Ethniki Omada Heartbreak. What Could Have Been at France 98
The Greek National team rose to fame after winning Euro 2004, but for many fans, the love affair with the up and down team started well before that. As a young teen I got on the wagon in 1993 after hearing Greece qualified for the World Cup in America.
The tournament itself was amazing and to this day my favorite Mundial but Greece performed very
badly thanks to horrible coaching, management and selections. Even in 1994, some of the video footageof the late Alketas Panagoulias screaming at the players is embarrassing and hard to watch.
However, after the disaster I have great memories of the Greek team post USA 94 as the talents that
didn’t get a chance to showcase their skills in Boston and Chicago came to the front and played some
amazing football.
Coach at the time was the recently passed Kostas Polyhorniou who would leave a great legacy as player and coach, most of the Greek team was locally based with only Nikos Machlas playing abroad in Holland and Georgios Donis at Blackburn Rovers in the English Premier League. Players like Kostas Frantzeskos, Demis Nikolaidis, Machlas, Grigoris Georgatos, Donis, Hristos Kostis,
Giorgos Georgidis, Stratos Apostolakis and Theo Zagorakis to name but a few were key players.
It was an era of big wins but heartbreaking losses, our attack was good, the finishing though did not
compliment the buildup work, our defense was also not at the level it is today so many key games of this era saw Greece dominate play but unable to score, and the opposition, all of which with more
recognized strikers would often get a 1 goal win.
Which brings us to the World Cup Qualifying for France 98. The Ethniki was paired with Croatia which featured an abundance of stars like Davor Sukur, Slavan Bilic, Robert Prosinecki, Boban and Alen Boksic,to name just a few, Denmark with Peter Schmeichel, Jon Dial Thomassen and Brian Laudrup, Bosnia and Slovenia.
The campaign started well with a 2-0 win over Slovenia and an easy 3-0 win over Bosnia in Kalamata, Bosnia was in their early days an independent nation and only starting to get their feet together. The first big test came away to Denmark in October of 96. Greece put up a great fight but went down 2-1, an unlucky Zagorakis own goal had Greece equalize through Donis but Laudrup would score the winner in the second half.
One month later Greece would face the star stunned Croatian team in Zagreb. Greece took an
unexpected lead through Nikolaids after he caught onto a wonder pass from the magician, Vasilis
Tsartas. Davor Suker would make it 1-1 just before half time and the game would finish like that.
Croatia would go onto draw with Denmark and Slovenia at home so when Greece beat Bosnia away
from home 1-0, thanks to a Frantzeskos free kick in the wet, Greece was in the race for a ticket to
France.
The showdown was set, on a rainy night in Thessaloniki, we took on the Croatians, a win would put
Greece in a great spot and we should have taken the lead through Donis who was put through 1:1 but
he chose to try and "takounisi" the keeper. Suker would show his class and score the winner with 15 mins to go.
The loss dented Greece's chances but Denmark would then lose out to Bosnia 3-0 in Bosnia and with
Greece beating Slovenia away from home (3-0) it set up what was basically a playoff between the Ethniki and Denmark at the OAKA in Athens.
It was a full house in Athens and it was a great football game that would be played. Greece had to win, win and they would qualify for the FIFA World Cup in France, Denmark just needed the point.
The first half saw some chances for both teams but Schmeichel made it look easy and the Danish efforts were off target.
The second half would be a story for the ages though... many remember one chance that came to Alekos Alexandris at the end of the match but there were a few at both ends before it. Nikos Dabizas actually hit the post earlier in the 2nd half with a great header that Schmeichel knew little
about. Aposotolakis would sky a loose ball well over the goal when Schmeichel punched out a
clearance minutes later, Frantzeskos would send a shot right at Schmeichel off a counter attack that had the Danes scrambling.
The Danes would then counter with Laudrup dribbling all our defense and set up Miklos Molnar for a shot that Ilias Atmanzidis would do very well to save.
In explicitly the OAKA would light up as fans started throwing flares on the field, the stadium turned red in color and smoke, and it took a good 10 mins to get the game under way. Only in Greece.
With play back on Machlas would header just wide of goal and then... with less than 10 minutes to go, Alexandris would find himself one on one with Schmeichel, he did not have long to think but the best goal keeper in the world at the time would make himself a big as he could and he saved the shot, it is a moment in Greek Football that will remain with many forever, it should have been the moment we won our ticket to France but it wasn’t to be.
From the corner Dabizas would send a bullet header into the clutches of Schmeichel and in the last play of the game, Ioannis Kalitzakis would header just wide.
The full-time whistle came seconds later as millions of Greek hearts were broken but to this day, it was one of the most open and dominating performances I have seen from the Ethniki, and what could have been had one of so many chances found the back of the net.
Greece would go onto miss another huge opportunity for Euro 2000 with a costly home draw to Slovenia and the memorable 0-1 loss to Latvia which ultimately cost us qualification, but things got better at Euro 04.
At the World Cup itself in 1998, it should be noted that Croatia would go onto finish 3 rd after beating Holland in the 3 rd place play off and Davor Suker would finish the tournament’s top goal scorer with 6 goals, Croatia would get close to beating France in the semifinal itself which showcases what a tough opponents the Ethniki faced.
Denmark too would have a great tournament reaching the Quarter Finals and it was Brazil that would
beat them 3-2 in Nantes which. under Polyhroniou I always wonder what could have been had we won that ticket to this great World Cup that was.
By Greg Gavalas for Hellas Football
The tournament itself was amazing and to this day my favorite Mundial but Greece performed very
badly thanks to horrible coaching, management and selections. Even in 1994, some of the video footageof the late Alketas Panagoulias screaming at the players is embarrassing and hard to watch.
However, after the disaster I have great memories of the Greek team post USA 94 as the talents that
didn’t get a chance to showcase their skills in Boston and Chicago came to the front and played some
amazing football.
Coach at the time was the recently passed Kostas Polyhorniou who would leave a great legacy as player and coach, most of the Greek team was locally based with only Nikos Machlas playing abroad in Holland and Georgios Donis at Blackburn Rovers in the English Premier League. Players like Kostas Frantzeskos, Demis Nikolaidis, Machlas, Grigoris Georgatos, Donis, Hristos Kostis,
Giorgos Georgidis, Stratos Apostolakis and Theo Zagorakis to name but a few were key players.
It was an era of big wins but heartbreaking losses, our attack was good, the finishing though did not
compliment the buildup work, our defense was also not at the level it is today so many key games of this era saw Greece dominate play but unable to score, and the opposition, all of which with more
recognized strikers would often get a 1 goal win.
Which brings us to the World Cup Qualifying for France 98. The Ethniki was paired with Croatia which featured an abundance of stars like Davor Sukur, Slavan Bilic, Robert Prosinecki, Boban and Alen Boksic,to name just a few, Denmark with Peter Schmeichel, Jon Dial Thomassen and Brian Laudrup, Bosnia and Slovenia.
The campaign started well with a 2-0 win over Slovenia and an easy 3-0 win over Bosnia in Kalamata, Bosnia was in their early days an independent nation and only starting to get their feet together. The first big test came away to Denmark in October of 96. Greece put up a great fight but went down 2-1, an unlucky Zagorakis own goal had Greece equalize through Donis but Laudrup would score the winner in the second half.
One month later Greece would face the star stunned Croatian team in Zagreb. Greece took an
unexpected lead through Nikolaids after he caught onto a wonder pass from the magician, Vasilis
Tsartas. Davor Suker would make it 1-1 just before half time and the game would finish like that.
Croatia would go onto draw with Denmark and Slovenia at home so when Greece beat Bosnia away
from home 1-0, thanks to a Frantzeskos free kick in the wet, Greece was in the race for a ticket to
France.
The showdown was set, on a rainy night in Thessaloniki, we took on the Croatians, a win would put
Greece in a great spot and we should have taken the lead through Donis who was put through 1:1 but
he chose to try and "takounisi" the keeper. Suker would show his class and score the winner with 15 mins to go.
The loss dented Greece's chances but Denmark would then lose out to Bosnia 3-0 in Bosnia and with
Greece beating Slovenia away from home (3-0) it set up what was basically a playoff between the Ethniki and Denmark at the OAKA in Athens.
It was a full house in Athens and it was a great football game that would be played. Greece had to win, win and they would qualify for the FIFA World Cup in France, Denmark just needed the point.
The first half saw some chances for both teams but Schmeichel made it look easy and the Danish efforts were off target.
The second half would be a story for the ages though... many remember one chance that came to Alekos Alexandris at the end of the match but there were a few at both ends before it. Nikos Dabizas actually hit the post earlier in the 2nd half with a great header that Schmeichel knew little
about. Aposotolakis would sky a loose ball well over the goal when Schmeichel punched out a
clearance minutes later, Frantzeskos would send a shot right at Schmeichel off a counter attack that had the Danes scrambling.
The Danes would then counter with Laudrup dribbling all our defense and set up Miklos Molnar for a shot that Ilias Atmanzidis would do very well to save.
In explicitly the OAKA would light up as fans started throwing flares on the field, the stadium turned red in color and smoke, and it took a good 10 mins to get the game under way. Only in Greece.
With play back on Machlas would header just wide of goal and then... with less than 10 minutes to go, Alexandris would find himself one on one with Schmeichel, he did not have long to think but the best goal keeper in the world at the time would make himself a big as he could and he saved the shot, it is a moment in Greek Football that will remain with many forever, it should have been the moment we won our ticket to France but it wasn’t to be.
From the corner Dabizas would send a bullet header into the clutches of Schmeichel and in the last play of the game, Ioannis Kalitzakis would header just wide.
The full-time whistle came seconds later as millions of Greek hearts were broken but to this day, it was one of the most open and dominating performances I have seen from the Ethniki, and what could have been had one of so many chances found the back of the net.
Greece would go onto miss another huge opportunity for Euro 2000 with a costly home draw to Slovenia and the memorable 0-1 loss to Latvia which ultimately cost us qualification, but things got better at Euro 04.
At the World Cup itself in 1998, it should be noted that Croatia would go onto finish 3 rd after beating Holland in the 3 rd place play off and Davor Suker would finish the tournament’s top goal scorer with 6 goals, Croatia would get close to beating France in the semifinal itself which showcases what a tough opponents the Ethniki faced.
Denmark too would have a great tournament reaching the Quarter Finals and it was Brazil that would
beat them 3-2 in Nantes which. under Polyhroniou I always wonder what could have been had we won that ticket to this great World Cup that was.
By Greg Gavalas for Hellas Football
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