AEK 2-1 Olympiakos and Im LOVING IT!!!

Now, in my opinion we didn’t play the best football we could have but, WHO CARES!!!! It was the last game of the season, what mattered most was the result. And, to top things off, Aris also won which mean Oly finishes fifth in the league! IM LOVING IT!!!!

Alright, as I mentioned in the post before Oly had a very depleted squad. Squad depth was being mentioned as one of their greatest problems and it showed today. They were a weak side and though they did manage to create some dangerous chances up front their defense was nowhere to be found! Some tighter finishing by Blanco/Nemeth/Scocco could have seen us leave the game with a 4-1 victory though Saja kept us in the game in the dying minutes.

We had a perfect start to the game with none other than KOSTAS MANOLAS scoring the first goal six minutes in. However, the celebrating didn’t last too long as Olympiakos tied things up not long after. Never the less, we still managed to keep control of the match despite not creating as many chances as we would have liked. Olympiakos gave us the odd scare throughout the first half but the lack of overall quality on their team was evident and it was obvious that the game was ours for the taking if we came out stronger in the second half (don’t forget, we scored three goals in nine minutes against Aris, all in the second half).

Half time came with the score still tied at 1-1 but not long after the start of the second half AEK were creating chances and pressuring. We saw a bit of everything, two against one, one on ones with the keeper, balls going just wide of the posts on a number of occasions… the ball just never went in. Fortunately, Blanco got the job done with his left foot in the 54th minute and put a nice solid shot right in the Oly net. The guy has been far from great this season but he seemed to remember how to score for that one chance and it was enough to give AEK the win. Despite Olympiakos pressuring we held off the pressure well (thanks largely because of Saja) and after a few tense last minutes Kakos (who reffed a very poor game) blew the final whistle.

Well generally I must say it was obvious we need a stronger midfield. It was not there today at all; we would have a strong line of players in defense and some players up front waiting to attack but nobody was left in the midfield to act as a pivot between the opposite ends. Our wing play was good however (Lagos did very good on the left and Blanco/Georgeas were doing good on the right) and Gentzoglou managed to deliver some dangerous long balls so we still managed to get the ball up enough. However, we were constantly attacked through the middle and it was where Oly created most of their chances (their wing play on the other hand was terrible).

Alexopoulos (who?!?!) got to play some minutes today after being out nearly a year with injury. To be honest, I didn’t see enough of him in particular but he must have been doing his job good enough. Either way, its good to see him back on the team, I always like him and he obviously plays with passion on the pitch.

Manolas left the match early after requesting to be subbed (I will try and find pictures of his black eye which was very large) which meant Jahic had to come back to centre back to fill Manolas’ spot. I must say I was very pleased with Jahic today. Nothing superb but he did the job effectively in defense and seemed alot more reliable than normal.

Unfortunately this didn’t seem to be Nemeth’s best game. He did not have a chance to get as involved in the match, mind you I would never really expect a front three of Scocco-Blanco-Nemeth to work too effectively. Scocco had a good match though from what I saw it took him a while to get involved. Manduca also started quite strong but faded away as the match progressed and eventually started playing a very defensive role.

Alright, enough about that. We can critique all we want but its the last match of the season and things aren’t gonna change now for a while. I have to say I was extremely relieved that no serious incidents broke out with the Originals and the atmosphere in the stadium for the most part was a very good/optimistic/celebratory one. This match was one of the most important ones of the season and it was essential that all energy in the stands was put towards supporting our players and psyching out Olympiakos rather than threatening the coach (Bajevic deserves credit today since I feel he handled everything on the pitch quite well with regards to substitutions and the like).

So, Olympiakos, the team that started with +4 points, finishes last in the playoffs and fifth in the league. In case you didn’t read what I wrote before, IM LOVING IT!!! They start their preseason very early now as their first Europa League qualifying matches begin middle of July. We however, don’t begin ’till late August which gives us plenty of time to prepare and make some transfers.

Some pics below from AEK365. Enjoy.

Close your eyes, may be innapropriate for some viewers! 😛

ALEXOPOULOS!!

Zorro has returned (I believe I've said that a couple of times this season).

Why so sad?

Manolas had to go to the hospital.

Olympiakos 2-1 AEK

Well, I’ve calmed down since last night so I’ll attempt to explain in a clearer way what I saw last night.

Below is a video showing some of the main highlights of the match (it unfortunately misses the hit to Scocco’s chin so I’ll keep an eye out for that one).

Well, after the draw with PAOK many people were commenting on the lack of energy or passion from the team. It was obvious to all of us, but I had thought it was a one time thing. Unfortunately, yesterday’s match proved me wrong. Once again our players showed no interest in the game at all (except for Manolas and Saja). Remember in January when we got that famous win in Karaiskaki? AEK turned the pressure on that night and there was nothing Olympiakos could do. Fact of the matter is, this is the worst Olympiakos team in years. But when we’re sitting back, not marking, leaving so much space for them to maneuver, they end up looking ten times better than they actually are.

Its something I’ve experienced a number of times. Because of the poor organization in my school’s league we played many different opponents. Sometimes we would come up against a team that could not match us in any way. The final outcome of these games would normally be 5-0, 7-0. Our players had space and time, they were able to make themeselves look like mini Maradonas. Unfortunately, we would be violently brought down to reality when we came up against a tougher opponent. We would never have space, we could hardly win the ball and we would normally end up losing 2-0. This is how football is, and that is how it was last night. Olympiakos are a terrible team, and they’re defense is useless. We saw that last night the few times we pressured or whenever we had a set piece. We also saw that when they lost 2-0 to Aris. But it doesn’t matter if they have a superb defense or a below average one, if you aren’t putting any pressure on them it will never matter. We had the players on the pitch last night: Scocco, Djebbour, Manduca and Nemeth when they came on. These players, when playing to their full potential, can rip up any defense. Scocco showed that when we beat PAOK earlier in the season. Scocco was able to almost walk through what was considered one of the best defenses in Europe before setting up Manduca for a simple tap in. Had we applied that pressure last night we would have created numerous chances.

Our defense yesterday, like Olympiakos’, was terrible. However, ours was pressured, unlike theirs. Manolas deserves credit, even in a derby like this with all the pressure on him, he still remained calm and played like the experienced center back Majstorovic should be. Majstorovic on the other hand…. this guy needs to go! I appreciated him his first season here, alongside Kyrgiakos, but he is falling asleep out there on the pitch. Not only are his constant back passes to the keeper getting on my nerves, but he has failed to grasp the concept of man marking. Take a look at the first Oly chance in that vid, Majstro simply let Oscar walk right in. Alright, you may not get the ball each time, but at least make a challenge, pressure him, rather than give him so much space.

The first Oly goal, what was Majstorovic doing? I don’t know, gazing into space maybe? Thinking about what he had for dinner the night before? MARK YOUR MAN! Its a corner kick, you got a tall, powerful, experienced center back (Mellberg) going up, you don’t give him space because he will score! The first goal was easily avoidable, but Majstro didn’t even put in the required effort to at least try and prevent the ball reaching his fellow Swede.

The second Oly goal. What was Lagos thinking? I don’t know, I have no clue. But a four year old footballer would have marked that man better than he did. There is an Oly player making a run in the middle of the box, with nobody around him. What do you do? Get on him, pressure him, you dont let him walk through doing whatever he wants.

So, both goals could have been avoided with some simple defending. But aside from that, we were on pressure almost the entire night. We gave them space, we granted them possession by not pressuring them and winning the ball, obviously you will be pressured.  Thankfully, their finishing was poor, Saja was awake, and luck was on our side (Oly had four posts in the match).

Ok, the Kafes penalty. I’m not denying anything, it was a dive. I don’t see contact, maybe somebody else does, I dont know. But what I do know is that Oly get away with those calls every week, any other team in the world gets away with those calls and in the end of the day, its the result that counts, so why shouldn’t we try and get a few that way? I hate to say it, but if everyone else is doing it, we have to get an edge also if we want to be competitive. Kafes knew what he was doing, he isn’t stupid. Even from the replay it looks close, without a doubt, and considering the ref had only a matter of seconds to make a choice, more than likely Kafes knew he would give him the penalty.

Anyways, even if you do want to complain about the penalty, what about the ones that were not called for us? Like I said, I’ll look for a video showing them, but the hit to Scocco’s face was a sure penalty, and I have no doubt about that.

Alright, our second goal. Nobody on this planet would say there was a foul in that play. The goal should have stood (but we all know the ref would not be doing his job if he allowed it), the score would have probably ended 2-2, and, while we still probably wouldn’t have a chance for CL football, we would have at least held Oly back. Now, we sit in the final playoff spot. A win against Aris this wednesday will help us move up, but after that I don’t know how long we can stay up.

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.

Updates

First of all, Happy Easter to everyone celebrating today.

Well, because of the the Easter Holidays there were no matches this weekend and therefore not so much to comment on. However, there has been some news lately.

Hull lost over the weekend, 2-0 to Stoke, meaning they still remain in the relegation zone. Now, whether the Geovani rumors are at all true I myself am not too sure (Hull president says he has not been talking with anyone at AEK), but if the rumors are in fact true than this loss is good news (though don’t offense, I have nothing against Hull).

Adamidis was in England discussing the possibility of keeping Nemeth one more season. I’m not quite sure what came out of the talks but Nemeth still says he has no problem with staying at AEK one more season. He gave an interview a few days ago where he mentioned that what he’d miss most if he leaves AEK is the supporters. Great to hear considering the supporters of AEK make up so much of the club.

Two more games left in the regular season before playoffs. As of right now only Scocco and Jahic will be unavailable for our next match with Levadeiakos, both due to cars. Other than that we have no injuries to deal with which is good news.

I still doubt Nemeth will start any time soon. Rather, I see Manduca starting the next match in Scocco’s place so Nemeth can be rested for the playoffs. To see Nemeth injured again would be a huge blow for us since I really doubt any team that we will face in the playoffs will be able to contain our offense at the moment.

As of right now, the playoffs look quite good for us. Nemeth has promised that we will make 2nd spot and I can honestly see that happening. Both Olympiakos and PAOK are falling apart at present, with Olympiakos having plenty of problems off the pitch (including financial problems and trouble with the players…. tough luck is all I can say, about time) and PAOK having a significant drop in form lately.

Aris are still a dangerous team, as they’ve been all season, with some spectacular players up front. While we could drop a few points to them I see us making up those points against the other two teams. I know it sounds crazy but right now we can certainly beat Olympiakos at home and away, that’s how bad they are right now.

Generally, things are much better for us at the moment. Everything is calm, all players have now been fully payed, and the psychology seems quite high overall. Contract renewals are being discussed and the Greeks have been dealt with first. After Easter a few more players (such as Manduca) will have their contracts discussed as well.

We’ve apparently seen some offers for Scocco from Spain around 3 million Euros. Not enough in my opinion, but my opinion doesn’t really much does it? Oh well, I guess as long as he doesn’t go to a Greek team. The 3 mil will still be enough to cover Geovanni.

AEK 1-1 Panionios

Well, obviously not a favorable result for us yesterday. Sure, we aren’t exactly desperate for points right now (though they would help since Aris is only three behind us) but it’s still painful to see us drop two points at home to this Panionios team.

To be honest, this wasn’t our worst performance yet. We were all over Panionios for the first ten minutes and we had numerous chances throughout the match to put the ball in the net.

Arabatzis started this one and he did a fairly good job. He can’t really be blamed for the first goal, few keepers would have done anything there.

Jahic played right back since Araujo was out and he did a decent job. He certainly wasn’t the weakest link in our defense yesterday, that honor would have to go to Majstorovic. The Swede was sloppy throughout. I don’t know what it was, perhaps he was feeling a little too comfortable since the team had finally seen some good form, but he was slacking off far too much. Fortunately, Manolas was considerably tighter and more secure (he got the MVP award once again) and for the third game in a row the rookie showed what he is capable of. Honestly, I think Majstorovic should start following Manolas’ example and not the other way around.

Karabelas played left back and did a fairly good job at it. He was clearly giving it 100% out there (the same could not be said about other players) and marked well at times, but he had some trouble defending 1-on-1’s.

Our defense overall was very weak when it came to defending the counter attacks. We were caught off guard plenty of times and were rarely organized enough to halt Panionios’ attack. Hopefully this will be addressed though to be honest this hadn’t been our problem in a while as far as I can tell.

Our midfield was weak. Aside from Gentsoglou (who started off weak but eventually managed to pick things up a bit) we weren’t doing anything. Leonardo had a poor game and he gave away far too many balls. Kafes tried as far as I can tell but didn’t too much. However, there is only so much he can do when the others around him aren’t doing what they should be doing.

Scocco…. he was USELESS. Totally useless. I want him sitting on the bench until the season is over. Manduca could easily take his place, at least he has been contributing to the team whenever he plays. Either way I’m getting very tired of Scocco’s four year old mentality. He sits around the entire match, gives a couple of useless passes, doesn’t even bother trying to get the target on his free kicks, and yet still wants to move to a bigger club. Sure, he scored our only goal for us late in the match, but we would have been better off without him in the first place.

Djebbour and Blanco deserve some credit. They both had some great chances and both were clearly trying out there. I’m not going to be too critical of Blanco. He could have scored, but didn’t, however other than that he didn’t do too much wrong out there.

Djebbour also came close to scoring but he holds on to the ball far too much. Instead of shooting when he gets the chance or passing when he has nowhere to go he simply tries to dribble around as many defenders as possible. Of course, this may work occasionally such as at the Iraklis game or with PAOK but it’s not the way he should be doing things. Blanco is finally having some good form lately. PASS IT TO HIM. Or take a shot! Very simple things, yet he still chooses to go about things the hard way.

Nemeth, Roger, and Hersi were our subs. I didn’t see Hersi contribute too much but he didn’t have too much time to make an impact. Roger had a nice shot which if I remember correctly rebounded out for a corner. Nonetheless, this was Roger’s first game in a couple of months if I’m correct (he had a serious blood infection, or something along those lines) but it was still good to see him back. He is a player capable of good things so hopefully we’ll see more of him now.

Nemeth was fighting out there. He was going for as many goals as possible and there was no doubting that. I really feel the Bajevic should introduce him at half time at our next match (though he may be trying to rest him for the playoffs) but he made a considerable difference when he came on.

Ok, time for some rumours. Obviously, Scocco wants to leave this summer. IF he can bring in five million euros or more I will be more than happy to see him go (yes, I appreciate all that he did for us these past two seasons but clearly is no longer for us unless he matures a bit). Now, assuming he brings in a large sum of money many papers both here and in the UK are reporting that we have been talking with Brazilian star Geovanni (currently playing for Hull). Hull are near relegation and have told their players that if they are relegated they will have to accept significant cuts in their paychecks. Assuming we get the money from Scocco’s transfer, I personally wouldn’t mind seeing Geovanni on our team. Sure, he’s almost 30 now, but he has huge talent and can easily be one of the best, if not THE BEST, players in our league. I say he’s easily got one or two more years left in him and he would be an ideal replacement for Scocco.

Now you wanna hear something funny? PAO are offering us 1.2 million plus Petropoulos (woo hoo!) in exchange for Scocco. Are these guys serious?!

AEK 3-0 Kavala!

I really have no clue what to say. I mean, before this match, I wasn’t expecting us to come out with anything more than one point. Yet to get the full three points and to do it in such a fantastic way… I’m speechless.

Before I go on I would like to show the lineup for today’s match. In goal was Saja. In front of him was Araujo, MANOLAS, Jahic, Georgeas. Taking care of midfield was Genztoglou, Kafes, and Leonardo. Finally, up front was Blanco, Djebbour, and Scocco. Now, looking at that lineup (aside from goalkeeper and forwards) one may wonder a few things. Manolas had never played an official game for AEK yet he was starting against a team with a deadly counter attack. Gentzoglou was starting from the start, and Jahic was covering center back, a position he hasn’t played as often this year.

Personally, when I heard that lineup being proposed in the papers a few days before the match I was terrified. I knew what Kavala could do (they held Oly to draws twice this year, as well as beating PAO in OAKA), and I thought they were going to have a great time running circles around our defenders. Well, I couldn’t have been more WRONG!

Our defense was organized from the start and never gave Kavala a chance (the difference between this match and the Larissa one last week was huge). Jahic had a flawless game, Georgeas fought hard as always, and Araujo was tight (nothing unexpected there). However, the big surprise in our defense today was the young Kostas Manolas. The nephew of the great Stelios Manolas had big shoes to fill today yet he showed no signs of struggling to do just that. He controlled the ball with expertise while never panicking, he defended superbly, was not afraid to risk it all for the team, and even helped bring the ball up at times. The kid rightfully got the MVP award for his efforts today.

So, no Makos today you may have noticed. Who took his place? Gentzoglou. Was it the right choice? YES!! He brought total control to our midfield, something Makos rarely (actually, never) provides. He got the ball, made it his, controlled it, ran a bit if he had to, and released. No stress, only concentration and some good football. He helped out all over the pitch and the partnership between him and Kafes was great.

Our offense wasn’t “superb”, but they did the job. Sure, our excellent midfield today may have helped things out but we managed to create some fantastic chances (though it did take a while) though Scocco was relatively uninvolved aside from a few runs every now and then. Blanco had a great chance and also scored a good penalty (the way Djebbour should have done against Iraklis), Djebbour managed to get the ball into the box on a couple of occasions, but, at the end of the day the support from the midfield is what made the difference.

Well, it was a much more pleasing Saturday than last week. We now have 45 points and depending on what happens at the Aris-PAOK match tomorrow, our lead over Aris can still remain pretty considerable. Hopefully this happens in order to give us a little breathing space in case we dont come out with full points next week against PAOK.

Earlier today, Adamidis (who should be officially confirmed as president on Monday) went to the hotel to promise the players a bonus of one million euros if they qualify for Champions League. Perhaps this had an impact on them but either way, if we continue to play this style of football the remainder of the season we can expect nothing other than positive results.

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 Larissa

So, a nice, relatively comfortable win on Monday brought us up from ninth to joint fifth.

We got the three points we so desperately needed, as well as a little bit of reassurance for the players and fans. Beating a team like Larissa with a score of 3-1 is always a nice thing. Sure, Larissa might not be at their best, but they are rarely an easy team to win against (I feel like I’ve said that many times already this season).

We went up first with an incredibly strong header from Majstorovic (it was from outside the small box and the Larissa keeper still couldn’t stop it even though he managed to get a hand to it!). This guy is really mastering the art of scoring from set pieces, great stuff to see.

Larissa tied it up late in the first half, forcing the team to head to the lockers with a sour mood from the supporters in the stands (only 8,000 showed up though, it was 4:45 on a Monday night and I had to leave as soon as I got home from school). I thought it was over then, up to then we really weren’t playing all that great. Our defence in particular was quite poor, making mistakes which almost led to goal (mostly up to their usual tricks of passing the ball back and controlling until an opponent got it and had a chance on goal). Saja wasn’t fantastic. I can’t blame him for the goal since it was a really well placed shot but he made some more poor clearances and passes, and his confidence really seems to be getting worse. Hopefully we’ll see an improvement.

Some key players really deserve credit for this game. Firstly, Karabelas. The kid has been steadily improving at a fast rate, and was MVP for the previous two games. This game he was terrific, he’s defending well, making good runs, and contributing a lot to the games overall now. Turns out Dusan knew what he wanted when we wanted to get Karabelas from Aris.

Nameth! He made all the difference when he came on. Aside from scoring the goal, he made a nice pass which almost led to another goal as soon as he came on. He played great, which was good to see since it seemed like he toned things down the previous games. It was also great to see Nemeth run right up to the fans when he scored, and without hesitation. It is well known how much he appreciates the fans but it feels great to see him celebrate with us, a really nice thing to see from a player on the team.

I really wasn’t impressed with Guerreiro. He started great when he first came to us but now, he does very little. He spent most of the time with the ball just wasting time. When its extra time thats fine, but not when there is still plenty of time to score one or even two more goals.

Every other player had a good game. Scocco, Araujo, Gentzoglou (his confidence his improving and he’s turning out to be a pretty solid player), Blanco (three goals in three games) as well as everyone else.

Overall, we played a much better second half. The pressure must have done good for our players, who began to attack and began controlling the game much more. Larissa still had the occasional chance but I began to feel more sure of our players as the game went on.

Still, it was not a fantastic win, but it’s exactly what we needed at this point, both for the players and the fans. Hopefully we will begin to see more confident results.

Manduca was MVP of the game.

One more note, another two posts in this game! That’s 13 this season (I believe including Europa League as well).

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.