Makedonas

Sorry for ranting, I thought I typed it here in one of these posts but I guess I deleted it by accident. But Manolas was seen out at a bar the night before a national team game in Athens, it was very unprofessional and in that game he made a stupid mistake against a small team (I think it was the Liechtenstein game) and he was heavily criticized for it. I don't think he played for the national team after that again. We conceded a late equaliser in the 85th min or something. However when he played for Roma and now Napoli he is more serious. It is quite disrespectful and makes it seem that he only cares about money than his country. Of course I don't follow Serie A very closely to know what he is like there but it seems this way to me at least... Many years have passed now and I would like to give them both another chance with the national team, especially since toxic Tzavellas (who has a history of drama with other Greek players in the national team and is older than them and far less successful) was given a million chances with the national team and is still playing.

Manolas was awful for the national team. He really pissed me off and was a total primadonna, not taking the national team seriously and then being at fault for an embarrassing goal conceded against Liechtenstein in Euro 2020 qualifying in which the result was 1-1 in the end. I think that was the end of his national team career. He used the national team to help him boost his club career, did great at the 2014 World Cup to get a big move to Roma and then he stopped playing with passion for the national team, it was quite disgraceful. Sokratis made mistakes too in those years but not as bad, and in his case there is personal drama with our coach as well. I would definitely prefer him over Manolas. Sokratis always showed passion for the national team even when we hit rock bottom. Siovas was another good CB who was kicked out of the national team last year by this coach who is very divisive and overreacted to a comment Siovas made about Manolas and Sokratis being important to the team (when it was clear that the coach had no intentions of inviting them). So there is a lot of drama and with Tzavellas being suspended, we were left with Mavropanos and Chatzidiakos as CBs (not sure why Kyriakos didn't play, I think he is injured). They are still good players and we have a lot of depth at that position so we are lucky but they made costly mistakes today due to their inexperience. EDIT-Sorry if what I am saying is confusing, I am quite angry now and my thoughts are all over the place

Thank you, I appreciate it. It is tough sometimes. Also it was nice to see a great crowd/atmosphere again after playing in empty stadiums for so long now.

Normally I would agree with this statement but we had many more shots today compared to our opponents, plus we hit the woodwork twice (Masouras post and Pavlidis crossbar) and then Sweden scored one of their two goals via penalty. Despite the lack of goals we appeared to be more threatening offensively especially in the first half

Congratulations @Belle but to be honest (I don't mean to be disrespectful) I think Sweden didn't play that well and we gifted it to you in a way. We dominated the first half, the offside goal and then two posts. It was too bad we couldn't take our chances there and then in the second half we conceded a foolish penalty because of the inexperienced Mavropanos. Had Manolas or Sokratis been there, I don't think we would have conceded that penalty. Then another foolish defensive mistake which led to the second goal. I don't want to sound bitter or disrespectful but it was frustrating because we could have beaten Sweden today and we were by far the better side in the first half and then we totally self destructed in the second half. But that is football.... Now we need to beat Spain (and Kosovo) and hope that Sweden can get a result on the last matchday against Spain in order to finish second. Very difficult...

You forget that Kournikova was top 8 without any title, and Sakkari had a great year this year, she made two slam semis, Miami semis, and several 500 tournament semis/final Also I really hope Pavlyuchenkova can make the top 10 but it looks like Jabeur will get there before her

We won 32-7 against Slovakia. Sorry @hckošice

Despite her early loss in Indian Wells, Maria Sakkari will move up from her current ranking of number 9 to a new career-high. She is guaranteed to be at least 8 in the next rankings, and will be number 7 as long as none of Swiatek, Pavlyuchenkova, Jabeur win the title in Indian Wells. Also with Svitolina having to defend her WTA Finals finalist points from 2019 soon, and Muguruza having her 2020 Australian Open finalist points coming off at the beginning of next year, Maria is on a good path to be top 5 after the Australian Open. It will also help a lot if she can have some more big runs between now and then.

High jumper Konstantinos Baniotis Not a big surprise as he is 34 and turning 35 next month and his career has gone downhill due to injuries the past couple years. He has a PB of 2.34m outdoors and 2.33m indoors. He competed in three Olympic Games for Greece (2008, 2012, 2016). He won silver at the 2019 European Indoor Championships. He was 4th at the 2011 European Indoor Championships and 2012 World Indoor Championships (the three medalists there were all dopers so really he deserved gold), 5th at the 2016 World Indoor Championships, 6th at the 2009 European Indoor Championships and the 2016 European Championships, and 8th at the 2010 European Championships. Unfortunately he never made an Olympic final, with his best jump in Olympic qualifications being just 2.22m in Rio. He made two finals at the World Championships (10th in 2013 and 14th in 2015). He won the Greek national championships many times.

Ένα μεγάλο μπράβο στην Ευαγγελία Φράγκου (κωπηλασία) για όλα που έχει καταφέρει φέτος. Η 18χρονη από τα Γιαννιτσα συμμετείχε σε τέσσερις μεγάλες διοργανώσεις φέτος, με αποτέλεσμα να κατακτήσει τέσσερα μετάλλια σε τέσσερα διαφορετικά πληρώματα! Στις αρχές Ιουλίου πήρε χάλκινο στο Παγκόσμιο Κ23 της Τσεχίας στο διπλό σκιφ με την Αγγελική Αραμπατζή. Το Δεκαπενταύγουστο κατάκτησε το χάλκινο στο μόνο σκιφ στο Παγκόσμιο Νεανίδων της Βουλγαρίας. Στις αρχές Σεπτεμβρίου πήρε χρυσό μετάλλιο στο διπλό σκιφ στο Ευρωπαϊκό Κ23 της Πολωνίας με την Ευαγγελία Αναστασιαδου (η οποία ανήκει στην ελαφριά κατηγορία!!!), και σήμερα στο Ευρωπαϊκό Νεανίδων της Γερμανιας πήρε το χρυσό μετάλλιο στο διπλό σκιφ με την Στυλιανή Νατσιουλα (είχαν πάρει μαζί το χάλκινο το 2020 στη συγκεκριμένη ρεγκατα).

So in the end just two medals for us, but our first gold since 2018 (we won 3 medals in both 2019 and 2020 but no gold). Fragkou/Natsioula won gold easily in the women's double, as expected I guess. They won bronze last year here, and I think both will have good chances to make it to Paris (whether in the same boat or not). Fragkou had an incredible 2021. Bronze at the World U23s with Arabatzi in the double, bronze at the World juniors in the single, gold at the European U23s with Anastasiadou and now gold at the European juniors with Natsioula. Now she is done with the junior category and I expect that next year she will also make her debut in the senior category in addition to competing at the U23 level, and that Natsioula will win medals at both the junior and U23 categories (though the World U23s and World juniors will be held simultaneously so she can only compete in one of those I guess). And bronze for us in the women’s four. We won silver last year with two of the same rowers, and I was hoping for a repeat since we finished second in the preliminary race, but we caught a crab which was costly. Still, great to see Greek women win another medal in a four-person boat. We had won a lot of medals and one and two-person boats over the last 15 years or so (and men’s medals in four-person boats), but nothing since 2007 in a four-person boat until 2019 and now this is the third consecutive year that we did it. Two of our four girls will be eligible to compete as juniors again next year, so hopefully we can continue this streak. And even though there were only four boats in the race, Romania and Italy both won medals at the World juniors this year so it was quite a high level. Also nice to see Lemonia Makrygianni win bronze after her brother won bronze in the men’s double last year at this regatta. 5th place for Eleni Leventelli in the women’s single. I thought she would either win bronze or finish 4th but I didn’t expect the Latvian to win a medal. Still a decent performance for her, she is the only one from the A Final who will still be a junior next year so she can win a medal then. Also 5th for Iasonas Exarchou in the men’s single and for our men’s double. A bit disappointing that neither of these boats could win medals, I was thinking at least one could, and also they are all in their last year as juniors so it’s not like Leventelli’s case where next year she’ll have a great chance to reach the podium. Aside from Ntouskos’ historic gold in Rio, it really wasn’t a good year for our male rowers. Our two golds at the World U23s were from rowers in their last year at the U23 level, and we only won one silver at the European U23s from a men’s crew and that was the men’s double where one of the rowers was in his last year as a U23. Hopefully next year will be better for our men but it’s concerning. Disappointed that our men’s pair and men’s four finished 4th in their semifinals, especially the pair as they were super close to making the final, but these were the boats with the smallest chances to win medals for us anyways.

I don't know. I figured Australia and China would skip but thought at least one of USA/Canada would show up

Surprisingly easy 12-6 win for us over Italy. It seems that the good non-European teams all aren't here.

Great first day for Greece. All 7 of our crews advanced. Last year we won three medals (JM2X, JW2X, JW4-) and it looks like we will hopefully win medals in those three events once again, based on today's results at least. I also like our chances in JM1X and maybe JM2-. I'm surprised we didn't send a crew for JW2- as I think we could've won a medal there as well with two of the other 2004 girls Argyraki/Asvesta/Gkogkou.

GEORGIA 0-2 GREECE

Typical WTA...

I'm in for Greece!

No just like last month's U23 Euros, and also no either. Greece with 16 athletes, 7 boats. Some surprises with athletes who made A Finals at the World Juniors this year not being selected. Interesting to see 17 yo Eleni Leventelli finally competing in her age group, after competing at the U23 level two years in a row. She will be in the women's single sculls, after winning bronze in the women's lightweight single sculls at the European U23s last month (just over one second away from gold). I think she'll make the A Final and hopefully she can sneak a bronze but it will be tricky. The Swiss girl has been on fire this year. Leventelli will have another chance next year also. Fragkou/Natsioula won bronze last year here and honestly they should be the favourites for gold in the women's double. Fragkou won three medals in three regattas this year, all with different crews, so this should be her fourth medal of the year. Our women's four only has two of the same girls from last year's silver medal team. Not sure what to expect because with three of the same girls from last year they only got 6th at this year's World Juniors. Still, there are only five crews here in this event so a good chance to win a medal regardless No idea what to expect in the men's pair as we are sending new faces, and Iasonas Exarchou in the men's single sculls probably has a chance to win a medal (he was 9th at the World Juniors but silver at the European U23s in the men's double). Our men's four got 5th at the World Juniors and we have the same team here and with the gold medalists not competing we have a decent chance at bronze or something (we were only 0.09 seconds behind 4th place there). I also think we can have a chance in the men's double but there is so much depth in that event with 17 boats, it will be tough and hard to predict with inexperienced rowers. Generally the men's events are tougher to predict (at least from a Greek POV) because we have more new rowers, whereas most of the women already competed in several big regattas so we know their potential.

I am against racism of course, but they are still doing this? For how long?

http://sportsfeed.gr/3οι-ΣΤΟΝ-ΚΟΣΜΟ-Κατζουράκη-Φραντζεσκάκ/

Yes, but back then especially it was a huge surprise.

They remind me of APOEL in the 2011-12 Champions League. Also with a Greek keeper who was not on the national team, just like APOEL

Also they have the Greek Kolovos who is also kind of considered a failed player even for our standards

Murray said she would be number one in the world

I am silent but unfortunately some Greeks are celebrating today, Maria has many haters in Greece now due to being the girlfriend of the Prime Minister's son. Honestly it is really unfair for her, she is a good girl and never made any political statements yet she is under constant attack. During the Olympics even they were complaining about everything with her. She is top 10 now and people are still saying she isn't good and is a "loser." Sometimes it is embarrassing having people like this in our country. No matter what they always complain...