Pokerface – Lady Luck

February 9th, 2010 | by: Peter Katsiris |

Pokerface…that’s exactly what sort of facial expression I was required to display when a close friend of mine tried to have a serious conversation with me regarding Greece’s chances of qualifying for EURO 2012.

Chris beat me to it, but I was planning on breaking the news to y’all regarding Greece’s fortunes after Sunday’s draw for the EURO 2012 qualifying round. Basically, Lady Luck continues to favour Greece as we got another favourable draw.

Aside from Croatia, it is safe to say that the task of Israel, Latvia, Georgia, and Malta are doable tasks for the 2004 European Champions, which in return means we might qualify for our third consecutive European Championship and our third consecutive international tournament (would have been five straight if we made WC ’06).

Analyzing our opponents and the top seed in the group is Slaven Bilic’s Croatia, which is without a doubt a force not to be reckoned especially with the star power of Eduardo, and Luka Modric. But Hrvatska, as they are known locally, are of course mortal and even the non-Greek Gods of football will agree that the side with the picnic-cloth embroidery on their flag are beatable. Otto Rehhagel’s side, if they are still his by this time, will just have to make sure they don’t take any tips from England’s Gary Neville or Paul Robinson.

When you think Israel, for the most part you think Yossi Benayoun. But after a nerve-racking qualifying campaign for the 2010 FIFA World Cup from a Greek perspective, Liverpool’s maestro isn’t the only one that comes to mind. Ben Sahar is the new, or will be in the near future, face of the Israeli national team and along with prodigy Gai Assulin, the Israelis will be a stiff test at their fort in Ramat Gan and possibly in Greece too.

When the task of facing Latvia comes around I’m hoping that Maris Verpakovskis will be out of the line-up since it looked like Ergotelis “harbour and enemy” program nearly killed Greece’s chance of reacing South Africa. Thankfully Theofanis Gekas decided to teach Bayer Leverkusen a swift lesson as he pocketed four goals. My lack of knowledge of the Latvian team, at least in terms of a depth chart separating the current generation from the next prohibits me from commenting any further.

Although most of us will be keen on catching the clash between expected front-runners Croatia and Greece, the match I’m looking forward to is Greece’s tilt with Georgia. The fact of the matter is the man that I blame for my current state of depression from the club level is current Georgia coach Temuri Ketsbaia. The Uncle Fester look-a-like coached my beloved Olympiacos for a few months before even the club’s president, Sokratis Kokkalis, couldn’t help but realize how much of a shitty manager this guy actually is. I just can’t wait until Greece pounds Georgia so I can not only laugh at Ketsbaia’s gypsy-like wardrobe but at his failures as a manager too.

As for Malta, well I have some close acquaintances that will harass to my grave if Greece don’t fare better than a win in against the islanders. Although a Gekas-inspired evening crushed the Maltese on the last day of qualifying ahead of EURO 2008, I’m nervous the trip to Valletta might produce one of those 1-0 victories that Angelos Basinas clinched via a spot-kick. But considering the ancient Greek midfield will be retired by the time this match takes center stage, I’m liking our chances for a convincing win.

In essence, the group is not a walk in the park but rather straightforward and we should see Greece gain entry to Poland and Ukraine (aka Polkraine) either as group winners, or at the very least they’ll earn a ticket to the play-offs.