I'll use this thread to post about Olympiacos' football,basketball,water polo and volleyball teams.So let's summarize a bit the standings of our team so far,starting with football.
Football;
Right no we're atop in domestic championship with 15 points after 6 matchdays.We had the pleasure to sign Marko Marin and Oscar Cardozo in the offseason.Good news was that Cambiasso renewed his contract.To be honest I barely watch any of our games in the league,as the team pretty much dominates it the last 5 years.This year however It's supposed to be a real battle for the title,Panathinaikos looks rather strong,Aek and Paok are also solid.The thing I'll keep an eye however is definetely the EL.Also atop after the 1st round,winning away against Young Boys(0-1) and at home against Astana(4-1) but losing here to APOEL (0-1).In theory we are not going to drop any other point and we should secure the first place rather easily.
Only EuroLeague matters,in the end of the day we'll play Panathinaikos for the championship.Currently we're smashing Milan so we're going on a 2-1 in the standings.As I have mentioned before,we aim firstly to qualify at the playoffs,but it would be undoubtedly better if we would be able to secure the home court advantage.Long term goal is the Final-4,and of course the cup,if we make it,which is something that I believe so.
By the way,Jordi Bertomeu,it's time that you should consider Athens as one of the potential host cities again.It's embarrasing that the most successful country in the modern era of EL,has only hosted it twice,meanwhile lately we make a cycle of Istanbul-Madrid-Paris.I'm however happy that Belgrade got its chance to host on 2018.The first one ever,insane,isn't it?
Yeah, it's pretty amazing that it's only the first time. I imagine that if Oly were to make it next year, it would be like having home court advantage. Would be even better if we both made it though.
I'll try to contribute to this thread from time to time. As a Cz fan I am most definitely an Oly sympathiser. One day I'll make it over to Karaiskaki for a game. :hopefull:
Yeah,I immidiately thought the same when I learnt it.Such an atmosphere would be brilliant,like the time we faced each other two years ago.Zvezda is also my side when it comes to European competitions,especially on Euroleague,Good luck against Barca and Pao this week.
Djole roud: Heck of a captain and a player.Without a doubt the one most passionate players I have seen in the team.Darko Kovacevic was absolutely one of the players I adore.Terrific striker and scorer.Loved his headers too.It was good as it lasted.Hope his heart is better.
Recently,I admire Cambiasso.Abidal deserves my respect as well.Rivaldo,Karembeu,Detari,all of them were great.Favourite is most likely Giovanni,never thought I'd ever seen players like him and the above to Oly.Neither did with Afellay,Saviola,Cambiasso and Abidal.
Yeah, he was great. Such a classy player and loyal too, something you hardly see any more. I liked Darko and he was solid, but as a Serbian NT fan I always preferred Savo Milosevic over him, despite being a Partizan player, simply because he was much better for the NT.
Cambiasso is definitely a great choice. A player I admire and a great character too. :thumbsup:
Some legendary names there. You've been blessed to see all of those guys, even if most came there at the later stages of their careers. Giovanni is a real blast from the past, someone I hadn't thought of in a long time. I recently watched highlights from Zvezda-Barca in the mid 90's and he was there, even scored against us.
Tough game in Vitoria against Baskonia today.Team had a game Tuesday night and we had to travel to Spain yesterday.We're obviously not used to such occassions,so a loss would be explainable.However Baskonia pushed Real Madrid til the very end and got a huge away win,so they'll also be tired.It's rumoured that Bargnani and Beaubois will miss the game.Last year we were 3-1 in match-ups against the Basque side.
Turkish Airlines Euroleague has done a bad job scheduling the back to back games.This week,Fenerbahce and Efes will not play outside of Turkey.
Impressive win in Vitoria,we played fantastic offense scoring 90+ points for a third consecutive EuroLeague game,and 5th overall.Yet team scored 95 without a single point of Printezis,this should be a kind of achievement.Brillian game by Spanoulis 15points+15 assists.
Quite productive contribution by Mantzaris and Papanikolaou,both seemed to move below their standards lately.Birch is a great signing so far,real monster on both sides of the floor.Lojeski and Green with huge threes,especially the latter.o be honest I was sceptic about Green's heroball judging by the preseason games,so far he has proved wrong thrice.
Spanoulis by the way moves into the 2nd place in Euroleague all-time assists chart,behind Diamantids and ahead of Papaloukas and Teodosic,who is going to surpass them all as he is only 28!Such a pity that he had to leave.
Baskonia arguably played its best game today, and Olympiacos simply topped them in their home court. It sure was a nice game to watch. There were many key players for Olympiacos is this game. It's quite hard to defend a team like that. And they are only getting better.
Difficult game against Astana in Kazakhstan today.Bento choose to rotate today because we've had a tough schedule so far,playing Paok and Atromitos lately,plus the upcoming game against Panathinaikos on Sunday.Marin,Siovas,De la Bella were left out of the squad due to minor injuries and it was decided that it's better not to risk in this game.In addition,Pardo,Zdjelar,Fortounis,Da Costa are part of the rotation that I mentioned.
Possible squad;
Leali
Retsos-Botia-Viana-Elabdellaoui
Bouchalakis-Romao and either Martins or Cambiasso on midfield
Seba-Cardozo-Manthatis/Elyionoussi
*Maniatis has been kicked out of the squad and he's not even allowed to train with the team
*Pacienca's loan will probably come to its end.The Portuguese talented attacker has some problems with his heart which have made it difficult to take part in the games and trainings.It seems that his problem is chronic.
Basketball team has a game for EuroLeague against Cska as well.Erick Green picked up a minor injury in the last championship's game so he is doubtful for tonight.Let's see what Spanoulis can do alone against Cska's duo Teodosic-DeColo+Jackson who has been terrific this year.Last year Cska won both games(93-87,96-99).
Good win yeah,I'm glad we were able to bounce back this week after that massive choke against Galatasaray which is a circus at the moment.Spanoulis had a free summer this year and looks 4 years younger
Btw,last play was pretty similar to the one at EL's final at 2012.
:howler: At PAO losing a third straight game to Oly in OAKA on the buzzer after last years championship series.
Next week we play Maccabi on home which could be finally a good chance for Young to have himself a game.On the same day,we also play on home against Young Boys.Crucial day for our placement in the group.I love such days.
Poor percentage behind the arc(6/33,18%) against Maccabi yesterday and eventually had an out of schedule loss.It's sad to win Pao and Baskonia away but still failling to keep this advantage after losing games to Galatasaray and Maccabi.
So far we have a 6-4 record which could be better.Earlier this season I had made a list about which away games we have to win.The ideal would be to win 9 of them,as I had predicted a 21-9 record,but also we didn't have to lose more than 3 home games.And we already have lost 2.
Pot 1) Cska,Barca,Real Madrid and Fener where it's not essential to win more than 1 game.
Pot 2) Pao,Darussafaka,Maccabi and Baskonia where 2 wins had to be taken
Pot 3) Efes,Milano,Brose and Zvezda where 3 wins had to be taken
Pot 4) Unics,Galatasaray and Zalgiriswhere 2+1 games had to be won.
Home games;
Pot 1) Cska,Barca,Real Madrid and Fener where we have to win at least 2 of them
Pot 2) Pao,Darussaka,Maccabi and Baskonia
Pot 3) Efes,Milano,Brose and Zvezda.Realistically we should lose one game from pot 2 + pot 3 combined
Pot 4) Unics,Galatasaray and Zalgiris.We shouldn't aim the playoffs if we lose to any of these teams on home.
Next week we play Darussafaka away,which is gonna be really tough.They have a dangerous squad,and the fact that they are coached by Blatt makes them even more dangerous.However if Efes and Milano managed to win there,it's our obligation to do the same.
Secured the qualification to 1/16 after that home draw against Young Boys.From the little I was able to watch on the second half,we looked mediocre but we should have won.Weren't able to keep the lead after that magnificent kick by Fortounis and we conceded the equalizer 10 minutes earlier.Elyonousi and Figueiras missed some great opportunities on late game.We play APOEL on Nicosia and it's a must win game,otherwise we fall down to not seeded teams.
I still can't get why that moron Bento keeps excluding Chori and Marin.Cardozo is correctly benched.Thank God after years we finally give playing time to guys from the young teams.Academies have done a terrific job,producing some talents but they never actually see the pitch.
And they bring another win,71-77 on road against Dacka.Pretty good Lojeski,as well as Green with some huge shots on crunch time.Spanoulis and Printezis had solid games and Milutinov was decent for his standards.Young just confirmed that he'll be ready to contribute on February,yet he is getting paid 900K/year.
Football team was playing in Crete against AO Chania and managed to secure the qualification to the next round after beating the Cretan side 0-4.Moment of the game was when the man on my avatar scored the opening goal.
But my local bbal team just lost to the rivals Makaros Amfissas :yuck: away,so I'll have to wait til 2017 to taste a win against these scums.We're waiting for you in Itea.
Huge win against Unics Kazan today,88-59.Quite easily I have to say and that gave us the chance to rest some players.Altough it sucked big time to see Hackett getting injured 1 minute before the end.He may miss even up to 1 month,let's hope he'll come back quickly because he's the only guard who plays some defence.Moved to 7-4 and just a win behind Real Madrid and Fenerbahce.As I have already said we have to take the advantage of our schedule and grab some consecutive wins.We play Zalgiris on Lithuania now and they are a tough nut to crack,proved it plenty of times this year.
I don't bare comical situation of the football team anymore.They play absolutely terrible,thanks to Paulo Bento.That man is dangerous and obssesed.The only thing I can wish is to play against a beatable opponent at 1/16,otherwise the way we play they'll beat the sh!t out of us.
Brazilian Will Smith aka Bruno Viana was projected to be a nice investment.His duo with Da Costa is literally tremendous :yuck: And they wanna sell Siovas who is by far the most reliable CB in the team.
Nicola Leali who came on loan by Juventus had a term in his contract,to be a starter at Europa League's games.So far he has cost us 5 points by his mistakes(twice against APOEL running out of his line to kick the ball,both times failed+that retarded goal against Young Boys where he was in a completely wrong position).Bonus the Astana's goal where Leali simply passes the ball to the attacker,and he scores the easiest goal of his career
Apparently Hackett will stay out for at least 2 months,which means he'll miss more than 20 games :frown_ani:
I'm sceptical now,last year the mid-season transfers proved to be chemistry killers but we'll definetily need a guard for this period of time.Currently the only one that comes to mind is Mardy Collins but I highly doubt Lokomotiv Kuban will let him go without a satisfying buy-out.Otherwise Lojeski might move at SG for some minutes so Athinaiou will crack to the rotation as well.
The only positive news today was when Langford claimed that he'd like to play for Olympiacos :hopefull: In case Unics stays out of competition,we're waiting for him at Piraeus :heart:
Good win on road against PAS Giannena (0-2) with a convincing performance mostly at the first half. Cardozo and Seba scored the goals. Finally Cardozo's transfer proves to be beneficial as he's far better than Ideye currently and can easily exploits Fortounis' passes. But the situation with is getting comical. He can utilize such a productive roster and lets the players rotting at the bench. He may thanks God we drew Osmanlispor and he has a chance to save his contract, otherwise he shouldn't even be here by that time.
On another note,Hackett will be sidelined for 6 months so season is over for him. The best solution for me would be either Justin Dentmon who was realesed by Galatasary, or Jamon Gordon who has already spent a season with Olympiacos and would fit well like Dentmon, but he suffered a severe injury last year and he hasn't play competitve basketball until now. Jordan Farmar's agent suggested the Farmar to Olympiacos but seems we won't make a move. I'd pick Dentmon.
Latest signings, Ansarifard from Panionios and Cissokho from Aston Villa
Meanwhile we lost 67-77 to Panathinaikos in the Greek Cup semi final and as a result they eliminated us. We play Baskonia in a crucial game on Friday, in case we win we let them 2 wins behind and remain only behind Cska.
Pot 1) Cska Barca Real Madrid Fener
Pot 2) Panathinaikos Darussafaka Maccabi Baskonia
Pot 3) Efes Milano Brose Zvezda
Pot 4) Unics Galatasaray Zalgiris
Home games ;
Pot 1) Cska Barca Real Madrid Fener
Pot 2) Panathinaikos Darussaka Maccabi Baskonia
Pot 3) Efes Milano Brose Zvezda.
Pot 4) Unics Galatasaray Zalgiris
Update ; 2nd along with Real Madrid, 13 - 5 record.
Away games ;
Pot 1) Cska,Barca,Real Madrid Fener
Pot 2) Panathinaikos,Darussafaka,Maccabi Baskonia
Pot 3) Efes,Milano,Brose Zvezda
Pot 4) Unics,Galatasaray Zalgiris
Home games ;
Pot 1) Cska,Barca,Real Madrid Fener
Pot 2) Panathinaikos,Darussaka,Maccabi Baskonia
Pot 3) Efes,Milano,Brose Zvezda.
Pot 4) Unics,Galatasaray,Zalgiris.
Just wow Erick Green. Fantastic and unexpected to some extent considering the circumstances. Spanoulis, Lojeski and Young out, Printezis, Mantzaris and Papapetrou playing with injections, Papanikolaou picking up an injury in the half time, as well as Athinaiou being ill and Toliopoulos unavailable due to appendectomy. Yet, we scored 90 and dominated the whole game up 16 - 43 in a point, to end the game with a double digit lead which is great ( 75 - 90 ). Zalgiris at home now and then we take a week off.
Also, after three games in water polo CL we are first in the group having the advantage that we play the Hungarian team, which is our direct opponent, at home. Securing the first place means we automatically enter the F4 and hopefully this year we'll add the second CL trophy.
Btw football brunch sold Milivojevic to Crystal Palace and signed Juan Carlos Paredes from Watford. Anyway I have all hope with this pathetic and corrupted management we have there which is totally shameful and embarassing for the other branches of the club.
Lost 1-0 to AEK in a game where we were quite pathetic. What really mattered yesterday was to finally play some convincing football, which honeslty is impossible to do if the only players with some quality in the team have been continuously boycotted by Bento since last August. In that case I would be more optimistic about the game against Osmanlispor. Needless to say this is the most important of the season. On the bright side, Bento can be sacked earlier than expected.
Also regarding the game against Fenerbache for the Euroleague, Young is expected to play but Spanoulis not. Papapetrou picked up a slight injury and didn't train with the team yesterday as well as Milutinov who has been suffering from Gastroenteritis. Winning this game gives us a 3 wins advantage from the 4th place and puts Fenerbahce into trouble regarding the playoff advantage. So I do expect to see grey wolves in action. It's quite embarassing that nowdays every game against the sponsors of the league is considered as a loss because of the push those nobodies always get by the refs.
Ideye was sold to Chinese league for a fee of 17M euros. He won't even be available for the second leg in two days. Considering Cardozo looks like a tree, I hope Ansarifard will be finally given the chance to prove he's 2 times better at the moment.
Happy about the qualification, didn't expect it the way we have been playing lately.
Regarding about the game against fener, there's a "bitter" feeling because we managed to lose such a game, but in the end of the day I can sleep well since the reason we lost it was the rebounding battle and we lacked Young. That being said, I had the feeling we were playing in a jungle with all these clueless fans complaining always about everything. Wise players, shity fans Still we are one win ahead and we hold the tie-breaker, having a relatively easier schedule than them.
Great win against galatasaray too, back on track. Sink them in the bottom of the table, right where they belong.
It was totally laughable, they pushed fener all the way to build the lead in the 3rdQ. I just hope Euroleague finally achieved their goal which was to give the championship to fener by any any means the last years.
I'm really happy for us though, we did really well despite playing without Lojeski and Hackett for the biggest part of the season. Imo we've been quite "unlucky" because that's the second final game in a row for us which is practically an away game...I'm sure the case will be different in Belgrade next year though :thumbsup:
Still a great effort by the team and we're all really proud of their achievements this decade and the way they accomplished them. (enormously low budget compared to the rest of the contenders and mainly always having 6-7 Greek players with a major role in the team). I'm already looking forward to the next season .