Familiar Faces compose Greece squad

A long line of familiar faces have re-populated the recent Greece roster for the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers against Moldova and Switzerland. Greece coach Otto Rehhagel continues to count on his line of proven players, while adding a small contingent of young stars as well.

The race to fitness has always been a challenge for the Greek National Team, and the theme continues in the latest edition of the squad. Despite being named to the squad, a trio of players face the task of returning to fitness ahead of the upcoming qualifiers. The most lucrative of the players recovering from injuries is Georgios Karagounis. The Panathinaikos midfielder who rushed his recovery ahead of his club’s UEFA Champions League opener with Inter Milan, but it proved to be a bad omen as a further injury has kept Karagounis out for the past few weeks.

Eintracht Frankfurt captain, Ioannis Amanatidis, has also recovered and is expected to return to his starting role with the ‘Ethniki’. His replacement in the last set of qualifiers was AEK’s Vassilios Pliatsikas, who has since been discontinued from the Greece squad.

Lastly, Giourkas Seitaridis has been able to overcome a recent knock, but the injury seemed to be the least of Greece’s worries when Atletico Madrid requested Seitaridis should be omitted from the roster. The conflict between the defender’s club and country has since been resolved, and the man highly praised for his performance at EURO 2004 is expected to be ready to star in Greece’s back line.

Despite the majority of the roster being familiar and rather similar to Greece’s triumph from four years ago, several young stars continue to establish their presence among Greece’s finest. Among them are Sotirios Ninis and Sokratis Papastathopoulos while Nikos Spyropoulos and Avraam Papadopoulos continue to be rewarded for their domestic performances.

In goal, life after Antonis Nikopolidis continues but the transition from a legend to his disciple has been a smooth one. Konstantinos Chalkias continues to keep the Greece goal pure, after collecting two clean sheets during the last the international break.

Greece’s main weakness has been the inability to score, and the trend was in full affect against Moldova during Greece’s EURO 2008 campaign – which saw Greece struggle to defeat Moldova. The attack seemed revived against Luxembourg and Latvia, as the ‘Galanoleuki’ scored five goals in two matches – both fixtures saw Greece be the visiting side. Theofanis Gekas has not had the opportunity to perform with Bayer Leverkusen, but his duty with the National Team has seen the Bundesliga leading scorer from two years ago perform to his full potential.

Greece currently tops their group with maximum points after two games. Greece will play Moldova on Saturday at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus, Greece. Four days later, Omar Hitzfeld brings his Switzerland squad to the port city, for a fixture at the same venue.

Greece Squad (Otto Rehhagel):

Goalkeepers: Konstantinos Chalkias (PAOK), Alexandros Tzorvas (Panathinaikos).

Defenders: Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Genoa), Traianos Dellas (Anorthosis Famagusta), Vassilios Torosidis (Olympiacos), Sotiris Kyrgiakos (AEK Athens), Avraam Papadopoulos (Olympiacos), Loukas Vyntra (Panathinaikos), Nikos Spyropoulos (Panathinaikos), Giourkas Seitaridis (Atletico Madrid).

Midfielders: Kostas Katsouranis (Benfica), Angelos Basinas (AEK Athens), Christos Patsatzoglou (Olympiacos), Georgios Karagounis (Panathinaikos), Sotiris Ninis (Panathinaikos), Alexandros Tziolis (Panathinaikos).

Forwards: Ioannis Amanatidis (Eintracht Frankfurt), Georgios Samaras (Celtic), Angelos Charisteas (FC Nuremberg), Theofanis Gekas (Bayer Leverkusen), Nikos Liberopoulos (Eintracht Frankfurt), Dimitrios Salpingidis (Panathinaikos).