And further running contrary to my opening gambit, having watched the turgid match between France and Uruguay, the World Cup programming continues on Greek television (a good two hours after the match has finished). For the most part, they have discussed absolutely nothing of today’s opening games, concentrating entirely on Greece’s meeting with the South Koreans tomorrow. One sensible looking chap appears to hold the fort in a Lynham-like manner, as he consistently has to refer back to the opinion of his three musketeers in South Africa: in Greece the studio presenter has the honour of asking "How‘s the mood in the camp?" to three people instead of one. Only, one of them doesn’t answer. Stood icy still between the other two is the most serious evil looking version of James Richardson/Moby you’re ever likely to see. And he rarely mutters a word - unlike the other two, he’s not even holding a microphone. It’s almost as if due to a technical hitch he has to stand perfectly centre screen in order to hold two bits of wire together, and is growing increasingly pissed off and possessively vengeful over the entire ordeal.
But extensive television programming and inflatable ball hugging moments aside, there’s not the St George On Every Transit sense of occurrence in the city. I’d like to think I found the Greek equivalent, but sadly this remains an isolated example - although I suspect that the ‘Greek scooter driver’ is probably treated with a similar amount of respect as to the average ‘White Van Man’. To my disbelief, I even found these perfectly good Greece cocktail flags discarded on the floor near the famous White Tower - what is wrong with these people? Do they not consider themselves patriots at all? I would imagine however, with Greece due to kick off at lunchtime tomorrow, this represents something of a calm before a passionate storm. It’s not like the Greeks have a reputation for apathy towards the results of high profile football matches, at least not at club level. For his own safety, one would hope that tomorrow’s referee, Michael Hester of New Zealand, avoids granting South Korea similar levels of generosity as they were afforded in the 2002 World Cup.
And it’s for that reason - as well as the fact I’ll be surrounded by Greeks - that I’m fully behind the Galanoleyki (blue & whites) tomorrow afternoon, for I am one of the few people not constrained by online censorship who has beef with South Korea. It is beef exclusively based on the memory of my 13 year old self spitting feathers at what I felt was a travesty of football: I mean, come on, these decisions weren’t just ridiculous, they were outright scandalous. Part of my dismay was due to my contrary teenage nature to go against the grain, defiantly rejecting the notion oft trumpeted by the BBC that the host nation going far was a great thing. "Oh, aren’t their fans great?" they'd say. “No!” I cried, “The hosts have enough advantages without the referees granting them a staggering amount of favourable decisions in [alleged] exchange for suspicious brown envelopes!” I had refused to back the underdogs, and got upset when the overdogs lost. Since reaching and subsequently seeing off adolescence, I now have a much fuller appreciation for the masterful role Guus Hiddink played in South Korea’s run to the semi final, whilst my belief in a FIFA conspiracy waned only to come roaring back after reading the work of Andrew Jennings. We’ll get you one day, Sepp.
As for the Greece team, I’ll have to be thoroughly honest and say if it wasn’t for this trip they’d be joining Switzerland, Paraguay and Japan on my ‘least talked about teams at the World Cup list’ - the criteria of which is to generally not be good enough to have any chance whatsoever of winning the thing, but not being so rubbish that they can fit the bill of ‘classic underdog’, while having few headline grabbing players of note. Rehhagel’s men are once again expected to stifle more than stimulate but certainly can’t be ruled out of a second round appearance. For me, I’m just disappointed about the absence of Kostas Mitroglou from the squad - his trademark celebration is the 'pistola', which apparently involves crossing his arms over his chest and doing the classic pistol hands. South Africa’s loss I guess.
So, cocktail flags at the ready, I’m just about ready to roar these Greeks on. Let’s show South Korea how we win a World Cup game fair and square. Viva Galanoleyki.
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Fourfourtwo: http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/worldcup2010/archive/2010/06/07/watching-the-world-cup-with-the-europeans.aspx
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Greece
Tournament odds
200/1
Remember the last time?
Sadly USA 1994, the only World Cup for which Greece have qualified, was a tournament too early for me in terms of forming juvenile memories. I am informed they lost every single match without scoring a goal, two of which were 4-0. Ouch.
Who do I recognise?
A few names are familiar from the Euro 2004 run, most notably Kostas Kastouranis, Giorgos Karagounis and Angelos Charisteas. Sotirious Kyrgiakos gave making Jamie Carragher look good a damn good go this season, but sadly came up short. Theofanis Gekas was top scorer in European qualification, and as such is a big hope for this particular World Cup nutter.
Jarek’s Prophetic Vision
Pipped to a 2nd Round spot by Nigeria
Jarek’s Prophetic Match Vision
Not one for the purists, Greece to eek out a 1-0 victory, echoing memories of Euro 2004.
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