demand his departure(!) for a single mistake. after all he's only 23 for god's sake, what do you mean by bringing in fresh players? 

those who need to be kicked out are; 

tziolis, tzavellas, maniatis, vellios, gianniotas, diamantakos. all of them are non factors in awful clubs. 

bring in charisis and mpakakis

anyways it's almost done so that's my list going on to the nations league next september; 

starters; 

karnezis, torosidis, sokratis, manolas, stafylidis, zeca, kourmpelis, donis, fortounis, mantalos, mitroglou

bench;

kapino, mpakakis, papadopoulos, retsos, lykogiannis, samaris, charisis, tachtsidis, lazaros, mpakasetas,, karelis.

 

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The usual culprits in Kourbelis, Androutsos, Manthatis ,Pelkas, Lamprou, Limnios, Vlahomid, Siopis, Bouchalakis. Reconsidering Fetfa and Ninis too.

Give new ones an extended run. The others did not work obviously.

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I'm still absoloutly embarrassed and stunned.... we didn't even look this bad in our last euro qualifier.. I think this needs to be a reality check that ever since the last World Cup we have completely gone down hill and I have to agree with some of the previous posters that we may be missing tournaments for years to come.. very depressing...

Edited by J1078
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