Atromitos - Panathinaikos 1-1

I'll stick with my philosophy that over-criticizing or over-analyzing the team's negatives right not is not constructive for the club's well being.

What I had to say about Karnezi and his ability to play for Panathinaikos I said it last year when he inexplicably caused our elimination from the Greek cup against AEK.  I mentioned he needed to be loaned out to gain some experience before he returns to play for PAO.

Unfortunately, and through no fault of Karnezi, he is still playing for PAO and managed another blunder that cost the team dearly. Sure it wasn't all his fault that the Atromitos player was put through face to face with the goal, but an good goalkeeper would have cleared with the head outside the box or would have conceded the goal, knowing that with 11 players Panathinaikos would still have excellent chances to win the game even a goal down against a team like Atromitos.

Other than that, playing a man down the players rallied, composed themselves and in the end managed to snatch a point from what looked to be a hopeless game until Leto equalized in 86'.

I liked the spirit of not giving up, and the air of superiority that our players showed. They played with ten players but for most of the game I saw them running more to make up for the deficit. So, reason to cheer number one: the team shows resilience.

Reason to cheer number two: the team has some left-over quality and "modern" footballers that very few teams in Greece have or can cope with: Leto, Quincy, Roudolph, and Zeka are fun to watch. I should also give lots of credit to Fereira for liberating Leto from the limited role as a pure winger. With Leto roaming all over the offense, with Quincy moving and dribbling just as well, with a very modern midfielder the likes of which we have never had in Zeka, and with what looks like a very good addition at CF (Rudolph) the team seems to be working well forward. At the same time the defense seems disciplined enough and the ball moves forward with good speed at times.

I know most fans want midfielders who can dribble lots and who can thread the ball to the forwards. Zeka is not one of those midfielders, but he is a workhorse that never lets up and he has enough football skills to move the team forward with speed. He is a modern midfielder that plays all positions and we are lucky to have him on the team right now when our other quality midfiedlers are either aging or injured.

With Leto/Quincy swapping positions on offence and playing more the interior offensive role than the traditional winger who hugs the line type, Panathinaikos can attack without having to commit the fullbacks as much forward. Quincy has enough speed, dribbling ability and football smarts that he seems like the perfect compliment to Leto. What I saw in the first few games this season is that he also fights hard to win the ball back when he loses it and he doesn't neglect to mark when we defend.

This was Rudoph's first forty five minutes and he looked good to me. He has plenty of speed and sound fundamentals to give me hope that he can be a real contributor. His body type, moves, and reactions in the game remind me of the great Warzycha. He looks like a "fighter" who can stop the ball on a dime - a skill that's absolutely necessary for a striker - and who can contribute in the creative aspects of the game. Of course a Panathinaikos striker must be above all a scorer, so we'll see how he does in that respect when the season is a little further along, but for the first forty five minutes I saw, I like the addition.

I would remiss if I didn't say a word about Kapino. He is a young goalkeeper who was called abruptly to guard the sacred Panathinaikos goalposts and in his fist game he looked excellent. He didn't really have much work (kudos to the defensive work of the team to shield him), but the few times he was called to react he showed good reflexes and excellent space perception when he came off his line to stop low through balls. He didn't get tested on high balls but he looks like he has the height and body mass to be able to cope with them. I don't expect him to be Oikonomopoulos in his fist season, but I welcome his poise and maturity he showed in his debut. In all the calamity that is plaguing our club, it's nice to have such young players to watch on the pitch.

It's unfortunate that Kapino was unable to follow the preseason work with the rest of the team, playing instead some meaningless games with the youth NT (yet another way Greek football manages to screw up it's young talent). So I don't know if he can play a whole season, but I would love to see him play more this season and maybe split time with Kotsoli. I think he could turn out a real gem.

As for big picture of leaving a point behind in the fight for the championship, the way the game began with the Kotsolis injury and the Karnezis blunder, it's not a big deal. We were lucky we were playing a really bad team in Atromitos (if I read another rumor about Donis coaching PAO I will probably barf), but through wins and perceveirence we can hope that something good can be had out of this season. If not a championship, maybe some fun games, and at the very least the emergence of some good talented players that we can enjoy for years to come.