FIFA World Ranking

[Boxou]

28 minutes ago, Argy said:

We want to avoid sleepers like Bulgaria and Montenegro in Pot 3. We are lucky that we will avoid Serbia and even Albania. Besides the have been a competitive side lately, the rivalry atmosphere surrounding the matches will deflate any advantage we may have coming in. 

israel are not that good nowdays but yeh it will be tough to take them down. but i do rate montenegro, norway and bulgaria higher than so i think this is the best option for us. 

[Chris Tsamados]

13 hours ago, Argy said:

Mods, Nations League needs its own thread. 

This nations League sounds ridiculous, why have UEFA made a simple way of qualifying into a complete mess? 

[Ellada2004]

Pots for Wcup are confirmed, Poland is a pot 1 team while Spain is in pot 2? FIFA rankings are ridiculous.

[Boxou]

12 hours ago, Chris Tsamados said:

This nations League sounds ridiculous, why have UEFA made a simple way of qualifying into a complete mess? 

to get rid of friendly games. and it's a format i definitely like, more nt football around. 

[pash]

The biggest benefit is that it will force us to play friendlies. The possible negative is that our tendency to never try out new players during friendlies will be further reinforced by these games being "important."

[Boxou]

they will be important for us because we'll have a great opportunity to qualify for the euros by beating opponents of our strength and measure and not complain about getting a tough draw. be sure we'll bring our a squad over there.

btw more and more reports coming around about dellas or skibbe. didn't saw ouzounidis..

so dellas is like getting shot at the right foot and skibbe is like getting shot at the left foot..speechless if they're really planning to continue with one of them.

[MelbourneGreek]

1 hour ago, Boxou said:

to get rid of friendly games. and it's a format i definitely like, more nt football around. 

I would agree, now teams have something to play for

[La Mendel]

So, its essentially a Daniil (Dellas/Ouzounidis)/Iordanescu (Skibbe) choice.

Good midfielders are at the moment nowhere (except Zeca + Fortounis). Talent pool is small. Quality of the squad is worse than at any time between 2003 and 2014. AND we will have a trainer who is less clever/experienced than Rehhagel or Santos was. Lesser players + lesser coach will take us back in the Dark Ages.

I pray that I may be in the wrong.

[La Mendel]

The Golden Age of Greek football was 2004-2014. Perhaps there will be a second golden age, time can tell.

[La Mendel]

I wrote a long post and now it is lost...

As for the theme of the topic: I think we will probably rise a bit. Dont forget we drew Croatia in the second game, and theyre around 18th position. For the same reason, our loss in Zagreb wont affect our position very much.

[Argy]

On 11/16/2017 at 3:24 AM, Chris Tsamados said:

This nations League sounds ridiculous, why have UEFA made a simple way of qualifying into a complete mess? 

They are realizing that international football is a good business but friendlies are not. At least now more profit can be made from ticket sales and TV rights. For fans more NT football (6 official matches next fall), competitive, meaningful games, televised matches; it's really a great thing. Now not only will teams have another path to the Euro Cup, but the joint format of the qualifiers and NL will make for some interesting scenarios in the final stretch. 

[J1078]

1 hour ago, Argy said:

They are realizing that international football is a good business but friendlies are not. At least now more profit can be made from ticket sales and TV rights. For fans more NT football (6 official matches next fall), competitive, meaningful games, televised matches; it's really a great thing. Now not only will teams have another path to the Euro Cup, but the joint format of the qualifiers and NL will make for some interesting scenarios in the final stretch. 

I agree Argy, This way we get to see our National team more often and in more meaningful games.. I think its great. We get to see 6 games from Sept to Nov for our Nt team, 2 each month and then in March the Euro campaign starts which means only Dec, Jan and Feb we wont see our team play. They're trying to grow the fan base and the importance of the National teams across Europe which great.

[paokara777]

It's an extra tournament we get to watch, more competitive football for us

 

And added bonus another (easier?) path to the Euro

 

There is literally zero negatives about this tournament, i'm excited

[Argy]

9 minutes ago, paokara777 said:

 

And added bonus another (easier?) path to the Euro

Not easier at all, we will face competitive teams in some closely matched games with only 1 team qualifying out of 15. Unless we draw a group of death, then finishing top 2 in the qualifying group seems a much more probable feat. 

Edited November 17, 2017 by Argy

[Chris Tsamados]

We get to fail to qualify twice in quick succession! 

[Boxou]

4 hours ago, Argy said:

Not easier at all, we will face competitive teams in some closely matched games with only 1 team qualifying out of 15. Unless we draw a group of death, then finishing top 2 in the qualifying group seems a much more probable feat. 

i'd rather face the teams in league c than having to deal with a pot 1 and a pot 2 team unless the latter are iceland/switzerland and ukraine/ireland

[ausgreek]

How did Chile, Italy, Netherlands, Wales and the Pirates miss out although Socceroos got in ? Wonders never cease. Some older posters might shed some light on the subject that haven't been on for a while, in particular.

[Boxou]

australia had to deal with less quality opposition aka honduras and the rest of asia's average teams. 

[jason]

Italy has always been helped by referees, they just chose not to this round lol just ask Juventus... I want Greek coach or at the minimum an assistant Greek coach who is actually a coach not a water boy... 

Edited November 20, 2017 by jason

[Boxou]

too bad for us skibbe is staying as well as tziolis, tzavellas and maniatias along with some ugly football, uncreative football style and corrupt call ups. if this comedy keeps going on i think i will have to stop watching them. it's not as fun as it used to be anymore. 

[Ellada2004]

Skibbe has been given a contract extension by EPO with a 30% pay haircut. I guess this means we will unfortunately have to continue too see Tziolis and Maniatis get the call for the Ethniki. He better get us in too the next Euro and I hope he demands the EPO set up some friendly matches. I hope for the best, will all be watching a 2nd tournament in a row without Greece.

[Boxou]

it's fairly impossible these guys will still be in the nt. they already look ex-players and none of them is over 33 years old tbh. i think the only reason why skibbe chose to call them up in this campaign was because when he took over about 2 years ago we didn't have some of the players we have around now. campaign is over so it's them. and it might be the only positive thing that came out after the world cup disqualification, the fact that we'll have to make a refresh. 

[J1078]

55 minutes ago, Boxou said:

it's fairly impossible these guys will still be in the nt. they already look ex-players and none of them is over 33 years old tbh. i think the only reason why skibbe chose to call them up in this campaign was because when he took over about 2 years ago we didn't have some of the players we have around now. campaign is over so it's them. and it might be the only positive thing that came out after the world cup disqualification, the fact that we'll have to make a refresh. 

I don't know man I still think it's a HUGE mistake to bring this guy back... I don't have confidence that this guy has any creative thinking when it comes to offence or that he's going to make the right call ups. He is still going to call up vellios, diam, and I bet you Tziolis  is still a call up in September.. This is a big mistake.. Get ready for a bunch of out of form players to be called up and start for this team..

[Argy]

3 hours ago, J1078 said:

I don't know man I still think it's a HUGE mistake to bring this guy back... I don't have confidence that this guy has any creative thinking when it comes to offence or that he's going to make the right call ups. He is still going to call up vellios, diam, and I bet you Tziolis  is still a call up in September.. This is a big mistake.. Get ready for a bunch of out of form players to be called up and start for this team..

Skibbe's call-ups are atrocious, I truly hope he can take this opportunity to re-evaluate his roster. Although a part of me would like to see a changing of the guard, the other is reminded of the steps back we took when Santos left and we cannot afford to take that chance again at this point. 

[Boxou]

3 hours ago, Argy said:

Skibbe's call-ups are atrocious, I truly hope he can take this opportunity to re-evaluate his roster. Although a part of me would like to see a changing of the guard, the other is reminded of the steps back we took when Santos left and we cannot afford to take that chance again at this point. 

these steps were taken because the team completely collapsed. 

on the other hand, now we missed that qualification not because we were not ready but because of the disgusting selections.