Wake up Greek football, its time to stop living like its 2004. It’s over. Done with. The heroes of Lisbon should and will be immortalised in the annals of Greek history, but we must no longer revere them or their tactics as the building blocks of Greek football.
It’s time to move on, the rest of the world has and we are running 6 years behind.Make no mistake, Greece’s exit at the hands of Argentina was a dark day for Greek football.
Speaking to many Greek fans you would think the opposite. They say it was a ‘brave effort’ from a team with ‘limited ability’ against an all powerful colossus. But the one comment that really grates me harder than a week old fetta is that Greece played ‘smart tactical football’.
Against Argentina, Greece’s ‘tactics’ were to play an almost 7-2-1 formation giving away 80% possession and having three shots on goal the entire match. All this in a ‘must-win’ game where losing meant Greece were out. Yes, Greece held out for 77 minutes but that’s all the game-plan was designed to do – hold out.
Contrast three days earlier against Nigeria; Another must-win game for Greece. 27 shots on goal and 56% possession leads to a 2-1 victory. What was the difference? By going a goal down early, Greece was forced out of its shell and to start looking for goals. Against Nigeria they believed they could do it. Against Argentina they did not believe they belonged on the same pitch.
This lack of belief is not engrained in the players. It lies squarely in the minds of the coaching staff. It is part of a wider problem at this World Cup where it is accepted that inferior teams will adopt a defensive style in order to achieve results and avoid humiliating losses so they enhance their chances of qualification. But guess what? It doesn’t work.
For all their courage, New Zealand were knocked out. For all their defensive heroics, Switzerland too were dismissed. And look at the other ‘second tier’ teams who progressed further than Greece – Japan, Chile, Paraguay and Slovakia. Are they really better than Greece? Probably not. But they played without fear against the big guns and got results. Slovakia against Italy is the best example of this.
The rest of the world has adjusted to defensive football. It is played week in, week out in the top leagues by the Birmingham’s, Osasuna’s and Livorno’s of this world with little success. It produces the odd result in the short term, but has a far greater impact on the mindsets of the players in the long run. It encourages a defeatist attitude where a draw is considered a win and in the World Cup, draws are not good enough (ask New Zealand).
The defensive tactics of Otto Rehhagel have gone from innovative to obvious. Euro 2008 was a warning signal. Greece’s weak opposition in the qualifying campaign masked the inherent problem. When it came to the crunch, Rehhagel (and most of Greece) did not believe his players could match it with the world’s elite. The unfortunate consequence is we will never know if he was right because the players were not given the chance.
If there’s one success to come from this abject failure of a campaign, it is Rehhagel’s resignation. It seems the smart thing to do would be for Greece to believe in its footballers again.