Been a while since I posted, but Ive finally finished my exams so I have some time and follow a game from start to finish. Can’t find any TV links right now, looks like radio is all I got, but it’ll do.
So, there have been a few games since my last post. Unfortunately we lost 1-0 to Panthrakikos in the league, I was expecting a better result than that, and it would’ve really helped us in terms of getting out of the relegation zone. Our next league game was a 1-1 draw in Athens against Atromitos, and thankfully we managed to at least get a point. With the first half of the season over, we’re tied with Kerkyra for last place, but its still far from over. Only five points separate us and us and 10th place, so with a bit of luck we can definitely finish the season well above relegation.
We’ve also had a cup game played since my last point, a 0-0 draw against Kavala. Right as I speak the second leg is taking place, this time in Athens. Still 0-0, though were only 20 minutes or so in. Sounds like we’ve had a couple decent chances so hopefully we can get past this (won’t really matter much though, we play Oly next if we advance… and they got pushed a fair bit in their cup game yesterday so I doubt things will be different if we face them).
We’ve also made a couple signings this past week (surprisingly). We managed to get Pavlos Mitropoulos on loan (I believe?) from Panetolikos, as well as Petropoulos from PAO (not gonna lie, Im quite excited about this singing). I can’t comment much on the Mitropoulos move, but Im quite happy about signing Petrogol until 2014. He’s a good player, someone who can definitely add quite a bit to our attack. It would be interesting to see him up front with Pavlis.
GAME UPDATE: Sounds like Kavala just missed a pretty good chance.
EDIT: Managed to find a link for the match. Not working so well for me but I guess its better than nothing.
If you remember from past year’s, we’ve never been extremely impressive in the cup. Narrow wins against teams like Xanthi, Panserraikos, and even smaller clubs had over time become the norm for us (aside from that eventful cup final two years ago).
Well, all that changed today! To be honest, after hearing Panthrakikos go up 1-0 I thought we were gonna be in for another long match. Never for a second did I think we would lose this match, but I never imagined the turnaround that eventually happened. Ismael Blanco (it’s been a while since we’ve seen him on the scoresheet) scored his first goal, and one which surprisingly wasn’t fed to him but actually required some footwork. Good, 1-1, still plenty of time left. Next, we get a penalty, one which Blanco converts with ease. 2-1 up, but still plenty of time left. I was thinking to myself at this point all we need is one more goal and we’re good.
Seems as though Blanco and co had other plans. Zorro (he’s back!) scored his third of the night, an easy one set up perfectly by Roger (who, from what I heard had yet another fantastic performance!). Then, Karabelas of all people scores to make it 4-1. Somewhere in between the third and fifth goal we hit a post with Leonardo and narrowly missed on more than one occasion, but Leonardo finally got one in, another perfectly set up goal, this time with the assist coming from Rafik Djebbour. That’s three goals coming from assists placed at the scorer’s feet. Something tells me this team is working on efficiency up front with the ball movement, assists, and positioning all very well done.
5-1, a score to thrill every already delighted AEK fan, despite the rain and cold up north. Bearing in mind that Panthrakikos’ goal was scored from a penalty (and ignoring the stumble in Belgium), that’s 10 goals scored in Greece (two league and one cup game) in three games! Guys, I think AEK is back!
Also, considering Blanco’s hat trick today and Roger’s great performances lately, I can’t help but feel we have a team in a great position. We have three great strikers (assuming Blanco keeps this up) and chances are at one given moment at least one of them will be on a patch of good form. In addition, with Roger performing so well, we are set in attacking mid (that is, if we can hold on to Scocco), and with Diop and Makos’ solid performances the past two or three games, our defensive mid is also set. Now, hopefully we can deal with injuries, though Manolo seems like the kind of guy that can almost always work out a solution with what he has.
Enjoy the goals below. Too bad I can’t find a more in depth highlights vid, because it seems we played some nice football up front at times at a few of those goals.
Great job to the supporters who were there and vocal despite the weather, and great job (though to be honest, I think that’s a bit of an understatement) to Manolo! He’s turned around this team incredibly, got players playing some great football, players who are happy to be training and playing and, most important of all, is getting results. Sure, you may stumble against Anderlecht, especially when it’s your first European game with a new team, but against Panthrakikos, these are games where you can really establish who’s boss in Greece and AEK certainly did that today.
So, our first opponent, who we will face this Thursday at 4:00 Greek time will be Panthrakikos. We’ve never faced them in the Cup however we have come across them on more than one occasion these past two seasons. The match will be played away however, considering our current form (Anderlecht game excluded) I think we will be more successful this time around than last season (when we were knocked out by Thrasivolous).
I don’t know if Scocco will be ready for this one, I actually haven’t kept on top of the news regarding injuries to be honest, however, after seeing Roger’s performance I think we can all take a sigh of relief knowing that we now have someone else who can be just as effective in the midfield. However, I do think Panthrakikos will put up more of a fight than PAO over the weekend. How effective they will be is another issue, but I don’t see them sitting back on this one.
Two new Greek players have just signed for AEK, a defender and a midfielder coming fro Panthrakikos for a fee of 450,000 Euros. Anestis Argyriou recently had a trial with Blackburn and is considered a young talent in the country. Definately a good move by management, and a pleasant surprise. I honestly don’t know much about Spyros Matentzidis but he apparently played well when AEK played Panthrax and should be a good addition to the team as well.
Nice to see management picking up some good Greek talent, and early! They’ll have plenty of time to practice and and get used to things with the team. I’m very happy with this deal, hopefully we’ll see them in action as soon as the summer training camps and friendlies start.
Seven games undefeated since January and we don’t look like slowing down any time soon.
Despite the recent court decision to ban all organized away fans in Greece 1,000 AEK fans we’re in the stadium of Komotini cheering on the boys louder than ever! Nothing will get in the way of AEK supporters. You gotta love it.
Well, as for the game, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Not only do you never know what can happen with this AEK team (despite our recent run of good form) but Panthrakikos had just won two games in a row (including a 2-0 victory away against Aris!) after failing to win a single match all season long.
We traveled north with a few key players out due to injury. Djebbour, Manduca, Kafes, Araujo, Nemeth (obviously) and Arabatzis were all our for this match. This meant we had to start with Saja, Georgeas, Majstorovic, Geraldo, Karabelas, Jahic, Makos, Scocco, Leonardo, Hersi, and Blanco.
Saja was, thankfully, quite reliable between the posts. The same cannot be said for our defense, unfortunately. We saw a number of weaknesses and had trouble resisting the pressure from Panthrakikos. Luckily for us, Panthrax were nothing special up front and only managed to get one goal.
Makos, I am pleased to say, didn’t play his worst game yet! His performance was certainly nowhere near spectacular but we’ve seen worse…. lets leave it at that. Jahic, who missed a couple of games because of cards, seemed more intent on playing offensively rather than helping out with the defensive duties. Though I didn’t see much of him, except a couple of shots (the guy certainly likes to shoot whenever he gets the chance), many times players like Scocco were forced to come back and help out, possibly where Jahic should have been.
Scocco is…. well, just watch his goal below:
The Argentine can split any defense whenever he wants, simple as that. Though I can never trust a player who may leave at any time, he is an integral part of this team when he wants to be.
Leonardo played a decent game but I personally didn’t see him play as big a role as Scocco. He’s a good player but cannot yet hold on to the ball the way Scocco can.
Hersi played a very good game. Aside from scoring the second goal he was involved constantly with our attacks from the right side.
Blanco had a number of chances and worked well with Scocco today. Shame he didn’t score, but I believe we will start seeing some more goals from him in the upcoming matches.
Generally, we controlled the game, especially the first half (the final ten minutes of the match were tense though). Despite poor pitch conditions, we managed to move the ball around well, runs were timed well, we were creating space. However, when it came time to score it seemed the players decided the effort required would be too much! We had a number of superb chances yet failed to score as many as we should have. Many the players confidence mixed in the knowledge that they were playing the lowest ranked team had an effect psychologically on the players. Hopefully we will see more concentration in front of the goal when we play Aris next weekend.
So, right now we are guaranteed to stay in the top four for at least another week. We currently sit four points ahead of Aris with 36 points (which means if the playoffs were to start now we would have 1 point). Aris still have to play tomorrow so the lead could be cut down to one point by tomorrow evening, though Aris play a tough match against Ergotelis away. Aris’ poor form plus Ergotelis’ incredible win last weekend against Tripolis (a fantastic match that was!) means its quite likely that Aris may leave Crete with one or no points tomorrow.
AEK handball won yet another derby over Veria after last weeks fantastic win against league leaders PAOK. Maybe it can be an even better weekend if AEK’s two game winning streak in Basketball can be extended with an away win against Peristeri tomorrow. Let’s all hope!
Well, let’s face it, Xanthi is never an easy challenge. After they beat Aris 2-1 last weekend I really doubted our chances with them despite our recent run of good form.
My fears were confirmed early, or at least I thought so. We went down very early, in the 8th minute, after a severe mistake from Araujo. The first twenty minutes were generally very scary for AEK fans as we failed to take control of the game and Xanthi continued to come close to scoring.
As Blanco said after the match, however, the Xanthi must have acted like a slap to the face of the AEK players who quickly woke up and soon after going down earned a penalty. Unlike Djebbour a few weeks ago Blanco’s penalty was a direct one which went straight to the goal. After this we began to slowly take control of things however it was still a slow process.
The final twenty minutes of the first half saw us take a little more controlled and in the final minute of extra time a left footed Djebbour cross was knocked smoothly into the net by Leonardo. The goal meant that despite the cold and the rain us AEK fans saw the first half close with smiles on our faces.
The second half was delayed by twelve minutes due to the rain but when it did start we were treated by a much more confident display from the AEK players. Sure, Xanthi still managed to create some danger but the possession was largely controlled by us. Even Makos, who once again had a terrible first half, was able to provide a little more to the game (though his performance was still far from satisfactory).
Our third goal was off of a lovely counter attack (our counter attacks generally were very good today and another golden opportunity off of one earlier in the game could have resulted in a goal had Scocco not wasted the chance with a useless pass). Georgeas set up Blanco perfectly who only had to tap the ball into the net. That meant that Blanco now had two goals in the game! (yes people, Zorro is back!).
Saja was keeper today since Arabatzis injured his wrist in last week’s derby. I honestly wasn’t too confident when I heard this would be the case and while it wasn’t Saja’s worst performance with AEK it was far from flawless. Once again his clearances were terrible and Xanthi had a chance to score a goal similar to the one scored by BATE in OAKA.
Our defense was alright though we were caught off guard on a number of occasions and we left too many gaps, especially where Araujo should have been marking. Thankfully, Xanthi didn’t capitalize however they could have.
Geraldo, from what I could see, had a great game. He was solid and defended well and the same could be said for Georgeas who also provided quite a bit offensively.
Araujo would have had a flawless match were it not for his terrible mistake. He defended with strength and is not afraid to throw his weight around in order to get the ball. Sure, that may be why hes already received a number of red cards and many yellows but defenders need to be tough if they want to get the ball so I’m not complaining.
Majstorovic was good defensively I believe but his speed continues to be his weak point. He had a couple of chances to score from corners but unfortunately all his headers failed to hit the target.
Makos was disastrous. Lost the ball every time he got it and failed to make even the simplest of passes. Yet, Bajevic continues to play him. I’ll admit it, his second half performance was much improved but he has to show alot more if we wants to prove he deserves the starting spot. Unfortunately, Jahic was out due to cards (he will be out next match also after collecting ten yellows!) so our options were limited.
Kafes had a decent game though he didn’t contribute as much as against Giannena as far I could tell. Still, our midfield is much more confident when he is in.
Leonardo scored that important goal for us but I really didn’t see much of him until the match progressed. I had actually completely forgot he was in the starting XI. It had been since before Christmas (the match with Panionios where he also scored I believe) since he last started so he may have required a little time to find his place in the team once again. Overall though, it was a decent performance from him. He was involved in the switches with Scocco often (nromally Manduca’s job though he was out for this one) and they seemed to have worked well.
Scocco played well. I wouldn’t say this was his best match but he managed to contribute once again to the team (he had a great direct free kick just miss the cross bar) and he was very active in our counter attacks.
Blanco played more attack this match compared to last week and he seemed to be in form. Aside from scoring two goals he was actively involved in the plays up front and is able to control things well when the ball is at his feet even though he may not have the technical ability of Scocco. Djebbour also had a good game but he wasn’t as much of a goal threat as he normally is. Still, he provided that wonderful cross to Leonardo which made all the difference.
Well, so far in the second half of the season we have had three wins and three draws. Not bad at all considering our poor performance in the first half of the season and the fact that we have already played both PAO and Oly away and have managed to take four points from those two matches. 3-1 is a very pleasing result here considering how we were wrongfully affected by the ref in the first half of the season against Xanthi. Scocco said they wanted revenge and it looks like they got it.
We now, temporarily sit in fourth place. Aris were down at home 1-0 to Panthrakikos at half time! However, the game could not be continued due to terrible pitch conditions so if the weather allows it the game will be resumed today with the same score and only the second half will be played. If Panthrakikos can hold on to the slender lead, we will finish the week in fourth place.
Generally this was a great weekend to be AEK! Firstly, the second game with our new basketball coach and already a second win! What is more impressive is it was a home win without fans to Panionios, one of the toughest basketball teams in the league. Not only did we beat them, we beat them with the impressive score of 89-56 after the score was tied 28-28 at half time. It was a superb performance by AEK and things can only get better from here on. Hopefully we continue and finish the season with a chance of some European basketball next season.
Our handball team also got an impressive win. They beat current leaders, PAOK (who hadn’t lost a game yet this season) with a score of 26-25! Certainly a great weekend to be AEK! Hopefully we see more of this from our teams.
AEKMAN74 posted a review earlier on this match which covered most of the main points so be sure to check that out as well. I’d just like to add a few things.
We lined up with Saja as keeper, Araujo, Arce, Majstorovic, and Georgeas (who played left back) playing defence, Hersi, Geurreiro, Jahic, and Manduca playing Midfield, with Scocco and Blanco playing attack. Our formation varied at times. I believe that when we were attacking our defence became only three with Araujo moving up and Majstorovic covering right back. I saw this on a number of occasions and am not sure if it was intended, but it happened more than I remember seeing from other games. It is clear though, that after last week’s victory over Benfica we went into this one fighting for nothing but a win. Unfortunately, we got caught many times on the counterattack. Xanthi released forwards quickly and caught us many times with more attackers than we had defenders. This was worrying but luckily thanks to some luck and some decent goalkeeping from Saja we never conceded on one of these counterattacks.
Hersi played up front much of the game and clearly wanted the goal, and a goal is what he got in the 15th minute, as you can all see from the video above. However, the goal, apparently because the ref saw a handball, was dissallowed. As you can see when you watch the video however, there was no handball at all and the goal should have been allowed. So, that is a third game in the “Super”league where we have been negatively affected by terrible referee decisions (let me remind you that a foul was not called which eventually allowed PAO to score and a penalty was not given to AEK from clear handball at the Olympiakos game, along with numerous other poor calls). Our team’s psychology would have been completely different had the goal counted, but it didn’t, and we ended up conceding a goal which could be considered a handball from Poy. However, our defending was poor on the corner and Poy should not have had the time or the space to score such a goal.
Throughout the match we dominated in possession, and created a number of decent chances, but once again could not get the ball in the net. When our lineup is compared to the lineup we fielded against Benfica, we notice it was quite similar. However, what allowed our team to be the stronger team against Benfica was the passion with which we fought that game. Against Xanthi yesterday I saw little passion from our players. Scocco, when he had the ball, seemed as if it made no difference to him whether AEK scored a goal or not. Unfortunately, with refs making such poor calls against us every time we play a game in this league, the only way to assure the win is to fight that extra bit more, rather to wait and hope for the result. After the Xanthi goal was scored there were still seventy minutes left in the game plus extra time. Against a Xanthi side which is playing some of their worst football in recent years that is plenty of time to score at least a couple of goals. But without the passions or the energy that will not happen. We have seen often in past years that Xanthi is never an easy team to play against, especially up in Xanthi. Our results up there are generally poor, with most of them being draws.
Bearing that last fact in mind, I believe its safe to say that all is not lost yet. Clearly, seeing as we are eleven points behind first place, the championship will not be won this year. However, we can still turn things around and start winning some games, at least keep the pressure up on the tables and regain a higher position. As we saw at the match with Benfica, AEK have a good squad this season, one that is certainly capable of making things happen.
As for our players yesterday, everyone played a decent level. Guerreiro, as AEKMAN74 said, is a creative player who will help us much more in the future. Blanco missed a few great chances, chances which he would have put away with ease had he been on form. Scocco seems to play well when we wants, and yesterday he clearly did not want to. He provided very little to the team in general. The other attackers and midfielders played a decent game, not uch more can be said about them.
As for defence, Arce has shown that he can be an alright defender, but I remember one counter attack in particular where clearly his speed was lacking and there was little he could do but drop and cover in the middle. Araujo played a good game, and likes to throw his weight around, something which I like to see from a defender. However, the refs seemed not to and called fouls every time he touched an opponent. In a league such as the EPL such a play would hot even be considered by the officials.
Due to Juanfran being injured I believe, Georgeas took his place. Hedefended well, and fought hard, as we have seen before, but he had to make his runs cutting across through the middle, rather than up the left wing. Perhaps he doesn’t feel as confident with his left foot, but either way, we created few chances from the left, far fewer than from the right or through the middle.
Overall our play was quite static. We didn’t see the quick and fluid passing we saw at the Benfica match. This makes for a much less effective style of football, as well as one which is far less enjoyable to us, the spectators. Hopefully we will see a much more fluid game against Panthrakikos, a team which is in terrible form at the moment.
Yep, you guessed it, another derby on the first matchday of the season. And AEK will once again be one of the teams playing in the derby, just like last year. And who will our opponent be? Yep, its Olympiakos!
The game is still a while away but Im sure the likes of Bajevic, Blanco, Scocco, and Kyrgiakos are waiting for their revenge after our unfortunate loss in the Greek Cup Final of 2009. This should be an exciting game, as this fixture always proves to be.
The schedule for next season is up on Superleague Greece’s site. Our first fifteen games are as follows:
Match Round 1 AEK-Olympiakos
Match Round 2 Atromitos-AEK
Match Round 3 AEK-Iraklis
Match Round 4 Pas Giannina-AEK
Match Round 5 AEK-PAO
Match Round 6 Skoda Xanthi-AEK
Match Round 7 AEK-Panthrakikos
Match Round 8 Aris-AEK
Match Round 9 Ergotelis-AEK
Match Round 10 AEK-Larissa
Match Round 11 Kavala-AEK
Match Round 12 AEK-PAOK
Match Round 13 Panionios-AEK
Match Round 14 AEK-Levadeiakos
Match Round 15 Asteras Tripolis-AEK
The team written first is home, while the team written second is away. The matches for rounds 16-30 are in the same order but the home team will be away and the opposite way around.
All of our first three derbies (Oly,PAO,PAOK) are at home for the first round, so this should benefit us a little.
Link with information and the other first round fixtures here.
The new teams this year are Atromitos, Pas Giannina, and Kavala.
The only dates released so far are that the first games will be played on the 22nd and 23rd of August.
In other AEK news, Leonardo has been saying that he will quite possibly be playing at AEK next season. Lets just wait and hope that this is in fact true.
An uninspired performance by AEK means that second place is now slipping out of reach for this season.
AEK, who had many of its main players (Kyrgiakos, Kafes, Scocco, Juanfran, Nsaliwa) remain in Athens due to either cards or injury, barely managed to get one point in Komotini today after a rather low class performance by the team.
There seemed to be no smooth connection from defence to midfield to offence today, as we barely managed to create any significant chances in front of the Panthrakikos. Passing between AEK players was horrible, and the whole team seemed to be disorganized.
The starting lineup was Saja, Georgeas, Alexopoulos, Majstorovic, Geraldo, Pelletieri, Hetemaj, Manduca, Blanco, Edinho, and Djebbour.Clearly, this was far from our average starting XI, which could have perhaps been one reason the team was not in top form. Without Nsaliwa and Kafes in the middle, clever passes just werent happening. Hetemaj didnt play a great game, and neither did Manduca. Although we started with three of our most attacking players (Edinho, Blanco, and Djebbour) we were very weak and hardly managed to cause Panthrakikos any stress. Hopefully we will see Kafes, Nsaliwa, and Scocco back in there for the Semi-Final game against Panserraikos later this week, or else we will unlikely see any goals.
Panthrakikos scored first, and their goal should be a strong candidate for most pathetic goal of the year due to unorganized defence and bad luck for AEK. Majstorivic tried to clear a loose ball forward but it unfortunately deflected off of the foot of a Panthrakikos player and into AEK’s net.
Videos will be posted once they are available.
Links to reports will be posted once they are available as well.
