Kastoria - OLYMPIAKOS

[dipapa]

Can you tell some more about the place?  Is it a small town?  Where exactly it is located?  What is the height above sea level??

It is located at 600 m altitude, on a plateau of the northwest Macedonia (the Greek Macedonia). It is relatively near to the albanian borders. The population is around 16,000.

I passed by there on a motorcycle during summer holidays. It is one of the most interesting greek towns to visit. The old parts of it are simply amazing with nice mansions (quite a few in bad state though) of either "macedonian" architecture (the one prevailed, under the ottoman empire, in most parts of central and northern greece) or neo-classical. Those mansion were built by rich greek and jewish fur-manufacturing families.

One of town's biggest attractions is its numerous byzantine churches, dated from 9th century AD or later. They are full of paintings. The small local museum has a nice collection of portable icons.

Town is built at the coast of a lake, on the neck of a peninsula. Interesting thing, the tip of the peninsula is a quite picturesque grove. The new parts of the town are as unimpressive as in most other greek towns and cities.

Its football team was quite important during 80s. Sarganis, the best greek goalie of that period (played at Osfp and Pao) came from there.

[LUZ13]

Thank you Dipapa, which lake is it?? THere are severak there. I have seen some of them but I passed more to the east, throught the Djevdjelia border pass

Excuse me for the off - topic. I always said to my daughters who did not understand my interes in football, that you learn a lot of things while following football , like languagues and geography among other things :LOL:

[slick13]

good result

[Northerner]

-Nevermind, misunderstanding.

[Montreal_Thrillos]

oh welll we will take them in the return leg

[Vasili0s]

As far as I know, the prefecture of Kastoria has 53,000 inhabitants, but the city itself only has a little over 15,000........

Was the game shown on ert sat ? Expected result really.

[Northerner]

As far as I know, the prefecture of Kastoria has 53,000 inhabitants, but the city itself only has a little over 15,000........

Was the game shown on ert sat ? Expected result really.

You're right.

I didn't sleep enough last night, lol. Still tired.

[Vasili0s]

:P

[Ziaka]

Yes the game was on ERT-Sat live.

[Batigol]

Good result for Kastoria. Though I'm sure the weather played a bit of a factor with everything. Bajevic's decision to rest the better players was a good one. THe younger kids do need to prove themselves. Better against a smaller team like Kastoria than getting a baptism of fire and being made to look like a chump against some of the bigger clubs.

[MadBoy13]

I saw the first half, good game for Kastoria... to deutero imixrono to eida me to ena mati giati to allo itan kleisto :D :D

I wanna see Skoda takes the cup... or Kastoria or Larissa! why not? :rolleyes:

[nightsurfer]

A team like Olympiakos, with such a name, is not allowed to lose against a B' team in a competition game.

[LUZ13]

Nightsurfer

I feel exactly the same way, and I am sure that some of the players that "were resting" felt the same way and wished they were there , mud and all/

Here is the description of the match by ERT.gr

Quote:

In a snowed in Kastoria, Olympiacos’ players didn’t make it against the passionate, victory-hungry local team, and were defeated 2-1 in the first match for the Cup. With a great performance, Kastoria managed to face up to the difficulties of the pitch (a real swamp, the pitch was cleared just before the start whistle), and with two goals by Soultanidis, they took a small lead towards qualifying. In the stadium, with 4000 fans in Kastoria, the red-and-white team, with many gaps in defense and not much imagination, stuck in the mud, which meant that they were defeated.

Mediocre Olympiacos

Kastoria went on with a much greater appetite than Olympiacos and took advantage of the gaps in the opposing team.

In just 4’, Josic tried to score, but Nikopolidis threw himself down to block it out.

This, however, was just the beginning, as despite the heavy pitch, making the efforts of the 22 players difficult, Kastoria used their strength to overcome the difficulties and lead with Soultanidis in just 16’.

The experienced striker took advantage of the weak block by Nikopolidis on a shot by Angos, and took the rebound to send the ball into the net.

Despite being one goal down, Olympiacos did not manage to react, and in a game with no real development, they managed to get close to the Kastoria goal in just the 28th minute, when Rezic passed from the right and D’Acol headed it in; 1-1.

In the second half, Kastoria once again seemed livelier than Olympiacos. And since in 47’ Pandeliadis missed a very good opportunity, in 53’ Soultanidis once again brought it to 2-1. He was in the right place, Da Silva sent him the ball, and he moved to the right and successfully got past Nikopolidis. Following this, the snow started to fall more thickly, making it difficult for the footballers to move about. Kastoria managed to go on the offence a few times, but without result.

Bajevic tried to change a few things, sending young players Thanopoulos and Vlachos onto the pitch, in their first appearance wearing Olympiacos’ shirt, but the performance of the team remained at low levels, naturally ending in 2-1.

(End of quote)

Well , nothing more to say . Obviously, Oly is not Milan who took the Cup once with their B team (In which played Rivaldo BTW – in their B team)

Better forget it for the time being and concentrate in PAOK

Anybody knows how is the situation, any injured or suspended players??

To disclose my discussion of this match, I would like to know when will be the return match. I wonder if it will be with an empty stadium or not

[dipapa]

A team like Olympiakos, with such a name, is not allowed to lose against a B' team in a competition game.

Come on, let's remain pragmatists. A team with such an overloaded schedule IS allowed to cede some defeats like this. In the second leg, we will be able to balance.

@Luz13 : Kastoria lake is officialy named "Orestias" after the ancient Greek name of the region. Glad to talk off topic here when it is about a subject like this :)

[dipapa]

Anybody knows how is the situation, any injured or suspended players??

Castillo has a problem with his waist, they will know soon whether he will be available for the next game.

[NYC_Olympiakos]

whether or not Olympiakos should lose to a team like Kastoria can be debated

but give Kastoria all the credit for beating Olympiakos

off course they didn't eliminate Olympiakos but its a step towards the right direction

but do remember Olympiakos put a line up out their that as never been seen

A'dcol scored a goal and thats great b/c he is a our future

and its an all important away goal

the weather was really bad and probably played a part in the game

my only question is why wasn't Giannou starting

look i love having Nikopolidis in goal he is terrific but Giannou is also our future and should have played

he needs the seasoning

Kastoria was really pumped up for the game but the return leg is in Karaiskaki and i expect Olympiakos to win and progress

now let's worry about Paok.

[CH-Thrylos]

even if we play with our second team we should have gotten this win. even if we played kastoria under very bad conditions we should have won the game.

bajevics decision to rest the some of our normal starters. it is good to give some play time to our younger players. but they still should have gotten a better result.

but since we have the chance to turn the result in the second match it isnt that bad.

like forrest gump said: s%$#! happens...

@ luz: if the decision about the punishment wont change and will stay at the two match ban the game will take place without fans.

[Elastonpappou 13]

Kastoria really lost the match because of wrong mentality... They got scared of Thrynos while they could have easily scored 5 goals!!! Instead they wanted a win even with a half-0 instead of going there and kicking some a** of the gey-reserve players!!!!

Anyway with such a menatlity you don't go anywhere... Not it will be an easy win for Thrynos at Kokkalo-Pasok-aki!!!!

[tihio10]

@Luz

Here are some picture of the Beautiful Kastoria:

I've been to Kastoria many times, my family's from that area, the nightlife is great, with nightclubs, and great restuarants near Lake Kastoria. The lights on the night picture are where the finest restuarants are, the one restaurant, forget the name, has the best "bifteckis", everyone should have a chance to go to this fine town :tup:

[REDmagic]

We lost to a more committed and hungrier team simple as that..The positive to come out of this game was the youngsters were given a go :tup: :tup:

[LUZ13]

Thanks, tihio10, for the beautiful pictures.

You, Red magic, are 100% right, and that is bad

Many times , clubs lose the race for a title just because of that. They may win all the derbies, but lose points to small teams. I have seen it many times, in Brazil there are teams that always win the derbies of their cities or region but than loses to smaller teams.

It happened to Milan in the year when they won the CL they lost the scudetto mainly because they lost in their stadium to Empoli, who fell to serie B the same year’ and also lost or tied with other weak teams. They lost only 2 points in all the derbies, but 3 points are 3 points..

Some of the fans do not feel very comfortable with results like the one in Kastoria.

With the salaries they earn they must not be spared .. And it is not a complaint against the players, maybe they do not get motivated .. I do not want to criticize the coach , but he is the responsible for that also, as I am sure Oly have not a specialist for mental preparation

Anyway, all is not lost yet, maybe the result on Kastoria will serve as shock treatment to our players. I also thought so after the Ergothelis game, there was no snow there

The positive side: The goal that the young Brazlian D'akol scored

Of course I hope that I am all wrong and everything will be all right against Paok and of course Newcastle

[dipapa]

I am sure Oly have not a specialist for mental preparation

That was a very good point. It would be a shame for a team with so many mentality problems (the old tradition of loosing against AEK, during the first period of Bajevic at Osfp, the problems of self confidence at european away matches and so on).

Does anyone positively know more on this?