WCQ: Georgia - GREECE

[oppong]

LOL... Nikopolidis is the worst greek GK since... he left PAO for OLY!!! There are always some PAO fans to make me laugh... thank you guys!

What a debate! Compare the best GK during Euro 2004 and a GK who is among the worsts in famous Premier League (we all know that's the place N

[Guest Protathlitis]

Some of VAZELAKIA are being ridiculous about Nikopolidis

chalkias better? :LOL:

I think his age is catching up with him. He is still a great keeper for most of the game but then he makes a mistake which gives away a goal 3 times in the qualifying

Ive been happy with him in goals for OSFP this season but for the Ethniki; 3 big mistakes could have done a lot of damage

[Clover22]

A really great win! But I'm a bit surprised he didn't play Gekas or Amanatidis in the last 15 minutes... he could have done this, we were up 3 -1 after all. The next match might be interesting as far as the lineup goes.

[Euphoria]

WELL DONE HELLAS!

*still waiting for the goals*

[Yaniotis1]

Howcome greek torrents hasen't oploaded the game yet?

[teddy_jam]

From my experiences with torrents and stuff. Its not the quickest thing in the world to make torrents etc.

Im also looking for it once it comes out...id like to watch one of these games!

[aek21]

I don't know, but I think they're making a dvd release, just be patient. Should be available tomorrow, I know it won't be uploaded tonight b/c it's like 3am in Greece.

[greeksoccerfanatic]

PAIDIA,

TOO MUCH HEART, TOO MUCH PASSION, AND A DEMOLITION OF GEORGIA!

DID THEY REALLY THINK THEY COULD COMPETE WITH THE CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE. KARAGOUNI IS A BLOODY MACHINE, HARISTEA CHASED EVERYTHING UP FRONT, AND KAPSIS WAS BY FAR THE BEST ON THE PITCH(BRAVO RE LEVEDI)

THIS IS WHAT OUR OMADARA IS ALL ABOUT. FORGET THE DEFENSE MINDED GAME. I'VE SAID THAT WE HAVE PLAYERS WITH THE TALENT TO PUT BIG SCORES ON THE BOARD, AND REHHAGEL HAS FIGURED IT OUT SUPERBLY. ONE QUESTION? WAS FYSSAS INJURED. WHY DID'NT HE START TODAY? ALBANIA, BE AFFRAID, BE VERY AFFRAID. THA GINEI TIS P OUTANAS THN TETARTH STO KARAISKAKI. ELLADA 4 ALBANIA 0, AND A TRIP TO THE WORLD CUP FINALS IS THAT MUCH CLOSER. :box:

ELLAS OLE ELLAS OLE!!!

SYKOSE TO...G AMIMENO...DEN BORO...DEN BORO NA PERIMENO!!!

AND NOW THE WORLD CUP BOYS!!! :gr:

one more thing. for highlights of the game go to sportline.gr and click on video to see the goals.

[AnthonyM]

Greece played exactly how they had to in order to secure the 3 points. But we have a lot to learn from today's match...

Such a performance will NOT get us victories against Turkey, Denmark and Ukraine! The team has to learn to ADAPT to the flow of the game early on, and this is a crucial mistake we see Greece repeat time and time again. The Georgians came out united and more determined (you could see just from the national anthem) and set the pace of the game until we picked up in the last 5 minutes of the first half.

The second half has been the worst soccer I have seen in AGES!! Honestly, I was bored stiffless. Greece had the rhythm of the game, yet did not make any serious attempts to score. The build-up plays were practically non-existent in the second half...

Leave Nikopolidis alone! He did his duty, save the ball... The Georgians have terrific long shots and that shot was a beauty. The mistake lays with the defenders! A GK will be expected to save and HOLD the ball in high-ball situations and other such saves. If the Georgian player had shot a little more to the left and Nikopolidis parried it away we would all have talked of a great save!! Give the man a break, he is not a negative influence on the team and he inspired, at least to me, confidence in the rest of the game.

I must admit I have been a vocal critic of Vryzas for some time but gradually I am realizing his suitability in the Greek style of play and as a fitting half of Greece's striker partnership. He is great in the air, a true hustler on the ground, and shows great calmness on the ball, being able to use it wisely in very limited space (common problem for attackers, especially in an organised attack where the opposing team's players have withdrawn to their own zone).

This is the first game of the qualifiers that I would not give my man of the match vote to Karagounis, though he still did what he does best; win fouls, run like a beast, and gain/keep possession of the ball. The British commentator of the game referred to him as the 'superstar of the European Champions' during today's game and he is absolutely right. He is the only player with the bal*s to shoot outside of the penalty box, and is a constant goal-scoring threat from the halfway-line even!!!

As we saw against Denmark in the second half, Karagounis/Zagorakis are the backbones of the team... Absolutely indispensable members.

I am looking forward to the Albania game, as I hope to see a better breaking down of an organised defence. We rely too much on scruffy goals and set pieces, but a truly great team can properly build up their plays, by moving the ball around enough to create space for their players. That is our biggest attacking weakness at the moment. Again, the most important thing is for us to set the tempo, which we have proven able to do when playing at home...

Rehhagel is following a good philosophy. Stick to the same players as much as possible... After all, he's only sticking around to 2006 anyways! Short-term vision is paradoxically what national teams need. Take every competition 2-years at a time. This is our 2004/2006 generation... They've proven their ability. The 2008/2010 will have to prove it themselves eventually too, regardless of their lack of experience. This bucnh did it, so can the future too!

[NYC_Olympiakos]

this is suppose to be a great day for Greece

were coming of the post celebration of our independence and we achieved an important victory

unfortunately this win can't be celebrated due to anger pointed towards Nikopolidis

to say comments that French, Portugal, and Czech couldn't beat us but Nikopolidis destroy's the team is stupid

i mean for starters Nikopolidis has done alot of Great things for the National team

he is one of the main reasons on us winning the title

these haters that have just soured this victory are mainly Pao fans

these are the same ppl that attacked Olympiakos fans b/c of their love for the club more then the country

i know those will say that i am biased b/c i am an Olympiakos fan but thats not the point

i mean yes he has been in poor form but it still hasn't cost us yet

Otto sticks with him b/c he knows better then all of me and u in here

he knows he will rise to the ocassion

if some of these haters were running the team Georgia's first goal would ahve been game over for us

thankfully it wasn't

the team showed from wut i read good play after the goal

now Albania comes to town and down on spirit

all 3 points are needed here

and maybe a loss by Ukraine will put Greece in 1st place

Greece has failed to show a all around good game thus far in the qualifying tournament

but they have showing resliency thus far

starting the group bad and being down in stages and fighting back for the win

coutinue our winning ways with an win v Albania

ELLAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Montreal_Thrillos]

as far as nikopolidis in concerend .. despiter the mistake... he is still the #1 GK. after all otto is a very smart man so if decided to start NIko im sure he knows what hes doing

and as for you Niko bashers especially the greens ..get over the fact he signed with us (and thank your super management too) and realize he is better then galinovic. chalkias giannou etc etc,

go past the fact he left u for us and for once look at his accomplishments!!

[Montreal_Thrillos]

1-3 greece :gr:

easy win in the end

epitelous re slick.. ipes kati sosto :LOL:

[olympiakos_NYC]

Hi everybody i am a new user

i am a proud Greek and a proud supporter of Olympiakos

i heard about the game today on the radio

my greek isn't that great but i knew when we scored

basically from wut i gathered is that we played good after the first goal was scored on us

lets just keep up our good form of play v Albania on our road to the WC

Nikopolidis will is our #1 goal keeper

his services are always needed and he has always come up big at the highest of moments

lets go Ellas

[Nikolaos]

Thanks greeksoccerfanatic for letting us know where to find the goals.

For even easier viewing, here's the link everyone:

http://www.sportline.gr/football/wc2006/05...326/geogre3.asp

Kapsis and Vryzas goals were both great, side of the net baby!

Bravo re Stelios for being opportunistic and getting the goal off the rebound.

Regarding Nikopolidis "blunder", I have to disagree. The shot was decent, had some velocity, and Antonis had to jump to his left to save the shot. Could he of cleanly held on to it? Maybe so, maybe not. Looking at the video footage back, he made a decent first save, with our defensive line clearly not marking the Georgian who got the rebound.

[Guest Protathlitis]

posts that nikopolidis was the best goalkeeper of euro 2004. no way. nikopolidis was steady...not spectacular.

I beg to differ man; he was pretty damn good. He is superb at communitcating with our defence and when he was called upon to make the great saves he did

maybe not best but close to it

It was avery bad mistake today.

Hes made 4 big mistakes this season v ukraine, denmark, georgia and aek

apart from that hes been a solid keeper. On the other hand those mistakes could have cost us dearly. I think its old age. It happens to all keepers; if schmeicel had kept playing it would have happened to him

but like aek66 said; we have no-one else. the idea of chalkias keeping is ludicrous so lets not even mention it. have you people seen what he is doing at portsmouth?

Giannou seems like both OSFP and the NT's big hope and maybe Kotsolis too

[Guest Protathlitis]

Greek torrents is up

[HOLLYWOOD]

im probably the only pao supporter who still supports nikopolidis...

so im gonna lay the question to all you haters;

Name me one keeper in greece or outside greece who could replace niko and be better then him??? plz dnt say chalkias coz his giving us greeks a bad name in england...

i await ur responce...

[Petalideos]

im probably the only pao supporter who still supports nikopolidis...

so im gonna lay the question to all you haters;

Name me one keeper in greece or outside greece who could replace niko and be better then him??? plz dnt say chalkias coz his giving us greeks a bad name in england...

i await ur responce...

Hollywood,

I am as well a PAO fan and do support Nikopolidis. I have no ill feelings for him leaving PAO. Everyone has a bad game(s).

However, when Figo, Henry, Ronaldo, Deco, Baros and all these stars were charging Nikopolidis, I said to myself, "Tha tous fai o Antonis"....know, I am a little less confident.

Nikopolidis is the best GK we have today. It does not mean he is at the top of his form....it means we have no else. Otto needs to start training someone else and Halkias is not the answer. We the confederation cup coming up and that will be the time to experiment with a new keeper.

[Euphoria]

thanks for the link. but i'd like to see these goals from different angles, does anyone know where i could download clips with multiple camera angles?

[aek21]

The guy blasted it at nikopolidis, I'm not surprised he let off a rebound, but he should have pushed the ball away from the net. I think the goal was a wake up call, and we answered. To me the goal was not a concern, but it would be against a good team. The only time I think nikopolidis let me down for was against Denmark, which he made up, sort of, with a spectacular save. He is our best goalie, all the best make mistakes. Just look at Kahn, Barthez and even buffon... they have their bad games and they have their poor form. This will pass, he just needs a boost of morale and Otto knows who to do it and it's not by finding a replacement. When anotnis is at his best, there is no other.

[drakos13]

as expected the gay members in the forum still think the kota is number 1....we could have easily tied that game if we hadnt got so lucky in the end of the first half- beleive me that lead came from NOWHERE. the team did not overperform and we were at risk of losing 2 points cause of yet again kota adonakis m*****es. he almost gave us another in the 80 something minute ----Xalkias IS a more consistent keeper and has a less error rate...people jump on him for a bad game in portsmouth (dont mention hes back in good form) but the gays never really see xalkias play, i seen both keepers play a long time now and when it comes to crosses Xalkias is far superior. adonaki screwed us in ukraine, albania (he played s%$#! in that game though had no serious error) denmark, and again a piss porr performance last night.. 2goals is not easy to come by and adoni is giving gifts all the time (the second goal didnt come but it was exactly another denmark incident) of course my opinion on goalkeepers for the national team is completly bias because im a pao fan according to the idiots in this forum... pay attention watch a game this guy in the past was awesome but hes not the same...the only credit i will give him is that he is still fast.....as far as safe hands how many gifts he has to give before he is agios vassilis...

[Montreal_Thrillos]

youre just still bitter cause he left u guys end of story

as I said u r not the coach of this team otto is

if otto had some doubts on him especially after georgia scored.. dont u think he would have pulled him?

but unlike u.. otto doesnt judge niko on what team he plays for.. he judges him on his soccer talent,

[Yaniotis1]

Bitter? No way. You have no clue how much better off we are without him. The only thing that pisses me off is that the gays are too thick headed and childish to realize how god awful he is and how much he has cost you this season and they still support him like idiots just cause he left pao and came to oly.

[Korisos]

well okay Nikopolidis does commit horendous errors that make my blood pressure go up BUT he's the best keeper we've got so might as well stop bashing him. :tdown:

i think a bigger worry is we have no left foot in midfield.

how many times did you see in the first half Karagounis cut across inside towards the center with his right foot, Stelios was doing it too. i'm not knocking these two guys but they can't always do the same thing. we need a left foot to send crosses instead of cutting inside always. i think right now the best option is to use Fyssas as a left wing back like Giourkas on the right. remember the Kazahkstan game when he crossed for Charistea's 2nd goal, we need to see more of that.

[Yaniotis1]

Katergiannakis was doing very well in italy before they got rid of him. He should be given a shot. He cant do any worse than nikopolidis has done in these world cup qualifyers.