Today I decided to cover the less known Greek clubs in the minor leagues, well at least less known to the average football fan outside of Greece. Today Apollon Smyrnis FC aka the Light Brigade show down with AO Chania FC. Both clubs are historical with the origins of Apollo Smrynis dating back to 1890 and Chania being founded in 1945, on of the draws to me is watching clubs with history leave it on the field. Despite being in the minor league the games prove interesting to watch and more often than not are unpredictable despite the public secret of match fixing through out the globe.
Apollon Smyrnis on paper appear to be having a better season racking up 10 wins with only 5 losses in the season thus far, most recently a comfortable victory over Iraklis Psachna (2:1). With manager Vosniadou Alekos bringing them good results as of December 11th when he took the position coaching Appollon. Their roster consists mostly of Greek players none of note other than league veterans Farinola Paulo and Karademitros Dimitris with 3 goals a piece and the highest scorer Kotsonis Dimitris with 4 goals. International support arrived in January in the form of Bruno Filipe Tavares, Miguel Pires Enkarnasao and most recently Marco Antonio Simao Chalkiadakis. The fan favorite I would say is their Brazilian strike Vanterson Costa Viana who scored 3 goals this season and is a dynamic attacker who despite his youth (only 21) and modest size of 164 cm manages to dazzle home crowd fans. The last time Chania faced off early this season against Apollon they took a loss and with Apollon walking away with win last round they will only push the tempo to keep their results positive.
Chania on the other hand have not faired as well in the league taking heavy losses through out the season, barely putting together 8 wins with a disappointing 8 losses. What did catch me as a surprize was that Chania does have a decent international presence on the field with the Cameroonian defender Lionel Esso, who has yet to showcase the grit needed to command his area. Orlando Angel Red is one of the players that caught me off guard, it is not everyday you see a player from Everton duking it out in the minor league of Greece. Other imports are Jacques Alberto Ngwem Ngwem, Ganotis Costas and Gaston Gonzales. Concerning their domestic players a few of interest would be Harry Siligardakis, Alekos Alekou and strike Stelios Kritikos. Head coach is Tim Kavakos who has little about him available but understood he was originally a goalkeeping coach which baffles me considering the amount of goals sent in the net.
The match kicks off rather uneventful but within the first 15 attempting header who would later simulate a foul that the referee failed to spot. For most of the first half the refs had little work to do, both teams firm but nothing too rough. The only annoying part was the constant simulating of a few players from Chania AO but did little to slow down the tempo. Somewhere around the 25th minute Angulo walks the ball into goal giving Appollon the needed lead increasing team morale, celebrating with a single raised finger and a salute to the fans. Moments later Chania would counter with Stelios Kritikos landing a beautiful one from just inside the box. The first half would end with the teams even walking into the locker rooms with Chania’s performance leaving much to be desired.
Coming back there is an air of intensity coming from the better ranked Appollon who refuse to let their opponents have clean shots with effective defense pressure. As the half drew to a close Theodoros Papoutsoyiannopoulos was awarded a yellow card for a firm tackle but in my humble opinion it was a reach from the referees side. The cards would continue to stack with Evangelos Gotovos too recieving a card. Chania would conitue to drop in speed and creativity as Angkoulo Igor Almponigka scores to give his team the lead while Dimitris Souanis would put the last nail in the coffin. For a minor league game it proved to be worth my time and as I predicted Appollon walked away with a convincing win over a what appeared to be floundering Chania. We can discuss budgets but Chania did not bring their A and crumbled under the pressure as the match grew to a close. I would like to name Angkoulo the player of the match for his shear tenacity which allowed him to header in a beautiful goal.
Expect me to cover more football matches as I have more time to focus my my writing again.
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