2024-2025 Pre Season Training News and Games

[pash]

How?

[Athens4]

Which B team players have come up in the first team?

[pash]

Well for one, we're talking about the second stringers here. You might not have noticed, but the B team did not actually travel to Holland.

As for that team, you would write off an entire program because it didn't result in star players after three seasons? What if I told you that Koulierakis played 22 games for the B team, before getting called up to the senior squad?

[paokarag4]

Agree pash. It also provided players the opportunity to play some minutes who were returning from long term injuries. The ones I recall are Ingason and Michalidis. 

 

[Athens4]

Sorry guys, but Koulierakis playing 22 games and Ingason and Michailidis playing for match fitness does not mean the B team is a success. For it to be a success I would expect players to be pushing for a place in the first team. Ouedraogo didn't make it. Brandonjic and Quagliata the same. Hachim Kanis?

The purpose of the B team is to produce the next first team players. I don't really see many of those.

[Nea Bafra]

7 hours ago, Athens4 said:

Sorry guys, but Koulierakis playing 22 games and Ingason and Michailidis playing for match fitness does not mean the B team is a success. For it to be a success I would expect players to be pushing for a place in the first team. Ouedraogo didn't make it. Brandonjic and Quagliata the same. Hachim Kanis?

The purpose of the B team is to produce the next first team players. I don't really see many of those.

That is like saying the junior teams are a failure if every two years they don't produce 3 starters. Personally I see this as a way to polish the U17/U19 players against physically mature opponents before they get the charity 10 minutes from Lucescu. It also gives the club the opportunity to say to the entourages of any players with a big head "fine, the kid can tear apart other kids his age now show us he can do it in the B team before you start breaking my balls to be in the first team starting XI".

Also we can also probably assume like most things Greek the first season would have been a sh1te show of disorganisation and getting the right people in place so really it's only had about one full season.

Was the previous situation better is also worth asking and should we revert to that?

[Dutch Eagle]

Today our first friendly of the season against AEK Larnaca.

Btw, next weeks friendly against Genk will be played in a different format: two halfs of 60 minutes. 

[Dutch Eagle]

6 hours ago, Dutch Eagle said:

Today our first friendly of the season against AEK Larnaca.

Game will be played with the teams divided over the two halfs:

Σημειώνεται πως στη μια 11άδα θα είναι οι: Κοτάρσκι, Σάστρε, Νάσμπεργκ, Κουλιεράκης, Μπάμπα, Καμαρά, Τσιγγάρας, Βιειρίνια, Γκούμας, Τάισον και Μπράντον Τόμας.

Ενώ στην άλλη 11άδα θα είναι οι: Τσιφτσής, Όττο, Εκόνγκ, Μιχαηλίδης, Ράφα Σοάρες, Σβαμπ, Οζντόεφ, Ντεσπόντοφ, Μουργκ, Κουαλιάτα και Σαμάτα.

[pash]

First goal of the preseason, our own natural born killer, Schwab 

-edit- apparently it was disallowed? I'm watching on mute in the office so don't really know why

Edited July 3, 2024 by pash

[Dutch Eagle]

Goal. Livescore says 2-0 now. 

[pash]

I am not sure now where that first goal came from; maybe they eventually gave it to Schwab (who scored with his head).

The second goal was Murg, using those supple legs of his.

[Dutch Eagle]

11 others on the pitch. 

And Larnaca pulls one back: 2-1

[Dutch Eagle]

FT 2-1.

[pash]

Game was fine. Not much to take from that. Quagliata's a quick little guy, but the first half of the game my stream was terrible so it was hard to tell what was going on.

-edit- I had missed the 2-1 - wow, that was a dumb miss/mistake by Tsiftsis...

Edited July 3, 2024 by pash

[Dutch Eagle]

PAOK - Hibernian HT 1-0.

We started with: Κοτάρσκι, Σάστρε, Εκόνγκ, Κουλιεράκης, Ράφα, Καμαρά, Σβαμπ, Ντεσπόντοφ, Μουργκ, Τάισον Μπράντον.

They scored the goal in '5.

Murg scored for us but it happened to be offside.

[pash]

Was there something wrong with Brandon's goal? I'm watching on mute again so don't have the commentary 😞

[Dutch Eagle]

Don't know.

Second half starters:

Ταλιχμανίδης, Ότο, Θυμιάνης, Μιχαηλίδης, Μπάμπα, Τσιγγάρας, Οζντόεφ, Βιεϊρίνια, Γκούμας, Κουαλιάτα και Σαμάτα.

So Talichmanidis this time instead of Tsiftsis. Thymianis making his unofficial debut.

[Dutch Eagle]

Lambros Smirlis also made his first appearance coming in for Vieirinha in '83. But he could not reverse it though. 

FT 0-1.

But you know what they say: you learn more from defeats/mistakes .... the saying could also be BS 

[pash]

Hey, this is the time of year to see how these guys - esp the newer faces - look. I have no problem with the loss (and I like that our "worse" lineup did not give up a goal in the second half). That first goal looked like a Kotarski mistake btw; so maybe Tsiftsis is not a lost cause!

[Dutch Eagle]

Kotarski definitely to blame for that goal. 

Saw the friendly against Genk was cancelled according to soccerway. On the wiki page of Genk our friendly is not mentioned. Anybody information about this?

[pash]

For what it's worth, the random phone app I use still lists it as our next game. Lucescu also mentions both the "wednesday game" being two sixty minute halves (and that he wants two games on the same day for the last friendly), about six minutes into this video. It's probably still on, I would guess.

 

[pash]

Looks like that last friendly is going to be vs Vitesse:

https://www.transfermarkt.us/vitesse-arnheim/startseite/verein/499

Didn't we loan someone out to them a few years back?

https://www.sdna.gr/podosfairo/1214803_neo-filiko-gia-ton-paok-kontra-stin-fitese

[Dutch Eagle]

Could very well be their last match as Vitesse faces bankruptcy. 

Can't remember that we someone loaned to them. But Ruud Knol played there before joining us. Vitesse is known best for Nikos Machlas for sure. 

[pash]

Yikes, that's rough. Explains their rather tragic looking lineup. PAOK is probably footing the bill for this game, in other words.

 

Unrelated to that, the Kedziora black-out apparently is now due to the Russian missile strikes on Kyiv last night, including the one that hit a children's hospital. I am not sure I buy this is the reason, because Kedziora could have signed the day before that happened, but do with that info what you will!

[Dutch Eagle]

The match against Genk is being played as scheduled today but in a 4x30 minutes format. 

Started off very bad. Conceived two goals in the first 10 minutes. Score after 50 minutes is still 0-2.