Panathinaikos Tomorrow!

By: Al | August 18th, 2009

The exclamation mark is necessary because it means that we are playing our first important match of the season!

La Liga maybe commence a little less than two weeks from now, but I believe that the season starts tomorrow, and in the worst possible fashion: in a critical game that could decide whether or not we’ll be in the Champions League this season. How lovely.

Despite me raving all of last season over how our objective was to at least land fourth place and get into the Champions League, I didn’t bother to remember that fourth place meant having to take on another powerhouse. And I didn’t know that due to the UEFA’s non champions path, we would take on an even harder team than usual. That could have been us in Celtic’s shoes taking on Arsenal!

We aren’t new to this scenario. Last year, we took on Schalke 04 in the 3rd round qualifier. Schalke was a Champions League quarterfinalist from the previous season, and after a 1-0 loss at Gelsenkirchen we ended up destroying them 4-0 on the return leg. Schalke later ended up imploding and landing in 8th place in the Bundesliga that season.

Will this happen to Panathinaikos? I hope not, I actually wish them well, but I obviously still don’t want them to beat us. They are in a similar position as us, working hard all season to get into the Champions League while actually faring well in that same exact tournament (and I’m happy that they defeated Inter – twice). The Champions League was in their plans all season just like us, and both of us need everything that comes with playing in the Champions League: the prestige, the boost in revenues, the experience, etc.

The last time we played them, we won 2-1 at the Vicente Calderon, back in the 07/08 UEFA Cup. I won’t use this result as a basis for tomorrow, because both teams are much different than back then, and this first leg is in Athens.

The advantage they will have tomorrow is obvious: their fans and stadium. Just check this out:

Intimidating enough? Meh, we’ll be fine. The Spanish press hasn’t been referring to the Olympic Stadium as “Greek Inferno” for nothing.

How are we doing? We just beat Liverpool a little over a week ago, won the Trofeo Teresa Herrera last Wednesday (a match hosted by Deportivo La Coruna, in which we tied 1-1 and won on penalties to claim a giant ass trophy), and defeated a 3rd division team (oooooh!). We’re in a good position mentally, having won all that in the past ten days.

I’ll tell you this much: if you’ve seen us last season, you’ll know that we’re not messing around. The Champions League is serious business, and we proved to be serious contenders. Maybe our league season was shakey, but in the end we pulled off some amazing comebacks and results and we deserve to be playing at the highest tier of European football.

We are hungry. Maybe hungrier than Panathinaikos even.

The roster:

PORTEROS

1 Asenjo.
13 Roberto.

DEFENSAS

3 Antonio López.
5 Heitinga.
17 Ujfalusi.
31 Álvaro Domínguez.
22 Pablo Ibáñez.
16 Juanito.

CENTROCAMPISTAS

8 Raúl García.
11 Maxi Rodríguez.
12 Paulo Assunção.
20 Simão.
23 Cléber Santana.
9 Jurado.
19 Reyes.

DELANTEROS

10 Agüero.
7 Forlán.
14 Sinama Pongolle.

Enjoy the game. Tomorrow is an important day!

Aupa Atleti!