World Cup preview: Greece
Coach: Otto Rehhagel
Key player: Giorgos Karagounis
Previous best: First round 1994.
It’s now six summers since Greece incredibly won the European Championships. The Greeks probably still pinch themselves on a daily basis to make sure it wasn’t all just a vivid dream.
The 2004 team’s monumental achievement in Portugal will always rank as one of the biggest shocks of any major international tournament.
However, their record in the World Cup has been dismal – not helped by the fact they’ve only reached the finals on one previous occasion. During the 1994 World Cup in the USA, Greece reached the showpiece tournament for the very first time. Unfortunately, it unfolded into a disaster.
The inexperienced national team failed to score a single goal and conceded 10 from their three group matches. This means that the European nation are still waiting for their first World Cup goal – despite having won the European Championships, something which many of the top European teams have never managed to achieve.
Having qualified for only their second World Cup finals, Greece now hope to finally have a first World Cup goalscorer and seal their first World Cup point. South Africa and Group B are waiting, and the Greeks are more than ready.
Otto Rehhagel, the German coach of Greece, is now a 71-year-old. He, of course, masterminded Greece’s Euro 2004 victory and deservedly took much of the credit for the team’s superb defensive performances. Having joined in 2001, Rehhagel is one of the longest-serving World Cup managers and will be the oldest coach in South Africa this summer.
As they say, though, age is just a number; and he ensured that Greece would compete in this summer’s finals after guiding them to a second place finish in Group Two of qualification, and then a play-off win against Ukraine.
Striker Theofanis Gekas was exceptional throughout qualification, scoring 10 goals – a tally which made him the top goalscorer in the whole of European qualification. The 29-year-old Eintracht Frankfurt forward will need his goalscoring boots in South Africa to help his national team progress to the last 16.
Greece will also be reliant on the playmaking abilities of experienced captain, Giorgos Karagounis. The former Benfica and Inter Milan attacking midfielder has slowed down in recent years, but still possesses the ability to punish teams with his incisive passing and free-kick prowess.
Meanwhile, great things are expected of the new big hope of Greek football, Sotiris Ninis. Teammates with Karagounis at Panathinaikos, Ninis is an exceptionally gifted football, who has drawn parallels with Argentina’s Lionel Messi. At just 20, the rising star has the ideal opportunity to announce himself to the world, but inexperience might count against him.
Greece know the Euro 2004 triumph will be their most iconic moment for many years to come. No-one would envisage the national team repeating a similar trick this summer in South Africa.
But when it comes to the World Cup, just reaching the finals has been an achievement for the Greeks. Everything they achieve on top this summer will be a notable first – and a huge bonus.
They also have a genuine chance of progressing past the group stages for the first time. Pitted against Argentina – who will presumably finish top of the group – South Korea and Nigeria, the latter two nations plus Greece are all of a similar standard and at least one will reach the last 16.
For the Greeks, even if they only pick up their first World Cup win, it will still be viewed as a success in their homeland and a weight off their shoulders. A team of their stature should have a World Cup victory to their name by now – and the veteran Rehhagel will be sure to rectify that this summer.
Greece squad
1 Kostas CHALKIAS (PAOK Salonika)
2 Giorgos SEITARIDIS (Panathinaikos)
3 Christos PATSATZOGLOU (Omonia)
4 Nikos SPIROPOULOS (Panathinaikos)
5 Evangelos MORAS (Bologna)
6 Alexandros TZIOLIS (Siena)
7 Giorgos SAMARAS (Celtic)
8 Avraam PAPADOPOULOS (Olympiakos)
9 Angelos CHARISTEAS (Nuremberg)
10 Giorgos KARAGOUNIS (Panathinaikos)
11 Loukas VYNTRA (Panathinaikos)
12 Alexandros TZORVAS (Panathinaikos)
13 Michalis SIFAKIS (Aris Salonika)
14 Dimitris SALPIGIDIS (Panathinaikos)
15 Vasilis TOROSIDIS (Olympiakos)
16 Sotirios KYRGIAKOS (Liverpool)
17 Theofanis GEKAS (Hertha Berlin)
18 Sotiris NINIS (Panathinaikos)
19 Sokratis PAPASTATHOPOULOS (Genoa)
20 Pantelis KAPETANOS (Steaua Bucharest)
21 Kostas KATSOURANIS (Panathinaikos)
22 Stelios MALEZAS (PAOK Salonika)
23 Sakis PRITTAS (Aris Salonika)
Click here for previews of Greece's Group B opponents:
http://www.senore.com/Word-Cup-2010-preview-Argentina-a12334
http://www.senore.com/World-Cup-2010-preview-Nigeria-a12338
http://www.senore.com/World-Cup-2010-preview-South-Korea-a12339
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