Otto Rehhagel Set To Name Domestic Greek Contingent For 2010 World Cup

May 10th, 2010 | by: Chris Paraskevas | Comments Off

With Korea Republic having announced their provisional squads for South Africa, it leaves Greece, Nigeria and Argentina to do the same over the next 24 hours before the FIFA deadline.

As far as Greece goes, I should be able to predict a sizeable chunk of the domestic players who will join the provisional foreign quotient of nine: Michalis Sifakis (Aris), Alexandros Tzorvas (Panathinaikos), Kostas Chalkias (PAOK), Loukas Vyntra, Dimitris Salpiggidis, Giorgos Karagounis, Kostas Katsouranis, Sotiris Ninis, Giourkas Seitaridis (all Panathinaikos), Avraam Papadopoulos, Konstantinos Mitroglou, Vasilis Torosidis (all Olympiakos).

That makes 12 virtual definites, with scope for a handful of “surprise” inclusions, one of which could well be Pantelis Kafes of AEK Athens, while the inclusion of teen sensation and AEK prodigy Kostas Manolas would cause quite a sensation. Kyriakos Papadopoulos, who has reportedly been attracting the interest of Manchester City recently, will likely also be a candidate. The absence of Greek starters within the top five sides in Greece – Aris, AEK, Olympiakos and PAOK in particular – makes it difficult to call the rest of the local contingent, though it ultimately it shouldn’t have too much of a bearing on the starting XI in South Africa, which will probably look something like this (injuries and fitness aside):

(5-3-2): Tzorvas – Seitaridis, Moras, Kyrgiakos, Papastathopoulos, Torosidis – Katsouranis, Karagounis, Samaras – Salpiggidis, Charisteas, Gekas

On the Korean front meanwhile, a bit of news here about their preparations in camp that started recently, while fellow colleague John Duerden has penned a piece more specific about the injuries and form of the individuals making up the provisional 30-man squad (watch out for a shaky goalkeeper as a weak link – a familiar concept to all Greek fans…).

And it wouldn’t be a Group B World Cup blog without a mention of Diego Maradona, who recently celebrated six years without taking narcotics, a feat he attributes to his two daughters.