Youthful Exuberance

On Wednesday our new look and on the day much younger Aek side took on Lamia in their second preseason friendly on Greek soil. After successful preparation in Poland the team continues to prepare for their European Qualifier with either Budapest Honved or CS Universitatea who drew 0-0 in the first leg in Hungary. The second leg is this coming Thursday in Romania.

Moving forward to what I saw during the match in Lamia with my two eyes. First and foremost we were without 9 key players for various reasons who did not travel to Lamia for the match. The likes of Mantalos, Livaja, Vranjes, Bakakis who’s still recovering from surgery, as well as other important pieces to the team didn’t feature.

We had the debut of Verde his first appearance in the yellow and black. From what I saw he is a crafty little player, he’s short but explosive and knows how to fill the space to recover and manipulate the ball. It’s still very early, we have plenty more time to see the player. In fact for that matter all our new players, are still adapting to life and football in Greece. Hopefully as I’m anticipating the much awaited debut of Nelson Oliveria will come on the 31st against Istanbul Basaksehir at Oaka.

Our new Portuguese coach Miguel Cardoso has surely started to change the style that Aek plays from what I saw in the two friendlies against Volos and Lamia. The system for the most part is a 4231 with the deeper of the two center midfielder dropping between the centerbacks to pick up the ball and start the attack. We look to be a very possession based team which is good of course when we are winning, but might cause some discomfort as we have seen in the past when there are 10 players behind the ball defending for their lives. In these moments we have to be critical with our chances. Let’s see what our center forward has for us..

The one and only goal that was scored on Wednesday was risky but beautiful. It started from a shot goal kick from Tsitondas, Geraldes picked up the ball in front of the 18, turned beautifully beat the very rare press that Lamia showed and began an attack that led to a great team goal after a dummy from Albanis and a subsequent tap in from the same player after a pin point cross on the floor from Hult. Right after the ball hit the back of the net it was immediate applause for all involved in the move starting from the coach, as it was clearly something that was talked about.(playing out of the back)

Let’s see this coming Wednesday as it should be a strong test against this powerhouse Turkish side, a good prep before our big European qualifier. All the best boys, here’s to a successful year!

George Angelidis