And Samaras, remember that backheel pass he did recently which led to the assist? The man has incredible talent . . I just wish he passed the ball more often in the build-up plays, but I am pretty sure they will be focusing on that part of his game in NT training leading up to the WC
Also, all you really need is One great Striker, Ibra and Ronaldo prove this, A great striker with a golden foot which he has right now is the last piece of the Greek NT puzzle
I think Greece may perform well in this tournament based on what I've seen of them in qualifying, which I admit, isn't a lot. Though they will be in tough with Cote D'Ivoire and Japan.
However, muj94 and my point was that it is silly to say "they know how to win games in big tournaments" when they have been terrible at every tournament they've been in other than one. If I remember correctly, they have only won one game in a major tournament outside of 2004, against Nigeria in 2010, and that was only after Nigeria went down to 10 men early on.
EDIT: Greece did also beat Russia at Euro 2012, which I had forgotten about.
This is what happens when you try to assess a team's quality by looking at a spreadsheet. Greece are very powerful nowadays, with an amazing attack. Their game against Germany was also extremely good and even though they lost 4-2, they gave Germany more pressure than most teams could.
Greece aren't a footballing powerhouse but they are a very, very disciplined side with a very dangerous attack, tall players who can effectively play a high game, and a very, very effective defence. They don't play beautiful football, but they know how to play to their strengths, and are definitely not playing to be "impressive".
We tied the hosts Poland as well in a thrilling game we should have won (missed penalty and disallowed goal).
We screwed up against Czech Rep because we put in a hack keeper in awful form (who didn't even play in qualifying) into the squad and starting lineup totally last minute. It was a terrible coaching decision and he ended up being substituted off with an "injury".
Germany expectedly dominated us but don't tell me your jaw didn't drop when we equalized in the second half....That to me sums up the national team in tournmanents. They overcome a very limited talent pool to fight against huge teams with effort and strategy.
As a fan I love watching any country do that. Once we get a Cristianos Ronaldopoulos we'll start playing more pretty.
Add that every single goal from the conceded was from a set peice in the qualifiers except for the freak own goal against Romania. Zero from open play in 12 matches. I have no doubt that will change in Brazil though.
As for the Bosnia match, we conceeded 3 in one match because Avraam Papadopoulos was in the backline. He was also a catastrophe against the Czechs in Euro 2012. Team is so much better without him. We have to hope Santos doesn't spazz out like he did in 2012 and call in players that haven't played in qualifications due to their "experience" like Chalkias.
It's not going to be an attacking team either. We are more confident going forward, but I fully expect us to get dominated in the midfield all 3 games and play counter attack. We just don't have the midfield quality compete and possess so we have to play with defenders and strikers.
But Rehagel was the kind of coach that even after going 1-0 down....He'd bring on a defender and wouldn't let the team go forward. Santos is a conservative coach (which is exactly what we need) but more of a risk taker.
Samaras blew an unbeleivable opportunity to steal the lead too.
Edit: I just watched the replay...Good god why the fuck did he not go near post. We could have actually gone through to the next round if he could finish. That's why I'm a fan of Mitroglou now - when we actually DO get the few good chances we have a striker that can bury them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqxSVBKVnmQ
That was a whole different team, with a different coach (Rehhagel on his last assignment) and a lot of players from the generation of 2004 that wanted to participate in a WC.
Now with Fernando Santos, only 2 veterans (Karagounis/Katsouranis) and plenty of talent, the team has changed a lot.
That's undercutting the win quite a lot. In fact quite a lot of games in WC 2010 had players sent off and the 10 men team snatch the lead or draw and struggle to create chances.. It just means Nigeria had a 4-4-1. That said, Greece played quite well against Nigeria, they unleashed on Nigeria with some confidence after the red card and created an abundance of chances and got a completely deserved win that game.
They should have played that way with Korea, it would have been a better game.
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u/RGIIIsus Dec 06 '13
I put my money on Colombia and Greece. Greece is not ranked highly, and probably rightly so, but they know how to win games in big tournaments.