Nikos Georgeas Signs for Two Years

Nikos Georgeas, defender for AEK, has extended his contract with AEK for an additional two years. Since he has been with AEK since 2000 the end of these 2 years will conclude his tenth year with the team. He did not get as much playing time as he would have liked last year due to injuries however, when he did play this past year, he looked very promising. He hopes to win the championship and to make good progress in UEFA next year with AEK.

Hungary 3-2 Greece

Greece suffered a surprising defeat over the weekend as the lost 3-2 to Hungary. This defeat comes just weeks before the team plays its first match in the group stages against Sweden for EURO 2008.

Greece played sloppy football much like the team that rated 61st in the world many years back, not the 8th in the world, one behind France team they are now. It was only a friendly, a game planned simply to help prepare the team before the EURO which is good thing. Clearly, the team isnt as flawless and perfect as many fans had expected. But, as Coach Otto Rehagel said, hopefully this defeat will turn out to be a well timed wake up call.

The only two goals came from Amanatidis and AEK striker Nikos Lyberopoulos. The first goal came after Gekas lost his footing inside the penalty box and Amanatidis was quickly able to get to the ball and easily hit it into the net to put Greece up 1-0 before the break.

Greece then allowed 3 goals in in 18 minutes. Greece however managed to pull one goal closer with a Lyberopoulos header in extra minute however it turned out to be too late.

The only injuries were to keeper Antonis Nikopolidis and possible future AEK midfielder Angellos Basinas.

 

 

 

Off to Austria

AEK will head to Fuschlsee in Salzburg, Austria on the 7th of July, eight days after the final of EURO 2008, to begin summer preperation and practises.

AEK will play a friendly game while in Austria with a team that will be announced shortly. AEK will then return to Athens on the 19th of June. The second stage of preparation will occur between the 24th of July and the 4th August where AEK will play some more friendlies. Details of these friendlies are expected to be announced within the next few days as well.

Giorgos Alexopoulos signs for two years

Giorgos Alexopoulos, who has been out due to injury approximately two years has finally returned to playing and has just agreed on signing along with AEK for another two years.

He had the following to say: “My return to the field after a two years absence, will be once again in AEK’s shirt.  It’s a comeback I owe to the team, to the fans and to everyone supporting me during this time.  I would like to express a great thank to the President and to the team’s management and coach, Μr. George Donis, as well, for giving me opportunity to continue playing high level football, pursuing Greek and European titles with my teammates. For me this seems like a new beginning and I’m eager to find myself back in the stadiums in order to assist in our mutual goals and to make the team’s fans proud”.

Hopefully he will be back to playing high quality football with AEK next year. The fans are definately awaiting his first performance.

Second AEK signing for summer of 2008

AEK have signed 31 year old Swedish center back Daniel Majstorovic for three years. Majstorovic’s previous team was FC Basel in Switzerland where he scored 23 goals in 85 appearances. His average is 1 goal every 7 games. He turned down offers from Lazio.

Information can be found here: http://www.uefa.com/footballeurope/news/kind=2/newsid=698035.html

here: http://www.sportingreece.com/kb/article.asp?fIndex=1822

and here: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/19/sports/EU-SPT-SOC-AEK-Majstorovic.php 

 

Panionios 2-2 AEK

Well, AEK, along with Giorgos Donis will have to settle for UEFA Cup next year after drawing with Panionios following PAO’s 3-1 victoy over Aris. At this point, with one match remaining in the Playoffs, it will be impossible for AEK to finish first in the Playoffs.

AEK went down first after a goal by Panionios player Fernandez in the 21st minute.

AEK quickly evened out the game after Rivaldo nailed in a penalty. Blanco was tackled inside the penalty box by Panionios keeper Kresic. It was a needed tackle which would have most likely resulted in a goal by Blanco who was about to swerve to the left of the keeper which would have left him an open net to tap the ball into.

AEK took the lead in the 39th minute after a perfectly set up cross to Blanco by Ramos was headed to Lyberopoulos who headed the ball into the net out of reach of the Panionios keeper.

“Allright” I was thinking at this point “AEK simply let their guard down for the first Panionios goal and were slowly starting to get back into the game”. Unfortunately the game was only showed on Supersport, a chanel which we do not have access to so I ended up having to listen to the match on the radio. On the radio, it was very difficult to see how poorly AEK was actually playing. When I saw the highlights on TV after the match I realized that, although AEK had some decent chances to score, Panionios also had many chances to score and humiliate AEK like the other teams we played in the Playoffs had.

AEK led the game 2-1 for the rest of regulation time from this point onward. The nineteeth minute came and I was praying for the referee to blow the whistle. Unfortunately, however, the officials decided upon four minutes of extra time. It was in the first minute of extra time that AEK displayed the worst “Defence” in the history of the team, and possibly, I’m quite serious, in the history of the sport of soccer. And it was due to this pathetic defence that Panionios tied the game.  Although the coach thought our defenders were fouled, the ref did not think so.  During the press conference the coach said he will take what ever team he has left to the final game and be done with this “diadikasia”, u can almost translate it to “ordeal”.

Squad for AEK match against Panionios

PAO is currently tied 0-0 with Aris in the 38th minute. A draw for Aris against PAO and a win for AEK against PAO this wednesday at home for AEK will be enough to ensure that AEK finish first in the Playoffs and can therefore qualify for Champions League.

The squad for AEK’s away match against Panionios will consist of many regulars such as Lyberopoulos, Rivaldo, Ramos, Lagos, Blanco, and Manduca (who is back from injury).

Alexopoulos who has recently recovered from injury will also be going along with Kapetanos, Kafes, Kone, Azcarate, Arabatzis, Moretto, Bourbos, Tatzidis, Geraldo, Pliatsikas, and Pavlis.

Papastathopoulos, Nsaliwa, and Edinho will are not allowed to play due to cards accumulated.

Dellas, Kallon, Macho, and Georgeas are all injured or feeling discomfort.

 

AEK News: Rivaldo, Cleyton, and Chalkias(?)

Demis Nikolaidis, president of AEK recently held a meeting with Rivaldo with hopes of persuading the Brazilian legend to reamin in Greece with AEK. Rivaldo has said that he needs time to think about the situation but that there is a possibility that he will remain. He said that he would like to ensure that none of the mistakes from this season are repeated. He also said that he puts full confidence in the new AEK manager for next year, Giorgos Donis.

AEK are still talking with Larissa’s Silva Cleyton but are not yet able to aqquire him due to the fact that PAO is still also interested in him. However, Cleyton’s managers have agreed a deal with AEK, it is just up to the player himself now. It is said that he will likely be influenced by Donis who he has supported alot and got along with well at Larissa.

The following is a RUMOR!   AEK are reportedly close to aquiring Costantinos Chalkias after it was reported that he will most likely not be renewing his contract with Aris.

Aris 4-0 AEK

It was painful to watch this game earlier tonight. A month ago, if I saw 4-0 it would bring a smile to my face but now it forces me to turn my back. We played a very pathetic game today. Our offence was much better than it was when we played PAO however, our defence seemed determined to prove that they could in fact play worse than they did when AEK played PAO.

To make this sad loss even worse, Papastathopoulos got a red card after commiting a second yellow card foul meaning he will not be able to play with AEK when they play Panionios away for their next playoff match.

The first Aris goal was a result of poor defending by Lagos. He got to the ball but quickly lost control after trying to run up with the ball, a mistake he has made one or two times before. An Aris player quickly grabbed and since he wasnt being marked by any defenders was able to run up and get an easy shot on goal. There was nothing Macho could do to stop the goal since no goalie in the world can do anything in situations like that without a good defence to rely on.

The second goal for Aris was another goal that could have been avoided had our defence been on its toes and marking men. Aris got control of the ball in their box. After two passes the ball was at the feet of an Aris offender in front of the goal with the nearest defender twenty yards away. The Aris player had a clear path between himself and the goal the only obstacle being Macho. Macho made the slide tackle and actually managed to get the ball away from the feet of the offender but he quickly regained possesion and simply tap the ball into the net. Had their been a defender marking the player he could have gotten to the ball when the Aris player lost it and cleared it out of the danger zone.

And what a surprise, the third goal was a result of poor defending. There isnt much that can be said about this goal. Ever since the age of ten, whenever Ive been playing soccer on a team the coach would always tell the defenders to get behing the man your marking. So what did Papastathopoulos do with the man he should have been marking? He got infront of the man he should have been marking which left a clear opening for the Aris forward to run up to the goal and again tap the ball into the net. Again, there was nothing Macho could do.

If that isnt enough humiliation the fourth goal for Aris was yet again another defensive error. An Aris player ran up down the left flank and headed towards the goal where he was able to make a cross to an unmarked Aris player in front of the goal who then made a pass to another unmarked Aris player who was able to get an easy shot on goal.

These were the exact same errors which led to PAO humiliating us in the exact same fashion. I would have hoped our defence would have learned from those mistakes but they clearly have not. Hopefully these are some key areas Donis could focus on as soon as possible when (hopefully) he comes to AEK.

Unfortunately, Kostenoglou decided to play Ramos as a defender. I thought that earlier in the year management had realized that defence was not his ideal position and that he was better suited as a midfielder.

Lagos did not have a good day. He was very shaky and made many errors.

PAO managed to beat Panionios 3-0 which means that they are first in the playoffs with 17 points and AEK is second with 14 points. It looks like Champions League wont happen for AEK this year. Hopefully some summer transfers will go through and we can have another shot. Of course, there is still a chance at Chamions League but it is highly unlikely considering that there are only two games left to be played. If Aris can draw with PAO in Athens and AEK manage an away win against Panionios which they should be able to do, then we will simply have to beat PAO at home. However, Aris have the final of the Greek Cup in one week against Olympiacos who recently fired former AEK player Ilia Ivic, who was their football director. Aris are going to be focusing more attention to the Greek Cup instead of the playoffs so a draw is not extremely unreliable but who knows, PAO have been extremely unreliable at times as well. 

 

AEK News

Just two weeks after obtaining the full rights to Ismael Blanco, AEK have officially acquired the full rights to another powerful scorer and fan favorite, Arnaldo Edi Lopes da Silva, also known as Edinho. He is happy that the AEK and Vitoria Setubal have agreed to this, claiming that he and his family have adapted comfortably to life in Greece.

AEK will be involved in a courtcase against Olympiacos after Olympiacos president Kokalis said that the team will be suing Nikolaidis and Rivaldo. Olympiacos is suing the pair based on comments they allegedly made in the changerooms about Olympiacos and how they won the chamionship on the papers. AEK have not yet officially released anything about this although people are arguing that even if Nikolaidis and Rivaldo did say these things there is nothing illegal about them since they were said in the changerooms. The press is also wondering how Olympiacos will be able to prove that these comments were in fact said.

AEK was originally going to be sued by EPO as well after comments were made towards EPO president Gagatsis and his supposed relationship with Kokalis and the rest of Olympiacos and how he has supposedly assisted Olympiacos with winning the many chamionships the team has won recently.

Although this blog focuses on the AEK soccer team I would like to congratulate the AEK basketball team for playing a very good game against Olympiacos last night. AEK was in control for the first half of the game, leading at times by almost thirty points. Olympiacos however caught up and took a three point lead. With twelve seconds left and AEK player scored a three pointer and tied the game. Unfortunately however, an AEK player then fouled an Olympiacos player which led to them being awarded two free throws and they scored both of them. Olympiacos won 70-68. AEK finished seventh in the championship so were forced to play the second placed team, Olympiacos in the playoffs. Yesterdays game was the second game of a best of three first playoff round. Olympiacos also won the first game of the series so therefore advance to the next round.

AEK FC play Aris FC in Thessaloniki tomorrow afternoon. I will post the squad as soon as it is announced.