It was a completely glorious night at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ, and a truly perfect stage for Greece (ranked 13th in the world by FIFA – take that with a grain of salt) to dominate lowly Bolivia (ranked 67th). Walking into the arena, one could easily spot the crowd in the parking wearing the tell-tale blue and white of the Greek Men’s National Football team. Although there was a smattering of Bolivia here and there, the crowd was primarily awaiting Greece in its preparation for the start of the World Cup.
This was the same largely untouched squad that surprised many people in the 2012 Euro Cup competition, before losing to Germany in the quarter finals. That surprise run came after turmoil in their home country – social unrest, financial instability, and talk of the country going bankrupt. Just when their supporters needed it, the Greek national team under the tutelage of Fernando Santos and stone cold killer on-field leader Giorgio Samaras, brought hope to their homeland.
Flash forward two years and the squad remains largely unchanged. Two years older, two years wiser, and poised to emerge from Group C when the curtain opens on the World Cup in just a few days. Greece has never made it out of group play, always being bested by superior squads. Now, with a kind draw of Columbia, Cote D’Ivoire, and Japan, they can keep the dream alive.
Back to Red Bull Arena – Greece was coming off a scoreless draw where they were dominated for large part of the match by Nigeria, who seemed a step faster than the Greeks. Keeper Orestis Karnezis was repeatedly forced to make difficult saves, and the Nigerian back four just seemed stronger and faster than Greece.
Greece World Cup Preparation
Here we have a mismatch of teams; one preparing to seize the opportunity provided by a fortunate draw and another club that has nothing to lose. For most of the first half, the chances and the pressure was in the Greeks’ favor. They had their offense flowing freely, spearheaded by Samaras.
He tried his best repeatedly to get Greece on the board early, crossing into the 18 yard box time and time again. For the most part, forward Theofanis Gekas was on the receiving end of the slick play. Unfortunately, Gekas continuously found himself unable to cash in. The best chance of the first half was not the goal that was scored off the head of Guergki Kone, it was the Samaras cross onto the foot of Gekas that ended up 20 rows behind the goal instead of in the back of the net.
This was a consistent theme. Bolivia conceded 8 (EIGHT!) corner kicks. Greece was only able to cash in on one. Even the usually infallible and unflappable Karnezis found himself caught asleep by a goal by Rudy Cardozo. That goal made the end of this game more interesting than it should have been. Not to dance on a nerve, but Gekas continuously missed chance after chance, eventually losing the confidence of Samaras, who seemingly stopped passing to Gekas towards the end of the match.
Two things came to mind while watching Greece in this match. The first is that their entire offense flows through Samaras. If other squads and coaching staffs in Group C can stop Samaras, then Greece will be an easy team to beat for Cote D’Ivoire and Columbia. Also, if Greece continues to squander chances like Gekas did on the breakaway shanking the ball wide left with the keeper Romel Quinonez beaten, then Greece will have a difficult time keeping up with Columbia, who absolutely trounced Jordan this evening 3-0.
Coach Santos seemed to bristle when he was asked about it in post-game. He refused to answer a specific question about his offensive and defensive strategy and improvement, feeling that it was a repeated question. Instead of facing it down, he skipped over the translator and broke into English stating simply that he answered the question already in the first two. However, Santos admitted, through a translator, “We cannot manage to press the other side as much as we want.”
Santos was tight-lipped about his team’s first World Cup challenge in Columbia, stating that he would not speak about it before the game. He spoke very generally about preparing for all three teams, speaking about the strength of his scouting and his team’s preparation for the challenge ahead, but he refused to speak about his players, specifically about the lack of finishing.
At the end of the match, the largely Greek crowd went home happy, singing songs from the South Ward and all over the arena. How many more happy days do Greece have ahead? Only they have the answer to that within themselves. Finishing is going to be the first task, the last task, and all the middle tasks if Santos and the Greeks are going to get out of group play. Time will tell whether they can reach historical uncharted territory, or they go quietly into the Brazilian night.
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