USA 94: The Greek Monumental Achievement That Was Crushed - Part 2

USA 94: The Greek Monumental Achievement That Was Crushed - Part 2 By Greg Gavalas Game 5 – critical
In preparation for Greece’s big away match with the Magyars, Greece played an away friendly with Austria on March 10, Panagoulias used this match to also try some new combinations, however a dreadful start saw Greece down 2-0 after 14 minutes, and after settling down a young man by the name of Nikos Machlas would score on debut. 
Greece would go onto lose 2-1 but was unlucky not to score an equalizer, the match saw Giorgos Giorgiadis get his debut as well as Christos Kostis, along with Panathinaikos midfielder, Kostas Antoniou, they are combinations I wished I saw more off down the line as things would pan out.
Bring on Wednesday 31st March in Budapest, Panagoulias and his men could make a big statement for World Cup Qualification.
For this match the former US Olympic coach would revert to a line up very in line with the USA 94 DNA of the Ethniki, only exception would be Spiros Marangos being a starter although he was in good form in ’93 at Panathinaikos.
The Greek team would play a good game, hardworking players who were not intimidated by the heavy Hungarian tackles early on, instead later on the Greeks would give it back to the home team.
Greece’s new striker, Machlas combined will with the midfielders and with Mitropoulos was able to cause many problems for the Hungarians. Apostolakis I have to say was a stand out for Greece, he ran quality possession all game and was putting in good quality passes throughout the match.
The Panathinaikos player would be the star in a historic night, a nice back heel from Antoniou had Nikos Tsiandakis run into the ball and send a cross into the box, thankfully for us, the Hungarian defender used his arm to stop the cross (this was completely unnecessary) thus a penalty was awarded and Apostolakis blasted home from the spot in the 70th minute.
The final whistle saw the Greeks celebrate a big win, they withstood Hungarian pressure and were now favourites to qualify for the World Cup.
With Russia winning their next two games against Luxembourg and Hungary and scoring 7 goals in those matches, it was now a battle of who would win the group. This was further cemented when Iceland could only draw with Luxembourg.
Game 6 – biggest test
In May now and the Ethniki would face their hardest test of the campaign and by some way, away to Russia, both teams were undefeated and a win for either team would give them the advantage for top spot in the group. 
The Russians had scored double the amount of goals Greece had scored and both teams hadn’t conceded a goal yet so it was certainly an enticing encounter only for the playing pitch to look a total disgrace.
Panagoulias went with the same line up as per the Hungary match and Greece was able to hold their own as the Russians certainly proved a cut above their previous opponents.
Despite Russia dominating possession, Greece would take the lead right on half time, a Tsiandakis free kick was headed home by Mitropoulos.
In the second half Greece was just focused on defending and some silly challenges in the box would show a warning sign, many lunging challenges that firstly were lucky not to be given a penalty but also ones that would allow the attacker to get away if played right.
In the 70th minute a challenge from Apostolakis would bring down the Russian attacker and the Danish referee would point to the penalty spot which Igor Dobrovolskiy converted. 
The draw saw Greece maintain top spot and a couple of weeks later, Iceland would do the Ethniki a favour and hold the Russians to a 1-1 draw in Reykjavik. That meant, provided Greece beat Luxembourg, the final match between Greece and Russia would be a playoff for first spot despite both teams qualifying.
Game 7
Greece’s final away game was against the Luxembourgers was on the 12th of October. One puzzling item from all these games is to pin point who played left back, in this game three defenders lined up, Apostolakis on the right, Manolas in the centre and Kalitzakis, a well-known CB would play next Manolas. It would seem in the games like this, Panagoulias like to play two CB’s with Apostolakis and Tsiandakis running the wings.
Greece would win the game 3-1 and get some much needed goals, they came from Machlas, Apostolakis scored an excellent second goal with a low power shot from out wide that’s worth watching and Dimitris Saravakos scored an absolute screamer to mark Greece’s third goal, another goal worth watching.
Game 8 – Party at OAKA
The final match of the campaign, played on 17th November at a packed OAKA, was a chance for celebrations to the end of one historic campaign as Greece and its fans celebrated World Cup Qualification but whilst that was, the match with Russia was another good chance to test the team out, this was not the hardest campaign the team had experienced and Russia was a good opportunity to see how we go after the tough match in Moscow 6 months earlier. 
The Greek line up would have two surprises, one of Vasilis Ioannidis making his debut, the Olympiacos defender taking the place of the injured Kalitzakis and Kyriakos Karataidis would start instead of Kolitsidakis.
It should be noted Greece put on a good performance and the game was played at a good pace.
Greece’s pressure paid off 11 minutes from time when a Noplias freekick found Machlas whose famous flanking header found the back of the net and OAKA would light up in flares as fans went crazy with celebrations. The match would be stopped for 4 minutes to let the flares smoke clear and the Russians came in hard to find an equalizer. 
It’s not something remembered by many but Russia actually scored a legit goal in stoppage time however the Gabon linesman had raised his flag for offside although replays show Dobrovolskiy was onside. 
Final Standings



Hellas Football

Follow @GregGavalas


Comments

  1. You are right, Kostis, Georgiadis and Frantzeskos should have been at the World Cup

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top 10 Chants in Greek Football

A Knee away from the 1998 World Cup

The Current State Of Football On Greece’s Biggest Island - Crete