Hellas Football

  Poyet's First Greece Squad By Stephen Kountourou  For the first time in 2022, it's International break time! Some see this as a welcome pause to club football and a chance to see their national teams play. Others see this as a giant waste of time. With an appreciation of both opinions, regardless of what supporters think, this will be the full focus of many for the next couple of weeks.  Although there are only friendlies to be played for Greece, against Romania and Montenegro respectively, this will be an early opportunity for Ethniki fans to see what new coach Gus Poyet wants to set up his side. For a bit of a different blog this week, I will be briefly looking at each of Poyet's call ups and what they can bring to these two upcoming games     Odysseus Vlachodimos The Benfica shot-stopper has by all accounts a fantastic season with a Benfica side who have had a relatively poor season by their standards domestically. Although his side is 3rd place in Liga NOS behind Spor

João Carvalho: The Quiet Rejuvenation By Stephen Kountourou  1 Greek champions Olympiakos, over the last few seasons, has become a haven for players to come and rejuvenate their careers. After a tough period in their careers elsewhere, Piraeus, several players have arrived in Piraeus with something to prove and for the most part, this kind of recruitment has been a success.  The likes of Jose Sa, Tiquinho, Gary Rodrigues, Ruben Semedo (to an extent) and the player I am going to be discussing today, January signing Joao Carvalho. Now, it's still very early days for the Portuguese playmaker in Piraeus, but we are already seeing signs of improvement from the player that lit up Nottingham Forest in the Championship a couple of years ago.   Carvalho arrived in Greece to sign for Thrylos on the 29th of January from sibling club Nottingham Forest. There was a mixture of feelings from supporters of the Greek champion's latest signing. The creative midfielder was talented as seen from h

Olympiakos: Regular Season Review By Stephen Kountourou With that, the Greek Super League season is over. The regular season that is. For the third consecutive season, the table will split into two as the top six teams play to decide the title, the European place and who gets nothing from 4th to 6th.  The playouts however will settle who gets relegated from the bottom eight clubs and who finishes best of the rest in 7th. Naturally, and with little surprise to those who follow my writing, I will be focusing on Greek champions Olympiakos once more. It has certainly been a strange regular campaign for Thrylos. An unspectacular start followed by winning without being exciting, a wobble at the turn of the year and an improvement in performances with new additions to the team, all culminating in an anticlimactic final match. Undefeated Without Being Spectacular.   On the surface Thylos' record until the turn of the year looked good. They comfortably topped the table, had the best defence