The matches have now been confirmed:-Sunday July 25:
Game 1 at 12:45pm – Sydney FC vs AEK Athens FC
Game 2 at 3pm – Blackburn Rovers vs Glasgow Rangers
Wednesday July 28:
Game 3 at 6pm – AEK Athens FC vs Blackburn Rovers
Game 4 at 8:15pm – Sydney FC vs Glasgow Rangers
Saturday July 31:
Game 5 at 5pm – AEK Athens FC vs Glasgow Rangers
Game 6 at 7:15pm – Sydney FC vs Blackburn Rovers
All matches are at the Sydney Football Stadium.
First of all, it's been a while since I lasted posted and quite a bit has happened since
then.
Well, we beat Tripolis in our last regular season game, 2-0 at home. A rather eventful game in
fact so I'll go through some of it here.
We started with a different line up than what was being predicted by most, the main reason for
this being the fact that several players (Scocco, Blanco, Araujo, Arce, Saja, Roger, and others)
were out partying two nights before the game until the early morning hours.
What a fantastic start to the Festival Of Football Tournament.AEK and Sydney Fc kicked off
proceedings at 12:45 pm and considering the team arrived on Thursday night 8 pm and had less than
48 hrs to prepare in the local conditions with a light training run,(attended by about 300 AEK fans
from Sydney and about 100 ORIGINALS mostly from Melbourne with a mixture of locals),the boys put in
an awesome display.
It was a black night in the history of AEK F.C.Just after a friendly game at "El Paso" in
Kalithea against the locals,in which the scoreline now seems immaterial,we lost 2-1.On 87 minutes
the referee called a halt to the match when about 30 AEK Fans?? entered the playing arena and
headed towards the benches where Bajevic was seated.
Djebbour scored an early goal ten minutes into the first half to put us up 1-0. First
subsitution for AEK, Nathan Burns coming on for Leonardo. Fantastic support from the AEK fans
despite being largely outnumbered by Scottish supporters.
AEK arrived in Sydney at 8pm local time.By the time the players had cleared customs it was
another hour.About 200 AEK fans were on hand to greet the team,the Original boys from Melbourne
joined their Sydney brothers and with others coming from all over Australia.The players looked very
tired after their 20 hour flight but with the singing from the fans,the boys were made to feel very
welcome.
Following the destruction at Nea Smyrni by the fans of Panionios themselves,UEFA has ordered
that the match be played in Pireus at the stadium Karaiskaki.Not our favoured option but better
than being kicked out of Europa alltogether.Suppose the win will taste sweeter.
There will be no AEK fans in the stadium for obvious reasons but the match will be followed by
about 500 travelling Dundee Utd fans.
Why? Because they hated the idea of rivals AEK Athens playing as the home team at their
stadium so much, that they trashed their own stadium...
AEK failed to bring their Olympic Stadium to up to UEFA Europa League standards and so had to
find a local alternative.
So Friday evening comes and PAO draws 1-1 with Xanthi at home. Saturday evening comes and
Iraklis beat Olympiakos 2-1. Looks like Sunday may turn out to be a pretty good day I was
thinking...
and then AEK loses 2-1 to Kerkyra.
The game was played in Patra since Kerkyra's stadium was not yet up to Superleague
standards.
Our new manager,who we hope will be the saviour of our AEK,has touched down in Athens.He was
greeted at the airport by about 150 jubilant supporters who kept on singing his name,and other
songs,regarding our enemies.
He stopped briefly to give an interview to the waiting press,who could barely breath as they were
surrounded by AEK fans.
To all our readers and AEK fans out there, Merry Christmas (and if you celebrate something else
or nothing at all, enjoy the Holidays) ! Hopefully everyone enjoys a relaxing and safe holiday
period before the second half of the season starts again.
Let's hope for a cup this year, and if all goes well, maybe we'll even see construction start in
Nea Filadelfia (as unlikely as it may be)!
