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Behind
Enemy Lines: The View From An Olympiakos Fan |
March 9th 2005
Newcastle-online caught up with the editor of Gate
7, an Olympiakos Fan Club to get his views on Greek football,
Olympiakos, NUFC, the upcoming UEFA Cup tie between the two sides
and more. This is what he had to say...
Q: What impact has Greece's European Championship win had
on your domestic League, your country and Olympiakos?
Greece was a 'team' and that's why we won the European Championships.
What I mean with this is that all the players played for each other
and not for themselves. We have no big names in our squad so they
really played like a team. The only impact is that more people have
now started watching football. I think something good can happen to
the Greek League after years of misery. Otherwise there is no impact
to Greece as a country except that all Greeks are proud for their
national team. No impact to Olympiakos at all either.
Q: Corruption it seems is widespread in Greek football or was, what
are the authorities/clubs doing to rid your game of this?
Corruption was and is everywhere in all kinds of life and it's the
same in football as well. They all know that corruption is there but
they can't do or they don't want to do anything to get rid of it.
This is a difficult situation and I hope that the government and the
football authorities will really do something about it in the near
future.
Q: Greek football has a reputation of hooliganism and although
there have been lots of good work done to combat this, it is still
a factor of the game over in Greece. What is your own view on this
and what must the authorities do to stamp this out?
This is one of the major problems in Greek football. The problem is
between Greek fans only and we have never had any troubles while playing
against other European teams. On the contrary, when playing European
opponents we are really friendly fans. I think you people will find
out in the two forthcoming games. This year they changed the law and
the police started to use cameras to take photographs of fans rioting
to put them away in jail. 4 Olympiakos fans are already in jail and
some 14 more will go on trial for hooliganism. Olympiakos played 5
league games behind closed doors and will play the next 2 as well
for crowd trouble caused by the fans. They are really trying to do
something to prevent violence. The only bad thing is that they always
try to apply the laws only for Olympiakos team and fans, so here we
go back to the topic of corruption.
Anyway, Newcastle fans have nothing to be afraid of as long as their
attitude is the correct one. I think they can even go to the Red Cafe
store outside Olympiakos' ground for a pint. Just be aware of the
riot police. They are really tough guys.
Q: What formation/system do Olympiakos use?
Olympiakos uses 4-4-2 or 3-5-2. These formations can alter during
the game.
Q: Are Olympiakos a defensive or attacking team?
Olympiakos is and always was a natural attacking team. This year we
do not score too many goals though. We won all of our Champions League
home games and the UEFA Cup one with the same score 1-0.
Q: What are Olympiakos' main strengths and main weaknesses?
The main strength is the fans. They create a unique atmosphere in
the ground. They even follow the team to all away games in very large
numbers. Now the strengths of the team. Olympiakos has taken part
in the Champions League for the last 8 years so we are a very experienced
team. They have only lost just the one home game in all of those years
and this was from Man Utd. Teams like Real Madrid, Bayern Leverkusen,
Ajax, Juventus, Liverpool, Monaco, Deportivo etc. did not make it
in Greece. The Brazilians (Rivaldo and Giovanni) can do magic some
times even though they are 33 years-old. This year the defence of
the team is very good as well. The Argentinian (Schourer) who joined
the team in the Summer is a very good player. Look out for Yugoslavian
Pedrag Djorjevic, if he on form he can demolish any team. The weakness
of Olympiakos is the age of the current squad. Most of the basic players
are over or just under 30 years-old. So they are not fresh to run
up and down for 90 minutes. The second weakness is the away games.
But this is only for the Champions League games. In UEFA Cup it has
been different.
Q: What are your impressions of Newcastle United as a football
club? How well known are they in Athens?
Newcastle are a historic, famous and very good team. They have a nice
ground and they are of course as well known in Greece as all English
teams.
Q: What players, for both teams, do you think will be the
key men on Thursday and in the return leg?
Olympiakos: Nikopolidis, Schourer, Rivaldo, Giovanni, Djorjevic, Okkas.
Newcastle: Shearer, Dyer and Kluivert.
Q: What one player from Newcastle do you fear the most?
Shearer.
Q: What players (if any) from Newcastle would you like to play for
Olympiakos?
Shearer and Dyer.
Q: Olympiakos fans are regarded as hostile and intimidating, can this
have negative impact on your own team? Do they fear the crowd when
they are playing bad?
They are really hostile and a very fanatic crowd. 3,000 fans of Olympiakos
can shout louder than any 40,000 other fans of any team in the world.
During the game there is no way that the fans can harm the team. The
players of Olympiakos take only power from the fans and that's it.
Q: Finally, what is your score prediction for the match?
I will go for 1-0 or 2-0 if Olympiakos are in a good mood, a draw
otherwise. |
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