TrippyLondoner
Well-Known Member
Big decision there..
Greece vs Russia
- Thread starter Dandred
- Start date
TrippyLondoner
Well-Known Member
Bye bye greece 
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
I don't understand that. They won last time because they brilliantly worked out how they could stop more skillful teams from playing. Well done them.
Dimitris
Well-Known Member
Ok this thread is discussing more about chineze etc rather than the game but I will stick to football 
Personally, as person living in Greece and watching football for many years now, I did not expect anything different from this team. The gameplay of the team on 2004 was simple: Strong defensive play, destroy the opponents attacks and try to score with counter attacks or from fouls, corner kicks etc. It worked for mainly 2 reasons : because the team was underestimated by the opponents and because it was a quite uniform squad. You can easilly understand the frist point, I will try to explain you the second. It DID not work this time because it got very predictable and the opponent teams managed to find a way around it, and of course you can not be lucky ALL the time... But also and because of the following reason
7 out of the 11 players of the 2004 team were players formerly playing together in one team: Panathinaikos. They were playing together during the 2000 – 03 period, a period that Panathinaikos did not manage to get any championships but had some very good years in Champions League and was generally playing good football. Their game play was pretty similar with the one that the national team played during the 2004 Euro. Therefore Otto Rehagel took a pretty much ready team, added up a few good players that existed during that period (Tsiartas one of them) mostly from AEK Athens, and made the squad. It can be easilly pointed out that he used nearly nobody from Olympiacos, the team that is the champion for 10 times during the last 11 years. The reasons? Different gameplay and CORRUPTION. Olympiacos is the champion because the chairmans of the greek FA and Referee Association are “close friends” with the Olympiacos owner, Mr Coccalis. Coccalis is one of the most “important” bussinesmen in Greece, therefore whatever he wants he gets it with no real risk. Olympiacos' progress in CH L during the last 11 years is very poor compared with Panathinaikos' one especially during the 200-03 period. This means that more and more money (ch l sponshorships etc) go to 1 team all the time, a team that does not need to play good football in order to be the champion. As a result of this the whole greek football quality gets downgraded.
Only the fact that the greek team was in this Euro is good enough for now. Greece before 2004 had not played at any Euro since the 80s. Countries like Sweeden or Belgium or Finland, are have not top quality teams like UK, or Italy or Germany, but they have a tradition of appearing in Euro and World Cup competitions and playing decently well. They have built a "football tradition" and are trying to improve it more and more. In Greece in contrast this does not exist (for football). We were lucky enough to actually win the Euro 4 years ago but that does not neccesarily means that we are now Brasil and we should win anybody no matter what. If Greece manages to maintain its position in Euro and World Cup groups every time, THIS is a very good progress that will mean that greek football is getting better and better and maybe in 10 (or more) years time it will be as good as the best around... Miracles happen only once and are not good guides for conclusions
Personally, as person living in Greece and watching football for many years now, I did not expect anything different from this team. The gameplay of the team on 2004 was simple: Strong defensive play, destroy the opponents attacks and try to score with counter attacks or from fouls, corner kicks etc. It worked for mainly 2 reasons : because the team was underestimated by the opponents and because it was a quite uniform squad. You can easilly understand the frist point, I will try to explain you the second. It DID not work this time because it got very predictable and the opponent teams managed to find a way around it, and of course you can not be lucky ALL the time... But also and because of the following reason
7 out of the 11 players of the 2004 team were players formerly playing together in one team: Panathinaikos. They were playing together during the 2000 – 03 period, a period that Panathinaikos did not manage to get any championships but had some very good years in Champions League and was generally playing good football. Their game play was pretty similar with the one that the national team played during the 2004 Euro. Therefore Otto Rehagel took a pretty much ready team, added up a few good players that existed during that period (Tsiartas one of them) mostly from AEK Athens, and made the squad. It can be easilly pointed out that he used nearly nobody from Olympiacos, the team that is the champion for 10 times during the last 11 years. The reasons? Different gameplay and CORRUPTION. Olympiacos is the champion because the chairmans of the greek FA and Referee Association are “close friends” with the Olympiacos owner, Mr Coccalis. Coccalis is one of the most “important” bussinesmen in Greece, therefore whatever he wants he gets it with no real risk. Olympiacos' progress in CH L during the last 11 years is very poor compared with Panathinaikos' one especially during the 200-03 period. This means that more and more money (ch l sponshorships etc) go to 1 team all the time, a team that does not need to play good football in order to be the champion. As a result of this the whole greek football quality gets downgraded.
Only the fact that the greek team was in this Euro is good enough for now. Greece before 2004 had not played at any Euro since the 80s. Countries like Sweeden or Belgium or Finland, are have not top quality teams like UK, or Italy or Germany, but they have a tradition of appearing in Euro and World Cup competitions and playing decently well. They have built a "football tradition" and are trying to improve it more and more. In Greece in contrast this does not exist (for football). We were lucky enough to actually win the Euro 4 years ago but that does not neccesarily means that we are now Brasil and we should win anybody no matter what. If Greece manages to maintain its position in Euro and World Cup groups every time, THIS is a very good progress that will mean that greek football is getting better and better and maybe in 10 (or more) years time it will be as good as the best around... Miracles happen only once and are not good guides for conclusions
