Aris 1-1 AEK

Ok, to be honest, I was expecting a loss for AEK here. Aris were considered favorites for this game and I think that’s somewhat justified. Bearing that in mind, I’ll take a draw here. Its never easy to win away against Aris, even on a good day.

I wasn’t able to watch the match since it was satellite. Hopefully one of the other members or one of our regular comment posters managed to watch it so we can get some more feedback.

I’ll try to say what I can based on the highlights below and what I’ve read on other sights.

So, this game apparently saw two different AEK teams. One, in the first half, which was utterly terrible (as if AEK wasn’t actually on the pitch) and one in the second half, which some claim was the best AEK all season (fine, not exactly a difficult title to earn, but pleasing nonetheless).

Aris’ first goal came early, in the fifth minuet. As you can all see, a simple principle of football, defense, was not applied therefore giving Aris a very simple goal to score. A common feature of any amateur team’s defense is having someone on either post, ready to clear any balls near there. While this may not be applied so often at professional levels, it is still common sense to have an eye on both the near post as well as the far post. On the Aris corner, the whole right side of the box is empty except Abreu. With no pressure, he barely even had to move his head to tap the ball in the net.

Like with a goal scored by PAO against Larissa a few weeks back, simply having someone marking in that area would have avoided the goal entirely, or at least reduced the chances of it scoring.

Saja, as is clear in the video, played a good game. How some can be calling him to leave the team is something I cannot understand. The first goal at the BATE game also was not his fault. With those conditions, it is likely the same would have happened to any keeper.

So, basing on what I heard, Aris were pressuring quite a bit the first half, while AEK was doing little.

Things changed in the second. AEK were suddenly dominating on the pitch. We had a number of chances (including a post from Blanco) but just couldn’t get the ball in the net (for anyone who say the Roma match today, the exact same happened, chance after chance, but the ball would not make it between the posts).

Scocco scored our goal, but apparently refused to pass on a number of occasions which could have led to goals and instead decided to shoot. Scocco is a great player, got MVP of the week last week, but we have to see him play more with the team. We all know he has great technical abilities, but we must win the game as a team. With players like Nemeth and Blanco waiting to score, there is no reason for him to be ignoring them.

Araujo played well from what I heard, but other than that, everyone else played an average game. Not bad I suppose, at least nobody played a particularily poor game.

PAO beat PAOK 2-1. Normally I would be cheering for PAOK at this one, but right now, I want PAO to be at the top, or anyone really, except Oly.

Speaking of Oly, they barely got away with a win yesterday, at their own home against Ergotelis, who have been impressive so far. Ergotelis went up first, but Oly tied it. Ergotelis then had a few incredible chances to score and take the lead, but failed to so. In the mean time, Olympiakos was playing some of the most boring, unimpressive football I’ve seen in years. Of course, as is typical, lucky Oly, they got a fluke goal, which had Daskalakis been more prepared for would have saved with ease.

So, tomorrow, an announcement is expected with regards to Kozonis becoming the new Owner of PAE AEK! His representatives are in Athens now looking through the financial books, making sure there aren’t any suprises, and it everything goes well, the deal will be sealed. I am confident this will be good for AEK in the end.

BATE 2-1 AEK

Well, our night went from good to about as bad as it could get. As you can see from the post below we were up 1-0 at half time.

The second half started and early on Majstorovic gets his second yellow and is sent off and Bate tie the game. So, one of our key players is sent off, the pitch condition is deteriorating (and it was disgusting to begin with) and we were loosing the control over the game we had before.

We managed to continue fighting (at this point one point really wouldn’t have been bad at all) however we also continued to concede corners. Bate started pressuring and we couldn’t get good control over the game. Blanco was taken off and replaced with Makos. Makos had to cover right back as Jahic had to move to the center to cover the void left by Majstorovic.

Nemeth was left up front and had chance after chance, however the ref seemed determined to call him offside any time he had the ball (fine some of the calls were fair, but there were a few where there was no offsides at all) and refused to call any of the many fouls committed against him.

Eventually, Juanfran had to come off due to injury and was replaced by Karabelas.

As for the game in general, we saw some good things but lost control of the game as it went on, especially with Majstorovic being expelled. The team was clearly being frustrated by the ref, as well as Bajevic, who was eventually sent off.

We saw some good things from our players, especially Nsaliwa, but this is still not the AEK we all want. Bate were an average team at best. At one point in our beautiful history AEK was a team that was able to come back from 2-0 down, in Madrid and end up tying the game 2-2 (becoming the first team to ever do so), now we are struggling to beat poor quality sides from Belarus. Some things must change, especially our luck. Week in, week out, every year, luck does all it can to go against us. I dont exactly believe very much in luck and superstitions, but anyone who has been following AEK at all these past years would notice it must somehow play a part. To illustrate this point, consider the following:

-Had Everton won today, AEK would have still had decent chances of advancing. Instead, Benfica beat Everton 5-0, leaving us further behind.

-Our two centre backs today both got red cards, meaning they are suspended for one match. Our other centre backs are injured (Geraldo) or have just recovered from injury (Alexopoulos) and will not be ready to play anytime soon.

-Araujo is still suspended for a match, Georgeas is injured, and Koutromanos is severely injured and is out for the entire season. So, all three of our main right backs are unavailable for the next match.

-Juanfran received an injury today and might not be able to play next match.

Sp, essentially, we have no defence to field and will instead have to rely on other players from other positions. Of course, add to this the fact that nothing but wins will leave us with any chance of advancing and our future in Europa League this year looks grim. Not good news considering we already have no chance of winning the championship, or at least finishing high.

Not much else I can say right now, I just can’t believe what has happened to our club. I guess all we can do is continue supporting AEK and hope management (this new owner couldn’t come at a better time if he does) and the players do what they can.

Half Time BATE 0-1 AEK !!!!

45 minutes in and we’re leading this one 1-0! Blanco scored a penalty (certainly the correct call) to put us up and we now are in a great position and the win is definately possible.

Conditions are terrible in Minsk. It is extremely cold (near zero degrees celcius) and the pitch is extremely wet. Our players are sliding all over the place, which doesnt help players like Scocco.

We’re playing a very good game, compared to what we saw over the weekend. Our players are fighting hard, winning every ball, and are clearly in this for the win and nothing less. We’re working well together as a whole with pretty much everyone playing a role.

Our starting lineup was Saja, Jahic, Arce, Majstorovic, Juanfran, Kafes, Nsaliwa, Scocco, Nemeth, Blanco, and Manduca. Everyone is playing quite well, including Juanfran, but I really must point out Nsaliwa in particular. He hasn’t played in a while but he is playing extremely well at the moment. His tackles are incredible, ball control, through balls, he’s playing great generally. Nemeth is also playing well and had some great chances.

We are dominating possession and had many good chances. We have been caught on the counter attacks a couple of times and have given up some dangerous free kicks at times, but we’re holding on.

Now, time for the second half!

Good news for AEK… If it’s actually true.

As Greeksoccer reports, Robert Kozonis, a wealthy bussiness man from Chicago is interested in becoming the main owner of AEK. This could be great for the club. He apparently has the necessary funds, and is not worried by the debt. The link discusses more details.

This is the kind of guy that can make the difference with AEK. He has the money and knows how to use it. He owns or has built over 120 buildings in Chicago, and his knowledge in engineering will certainly help as far as our stadium goes. Details are said to be finalized by tonight so lets see!

But now, time for some Champions League (which we could very well be playing in soon with Kozonis’ help).

Goals From Yesterday’s Game

For those interested, here is a video of yesterday’s goals, as well as some of the chances both teams missed.

AEK 3 – PANTHRAKIKOS 2

AEK returned to the winners circle with a much needed but largely unimpressive victory over the team from Komotini at OAKA.The visitors actually took the lead in the 26th minute when Majstorovic got turned “inside out” by their striker Buval in the box and he left Saja clutching at air with a nice finish.Majstorovic made up for his defensive error 2 min later,when he got on the end of a Nacho Scocco free kick and headed the equaliser from close.
AEK took the lead on 39 min when a “hopefull” ball into the area from Araujo(to be accurate,Tachtsidis was in the vicinity)was headed into his own net by their defender Djokic.
Scocco made it 3-1 on 59 min with a lovely turn inside and low drive from the edge of the area,giving the keeper no chance.At this point i expected AEK to press home the advantage and go on with the job but once again we fell into bad habits,like sitting back waiting for the other team to create instead of forcing the issue,or,not finishing our clear cut chances.This invited Panthrakikos back into the match and some fine play from them was rewarded when Robert scored a fine goal from a narrow angle on 69 min.The replay does show Saja making an uncharacteristic error as he left his near post wide open.So 3-2 and i’m sure like just about any AEK fan watching,im totally thinking we’ve blown it again and although we held on,AEK almost pulled off their throwing another game away.The away team had not 1,but 2 chances that bounced back off the post and out of danger.The crowd jeering the players at the end of the game was a good indication of their dissatisfaction at the performance.The starting lIne up was Saja.Araujo,Majstorovic,Arce,Krambelas.Hersi,Kafes,Jiahic,
Tachtsidis.Scocco and Blanco.The subs were:-Leonardo for Hersi 58 min,Geriero for Tachtsidis 63 min and Juan Fran for Karambelas 83 min.
Special mention and all our thoughts must go out to Nacho Scocco,who during the week,lost his grandmother and auntie in a car accident back home in Argentina.His father was driving but luckily survived.Despite the obvous pain and suffering he must have been enduring,Nacho actually pleaded with Dusan to play.Thankfully for us,he scored what turned out to be the winning goal.Nacho you a real trooper,staying with the club in our time of need and giving up yours.We at AEK ARCHIVES salute you!

Aek loses appeal over Araujo….

Uefa have dismissed Aek’s appeal over the 3 match ban given to our Argentinian right full back Carlos Araujo,for his send off against Everton at Goodison Park in the first match of the Europa League.He therefore will miss the 2 matches against Bate and the away game to Benfica,returning for the last group game against Everton at the OAKA.

Dark Times for AEK

This link here mentions the news that has happened with the share transfers, as well as some of the bad news affecting our team right now (as well as the Basketball and Volleyball teams).

Kanellopoulos Donates His Shares of AEK!

Kanellopoulos has given his 13.5 % of shares to the amateur club so that they now have a 23.5 % share of the club. A pretty big share of the club indeed. Dimitris Hatzichristos as many of you will know is the head of the amateurs and Original21.

What will happen from this move nobody can say yet. However, this does put more power in the hands of the fans (that might not be a good thing right now since we all know the Originals aren’t exactly fond of Bajevic). We will have to wait a little while until we see what can result from this.

In other news, Koutromanos will be out for around six months! He picked up a serious knee injury while training and will require an operation. Bad news for us, especially since we now dont have a proper right back for our next Europa League game. We should know about Araujo’s appeal to UEFA tonight. If things go our way his sentence will hopefully be shortened.

Xanthi 1-0 AEK

First off, the highlights:

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.