Wow, as soon as I finished posting the Dutch squad, Greece came out with their final roster. Tomorrow’s workload is getting lighter by the minute, as now only nine more nations still need to submit their teams.
Greece is the defending champion, and will compete in Group D with Sweden, Spain, and Russia. They’re coached by a German, Otto Rehhagel, who has been in charge since 2001.
Get ready for a lot of “O”’s and “S”’s, everyone…
GK (3): Antonios Nikopolidis (Olympiacos), Konstantinos Chalkias (Aris), Alexandros Tzorvas (OFI Crete)
DEF (9): Giourkas Seitaridis (Atlético Madrid), Christos Patsatzoglou, Paraskevas Antzas, and Vasilis Torosidis (Olympiacos), Loukas Vyntra, Nikos Spiropoulos, and Yannis Goumas (Panathinaikos), Traianos Dellas (AEK Athens), Sotirios Kyrgiakos (Eintracht Frankfurt)
MID (5): Angelos Basinas* (Mallorca), Stelios Giannakopoulos (Unattached), Giorgos Karagounis and Alexandros Tziolis (Panathinaikos), Kostas Katsouranis (Benfica)
FWD (6): Georgios Samaras (Celtic), Angelos Charisteas (Nuremberg), Dimitrios Salpigidis (Panathinaikos), Theofanis Gekas (Bayer Leverkusen), Ioannis Amanatidis (Eintracht Frankfurt), Nikolaos Liberopoulos (AEK Athens)
*Captain
Nine defenders? Hmm..
More on Greece on Thursday.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
No surprises from Rehhagel. Seven of the squad were in the starting line-up for the Euro 2004 final v Portugal. He does like to play safe although the qualifying games showed that he is not afraid to use 3 men up front when the occasion demands. Greece always look a better team when they do have 3 up front.
More news on Greek football on http://www.sportingreece.com — perhaps you could add it as a link…?
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I’m not surprised by the 9 defenders. In all likelihood they are going to play 5-4-1 or 4-5-1. And who could argue with them? They won it all 4 years ago playing that way.
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Either way, they only brought five midfielders, and it just seems foolish that they didn’t bring a couple more considering they’re going to use either four or all of them at the same time. That gives them almost nothing in reserve, and midfielders are typically the ones who need to be substituted in games the most because they exert the most energy.
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