So, a nice, relatively comfortable win on Monday brought us up from ninth to joint fifth.

We got the three points we so desperately needed, as well as a little bit of reassurance for the players and fans. Beating a team like Larissa with a score of 3-1 is always a nice thing. Sure, Larissa might not be at their best, but they are rarely an easy team to win against (I feel like I've said that many times already this season).

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So, one point from a game where it won't really do much to help us. In reality though, we could have come away with all three points had we managed to score one more of our chances, or had Saja not made a terrible mistake that the goalkeeper on my own amateur team would likely avoid.

Well, AEKBaltimore will watch the match on TV soon, since I believe he recorded it, and I'm not sure if AEKMAN74 watched as well.

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So, as is typical with AEK, we blow an early 1-0 lead and end up with a draw (today, the match against PAS, the Cup Final, the match with BATE).

My stream today was poor quality, so I can't comment as much as I could have. But basically what we saw throughout the match was that we had many chances, yet we only scored one of them.

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After a pretty good performance by AEK, we are up 1-0 from a Manduca header off of a fine cross from Karabelas. Some great chances for us, including one with Manduca and one with Blanco. Ergotelis started stronger but we picked up the tempo around the 20th minute and we are now dominating for the most part.

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Ok, to be honest, I was expecting a loss for AEK here. Aris were considered favorites for this game and I think that's somewhat justified. Bearing that in mind, I'll take a draw here. Its never easy to win away against Aris, even on a good day.

I wasn't able to watch the match since it was satellite.

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Well, our night went from good to about as bad as it could get. As you can see from the post below we were up 1-0 at half time.

The second half started and early on Majstorovic gets his second yellow and is sent off and Bate tie the game. So, one of our key players is sent off, the pitch condition is deteriorating (and it was disgusting to begin with) and we were loosing the control over the game we had before.

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45 minutes in and we're leading this one 1-0! Blanco scored a penalty (certainly the correct call) to put us up and we now are in a great position and the win is definately possible.

Conditions are terrible in Minsk. It is extremely cold (near zero degrees celcius) and the pitch is extremely wet.

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A resurgent AEK overcame a depressing 4-0 thrashing to Everton two weeks ago to grind out a surprising but deserved 1-0 victory over Portugeuese powerhouse club Benfica FC.

The night started dismally for AEK. Playing what I believe was a 4-2-3-1 with Saja in goal and Juanfran, Arce, Marjstorovic, and Gorgeas in the back, Kafes and Jahic in defensive midfield roles, Manduca, Scocco and Hersi forming a three-man attacking line and Blanco playing lone goal-poacher up top, AEK struggled for possession early on.

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A huge win for us, absolutely incredible! So many good things to say, its going to take a while. I believe AEKBaltimore recorded the game since it was on in the US as well, so hopefully he will have some more comments as well.

First off, let me just repeat that once more. AEK 1-0 Benfica.

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So, another derby lost. That makes it the first time we've lost two derbies in a row in about ten years. Not a good sign.

Not many positives to take from this game, both sides played some pretty poor football. I'm not going to bother writing much as there is little to say. Firstly, our forwards still can't score.

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Well, there has been quite a bit of discussion in the post AEKBaltimore put up. Since the match alot has happened, most regarding the horrendous officiating at the match. But first, a review.

For everyone who has been following AEK you know how incredibly unlucky we tend to be, especially when it matters most.

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Well, our match in Giannena starts in a little under an hour. Our most likely starting lineup is said to be Saja, Araujo, Majstorovic, Arce, Juanfran, Jahic, Guerreiro, Hersi, Manduca, Nemeth, and Blanco. We will be going 4-4-2 with Blanco and Nemeth up front. A good line-up in my opinion, very strong, with some experienced players.

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Some important comments to mention about yesterday's match.

Firstly, our to team put on a good performance. Even now more can be improved on. but it was a solid game for the most part with some enjoyable football.

This is definately a good result. On paper, Iraklis are certainly not a pushover this year with some pretty impressive signings being made for them over the summer.

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We got a good win tonight at OAKA against a team that could have put up some difficulties. Unfortunately though, its quite late here, so I dont have time to post a review right now. Either I'll write it tomorrow or perhaps if either AEKMAN74 or AEKBaltimore watched the match they'll get something.

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So, our first home game of the season (after the match against Olympiakos was cancelled), and it could prove to be a fairly difficult one. Iraklis have a strong squad and I believe they have the potential to cause trouble to any team in the league.

Nonetheless, our squad is also strong as well now so I believe we can take the win.

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A long press conference was held a few days ago by team president Thanopoulos. The president spoke for a couple of hours on a number of issues. Some of the highlights were:

-Firstly, he confirmed that things around the team are now calm. We have achieved our goals in terms of transfers and reaching the Europa League Group Stages

-The team is now on much more solid ground, financially.

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I have heard it said by multiple sources and also believe it myself that this year will be the Fire's best chance at winning a championship for quite some time. While searching for contract information on the Fire (if someone knows where I can find it, I would be very happy), I came across this article.

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Unfortunately, Dasan Robinson cannot be the fall guy for this one. After his late heroics/ complete stupidity against Colorado, I can't remember that last time that I wanted kiss something and kill it at the same time, I thought the Fire were in for a long night against DC United.

With only 3 healthy defenders, the Fire entrusted the LB duties to Mike Banner, the second year youngster who weighs maybe a buck-thirty and spends most of his time playing as an attacking midfielder.

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We got the three points here. It wasn't a pretty three points but, at this point in time, I'll take them.

First, the video of our goal, set up beautifully by Nemeth.

Some good aspects to mention about our play today, but overall, it was not an impressive victory.

Our defence today was not the greatest, and Majstorovic and Juanfran in particular were quite poor.

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D.C. United got a rare road win and toughed out a 1-0 win in Chicago to improve the teams chances at gaining the MLS playoffs. United had not won in over four months on the road and perhaps this newfound confidence will spur the Black and Red from this point forward. Click to continue reading...

First off, enjoy the video.

Well I posted my review in the comments section of the previous post by AEKBaltimore, but here it is again.

I was nervous about this one before it started but still I had the feeling we would get the win. And we did.

Firstly, as for the game, the team played wonderful football, especially compared to what we were seeing just last week.

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We got the loss here I was fearing. Perhaps not a pleasing result but immediately we notice the away goal we scored. This will help us alot since really all we need in OAKA now is 1-0.

Before anything else two points must be pointed out. Firstly, Scocco was out for this match due to cards and will play with us for the next match.

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One final friendly loss for our team before our first Europa League match against Vaslui.

Below is the video of our goal, scored by Leonardo although it deflected of a number of players.

A 3-1 loss at this point really isn't the most encouraging result but it must be pointed out that the squad playing today was largely a B-Team.

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Some news to report about our team. First, the good news. Ismael Blanco has signed an extension to his contract which will keep him at AEK until 2013. The new contract will also include a 100,000 euro raise, which means he will ne making 500,000 euros a year now. Good to see we'll be keeping our best striker at the club for a few more years.

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So, we lost this one but it was not at all a bad performance by our team, and was definately the best game we've seen AEK play all pre-season. First of all, goal highlights.

Unfortunately I haven't seen a video with more highlights uploaded yet, but we had many chances, just as many if not more than Boca.

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Highlights Below (Pavlis Goal, Burgas Goal, and Scocco post)

Again, another draw for AEK. I believe that's our third from three friendlies. Perhaps not an encouraging result on paper, but in reality, AEK dominated the match.

Each half saw two different lineups. The first half seemed to have what might be considered to main squad, consisting of players such as Scocco, Blanco, and Majstorovic.

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Well, a press conference was held a few days back with regards to the new investors who were mentioned the post before. The deal has been confirmed, as most people expected, but still the names have not been revealed. Even at AEK only a few people (Notias, maybe Thanopoulos) know who they are.

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The story will likely be focused on the Center Referee and Freddie Ljungberg's double yellow. The first was for Simulation, what we all know as diving and the second is not listed in the match report. While it was likely Dissent, the 2nd Yellow was so quick one could question. What I [...] Click to continue reading...

Just as promised, even if it is a day behind normal schedule here. Plenty of solid goals this past week in Major League Soccer. I particularly love some of the combinations in plays like the Columbus game between Jason Garey and Steven Lenhart.

By the way, what was with Rob Stone's Max Bretos call on the DeRo goal?

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Love him or hate him this guy is an exciting player!

Congrats!

JM

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GOOOOOOAALLLLLLLLL!!! Blanco just makes it look easy sometimes...

Congrats to the Chicago Fire on making it to the SuperLiga Final! Let's win it all now boys!

Big thanks to one of the Fire's most dedicated fans, Freddy Coba, for sending me the link.

JM

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Yep, you guessed it, another derby on the first matchday of the season. And AEK will once again be one of the teams playing in the derby, just like last year. And who will our opponent be? Yep, its Olympiakos!

The game is still a while away but Im sure the likes of Bajevic, Blanco, Scocco, and Kyrgiakos are waiting for their revenge after our unfortunate loss in the Greek Cup Final of 2009.

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The match against Larissa ended 0-0 yesterday.

A report can be found here.

As the article states the draw means little for us. Either way, we can still qualify for Champions League as long as we beat Panathinaikos this Sunday. However, we did not play as well as we should have one week before the biggest game of the playoffs.

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Yet another big win against our northern rivals, this time with a scoreline of 3-1.

Videos below:

It was a fairly confident win against PAOK this time with goals coming from Djebbour, Blanco, and Scocco. There were some questionable calls from the ref (including a red for PAOK, which I agree with but could have been avoided by PAOK) and some calls not made (including a hand ball from Kafes which wasn't called).

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