Half Time Olympiakos 2-1 AEK

Well, the ref is not helping us (though he did give us a penalty which we scored). However, aside from that, our defense is terrible! We are letting every ball through, marking is non-existent. Both Oly goals could have easily been avoided had our defenders been marking their players.

Anyways, Olympiakos is playing pretty poor football, but our defense is helping them out. If we were to come out stronger and tighter in the second half we could easily grab a point if not all three, there is nothing stopping us.

Starting 11 were Saja, Araujo, Manolas, Majstorovic, Lagos, Kafes, Hersi, Jahic, Makos, Djebbour, and Scocco. I hope we see either Manduca or Nemeth on soon, if not both.

Levadeiakos 0-0 AEK

We left Livadia last night with one point from a draw, enough to seal us fourth place as Aris fall 2-1 to Tripolis. Nothing spectacular really but a game worth commentating on regardless.

So, despite the 0-0 scoreline, both teams had some considerable chances to get a few in the net with the majority of them coming from Levadeiakos in the first half. The game has sort of left me now since its been a few days so I can’t remember too many specifics but I know that Saja stood out! Made some fantastic and critical saves to keep us in the game and had it not been for him (and some rather poor finishing from the Levadeiakos players) the score would have definately been in favor of Levadeiakos.

We lined up with Saja in nets, Georgeas, Majstorovic, Majstorovic, and Araujo in defense, Kafes, Gentzoglou, and Makos in the midfield and Manduca up front behind Nemeth and Djebbour (yes, no Blanco in the starting lineup!…. maybe resting him for the far more important playoffs). Majstorovic generally got poor ratings but I thought he had a decent game, though certainly nothing outstanding. Manolas and Araujo both had very good games though and Manolas seems to be getting better and better by the day.

Makos played alright compared to what we’ve seen at other times in the season. For the most part it seemed as if he was actually trying and while he didn’t do anything spectacular he at least didn’t mess up nearly as often as usual.

Nemeth looked good from what I saw and the chemistry between him and Djebbour seemed alright and should only improve (by the way, no new news with regards to Nemeth and next season).

Honestly not much more to say about this game, no point really in going on about it as we have the much more important playoffs coming up.

Anyways, week after week of games since the ban was put in place and the police finally decide they are going to actually enforce it this one game… when AEK are playing! I certainly agree they should enforce the ban if it is there (though I dont believe it should be there in the first place since AEK fans have caused no trouble at all this season) but they should enforce it at all games or none, rather than a select few (or in this case, a select one).

The saying “If there’s a will there’s a way” truly applies when talking about AEK supporters… an unfinished house looking right over the stadium was owned by AEK fans (from what I heard) and they invited in about 50 or 100 AEK supporters who set up banners on the balconies and started singing louder than the handful of Levadeiakos “Ultras”. Great to see them not give up when it comes to supporting AEK, but unfortunately a handful got arrested… even some who were watching the match at a cafe wearing AEK shirts.

An incident occurred after the match involving Georgeas and Levadeiakos owner Kobotis. Apparently, as Georgeas was giving an interview Kobotis walked by and asked “Where does AEK find the money to offer you bonuses?” (obviously bitter since his team will soon be playing 2nd division football). Georgeas replies with “Where do you find your money?” since its generally believed that Xanthi and Levadeiakos have been “involved” with Olympiakos. Kobotis replied with some very nasty language (too nasty to say on here)… to think that we want our league to advance when people like that are running the teams makes me laugh.

Larissa 1-0 AEK

Well, Saturday came and I was all excited, waiting to watch my team continue it’s undefeated streak. Saturday evening came, I turned my television on and spent the next ninety minutes or so watching the most depressing performance from AEK in recent memory.

Our team looked dreadful. Honestly, the score could easily have been 3-0 or more for Larissa had our post, some luck, and a determined Saja not prevented that from happening. Larissa pressured from kickoff and looked set on getting nothing less than a win from early on. I had hoped things would change a little as the game progresses but that never happened. Larissa dominated throughout the entire match and they weren’t even happy sitting on their 1-0 lead.

Nobody on our team except perhaps Saja seemed interested in playing some decent football that night. Our defense did nothing against the likes of Metin and other attacking players for Larissa. Our midfield was just as useless on the pitch defensively as it was offensively. And our offense? Well, you would have thought they weren’t even there! Blanco was playing midfield/defense again, Scocco had a couple of shots but not one even forced a save from the Larissa keeper and Djebbour was with the ball in a good position on a number of occasions but always found a way to loose possession to the opposition.

Nemeth actually played this game! Came in as a sub (remember, Larissa at home was the last game he played for AEK before Saturday, and he also scored that day) but he really didn’t make a huge impact on the game. You could tell he wanted to score and he tried bringing some life to our forwards but he really didn’t have the ball enough to make any difference.

Saja was the one player who seemed willing to put in an effort after making some critical saves.

Aris drew the same day 1-1 against Kavala. A win on Saturday night would have meant our lead over them would have increased. Instead, it was reduced by one point. Sure, there is still some distance between us but our two next games coming up are Kavala at home and PAOK away. If we play the way we have been the past two games then I dont see us getting away with any more than a point in the next two weeks. Of course, we may be able to turn things around and pull off some decent results against Kavala (even our bext of this season will stand only a small chance against PAOK), but I’m not going to hold my breath.

AEK 1-0 Ergotelis

So, the good news? Three points and our fourth win in a row!
Bad news? Terrible performance!

Djebbour celebrating his game winning goal against Ergotelis

We started off on pretty solid ground. We were controlling things for the most part, though Ergotelis were still moving forward at times. Eventually, the first, and only, goal came. Djebbour scored the goal with some superb control (nothing Blanco could ever pull off, though I still love the guy).

Shortly after this though we began to take things a little slower and pressured less if I remember correctly. And from this point on it was only downhill. We came out in the second half as if we were sitting on a four goal lead. No attacking desire at all was showed by our players. Blanco had even gone back to playing right back for a while! The players didn’t realize that a) Ergotelis has some dangerous players up front and b) in football, a one goal lead means nothing! (anyone who watched the Canada- Slovakia game last night would know that things can turn around quickly in sports).

I’m not going to go into to much detail. Hopefully, it was just a fluke. Before today we had seen some nice football from our players. Maybe they got a little too confident, thought they could handle anything now. I’m not sure, but hopefully come next match they will remember the fans booing them today when they insisted on sitting back and defending rather than attacking.

As for the players:

-Saja was pretty solid. Bajevic didn’t know who to start with since he now has two great keepers at his disposal. Still, I think he made the right choice. Aside from one or two poor clearances by the Argentinian, he was solid in the box and held onto every ball with confidence except for one which slipped out of his hands.

-Araujo was our best defender I feel. He fought hard on the pitch and never sat back. From the start of the match he was pushing himself, and he kept it up throughout. Our two center backs did the job, though Geraldo was a little shaky today. Karabelas had a decent game though we have seen better from him this season.

-Kafes had a good game. Nothing special, but did his job and pushed up at times. Makos had one if his best games of the season (yes, yes, that’s not saying much, I know). When the pressure was on, he began to look shaky again, but he didn’t waste every ball that was at his feet and even had a decent shot on net.

-Scocco was TERRIBLE! I was watching the players warm up today and the usual bunch were trying hard and running: Majstorovic, Blanco, Karabelas, Kafes. The rest of the players were putting a fair deal of effort into the warm up but you could tell they were only going about 50 percent. Then, there was Scocco. He walked around, waited for the ball to arrive to him, did a fancy pass, and then disappeared. I was worried when I saw this and my fears were confirmed during the match. He waited for the ball go straight to his feet, made a decent run which normally led to him being fouled, then did nothing the rest of the match. Even Djebbour came back towards the end to defend on corners, but never once did Scocco help out the rest of the team. He played for himself and whenever he did pass he made sure to avoid passing the ball to Djebbour at all costs. Shame really, since Djebbour can do some damage (he’s not called the terrorist for nothing) but there was definately no chemistry between the two players.

Anyways, four wins in a row. In the past 8 games of 2010 we have six wins and two draws. Not bad at all. Hopefully the team puts this performance behind them and we continue forward the way we were before!

P.S. LETS GO CANADA!

May the best team (Canada) win tomorrow!

Panthrakikos 1-2 AEK

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!

AEK 3-1 Xanthi

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.

PAO 1-1 AEK

Well, all I can say is we were lucky. PAO had a few incredible chances to score a few goals but were either stopped by the post or Arabatzis. But, they never should have won in the first round against us so it’s all good 🙂

We started without Makos which was great news. Our starting XI was Arabatzis, Araujo, Majstorovic, Geraldo, Karabelas, Manduca, Kafes, Jahic, Blanco, Scocco, and Djebbour. Arabatzis made some critical saves and generally had a good game. There was very little he could do to change the outcome of the match.

Araujo was on and off. He controlled Leto with ease but let some players slip by and was a little dangerous at times.

Majstorovic, though he made a few mistakes (accidents really, not his usual sloppiness) which could have led to goals, was a great defender for us today. Cisse, who I was very worried about before the match, did very little, partly because of Majstorovic. Geraldo also had a good game. There was little else he could do, but he defended well.

Karabelas was our problem today. Against other attackers, he was fine, but when he came up 1 0n 1 with Salpigidis he was left trailing behind him on every occasion. This, unfortunately, led to many dangerous chances being created for PAO but with some luck few of them went in.

Our midfield could have been better. After the first ten minutes they died down and could not string together simple passes. Kafes was alright, as was Manduca, but Jahic needed to raise his game to a higher level. Perhaps it was just me but I wasnt too impressed with him.

Our attack was dangerous at times, when they managed to get the ball. I would say Djebbour was our most dangerous man up front and had some great chances. However, he hardly ran and rarely chased the ball or applied pressure, unlike Scocco or Blanco. Scocco did not have a fantastic game and I was expecting him to be more involved in this derby. He might have been trying but he rarely managed to create the pressure he normally does despite PAO’s weak defense.

Blanco was playing completely out of position. I’m not sure yet if he was instructed to do so but he rarely ventured forwards and rather played a right midfield position. He helped out defensively however what I was pleased to see from him was some nice balls he sent occasionally for Djebbour which passed PAO’s defense with ease.

Generally, it really wasn’t a fantastic performance, not compared to what we saw in Karaiskaki. Our players started strong and were winning each ball. We were rewarded with an early goal in the 9th minute after a mistake from Katsouranis and we had possession for much of the time. However, shortly after our goal things died down for us and PAO began controlling the game. They scored from a free kick outside our box and created a few chances after that as well which (luckily for us) couldn’t find the back of the net. Salpigidis was their most dangerous man up front and was involved in almost every opportunity for them.

Honestly, we were lucky but it’s fair considering we should have gotten one point when we played them earlier in the year.

The referee was terrible. PAO should have gotten a red after some dangerous and disgusting tackles by Vyntra. Many questionable calls from the ref, mostly in PAO’s favour. I’m not making excuses here but there was plenty of diving from the PAO players which led to many dangerous free kicks outside our box.

Our subs today were Makos (not his worst game, he managed to do a bit), Lagos (showed promise but maybe he was a little to excited and not concentrated enough), and Guerreiro (who came on for Scocco though I would have taken off Blanco).

Well, one point. Three would have been better but really, this is probably our hardest game of the year (except perhaps PAOK away). Fortunately, those team’s nearest us in the standings all messed up this weekend. Aris lost to Xanthi (!), Tripolis lost to Levadeiakos, and Atromitos lost to PAOK. We now sit in the fifth, one point ahead of Tripolis.

Our basketball team won away to Trikala this weekend. Our first away win this season, and the first game with our new coach. We didn’t play great for much of the game but in the fourth quarter we really picked things up and Trikala could do little to hold us back.

Our volleyball team also beat PAOK, 3 sets to 2.

AEK 3-1 PAS Gianenna

Well, it wasn’t a pretty win, but at the end of they day it was a well deserved three points. One goal was scored from Djebbour (who was superb today) and two from not Blanco, not Scocco (he didn’t play in the end), not Leonardo, Hersi, or Guerreiro, but…. KAFES!

No videos up yet, I’ll get some tomorrow. It was a freezing (literally) night tonight, with a mix of snow and rain towards the end of the game. Luckily though, the players weren’t affected too much.

As could have been predicted before the game, PAS held back and played the counter attacks. This proved to be a nightmare for us as we could not handle them once they took off. Unlike with Iraklis, where we managed to cut off many of their counter attacks before they develloped, we could not stop PAS on the counter at all today and some luck (along with some poor refereeing) helped us not concede earlier.

We scored first, a powerful header by Djebbour off of a Georgeas cross. His header was clocked at 60 km/h.

PAS tied things up ten minutes into the second half and the players seemed to loose concentration and and focus as the fans started to loose patience. Eventually, things tightened up and we started putting the pressure on PAS again. We scored the much needed (for the players and the fans) second goal which came from Kafes. Leonardo had a freekick outside the box which he passed on the ground to Gentzoglou who, with a nice back heel, placed the ball in the centre. Kafes saw the ball and shot and with so many players crowded in the box and the shot nice and low the PAS keeper could not react quick enough.

Kafes scored out third in extra time, a well placed shot after another back heel, this time from Lagos. This third goal sealed the deal on a much needed win and we now continue our unbeaten streak in the second half of the season.

So, we started with Arabatzis in nets, Georgeas (don’t forget, Araujo was out with a red card from last weekend), Majstorovic, Gentzoglou, and Karabelas completing our back line, Makos, Manduca, Kafes, and Hersi making up our midfield, and Blanco along with Djebbour were up front.

Arabatzis had a decent game. There wasn’t much he could do (or anyone else for that matter) with PAS’ goal, but he collected many corners with confidence tough was never really tested with any tough shots.

Georgeas had a good game though made some mistakes and could not handle PAS’ left wing on the counter attack. Majstorovic had a very good game, cleared many balls with confidence though he was also caught on the counter attack. Gentzoglou had a good game and made some critical tackles to keep us in the game. Karabelas was very good, defensively and also offensively, contributing some good runs up the wing.

Our defense was good for the most part except the counter attacks. This is the first time I’ve seen us truly exposed like this this season so hopefully it was a one off thing. Either, we must be more prepared.

Our midfield was alright. Manduca and Hersi (especially Hersi) both had good games but Makos was worse than usual (usual meaning terrible). He did have one nice shot which was barely saved but the rest of the game he lost the ball many times. There were a few promising aspects of his play, some decent passes and he was able to travel with the ball better than normal, but he was still a big problem for us today. He received many boos from the fans which really didn’t  help. Kafes was good today and obviously provided a threat up front.

Our offense was one of the better aspects of today’s game, especially Djebbour. Towards the end of the match we had numerous top class chances to score but couldn’t either because of poor finishing or great goalkeeping from the PAS keeper. Djebbour was quite something today. He scored a goal and had numerous other chances to score and also set up Blanco with a superb cross across the pitch straight to the Argentinian’s feet. This left Blanco head to head with the keeper however, as is typical of Blanco this season, he couldn’t finish it.

Our substitutes were Lagos, Leonardo, and Roger. Lagos was superb! Hopefully the guy will get more playing time now. Roger I honestly did not see enough of. Leonardo had a good game, surprisingly. Not fantastic, but good.

The Originals painted (with spray paint) all the seats where the sit Yellow and Black! An impressive feat and I must say, it looks great! However, with the derby with PAO coming up next weekend, I wonder how the PAO fans will feel. Let’s see what happens there. If they leave it it would be great, add some character to the stadium. I can’t see them leaving it though.

Sorry for the rushed post but school starts again tomorrow since exams are over and I have to get up early once again 😦

Oh, a couple more things to point out. Six Greeks made up our starting eleven, a great number to see! Also, believe ti nor not, PAOK beat Olympiakos in Karaiskaki! Edinho scored the only goal of the match!

And we are brought back down to reality..

So, after our incredible win only five days earlier people were expecting similar things from last nights game. We thought we were going to get it also after building a healthy 3-1 lead with plenty of time left. The final score? 3-3

One thing was to blame for this result more than anything else. Our midfield. Kafes was out injured and Jahic was out due to cards. That left Makos, Nsaliwa, and Gentzoglou as our options for central midfield. Who did Bajevic (the hero from our derby win who is now being held as someone responsible for our result) decide to go with? Makos and Gentzoglou… big mistake.

Makos was terrible, or worse than that if it is possible. I feel bad for the guy. He tries hard, shows the passion, and clearly cares for AEK like he says, but he must not play another game for AEK. Our midfield was non-existent yesterday. At least we know Nsaliwa can handle the position good enough even though he may not be a star player. Whenever Makos got the ball he would loose it by either loosing possession or giving away the ball with lazy passing. I hate to say it  but the guy is not for AEK. He was good at Panionios but he killed us yesterday.

Gentzoglou wasn’t as bad, and at least he scored a goal. But he was not enough to make a huge impact on our midfield. Without Kafes we were clearly hurting. He isn’t the greatest midfielder Greece has ever produced but he holds the ball well and can control it until he sees a good time to get it up. He’s also a fine defender and can stop the counter attacks early, something which our midfield failed to do on many occasions.

Its a shame our midfield was so poor yesterday since our attack really was quite good. They created chances whenever they did manage to get the ball (normally due either to Scocco playing the ball up or a long ball from Manduca) and were very dangerous. Blanco stayed behind during the week to practise finishing and it payed off after he nailed in a sitter which he may actually have missed a few weeks ago. Scocco again was superb and Djebbour showed promise but I think he needs one or two more games with the team. He gets the ball alot but holds on to it too long and instead of taking the chances he gets he tries to make things harder for himself. With a couple more games we should start to see him finishing off those chances on his own.

Our defense was alright but it wasn’t as tight as we needed. Atromitos deserves credit, they do have a good offense. That 3-0 home loss to Aris would have been different had Sifakis not pulled off some incredible saves. Karabelas and Araujo both had good games and Geraldo was solid, but Majstorovic was back to his old games of passing the ball back to the keeper and waiting until the last possible second to do so. The whole defence started the passing the ball at the back for a minute before getting it up tactic which we saw so many times last year. The fans were not impressed, neither was I, but I guess that’s largely due to the fact that we didn’t have that midfield that we so badly needed in order to get the ball up.

Atromitos scored first in the game but thankfully, probably because of the win on Wednesday, the fans only started singing louder rather than booing. We scored soon after to tie things up and Scocco gave us the lead just before half time. Blanco gave us the nice 3-1 lead during the second thanks to a perfect pass from Scocco (this guy really is incredible). However, things changed quickly after that.

Firstly, check out the video below of the goals.

If you had time to watch the video you would have noticed that Atromitos were awarded a penalty. Was it a deserved call? Absolutely not! However, they were given the penalty, Atromitos scored, we lost our momentum and Atromitos scored another one a minute later. Could this all have been avoided? Easily, if the ref hadn’t awarded them a fake penalty. Funny thing is, the ref wasn’t even sure if he was awarding the penalty for Makos or Majstorovic. When asked why he gave the penalty he first he said Makos, ten minutes later he said Majstorovic. Ah, you gotta love refs in Greece.

Anyways, by this point, the damage was done. We had trouble getting back in the game, something which was certainly by Atromitos’ dirty tactics of a player falling every minute complaining of a cramp. Around seven players must have fallen resulting in breaking up our momentum and wasting time. Every substitution they made also wasted another minute as the Atromitos players took five minutes to walk off the pitch at a leisurely pace while stopping to say hello to everyone on their way out.

One other problem which seriously affected us today was our weakness in the air. Every free kick and corner we had the Atromitos defenders got their heads to the ball first, even Majstorovic couldn’t do anything. Lately that’s where we were stronger, but not yesterday, and it really hurt us since we had many chances to score from corners or free kicks just outside the box.

There was some tension between the fans and Donis. Donis didn’t understand why the AEK fans were treating him so poorly (mmm, maybe because we saw some of the worst football in the history of the club and if it wasn’t for Dusan we wouldn’t have ended up where we did last season?) and he was saying beer cans were being thrown at him. The reporter on the radio, however, said there wasn’t one can thrown on the pitch.

Despite all that was mentioned above, AEK got what they deserved. Atromitos hit the post and had that went in things would have been different. At the end of they day though, we didn’t play our greatest game possible. I don’t know if the players were too cocky after our last match, or the midfield was really our weakness but its a shame, no matter what the reason was. The fans showed up, 15,000 of them. Not a huge crowd but much better than it normally would have been. It was a cold night yet the atmosphere from the AEK fans was still great, the best I remember since last season. 15,00 fans sounded like 40,000. They supported the team well but in the end we left with memories of why this is our worst season yet, rather than memories of the remarkable victory they pulled off five days earlier.

Absolutely Incredible Start to the Decade!

So our players went into this game after the first half of what has been the worst season in AEK’s history. Few fans were expecting such a win and such a pleasing performance from our boys. But, they pulled it off (whether the 150,000 Euro bonus they were promised helped at all I dont know) and we have begun the new decade with a fantastic win!

As for the game itself, we were treated to a wonderful display from our players, considering everything that had gone on recently (the players not being payed on time, no president, major financial crisis, fans booing the players at home on a regular basis). The starting lineup consisted of Arabatzis, Araujo, Majstorovic, Alves, Karabelas, Jahic, Kafes, Manduca, SCOCCO, Blanco, and Djebbour (sorry for highlighting Scocco, it really was a fantastic team effort but he deserves the credit).

Arabatzis: well, this was his first derby despite him being with the team now for seven years. Some, including myself, were wondering about this decision by Bajevic but in the end it turned out to be the right choice. He was confident and when he went for the ball he made sure he got it. He also pulled off an incredible and critical save to keep us in the lead with minutes left.

Our defense wasn’t always the greatest (not that they were bad in any way though) but what I loved from them today was they showed passion and got to every ball first and when they didn’t they stuck with who they were marking and made sure they did their job. Majstorovic pulled off a critical slide to get in front of a shot from out side the box. Arabatzis was in a poor position and the shot easily could have gone in had Majstorovic not slid in front of it. Karabelas played well and was generally solid, and he was never afraid to do whatever was needed to get the ball (a risky mindset when playing in Karaiskaki since we all know how quickly the refs will give cards). Araujo had a nice shot and made it up often to help out. Alves was rarely seen but I guess he was doing his job for the most part. We were the dominant team in the air and got to every ball before they did.

Our midfield controlled the game well. The transitions from defense up were smooth and calm. The players focused and made good, smart passes. They didn’t give it up, they didn’t panic, they did their job. They also helped to get back quickly when it was time to defend. Manduca didn’t have his best game today but his crosses and corners were good.

Offensively was where we shone today. Sure, we didn’t create as many chances as Oly did but when we did create chances we looked deadly. The score easily could have been 4-1 had Djebbour had the composure required to finish properly. Nonetheless, whenever we made it up we got the ball infront of the net and create fantastic chances. Blanco didn’t do much but he was running alot, helping defensively, and he did send out some good passes which could have resulted in goals.

Scocco was superb. If he goes to Pao in the end, all hell will break loose with the AEK fans. His technical abilities are absolutely incredible. He got the MVP of the match and he definately deserved.

However, despite Scocco’s incredible performance, it was a great team effort from every player. They played with passion that we hadn’t seen in a while and in the end that is what separated us from them.

Lagos, Makos, and Tachtsidis were our subs. Makos had a decent game but I really can’t remember seeing much of him. Lagos wasn’t bad at all and had a great chance. He shot well, Nikopolids just managed to get to it though. Tachtsidis also had a pretty good game from what I remember.

Well, as AEKBaltimore said its been 15 (yes, FIFTEEN) years since we beat Olympiakos in Karaiskaki. We witnessed a historical day for our club and we saw what is possible from these guys. Hopefully the shareholders saw this and realize what incredible potential lies within this team. They fought hard and did what was needed for the club. Hopefully management will now do the same.

After the game I, along with my father and a friend (who don’t tell anyone but when he first came to Greece he was an oly supporter. He had no clue but after watching AEK play last year at some of the games he realized what it is to be AEK and now hes a diehard AEK supporter) went to Holiday Inn hotel where the bus drops off the players. Eventually many others showed up as well, it must have been around a thousand. We were singing, celebrating, flares and firecrackers were going off everywhere, it was something I’ll never forget. Eventually the players came and the celebrations from the fans were incredible. Dimitriadis came out of the bus and the fans picked him up and starting throwing him up and down while singing his name. Spirits were high, tourists were filming us from the bedrooms wondering what the hell was going on, it was incredible. Fifteen years since weve seen anything like this but it happened again today. A fantastic day to be an AEK supporter, we saw what it means to be AEK. Today was somewhat symbolic of the formation of the club. Refugees from Konstantinople, few had homes, they were treated terribly, they were forced to take whatever jobs they could get, life was tough, yet a Sports club was formed and now it has become one of the greatest in the country (in my opinion, the greatest).

This is what it means to be AEK. Its a day we will all remember and will hopefully signal better things to come while helping us to forget these past few months.