First of all, it’s been a while since I lasted posted and quite a bit has happened since then.
Well, we beat Tripolis in our last regular season game, 2-0 at home. A rather eventful game in fact so I’ll go through some of it here.
We started with a different line up than what was being predicted by most, the main reason for this being the fact that several players (Scocco, Blanco, Araujo, Arce, Saja, Roger, and others) were out partying two nights before the game until the early morning hours. Naturally, Bajevic found out about this and benched all of them, including Roger who was set to have his first start with the team since December. Unfortunate for him, but I support Bajevic’s decision completely. Only two weeks before the playoffs and the last thing we need is our players partying during the week before important games.
Another thing worth mentioning is that before the game a large gathering which I attended, was held in Nea Filadelfia on the street outside our old stadium. Around 2,000 AEK fans showed up. A decent number, sure, but hopefully we will see far more in the future. Several former players including the great goalkeeper Elias Atmatsidis showed up and gave speeched discussing the team’s past and its current situation.
The general feelings regarding our management were not happy ones since only days before Adamidis gave a press conference in which he stated that Scocco is for sale, including to Greek teams (Panathinaikos, Olympiakos…). Rightfully so, the fans were not happy about this. Afterall, AEK has never sold a player to either PAO or Oly. Unfortunately though, Adamidis was not predicting (or maybe he was…) as large an uprising among the supporters and before we knew it AEK was once again a team surrounded by controversy as we were before the Christmas break.
Back to the game. Things started well for us generally. Tripolis rarely gave us trouble and we were creating chances, but not scoring when we should have been. Eventually though, Djebbour finally broke the deadlock. However, later on in the game Bajevic decided to introduce Scocco as a sub (most people believe he did this on purpose) which immediately led to half the fans booing the player and another half singing his name, trying all they could to support him. Just minutes later, the Originals began rioting and were soon making their way towards the VIP section. Eventually the Riot squad came into the stadium to protect Adamidis and others however, anyone who knows the Originals knows that bringing the Riot police into the mix is only going to make things worse. All of a sudden hundreds of fans started charging the police and many minor fights broke out leading to some injuries. The rioting carried on throughout the game and even for a while after it. The ref was forced to pause the match for approximately ten minutes as the fighting spilled onto the pitch. He did eventually continue the match though and late in extra time Kafes scored another goal for AEK (without many of the fans even realizing the game had started again) making the score 2-0. The game ended that way and Kostas Manolas received the MVP award. Not one player out there deserved the award more than him. Every game he is constantly proving fans and management what he is capable of as he continues to consistently play like a center-back that’s been playing the game professionally for a decade rather than a year or so.
Well, up next is the playoffs and they are approaching rather quickly. In fact, we play our first game this Wednesday against PAOK in OAKA. I personally believe we will take this one if the players and fans can focus on the match for ninety minutes rather than whats happening behind the scenes. PAOK are no longer anything special (though they did win their last game 4-1 against Ergotelis) and while we mustn’t underestimate them, if we play the best we can we should be able to leave OAKA with a positive result.
Now I would like to take a minute to apologize to any readers who use this site frequently. Over the next three weeks I will be taking my end of year exams. These will be my final high school exams since I will be going to University next year and it is these exams that the Universities focus on most when making a decision, so I will not have as time as will like to update the site. I will still be going to the games so I will try to update as frequently as possible, but I can’t guarantee anything for these next three weeks. However, after the 24th of May, I will be more free than ever and I promise to update the site then as soon as something worthwhile pops up in the news or something regarding the transfers. I will be away at times during the summer however even then I will try and update as often as possible to make up for these past few weeks and the upcoming weeks.