Greek Cup half empty as Asteras lose out to Olympiakos in final

Greece Soccer Cup Final

While the usual suspects may have been denied in England’s cup competitions  this year, Simon Smith looks at how hopes of a challenge to the one city monopoly of Greek football faded in yesterday’s cup final between Olympiakos and Asteras…

I’m sure there will be enough speculation about the future of Wigan that I can avoid joining the Martinez brigade here.  It was a brilliant final, a classic giant killing final the likes of which we have been too long deprived of.  Sadly, in the midst of all this, a David killing has slipped under the radar in this weekend’s other cup final.  It’s the sorry tale of Asteras Triploi’s extra time drubbing by champions Olympiakos.

It’s been quite a season for Greek football.  It’s not going to be remembered as a classic: there was no title race, Fan violence continued to spiral out of control, the Hellenic Football Federation proved itself once again to be incapable of any meaningful authority and European campaigns were abysmal.  But it won’t be a season we will forget in a hurry.  This probably will be remembered as the defining season for the Superleague in its recent history.  It’s been one of those seasons you don’t forget because it captured the feeling in the sport so perfectly, so typically, that anybody without knowledge of Greek football could look at the table, watch a few games, and instantly understand what was going on.  I wrote in February about the way the season was heading, but I couldn’t have hoped that the Greek Cup final would epitomise the rest of the year so perfectly. Continue reading

Greek Football – A Tale of One City?

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The False Nine’s Simon Smith looks at the current state of play in Greek football, in a season that hasn’t followed the usual script… 

Olympiacos and Panathinaikos: two Champions League regulars we all have at least a bit of familiarity with.  Champions League group stage perennial drop outs, they are the shop window of Greek football to the rest of Europe: in fact with the possible exception of AEK Athens, what does the rest of the world actually know about the Greek Superleague?  Continue reading