LG Cup in Saudi Arabia

[Ziaka]

The Greek NT will play two games in Saudi Arabia at the end of January. On January 21st Greece will play Korea Republic, and on January 25th we will play the host country Saudi Arabia. These games will precede the tournament in Cyprus. As a result the 17th round of the Greek league was postponed.

[King_Katsouranis]

I seriously think playing such poor oppostion like Saudi Arabia :tdown:cant be that good for the greek national team, what do u rekkon??? :gr: :gr:

[evalagoal]

I seriously think playing such poor oppostion like Saudi Arabia :tdown:cant be that good for the greek national team, what do u rekkon??? :gr: :gr:

I agree...

I don't understand why we can't play stronger teams? This is something that Otto Rehagel should've set up and should've been very addiment about it. This is not going to be good because these teams are going to play hard and strong are going to want to beat us BADLY. If Otto thinks that this "mini tournament" will be like a morale booster he's wrong.

I would've liked to see the whole team come toghether and play against other Greek club teams so Otto can see different players...

This just has a weird taste in my mouth... What do you all think? :unsure: :huh:

[aekrossoponti]

I wouldn t start labeling saudi arabia as weak opposition. we arent the greatest of teams. name 5 teams that are in the world cup, that we can easily defeat? do you think we will beat saudi arabia easily?

dont underestimate korea. they are a good team. both teams are in the world cup and therefore play with the goal of preparing for the tournament. imagine us playing teams with no motivation. i agree though that result wise we can only lose in these games. we dont have the firepower to thrash saudi arabia and a dull, narrow victory at best wont cause much euphoria...

on the other side, we have to take all the friendlys we get. the more games otto has to experiment the better. if he fields his usual euro 2004 team then we can forget everything. rehagel needs to seriously consider rebuilding a greek national team... he needs all the games he can get to do so.

[Korisos]

otto needs to start rebuilding this team and it has to start with these games, since the loss to Ukraine in the qualifiers the team has been in shambles. the confed cup was useless from a team building point of view and since then otto has called on lybe of all players who did well vs. lonely Kazahkstan but vs. Denmark he was the worst player on the field.

Mantzios is the only striker who looks like he can do some damage and i really hope he plays entire games from now on, since we have no set up man for Charisteas, he's useless and couldn't drible around pilons if his life depended on it, Gekas is worse, Pap showed some promise and Salp is fast but are they really good enough to play at this level. and honestly i don't care if we play "weak" teams as long as we play as often as possible and we got to get some confidence before that Cyprus tournament

[AEKGATE21]

i think you are wrong about charisteas, i saw the game of Ajax vs Gronigen, i think i could safely say know that charisteas is over that nasty head injury that he suffered a while ago he scored 2 sensational gaols and set up the 3rd for a 3-2 win over gronigen, furthermore anastasiades who plays along with him at ajax is also started to show some good form

[Korisos]

maybe you didn't watch the qualifiers or the confed cup, i won't start again about how bad he was. last weekend vs. Hereveen he had a chance to clear a corner but the Hereveen player beat him to it and the ball hit the crossbar and went right to Samaras for his 1st goal

furthermore anastasiades who plays along with him at ajax is also started to show some good form

if people think he should be on the ethniki because he scored a couple of goals in the champions league then some people need medication. he only played in 6 games in the Dutch league so far and didn't score yet so he'll be out of form if called up and he's 32, otto needs to turn to youth

[Korisos]

i'm very happy to see Lagos get the call

(www.epo.gr)

[Petalideos]

Thanks homer,

However....no Amanatidis, Kyrgiakos, Tavlaridis, Hari....etc...

I hope this is to try out new players!!!!

[Petalideos]

I forgot.....SAMARAS!!!!

[Korisos]

Thanks homer,

However....no Amanatidis, Kyrgiakos, Tavlaridis, Hari....etc...

I hope this is to try out new players!!!!

if you didn't already notice, Otto selected players only from Greek teams, the gyus abroad probably have their club commitments

[Ziaka]

That's right. Only players from the Greek domestic league were called up for the tournament. Still don't understand why was Anatolakis called up. I am sure there are young defensive prospects in Greece that could have been called up.

[Ziaka]

The NT schedule for this tournament is as follows:

Sat, 21-Jan-05: 15:40 GR - Riyadh: GREECE - Korea Republic

Wed, 25-Jan-05: 19:00 GR - Riyadh: GREECE - Saudi Arabia

[Ziaka]

Here is our history against Saudis Arabia:

Our history against Saudi Arabia

We have yet to play against Korea Republic.

[Wallofsoccer88]

Alexopolous (AEK Athens) would've been good to call into the squad. What ever happened to Lakis??? But with this being an Ethniki A squad only, I think Otto did a pretty good job with this, hopefully the results will show.

It's smart to be playing reasonably good, but not great teams in Saudi Arabia and Korea. I dunno who they are having in their squads but if both bring their A teams and we beat them, that's definately an accomplishment seeing as this could easily be considered our B team.

Your thoughts....????

[HOLLYWOOD]

question:

hows Giannis Skopelitis doing in portsmouth??? do u guys think his ready to be called up?

[Korisos]

question:

hows Giannis Skopelitis doing in portsmouth??? do u guys think his ready to be called up?

he went back to Aigaleo a few days ago and his prospects i would think are pretty grim since he only made several appearances so far so he 's not in top form. but being back in Greece for sure will help him get back on track

[Morphi]

question:

hows Giannis Skopelitis doing in portsmouth??? do u guys think his ready to be called up?

As mentionned above, Skopelitis wasn't a regular at Portsmouth. Now with the new coach and the new chairman, it was obvious that he wasn't going to play a lot.

He went back to Greece and I hope he'll bounce back and maybe come back in the Premiership in a few years :P

It's smart to be playing reasonably good, but not great teams in Saudi Arabia and Korea. I dunno who they are having in their squads but if both bring their A teams and we beat them, that's definately an accomplishment seeing as this could easily be considered our B team.

Your thoughts....????

Both teams are qualified for the World Cup. As far as I can remember, Greece lost 3 points against a "weak" team during the qualification round (Albania) and nearly drew against Kazakstan.

My point is that weak teams doesn't exist anymore. As an English fan, you can trust me (the famous defeat against Northern Ireland...). These games are a way to test the motivation of a group of players who are not normally called up by Otto.

As you said, if that "B squads" win its games, it would be an accomplishment for this squand and enforce a certain competition between the "foreign legion" and the domestic palyers which is always good for a NT.

[Wallofsoccer88]

Posted on Jan 5 2006, 09:17 AM

  QUOTE (HOLLYWOOD @ Jan 4 2006, 07:55 PM)

question:

hows Giannis Skopelitis doing in portsmouth??? do u guys think his ready to be called up? 

As mentionned above, Skopelitis wasn't a regular at Portsmouth. Now with the new coach and the new chairman, it was obvious that he wasn't going to play a lot.

He went back to Greece and I hope he'll bounce back and maybe come back in the Premiership in a few years 

QUOTE 

It's smart to be playing reasonably good, but not great teams in Saudi Arabia and Korea. I dunno who they are having in their squads but if both bring their A teams and we beat them, that's definately an accomplishment seeing as this could easily be considered our B team.

Your thoughts....???? 

Both teams are qualified for the World Cup. As far as I can remember, Greece lost 3 points against a "weak" team during the qualification round (Albania) and nearly drew against Kazakstan.

My point is that weak teams doesn't exist anymore. As an English fan, you can trust me (the famous defeat against Northern Ireland...). These games are a way to test the motivation of a group of players who are not normally called up by Otto.

As you said, if that "B squads" win its games, it would be an accomplishment for this squand and enforce a certain competition between the "foreign legion" and the domestic palyers which is always good for a NT. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Saudi Arabia and South Korea are weak. Though considering how we could've sechduled a "great" European team, (i.e. Germany, Spain, Italy etc.), this is a reasonable challenge. Don't forget the difference of difficulty in qualifing from Europe and qualifing from Asia. I think what happened w/ Greece and England is that both teams wrote that game off and didn't really show enough respect. That's what causes upsets, especially in the other team's backyard. All in all, we should at least put up a good showing at this tourney. Now if only the games are televised live on ERT-SAT in the USA....... :tup: :nw: :gr: :gr:

[Morphi]

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Saudi Arabia and South Korea are weak. Though considering how we could've sechduled a "great" European team, (i.e. Germany, Spain, Italy etc.), this is a reasonable challenge. Don't forget the difference of difficulty in qualifing from Europe and qualifing from Asia. I think what happened w/ Greece and England is that both teams wrote that game off and didn't really show enough respect. That's what causes upsets, especially in the other team's backyard. All in all, we should at least put up a good showing at this tourney. Now if only the games are televised live on ERT-SAT in the USA....... :tup: :nw: :gr: :gr:

I would have loved a England-Greece or Greece-England :)

[OFI-mtl]

Be Lated Happy New Year to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Has Otto lost it re paidia!

Do we need to see Anatolakis,Kapsis,Goumas and Lybe. We've seen that act , Next generation please!

Dellas should not be playing we know what he can do, Why risk an INJURY.

Zags,and Nikopolidis should have been left behind,and Greece taken a step towards the future.

Where is Tziolis,Sifakis,Leontiou, Alexopoulos... surely there must be some raw talents on the smaller clubs that deserve a look( I dont follow the smaller clubs in detail can someone post some names). You cant find treasure unless you turn over every rock!

How is Katsouranis gonna blossom into the next captain if Otto keeps wheeling out Zagorakis.

Lineup I hope to see:

Kotsolis

Vyntra Antzas Dellas Darlas

Kafes Katsouranis Lagos

Papadopoulos

Mantzios Salpigidis

[Ziaka]

Alewxopoulos and Tziolis have been added to the NT squad that will trave to Saudi Arabia.

Here is the current squad as selected by Otto for the LG Cup 2006:

Alexopoulos, Katsouranis, Dellas, Lyberopoulos (AEK), Goumas, Vyntra, Gekas, Papadopoulos, Darlas, Mantzios, Tziolis (Panathinaikos), Nikopolidis, Kafes, Anatolakis, Kapsis (Olympiakos), Zagorakis, Salpiggidis (PAOK), Kotsolis (Larisa), Lagos (Iraklis), Antzas (Xanthi)

[loup]

Be Lated Happy New Year to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Has Otto lost it re paidia!

Do we need to see Anatolakis,Kapsis,Goumas and Lybe. We've seen that act , Next generation please!

Dellas should not be playing we know what he can do, Why risk an INJURY.

Zags,and Nikopolidis should have been left behind,and Greece taken a step towards the future.

Where is Tziolis,Sifakis,Leontiou, Alexopoulos... surely there must be some raw talents on the smaller clubs that deserve a look( I dont follow the smaller clubs in detail can someone post some names). You cant find treasure unless you turn over every rock!

How is Katsouranis gonna blossom into the next captain if Otto keeps wheeling out Zagorakis.

Lineup I hope to see:

Kotsolis

Vyntra Antzas Dellas Darlas

Kafes Katsouranis Lagos

Papadopoulos

Mantzios Salpigidis

I'm with you - mostly- except I don't think you screw around with the goalies Nikopolidis is still the man there I think and he should play - maybe a late sub

If Zagorakis is on the team he will start - Kafes to the bench I say

Nikopolidis

Darlas - Antzas - Dellas - Vyntra

Kats- Zagorakis - Lagos

Paps

Salp- Mantzios

I think we see 2 important things in these games:

1 Is Darlas ready to replace Fyssas?

2. Are Dellas and Antzas compatible - or is Kafes still fgoing to be part of this team's future? Or someone else? I think Otto realizes that Kapsis is the one veteran on the team that has the least left in the tank - unfortuantely he is a battler secon-to-none

[aek21]

Otto is calling up a lot of center backs and I can't help but think he's going to put more men in the back line. Expect something like Dellas as sweeper and kapsis and someone anchoring in front of him(probably Antzas for now) and of course vyntra and darlas on the wings.

That or Otto wants to see if he can find somebody who can replace Dellas adequately becuase he was clearly unsatisfied during qualfiers with the other defenders (ultimately used basinas, that says a lot).

[Ziaka]

Today, Rehaggel called up Basinas and Karagounis and cut Katsouranis for the LG Cup squad. Subsequently Basinas was cut form the squad once his deal with AEK did not happen. Karagounis will join the squad on Sunday and will miss the game with Korea.