What Went Right? Nigeria went down to ten men 24 minutes into their fixture with Greece, opening up an opportunity for the Greeks to take advantage of. They possessed the ball more than you would have thought, and were decent in the air. That’s about it.
What Went Wrong? Pretty much everything else. This team isn’t even a shell of the side that won the European Championship six years ago. They still have mostly all of the same players they had in 2004, and that in itself should tell you volumes. They are old and slow, they can’t defend with any consistency, they aren’t organized or disciplined much anymore, and they certainly can’t attack. It didn’t matter if they tried to patiently build an attack or counterattack; either way they were sluggish and ineffective. Their long shots were more a product of their inability to get in the penalty area. How the hell did they get to South Africa?
Who Stepped Up To The Plate? On the rare occasions that Theofanis Gekas and Dimitrios Salpingidis were able to get on the end of some service they actually took quality shots on goal. Fullback Vasilis Torosidis did his best on the left flank.
Who Didn’t Show Up? Alexandros Tzorvas needs more seasoning in goal but he at least looks like he could be decent; he just wasn’t here. Defenders Avraam Papadopoulos, Sitorios Kyrgiakos and Sokratis Papastathopoulos, midfielders Loukas Vyntra, Kostas Katsouranis, Giorgos Karagounis and Alexandros Tziolis all need to be put to pasture. Their time has come and gone, obviously.
How Was The Coaching? That Otto Rehhagel, the architect of that shock continental championship in 2004, was not able to recognize that he needed to replace a majority of these players years ago and work in younger, hungrier players over the last few years to re-energize this side tells me that he has gotten old and stale and needs to go.
Did They Finish Where They Were Expected? Yes. There were no upsets in this side, and everybody saw it coming.
Now What? Getting rid of Rehhagel was the first positive step. Clearly the Greeks can stay with anybody on the planet as long as there is a system in place that takes advantage of their talents. Time to get younger — and fast.