AEK's three first half goals did not go unanswered for long.  It took just 31 minutes of the second half for Thrasyvoulos to pull even.  Yes, it is almost unimaginable that a team of AEK's supposed caliber would concede three goals in half an hour to a team holding onto the bottom of the table [... Click to continue reading...

We lined up like this: Blanco Edinho -Scocco Rikka Pilatsikas Basinas Juanfran -Ramos-Silva Krygiakos Majstorovisc Saja Lagos went in for Edinho in the 65th, Kafes went in for Pilatsikas in the 87th, and Alexopolous went in for Scocco in the 90th. Donis knows what he is doing. The 4-3-3 worked well for us. Click to continue reading...

We lined up like this: Lyberopoulos Blanco Rivaldo Edinho Toszer -Kafes Bourbos -Pilatsikas Alves -Dellas Macho And everyone played well, even Pilatsikas who is arguably a class below the rest of the team (though steadily improving as he gets more first team experience).  At the start of the second half, Kallon subbed in for Lyberopoulos; in the 59th minute, Ramos Silva went in for Edinho; and in [. Click to continue reading...

Everybody tied this weekend, AEK and Panathinaikos with each other and Olympiacos with a ten-man Asteras Tripolis.Given all the turmoil that has attended our club lately (the sacking of Ferrer, Kostenoglou testing out different line-ups and formations), this was a good result for us. We played decent football. Click to continue reading...

Well, the game is underway and we lined up like this: Moreto Nsaliwa Dellas Papastathopoulos Arruabarrena Zikos Kafes Ramos -Rivaldo Lagos Kallon Which is pretty close to what I predicted in my preview piece yesterday except Kostenoglou has gone with two defensive mids and one striker where I would have put one defensive mid and two strikers. Click to continue reading...

After a weekend off due to a freak snow storm, AEK travels to Spain tomorrow to play the second leg of our UEFA Cup fixture against Getafe. Getafe's Cosmin Contra is predicting a win for his side. AEK, for their part, will be playing just their second match under caretaker manager Nikos Kostenoglou, a former AEK player and, until [. Click to continue reading...

Well, we are a full week into AEK Athens FC A.F. (After Ferrer) and still no replacement in sight. Persistent rumors link us to Angelos Anastasiadis and, even less believably, Didier Deschamps. It looks to me though that Nikos Kostenoglou, former AEK player, former Ferrer assistant, will continue in the capacity of caretaker manager for the [. Click to continue reading...

We play Larissa F.C. tomorrow, Saturday, February 9th, at 9:45 am East Coast Time. I am very nervous about this match, for the following reasons. First, Larissa are no push-overs. They won the Greek Cup last year and had a okay run in this year's UEFA Cup, defeating Blackburn of the EPL in the first round before losing [. Click to continue reading...

We dropped three more points, this time against Panionios. Â First, let's get the discussion of the refereeing out of the way. Â Was the referee crap? Â You betcha. Â Was he paid off? Â He must have been. Â In the first half, Rivaldo was unmistakenly fouled inisde the box. Â In teh second half, Lyberopoulos was clearly tripped right [. Click to continue reading...

Remember that ball-winning, holding midfielder I said we needed to pick up this transfer window? Well, we already have him. Nice to meet you Mr. Nsaliwa. Where ya been? Nsaliwa was in rare form today. He read plays well, anticipated where the ball was going, dispossessed Atromitos in the midfield repeatedly, and broke free of tackles [. Click to continue reading...

Last time we played we beat Atromitos 2-0. That was at home and we were at full strength. Now we play them away and without Blanco, Dellas and probably Papastathopoulos. Ferrer has not been consistent with his line-ups when missing key players, so I can't predict how he will line up. Instead, I will give [. Click to continue reading...

It proves nothing; you know that, right? Veria F.C. was crap. We played well, but not well enough to draw any major conclusions. Still, there were a few surprises that make me truly hopeful about the second half of the season. The first is that Pappas had his first start of the Greek League with AEK. Click to continue reading...

That seems to be the question on fans' minds these days. And there is no simple answer.  A quick look at the transfer market helps illustrate this question. Panathinaikos, for example, made several multi-million dollar signings in the Summer such as star midfielder Marcelo Mattos and are now bolstering their squad even further with the likes of [. Click to continue reading...

Ouch. With that 2-0 loss to Skoda Xanthi, we are out of the Greek Cup. Yesterday, when I found out that Rivaldo would not be playing today, I was actually excited. I was beginning to think Rivaldo was holding us back, slowing our pace, forcing play to move through him. Wow, was I wrong. Without Rivaldo, we [. Click to continue reading...

This morning I looked back at my post from yesterday and realized something: there were fewer details from the game than in my usual posts. When I watched the game on Sunday I did not take notes as I normally do. I just watched the game. Why? I'm not sure. Perhaps I was a bit hung [...] Click to continue reading...