Hania 0-2 AEK

Not the best performance from what I’ve heard, but nine points from our first three games of the season is definitely nothing to be complaining about.

One thing that is quite clear after reading the player critiques is that our attacking half of the team did not have quite the performance they had last game (considering its still quite early in the season, I’m not gonna start panicking quite yet). At this point, every three points we can get will be extremely valuable later in the season. I’m sure that as long as we keep winning and keeping our spirits up, the team will start to settle into its groove and play more consistently.

Before I go on, the highlights of the goals are well worth taking a look at:

I can’t help but reminded a bit of Rivaldo and Scocco when I watch that first goal. Earlier this week, I read a former player of ours (I can’t remember for sure, but I believe it was Tsiartas) saying that Mantalos will be someone to keep an eye on, and I certainly don’t doubt him. Not only did he first score that first beauty of a goal for us, he also took the foul which perfectly set up Kolovetsios for our second goal. Mantalos is definitely proving he deserves a spot on the starting XI.

One of those Sundays…

I’ll never forget Sundays like the one that just passed when I lived in Athens. Don’t get me wrong, win or lose there was never any place I’d rather be than watching AEK at OAKA, but when things went as well as they did yesterday, I knew it was gonna be a good week.

Before our game against Apollon Smyrnis even began, the day got off to a great start. Hours before the Apollon game, our basketball team got another good victory, this time against Panionios (while Panionios might not be the greatest team in the league, they are certainly no push overs either). It was nice to get our first win of the season in front of a solid crowd of about 6,000 at the OAKA basketball arena.

Not long after the basketball game was our game against Apollon Smyrnis, also at OAKA. From what I’ve heard and read, our first half performance left much to be desired, resulting in the first half coming to a close with a 1-0 lead for Apollon after a 45th minute penalty.

Thankfully, we turned things around in the second half and came out much stronger, creating a number of good chances, and doing enough to score the two goals needed to grab a victory (the first scored off a nice header by D’Acol, the second a penalty scored by Mantalos).

The critique of the players from AEK365 was generally positive, with Mantalos getting the most praise (he was awarded MVP for the match), specifically for his solid performance and the effort he gave. The only two players who were considered to have given particularly poor performances were Platellas and Dounis.

The crowd for the game against Apollon was said to be over 20,000 (from the videos it certainly looked like there could have been well over 20,000 in Attendance), an impressive number for sure and especially considering the total attendance for all Superleague matches a few weeks ago was under 20,000. The atmosphere at both the basketball game as well as the football game were said to be excellent, and as Barbosa said, “Its great to play for this crowd”. Thats the thing with AEK supporters really… 1st, 2nd, or 3rd division, it doesn’t matter. If the players are gonna give their all for the team, the supporters will be there too.

For highlights, check out the video below:

What I would give to have been in Athens for a day like yesterday…

Live Broadcast for Sunday’s Game

Our game today (Sunday, October 19th) will be broadcast live on AEK’s official YouTube site! I’ll be working as usual unfortunately, but I hope many of you can enjoy it. I also hope its a cleaner game than our last one against Panaigialeos last week (which we won 1-0). It would be great if we can continue our winning start to the season; as always, it’s so important that we get the three points every chance we can… I can remember so many times when missing three points we should’ve had came back to haunt us.

Our game today is against Apollon Smyrnis. Should be a good one.

Updates – Cup, Friendlies, New Website

Some updates since my last post:

-We won our second Cup game against Fokikos, this time with a score of 1-0, putting us through to the next round. The first match of the next round, away against Panthrakikos, ended in a 0-0 draw. Our next match is against Iraklis Psachnon on the 28th of October, while the final match of the 2nd round will be at home against Atromitos on the 2nd of December. I’m not particularly worried about the match against Iraklis Paschnon, though the match against Atromitos will certainly be a challenge. Thankfully it will be played at home, we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

Something to note about the cup this year is that there is now a group stage at the second leg, which is why we’re playing three teams, and only one game against each. We currently sit at second with one point, behind Atromitos who have three points. I’m not actually sure yet if its only the top team who advance or the top two. I believe its most likely the top two teams who advance, which should give us a pretty good chance of progressing.

-We have one more friendly coming up against Pierikos, our last friendly before the start of the league. This match will be on the 7th of October, while our first league match will be on the 12th of October, against Panaigialeios.

-We have a new website, and I must say its quite nice. I particularly like the new calendar, which can be found here: http://www.aekfc.gr/prp/ola-43306.htm?lang=el&path=-1449899271
There is no english version of the site yet, though it is apparently coming.