Introducing the Greek National Soccer Team (Part 1)

Two years after our latest journey to South Africa where we gathered 3 points in the group stage against Argentina (loss), S. Korea (loss) and Nigeria (win), our “Galanolefki” is back in action. We are traveling to Eastern Europe (Poland and Ukraine) to participate in the European Championship for national teams EURO 2012, hoping to surprise the football world like we did back in Portugal in 2004. Now we’re facing Poland (June 8), Czech Republic (June 12) and traditional Power Russia (June 16) – whom we’ve only beat once in our last ten games.
Over the next couple of weeks and till the end of the tournament, I’ll be posting articles, commenting on the games, the results, the players, coaches decisions and anything else that catches my attention that’s interesting enough to share with the Greek world.
Today we’ll overview Fernando Santos’ goalkeeper picks and over the next days we’ll check out the defenders, midfielders and strikers that consist of our national squad. PAME!!

MICHALIS SIFAKIS
Born and raised in Crete, after a successful career for OFI, he signed with Olympiacos and then was transferred to Aris Thessalonica where he matured as a goalie.
Sifakis is surely our most skilled goalie; the only one of the 3 selected whom I think should defend our goal during the games. He’s far from prone on making childish mistakes, possesses great reflexes and agility but somewhat lacks with the ball on his feet. As long as stays healthy, since he just recovered from a knee operation, he will be, and should be, our starting goalkeeper.
 
KOSTAS CHALKIAS
Take 100 PAOK fans and ask them right now: “Would you rather have Panayotis Glykos, Dario Kresic (the other 2 PAOK goalies) or Kostas Chalkias stay as far away as possible from their goalposts and sit on their couch to watch the PAOK championship game?” I bet my hands off, more than half would send Chalkias home! It’s a known fact that Kostas is a Fernando Santos’ favorite (God knows why!), however, since he is selected, we might as well pray that this time, he’ll minimize his mistakes to less than 5 per game. Impossible is nothing!
 

ALEXANDROS TZORVAS 

When I was studying in Italy, I made a couple of friends there, whom I keep in touch with on facebook now. One of them, Pasquale, is a Unione Sportiva Citta di Palermo hardcore fan. When the club initially signed Tzorvas, Pasquaele asked me if he was any good. My diplomatic answer was that he had his good days and he had his bad days, but overall he’s a good addition to have, whether he’s starting or sits on the bench. A year later and after Tzorvas’ horrific first season in the Serie A (Italy’s first division), my friend does not rely on my trustworthiness anymore. Having said that though, I still believe that Alexandros is going through a tough time and hasn’t been in form for the past year. The saves I’ve seen done by him, especially one against Nigeria in the World Cup in 2010 has made me address him as one of the greatest Greek goalies I’ve come across.

Writer’s choice:

Since Santos’ decided to ditch Dionisis Chiotis, I will have to go with Sifakis as my first pick. Millions of Greeks, including myself would rather have Chiotis take us to the final stage, the way he did with APOEL F.C., by guiding them towards last season’s Champions League quarterfinals. However, when it comes to selecting players for our national team, the only thing we can do, is sit back and critique our coach’s decisions, the way us Greeks love to do!