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Here's a bit of an effort post from someone who lives in Greece and identifies as trans-ethnic quasi-Grecian. The Greek Men's National Team aka the zonalmarking.com team of the decade  Best known for: Anti-football, making Ronaldo cry in 2004  A bit of history: Greek international football was a joke until 2004, when Greece unexpectedly won the Euro, much to the chagrin of the entire nation of Portugal and everyone who loves fast-paced, attacking football. The only World Cup appearance of the GMNT before that (barring a "decent" (read: completely uneventful) participation in the 1980 Euro) was a piss-poor performance in the 1994 World Cup, the first one Greece ever participated in. With typical Greek bombast, player interviews before the trip to the US were full of blind ambition and delusional hope ("We've never participated in a World Cup before so no one knows what to expect. Who knows, we might even win the Cup! - Stratos Apostolakis, 1994). Instead, Greece lost 4-0 to Maradonna's and Batistuta's Argentina, 4-0 to Stoichkov's Bulgaria and "just" 2-0 to Nigeria. As (bad) luck would have it, Greece once again drew Argentina and Nigeria in the 2010 World Cup. The GMNT was defeated by Argentina and South Korea, but managed a 2-1 victory over Nigeria, which also marked the very first World Cup goals ever scored by Greece. The current squad As expected and in accordance with tradition, the GMNT is basically a mashup of Olympiacos and Panathinaikos players (with a few PAOK players in the mix) plus a handful of noteworthy internationals who mostly play in Italy, Germany, Turkey and the UK. I'm not a huge follower of the laughable Greek championship outside supporting PAOK so I regret to say I can't provide a write-up for each player. Feel free to add any information or humorous observation you'd like about each player, especially where they fall on the Potential Rapist Look scale. Official Goalkeepers: Orestis Karnezis (Granada)  Panagiotis Glykos (PAOK)  Stefanos Kapino (Panathinaikos)  Defenders: Kostas Manolas (Olympiacos)  José Holebas (Olympiacos)  Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Dortmund)  Vasilis Torosidis (Roma)  Giorgos Tzavelas (PAOK)  Loukas Vyntra (Levante)  Vaggelis Moras (Verona)  Midfielders: Alexandros Tziolis (Kayserispor)  Andreas Samaris (Olympiacos)  Giannis Maniatis (Olympiacos)  Kostas Katsouranis (PAOK)  Giorgos Karagounis (Fulham)  Panagiotis Tachtsidis (Torino)  Ioannis Fetfatzidis (Genoa)  Lazaros Christodoulopoulos (Bologna)  Panagiotis Kone (Bologna)  Forwards: Dimitris Salpingidis (PAOK)  Giorgios Samaras (Celtic, until recently)  Kostas Mitroglou (Fulham, not for much longer probably)  Fanis Gekas (Konyaspor)  Coach: Fernando Santos, of Porto (and PAOK) fame  World Cup 2014 Group:  Stray observations I assure you that while everyone in Greece is proud of the team (especially after 2004), absolutely no one is proud of the anti-football, bus-parking tactics employed since then, mostly out of being desperate not to suffer defeats like 4-0 again. Santos is aiming at doing away with the score-one-lucky-header-goal-then-park-the-bus tactic and I sincerely hope he achieves that at least for the sake of watching attractive football if not for the sake of actually winning matches.
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May 26, 2014 01:13
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 23:56 |
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Here's a repost of Ninja Stebe's informative post that goes into more detail than the OP It looks like this  They've got a lot of islands or something idk They won the Euros in 2004 by never leaving their own half and having big hairy men win headers for 90 minutes. Wikipedia tells me the team is known as Ethniki (National) Piratiko (The Pirate Ship) Galanolefki (Sky blue-white) They've got some players, I have no idea if they're good or not Panagiotis Glykos  He's a goalkeeper probably Sokratis Papastathopoulos  His name is too long to fit on his shirt, also a nutter. While the Greek centre back may not head the ball too well he has very few weakness’ on the whole. Add to this some great pace, general defensive attributes and hunger to work the pitch and you have a photo of him. Vangelis Moras  I signed him on Football Manager once Georgios "Giorgos" Karagounis  Unemployed. Wouldn't sign for Melbourne Victory so I hate him. Ioannis Fetfatzidis  He resembles Lionel Messi when it comes to his diminutive height. Georgios Samaras  Hairy Konstantinos Mitroglou  Fulham's record signing, he's completely poo poo. Go Greece!
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May 26, 2014 01:26
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almost all male surnames end in -s with a few ending in -ou
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May 26, 2014 22:28
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I'm sorry it's the best I could do
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May 26, 2014 23:02
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Drogadon posted:We will stop you, Campbells knows half your team! he'll be reminded of the vicious racist chants and golden dawn salutes and he'll be mad triggered and out of the game.
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Jun 26, 2014 10:21
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TraderStav posted:Honestly cannot see how we will get past Costa Rica, just happy to be playing in the 16 though. We actually played decent football and was relatively enjoyable to watch unlike the first two matches. I agree with this, the last match was a joy to watch, can't remember the last time I saw a Greek offence that didn't rely on long lobs to a single striker who mysteriously never managed to get there in time. Shame about all the crossbar hits, I think we've had like 5 or 6 in this entire WC, 3 during Tuesday's match alone.
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Jun 26, 2014 10:23
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emanresu tnuocca posted:Gorgeous Samaras is cool. I thought it was really nice of him that he went to console the keeper after the final whistle. it was and every greek facebook page has been reposting this video like mad https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=828580570493458
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Jun 26, 2014 10:29
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Things move fast once heartstrings are plucked. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite5_1_26/06/2014_540874 A Facebook campaign began today to collect money and send Samaras' #1 fan to Brazil to watch the match against Costa Rica. The money was raised within hours by EPO, the Greek Football Federation, and mission accomplished.jpg
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Jun 26, 2014 18:02
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Mans posted:Fernando Santos come home please, tia he probably is, he's stated that he's moving on from the GMNT after the world cup regardless of the results
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Jun 27, 2014 00:25
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never a dive. if it was may god strike down my hair e: http://gfycat.com/DesertedWhisperedFlickertailsquirrel Maradonna Summer fucked around with this message at 01:36 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Jun 27, 2014 01:32
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Samaras invites the kid to Brazil to watch the match with Costa Rica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro3Oa074NTI The kid's family are leaving on vacation so they can't come.  Here's wee jay negging samaras really hard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgLas7q9coI
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Jun 27, 2014 10:08
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vyelkin posted:Karagounis has retired from international football after the penalty loss last night. He's 37 and has been on the team since 1999, so it's not a huge surprise. Yeah it had been announced well in advance of the world cup, same as Santos' leaving the team. TBH watching his frustrated face last night during the match made me think he couldn't wait to get out of there and go lounge on a beach. All in all, it was fun while it lasted, out of the PIGS, the Gs went through to the 16 and the PIS trickled away *drops swastika-shaped microphone or something idk*
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Jun 30, 2014 09:22
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Also a few conclusions drawn from these 4 matches: Maniatis, Kone, Samaris and Fetfatzidis are really promising and a pleasure to watch. Gekas and Katsouranis, while really good a decade ago, should now be put out to pasture. Mitroglou is a loving useless Jaffar-looking motherfucker.
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Jun 30, 2014 09:25
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There were, it was ok as a joke but after a point it just seemed mean and idiotic, as well as disrespectful towards a dude who really helped the team get as far as it did. It came about after his poor performance in the first match with colombia and getting sent off against japan, which prompted people to say "get this, what if, heh, what if we did well EXACTLY BECAUSE katsouranis wasn't on the pitch? let's make a facebook page asking for him to stay on the bench" and it got shared by every aunt and armchair coach out there
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Jun 30, 2014 09:47
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TraderStav posted:Saw an headline that ahead of the match the squad gave up their bonuses and told the Greek FA to build a training facility instead. The anti-Ghanaians. that was sweet but it read more like an ad for the current Prime Minister rather than the GMNT regardless: 
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Jun 30, 2014 13:02
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 23:56 |
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also TV viewership ranged from 45% to 91% during last night's match, which is incredible, almost 5 million people, half the country's population, watched the match
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Jun 30, 2014 15:40
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