World Cup 2010 Finals: Greece 0 – Argentina 2

Finito! A loss to Argentina by the score of two-nil ended the 2010 World Cup campaign for Greece. The goal-scorers were Martin Demichelis (77’) and Martin Palermo (89’). Argentina was obviously the better team and had a number of scoring chances with 12 shots on goal. And they lined up with much of their bench!! However Greece tried hard, was a bit unlucky (since Rehhagel had to use all three substitutions for injured players), and had a couple of decent chances.

The formation was defensive (5-4-1) with Samaras being the only striker. I assume the strategy for Greece was to play good defense with counter-attacks in order to get out of the game with a tie and then hope that Nigeria would take care of South Korea. Should Greece have lined up with a more offensive formation? Do or die? Possibly. Nevertheless it was not a bad strategy and it almost worked. Nigeria had a lot of chances but could not convert. Greece held Argentina in check for most of the game but in the end could not withstand the barrage of attacks. Tzorvas, the Greek goalkeeper, played very well today. None of the two goals were his fault.

Though in the end it was three games and out for Greece, there is a certain satisfaction with the way the team played. Granted, in the first game against South Korea the team was awful. That was the game that cost Greece the qualification to the round of 16. It is unfortunate because they played really well against Nigeria and held their own against powerhouse Argentina. The team gave Greeks a sense of pride.

I think the most important aspect of this World Cup, other than the first goals and first win, was that there a number of good young players that can step up  and with proper coaching deliver good performances. We will need that in two years!!

Congratulation to Greece for their effort.

For posterity, the starting eleven players of today’s game:

Top row, left-to-right: Vyntra, Papastathopoulos, Moras, Tziolis, Kyrgiakos, Tzorvas.

Bottom row, left-to-right: Papadopoulos, Katsouranis, Torosidis, Karagounis, Samaras.

World Cup 2010 Finals: France Disarray

I take the characterization ‘disarray’ I used to describe past Greece performances back. It does not apply to Greece. It definitely applies to France.

Nicolas Anelka has a shouting match with his coach, he gets expelled from the team, the players refuse to train in protest, the team director resigns in disgust, and the team captain talked to reporters about a ‘traitor that hurts France’ and needs to be eliminated!

I am wondering what he has in mind about the ‘elimination’ part…

Not only the France had to cheat their way to the World Cup finals, they are so bad they cannot keep it together for 15 days. The ‘hand of Gaul’ brought bad karma. You cannot make that stuff up!!

So far they are the worst team participating in the World Cup!

ESPN.com: Striker Anelka dismissed by French

ESPN.com: France director resigns amid disarray

Goal.com: France Training Session Halted Following Altercation; Squad Backing Anelka

World Cup 2010 Finals: Greece 2 – Nigeria 1

FINALLY! GOAL(S)! AND A WIN!!

After four tries and four bad performances in two World Cups Greece scored twice and won over Nigeria in a game that was possibly decided on a bad decision of a Nigerian player. Sani Kaita kicked Torosidis and saw a straight red card; That was a big moment in the game. From that point on Greece became an aggressive, attacking team and it took another brilliant performance by Vincent Enyeama, the Nigerian keeper, to keep the game close and the Nigerians in the game. You could argue that playing 11 vs 10 is an automatic win but that is not true (e.g. see France 0 – Uruguay 0.)

Greece had 10 shots on goal (versus 3 for Nigeria) the most by any team in this World Cup. Greece also had the ball 60% of the time and 11 corners (versus 3 for Nigeria). I can only assume that the ejection of the Nigerian player boosted the confidence of the Greek players. Greece was in a desperate position, they smelled blood, and they responded. They pushed forward relentlessly and they scored two goals and thus the first victory for Greece in a World Cup.

The ESPN GameCast showed that the average position of the Greeks was in the Nigerian half.

Kudos to Coach Rehhagel for:

• Fielding the youngest ever Greece line-up at the World Cup (average age: 28 years, 46 days).
• Replacing Seitaridis, Samaras, and Charisteas with Papastathopoulos, Kyrgiakos, and Salpingidis in the starting line-up.
• Taking advantage of the situation immediately and substituting a defender (Papastathopoulos) for a forward (Samaras) and changing the formation to a more attacking one (4-3-3.)

The goals:

The first ever goal scored by Greece in a World Cup was by Salpingidis in the 44th minute. Salpingidis shot from the edge of the box, the ball deflected of a Nigerian player and flew in the upper left corner of the goalpost.

   

The second goal was scored by Torosidis in the 71st minute. Alexandros Tziolis took a low shot from way outside the box(he is not very shy about taking long shots), Enyeama tried to scoop the ball up, lost it, and Torosidis was there to take control of the ball and score.

This game has been a welcome change!

CONGRATULATION GREECE!

Reports:

ESPN.com: Greece rallies to win after Nigeria's Kaita is sent off

IN.gr: Ιστορική νίκη-ανατροπή της Εθνικής με 2-1 επί της Νιγηρίας

GOAL.com: World Cup 2010: Greece 2-1 Nigeria: Greece Make History With Win Over 10-Man Nigeria

World Cup 2010: The Aerodynamics Of Jabulani II

It was reported yesterday that Adidas, through the mouth of PR spokesman Thomas Schaikvan, seemed to have conceded that Jabulani behaves differently at the high altitude of some venues. Apparently he said that "… playing at altitude is not the same as playing at sea level. That is just plain science."

Fine, you can't do much about the altitude factor. The problem is that at 3000 meters (e.g. in Johannesburg) the density of air is about 0.9 kgr/m^3.

As in the previous post, assume that the standard size 5 smooth ball (about 0.23 m in diameter) would fly in air at an altitude of 3000 meters (constant r = 0.9 kgr/m^3 and air temperature at 25C) at 90 km/hr (25 m/sec) then the Re would equal:

Re = 0.9 * 25 *0.23 /1002e-6 = 5.2e+3

That is quite a bit of difference versus Re at sea level and the ridges would cause a different behavior. You add the possible effects from some weight variation (recommended air pressure is 11.6-14.5 psi) and the ball trajectory would be quite a bit different from one game to the next!

Thomas Schaikvan also mentioned that Adidas made the ball available to all teams 4 months in advance of the start of the World Cup but most teams did not take advantage of it and did not train with it. Among other things he mentioned: ''We presented the technology and underlined the requirement to get used to it because it is a different ball and a different technology.''

I guess my question is:

When did it become a requirement to adjust the game to a soccer ball? What is next? Adjust the game to Adidas-made rubber goalposts?

Related articles:

TribalFootbal.com: Adidas claim altitude not ball design responsible for keeper errors

The Sydney Morning Herald: Adidas says it warned teams about the Jabulani

World Cup 2010 Finals: South Korea 2 – Greece 0

An awful game for Greece and a well deserved win for S. Korea. A goal by Lee Jung Soo in the 7th minute to open the score and a second by Park Ji Sung in the 52nd minute to seal the deal.

Greece was worse than I could imagine. It seemed like the players did not know what to do with ball. The players just kept the ball and tried to outmaneuver the much quicker Koreans. No passing, no organization, no real effort to move the ball forward. At times the ball was moved from outside the S. Korean box back to mid-field and close to Greek box!! Today’s effort (or lack thereof) brought to mind the memories from the 1994 World Cup.

The second Korean goal was a perfect example of having a mental block during the game: Loukas Vyntra was in possession of the ball and took an eternity to decide what to do with it. In the meantime, Park Ji Sung quickly pounced on the ball stole it from Vyntra and quickly run into the penalty area and shot past Alexandros Tzorvas into the Greek goal.

The strikers were not only totally disconnected from mid-field but they also squandered the few opportunities created (except an amazing save on a blazing shot by Gekas in the 82nd minute.) Even the set pieces that were supposed to be a strength for Greece was rendered a meaningless endeavor.  Greece executed 11 corners and not one of them was even close to Jung Sung Ryong’s goal. No one took any chance; And when you take chances good things happen. It looked like the team was unprepared for such an important game.

After the game Coach Rehhagel said: “We really have to get our act together. We’ve got to improve a couple of things and be brave and courageous.” Improve ‘a couple of things’ is a serious understatement. We need a defense, a strong mid-field, aggressive strikers, team mentality, faster execution, established plays, etc.

Theoretically that was the easiest game for Greece so barring two miracles Greece will fulfill expectations and go three-and-out. Congratulations to South Korea.

For posterity, the starting eleven players of today’s game:

Top row, left-to-right: Charisteas, Vyntra, Papadopoulos, Katsouranis, Tzorvas, Tziolis.

Bottom row, left-to-right: Gekas, Karagounis, Torosidis, Seitaridis, Samaras.

World Cup 2010 Friendly: Greece 0 – Paraguay 2

So that was it! The last preparation game for Greece just 10 days before the first real game against South Korea and it was a disappointing one. Much like the game against North Korea the defense was in a bad shape. The word ‘disarray’ comes to mind.

Coach Rehhagel said after the game that he drew useful conclusions from today’s game and he now knows how to play against South Korea. He also said that: ‘Our target is to be in good shape so that we win over South Korea. We have to be ready and play a strong game starting from the first minute.’

It is not obvious to me how Otto Rehhagel is going to put together a cohesive unit that plays strong, solid, disciplined defense in a short amount of time. We certainly have very good players but they seemed lost on the pitch trying to react instead of dictating the tempo, stumping all efforts, and grinding down their opponents. The players spend a lot of time defending close to the goal and a couple of times they cleared the ball on the goal line. That kind of effort is not going to win games.

Offensively there were a few bright spots, but Greece is not the kind of a team that can get in a shootout with any other team. We still rely on set pieces and counterattacks. We are going to score 1-2 goals but we need to be ahead. Cannot play catch up.

All in all it does seem that we should be happy by just participating in the 2010 World Cup. It certainly looks increasingly likely that we are going to play 3 games and then we go home.

Reports:

FIFA.com: Paraguay see off Greeks in friendly

IN.gr: Ήττα της Εθνικής από την Παραγουάη, αλλά με… κέρδη εν όψει Μουντιάλ

GOAL.com: Greece 0-2 Paraguay: La Albirroja Cruise To Easy Win In Switzerland

FIFA World Cup 2010: Greece 23-man Squad

Coach Otto Rehhagel announced the final 23-man squad for the World Cup finals. They are:

Goalkeepers:

Kostas Chalkias (PAOK Thessaloniki), Michalis Sifakis (Aris Thessaloniki), Alexandros Tzorvas (Panathinaikos Athens)

Defenders:

Sotiris Kyrgiakos (Liverpool), Stelios Malezas (PAOK Thessaloniki), Vangelis Moras (Bologna), Avraam Papadopoulos (Olympiakos Piraeus), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Genoa), Giourkas Seitaridis (Panathinaikos Athens), Nikos Spiropoulos (Panathinaikos Athens), Vassilis Torosidis (Olympiakos Piraeus), Loukas Vyntra (Panathinaikos Athens)

Midfielders:

Giorgos Karagounis (Panathinaikos Athens), Kostas Katsouranis (Panathinaikos Athens), Sotiris Ninis (Panathinaikos Athens), Christos Patsatzoglou (Omonia), Sakis Prittas (Aris Thessaloniki), Alexandros Tziolis (Siena)

Forwards:

Angelos Charisteas (Nurnberg), Fanis Gekas (Eintracht Frankfurt), Pantelis Kapetanos (Steaua Bucharest), Dimitris Salpingidis (Panathinaikos Athens), Georgios Samaras (Celtic)

In the meantime:

• Nigeria 1 – Colombia 1: Nigeria managed to score in the 70th minute after they injected some youth to the team.
• Belarus 1 – South Korea 0: A game against a team that “plays like Greece!” They must be getting tired!

FIFA World Ranking Top 20: June 2010

Rank (previous)	Team	Points	Comment
1 (1)	Brazil	1611
2 (2)	Spain	1565
3 (3)	Portugal	1249
4 (4)	Netherlands	1231
5 (5)	Italy	1184
6 (6)	Germany	1082
7 (7)	Argentina	1076
8 (8)	England	1068
9 (10)	France	1044
10 (9)	Croatia	1041
11 (11)	Russia	1015
12 (13)	Egypt	967
13 (12)	Greece	964
14 (14)	USA	957
15 (16)	Serbia	947
16 (18)	Uruguay	899
17 (17)	Mexico	895
18 (15)	Chile	888
19 (19)	Cameroon	887
20 (20)	Australia	886

Point adjustments for most teams with Nigeria dropping out of the top-20 (ranked number 21.)
Next update of the FIFA ranking table is after the World Cup on July 14.
The next friendly game for Greece is against Paraguay on June 2 (tomorrow.)
The latest full table can be found at the FIFA World Ranking website.