Greece: Champions of Europe
What On Earth Made Them Great?
Ozren Podnar reports...
Manchester United went ahead through Cristiano Ronaldo's magnificent
header, but Arsenal's Stylianos Yannakopoulos was not to be denied
and saved Arsenal a point with his 17th goal of the season.
Barcelona are through to the Champions League semifinals thanks
to another famous display of their Greek midfielder Yorgos Karagounis,
who marked Bayern's Michael
Ballack out of the game and then picked up the winner himself
in the 87th minute.
Juventus have clinched the Italian title by beating Milan by 2-1
in the Serie A decider. Angelos Charisteas was on target twice for
the Turin team before winning a penalty for Juve, but Pavel Nedved's
shot was well-saved by Milan's keeper Antonis Nikopolidis.
Finally, Celtic's Traianos Dellas annihilated Dado Prso in the
Old Firm derby, but Zizis Vryzas in Rangers' attack proved elusive
yet again equalizing five minutes from time. Noticed any mistakes
in this "news from the future?" Yes, here it is: none of the
current Greek heroes will ever play a major role at a major European
club.
If the members of the European championship winning team were such
great individual players, then they would be all over Real Madrid,
Manchester United, Juventus,
Bayern, Porto, or at least Ajax, Lyon or Rangers.
If any of them were so good, then Roman Abramovich would have been
drooling over them for a long time, Alex Ferguson would have tried
to snatch a couple of them from Serie A giants, and Real Madrid's
presidential candidates would have signed another as an election
trump card like Florentino Perez did with Luis Figo in 2000.
OK, it is always possible that all the coaches in the world are
silly old ignorants who failed to notice the Greeks' true value
before Otto Rehhagel
stepped in. But, not even that would be a good explanation of the
Greek phenomenon, for if they were truly big, then Panathinaikos
and Olympiakos would have been tough rivals for Madrid, Milan or
Valencia in recent European club cups' finals.
As it happens, only Panathinaikos has made the final of a European
cup competition losing 2-0 to Ajax in the European Cup final in
1971, and the last semifinalists were Panathinaikos again eight
years ago.
Then how on earth did Greece end up winning Euro 2004, one of the
most prestigious trophies in world sports, in the face of France,
England, Italy, Holland, Spain or Portugal? And not only win it,
but also deserved it, at least in the narrow legal sense of the
word.
Greece deserved to win because they did not steal anything from
anybody, except perhaps for the spirit of the game. They did not
score illegal goals, they were not unduly spared of red cards, or
handed non-existing penalties in their favour.
The only refereeing mistake against one of Greece's opponents was
the non-award of penalty on Czech Republic's Jan Koller in the semifinals.
So Greece won the Cup deservedly, but how did it come to this,
if its players are so ordinary? Many factors conspired to make happen
what many have called "the biggest upset in soccer history".
Of course, the Greek players are not bad either. All of them are,
or were, big stars in the Greek domestic league, and many have taken
part in the Champions' League with Olympiakos, Panathinaikos or
AEK. But, those playing in the homeland had a less busy schedule
compared to their foreign colleagues in England, Spain, Germany
or Italy.
The Greek league may be very passionate and dramatic, but not at
all equally demanding as the Premiership, or even the French Le
Championnat. Most of those playing abroad had not been used all
that much. Charisteas started only seven times in the Bundesliga.
Key defender Dellas only appeared in 30 games in the past three
seasons. Yannakopoulos had injury problems at Bolton and was not
used all that much. Nikolaidis, a gargantuan figure at AEK, failed
to set Atletico Madrid on fire. Vryzas, once a first choice forward
for Perugia, was sold to then Serie B Fiorentina in January.
There is only so much effort that a professional footballer can
sustain, and the players in the biggest clubs like Arsenal, Manchester
United, Real Madrid, Valencia, Juventus, Milan and many others simply
had been drained more than their Greek counterparts.
Then, there is the issue of the coach. Otto Rehhagel, far from
being a defensive-minded type, did the most with the material available
to him. The supremely experienced man who made provincial Werder
and Kaiserslautern German champions, once again excelled at creating
a competitive team against all odds.
He selected the system based on the players he had and not vice
versa, and then he drilled the players ad nauseam to achieve the
maximum automation of movement. The credit also goes to the Greek
FA (EPO), which gave Rehhagel free rein to act as he saw fit, when
they could so easily have interfered and made his work impossible.
So, the Greek team was composed of fresher players and coached
by a wise, serious and hard-working soccer wizard (a father figure!),
fully supported by the Federation.
But, none of this would have been enough for the "biggest upset
in soccer history" if one chief ingredient had been lacking: the
fanatical patriotism of the Greeks! Of all 16 teams that took part
in Euro 2004 the Greeks come from the most patriotically minded
nation, and on top of that Rehhagel brought to Portugal an ethnically
pure team.
While so many internationals in other teams were naturalized, descendants
of immigrants or originally from former colonies, Greece had a squad
representing their homeland in every sense: a true national team.
Many have overlooked that factor and may even consider this argument
out of place, but it should be remembered that Greece is not a melting
pot like most countries of Western Europe, and that the national
identity, cultural heritage and linguistical uniformity define an
average Greek far more than they do citizens of most other European
nations.
Of course the feverish patriotism of the Greeks has not done the
country much good elsewhere, but it is sports we are talking about,
and spectator sports are the best and the most widely accepted surrogate
for war.
Fuelled by the desire to glorify their homeland and to make their
fellow countrymen around the world proud, the footballers from Hellas
were just a little bit stronger, quicker, moreresistant and determined
than their opponents. While they will always have that edge over
the others, the question is whether the remaining factors that conspired
to transform them into champions will remain in the future.
Greece World Cup 2010 Team
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