Olympiacos Piraeus

[Faliro]

Ahh yes, this player I have no clue about, I only started following football properly in 2003.

  I was not very keen on Feisja who we gave to you.

As for Greek players - in general there has not been much special in the last few years, the only Greek players I would recommend to Benfica would be Siovas, Manolas, Samaris, Mitroglou, Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Fetfatzidis, Holebas, Ninis, Torosidis and probably Sokratis.

[Festivus]

Fyssas I think retired soon afterwards - in his prime I think he was quite good, nothing spectacular, but did his job. He is now the assistant coach/ technical director to Fernando Santos for the Greek NT.

Every Greek Santos trusts seems to have a Benfica connection!

I am not aware of the other player you mention. I remember Seitaridis who was a very good right back but extremely lazy was good friends with Maniche.

Ah Seitaridis. Good player but didn't have a good season here in Portugal.

[Red.Fever]

I liked Karagounis and Fyssas when they were on Benfica
and share the same opinion about Fyssas

Katsouranis I liked him in the first year
he seemed a good player and a hard worker
but then it went downhill, it seemed like he just wanted to leave Benfica or something... became lazy and started playing shit D:

[Faliro]

Seitaridis who always put 'Giourkas' on his shirt was a playboy - still tries to be. Likes women, fast cars. He was quite unlucky actually. Porto managed to get him just before Euro 2004. After the 2004 tournament Real tried to buy him, but he could not escape the Porto agreement he had signed.

[Festivus]

I liked Karagounis and Fyssas when they were on Benfica
and share the same opinion about Fyssas

Katsouranis I liked him in the first year
he seemed a good player and a hard worker
but then it went downhill, it seemed like he just wanted to leave Benfica or something... became lazy and started playing shit D:

Yeah, Karagounis was my favorite of the Greek players we signed, definitely one of the best mid-fielders we've had in the current century. Didn't care much for Fyssas, but he did help us win our first trophy in 8 years by tying the game in the Portuguese Cup final back in 2004. Katsouranis... well, there were days I liked him and others not so much. He was kinda irregular.

[Faliro]

I liked Karagounis and Fyssas when they were on Benfica
and share the same opinion about Fyssas

Katsouranis I liked him in the first year
he seemed a good player and a hard worker
but then it went downhill, it seemed like he just wanted to leave Benfica or something... became lazy and started playing shit D:

Yea, karagounis was at his peak at Inter, but rarely played a game there and let his best years slip away. It was sad because he was very happy just to sit on the bench and get rich. Never complained, never wanted to leave. Typical Greek mentality at the time. I am not sure how well he played for you at Benfica but I know he tries to dominate. Takes every freekick, every corner, always wants the ball - alpha male.. For me the last 5 years, he slows the pace of the game too much when he plays. I think with the right coaching he could have been something very good.

Katsouranis turned stale and he has the greatest agent in the history of football. He always seems to find a team... he is now captain at PAOK...

[josantiago]

Seitaridis had a brief stint at Porto, he was sold a year later to Dinamo Moscow. Bad luck for him, good luck for us since we won the championship on the year he was at Porto.

At Benfica, we liked very much Karagounis, maybe he is one of the greeks that is still missed at Benfica. It was a shame that he left two years later to come back to Greece.

[pcssousa]

Glad to see you like Roberto. We miss him a lot, he's a terrific keeper. He was an idol up here, we called him "manitas de mantequilla".

XXX

[pcssousa]

And Machairidis was one of the worse players that played for us.

[Andris]

Faliro, be honest: who will win tomorrow? Olympiacos or Benfica?

And why do you think that?

[Faliro]

hahahahahaha ^^^

Dangerous game to put money on and I would not risk it because I know Benfica are capable of causing problems. I honestly do not know who will win. My instinct tells me a draw is possible but I also believe either team is capable of damaging the other. I am not trying to be neutral, I am simply being honest. I have watched a lot of football in my life and the outcome of this game is not easy to predict, too many variables. You have to remember also, we played Panathinaikos on saturday, in their home and they kicked the shit out of us, they even blew up one of their own players and burnt his leg. It was a very violent game. You have been extremely polite and civilized with me since I joined, so now I shall post some amazing media from our game on saturday as a good will gesture to you all, enjoy:















This is what the stadium looked like for 50% of the actual match.. remember, their fans are throwing firecrackers, lighting fires in the stands (burning banners they stole from us) throwing bottles etc at our players and even their own... please note, many countries claim to have mad fans - Turkey, Brazil etc, they do, but when it comes to sheer maddness and insane pyrotechnics , Greece wins every time:

[Fever]

Thanks. I appreciated your views on greek football.  Curiously yesterday because of your derby I was reading about Panathinaikos return to Leoforos. Even without the financial problems, it's an obvious move for a club that was having miserable attendances at OAKA and needed to create a better atmosphere but god, the state of that ground... I guess it is safe for everyone or it wouldn't be allowed but damn is does looks bad.

I really like both Katsouranis and Karagounis though. I understand where you came from and when Katsouranis was here he was in fact constantly accused of being lazy on the pitch (and trust me, nothing infuriates a Benfica fan more) but I still see him as one of the classiest and most clever midfielders we had in this last decade.

About Fejsa, we are aware that he wasn't a fan favorite over there. He impressed everyone in his first games with us, but the role that Jesus gave him isn't particularly demanding technically or creatively, so I guess that masks his difficulties.

Roberto had a terrible season here. Portugal is very peculiar when it comes to football. Though Porto is immensely more sucessful since the 90s, Benfica is in another dimension in terms of popularity and media attention, a lot of it very hostile. We have three daily sports newspapers and football debate shows on TV every fucking night. Roberto started on the wrong foot and pressure just ruined him. Two seasons later, our media still mocked him after last match:



"Thank You Roberto"



"Our Friend Roberto"

So yeah... not easy playing here.
But if things are going well there, I guess you will not have problems with him, apart from the ocasional errors in crosses/corners. I still rate him very highly, though 95% of Benfica fans don't.

[Darkboy]

Sometimes I still see Roberto in my nightmares.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NcRg6aRM8s

Pathetic GK. Pathetic piece of business. Surely our biggest flop ever.

[Faliro]

Excellent post Fever.

Yes, I suppose returning to Leoforos was clever as it is a nightmare to play in that stadium for the opposing teams. As for it being safe? I think it may violate many uefa laws. Also they save money by not having to rent the OAKA. The place is in better shape than before they spent money this summer... it is the closest stadium to a south american shithole stadium in Europe. Very tough place to play - as you can see their fans don't care as they are animals themselves.. They are planing to add two new tiers to the stadium to bring it up to 20,000... still extremely small, but they might be able to 'borrow'  some money from the council. This is the plan:





I am not surprised that Katsouranis was accused of laziness, he has a nasty habit of walking in games when he should be running or jogging. I feel like murdering him when he plays for Greece.. on top of that he tells other players to run more during games...

Feisja was strange. he came to Greece with big hype - as everyone there loves serbs anyways... and when he played, he did not have anything special and that is what annoyed me a bit. We have a central defensive mid called Samaris who joined in the summer. He is an excellent passer and player in general. I think when we saw the quality of Samaris, we all thought, what was all the fuss about Feisja. Many Olympiakos fans rated him, many were indifferent.

As for Roberto, he seems a sensational shot stopper - actually one of the best I have seen. However since he came everyone has adored him after his performances so I think that confidence made him confident. However before the Benfica game your coach was extremely clever I think. He said in the pregame press conference 'one day' Roberto will be a great keeper. I think those words were very clever and we saw Roberto, who always looks a little strange on crosses make that mistake.

As for your football culture, it reminds me a lot of Greece. In some strange ways Greece and Portugal are quite similar I suppose. In Greece there are many daily sports papers, some have allegiance to Olympiakos, some to PAO, some to AEK and some to PAOK. There are also daily papers specifically for Olympiakos, PAO, AEK etc.. put simply - there is no limit to the shit Greeks will read about their favorite team - the cartoons are quite funny, esp the ones with Fernando Santos:

[Fever]

Yeah I read about those plans. I read someone comment something along the lines of "it's like spraying perfume on someone who wasn't showered in years".

Yeah that makes sense from what we saw from Fejsa. It is exactly that, competent. Doesn't do more or less than he should. It's a matter of expectations and the roles he's given.

Yes, definitely. He is a great shot stopper, physically he has everything a goalkeeper can ask for. But the crosses man... he really struggles. I think as the season progresses he will make more mistakes like that one, because that's the only thing that I think it wasn't down to pressure when he was here, he really is ridiculous in those situations even if he's confident. He can never be a world class goalkeeper until he gets better at crosses, and I really believe he could be. And also I believe that's what our coach meant, our coach doesn't do mindgames, god hasn't blessed him with enough intelligence for that

Btw, changing the subject, how do Olympiakos fans feel about the investment in basketball?
I've watched some regular seasons matches and the attendances are somehow low, but your budget is massive (it must be higher than that of any other team... in the football league?). Doesn't it create a lot of debt? Panathinaikos for example you said it's supporter-owned, how can they pay for it?



PS- Yeah as I was writing that about football culture I thought that Greece could be similar. It's probably the only other country besides Portugal and Spain with that many (in this case... way more  ) sports newspapers and stuff.