6 great minutes

For six minutes on Friday, the world seemed back in balance.  After George Samaras tied Greece's game versus Germany in the EURO 2012 championships in the 55th minute - on a beautiful pass from Dimitri Salpingidis - it was as if Ellas was finally able to draw on some of it's civilization equity to make things even with the EU, European Central Bank and the IMF (AKA the troika).


We owe you billions in bailout money, you owe us for inventing most of what makes up modern western society.  Let's call it even, 1 to 1.


Then stubborn reality showed up in the form of a blizzard of goals from Germany, and all of a sudden it was 1453 again.  After overachieving, we lost Constantinople and the football game 4 to 2. 


Germany is very, very good.  They made great passes and were aggressive the entire game.  Ellas was on her heels most of the game, yet resiliently stayed in the EURO longer than anyone expected. 


Of course, the country looks likely to stay in the euro zone longer than expected, too.  All the hand wringing leading up to last weekend's election proved to be nothing more than that.  The Greek electorate was pretty mature (something you can't say about our electorate, at least in 2010) and elected enough members of parliament from the 3 'stay in the euro zone' parties - New Democracy, PASOK, and the Coalition of the Democratic Left - to form a new coalition government and ease fears that the motherland would leave the common European currency.


Much like the performance of our football team, the elections turned out as well as could have been expected. Though Greeks elected a pro-euro coalition into power, almost 60 percent of the electorate voted for anti-bailout parties. That number gives the new government some leverage to renegotiate the terms of the bailout with the troika.


With Merkel stubbornly opposing euro bonds or a EU stimulus package, Greece's best hope for economic recovery is a renegotiated debt repayment schedule. One reason so many Greeks voted for Syriza (the Radical Coalition of Leftist Parties) and other anti-bailout parties is the accurate assessment that Germany and the European Central Bank are more concerned with repaying loans to German banks then in helping Greece out of it's current crisis.  


Of course, that perception helped make the Germany-Greece football match so news worthy and prominent on front pages - not just sports pages - around the world. 


The Ethniki played hard and well in advancing to the elite 8 of the European championships.  Let's hope their play shows Greeks what can happen when the nation rallies together and thus inspires Greeks to pay their taxes and keep their heads up as they face the crisis. 


Let's also hope the elections inspire the troika to cut Ellas some slack and renegotiate our debt repayment schedule.  


After all, the Germans scored 4 goals to our 2 - how much more do they want?


And don't forget, for six minutes everything was in balance with our contributions off-setting our debt.  Zito H Ellas!


A few more EURO 2012 notes:

• What are the odds that 3 days after Antonis Samaras is inaugurated as prime minister that George Samaras scores our game-tying goal? Big week for Ellas and that sir name.
• Though the game was not really THAT close, would have loved to see what would have happened if suspended Greek captain George Karagounis had played against Germany.  Tough way for him to go out.  At 35 you have to wonder if he will play for Greece again even if Ellas does qualify for the 2014 World Cup.
• Sports is always full of 'what ifs.' For Greece, hard NOT to wonder what would have happened if Karagounis had converted that penalty kick versus Poland.  If Ellas wins that game we play Portugal instead of Germany, a team we defeated twice in Lisbon on our way to the 2004 European championship. Tι εάν ...
• I'll blog about this later, but congrats to Labron James and the Heat.  I'm not a big fan of Dwayne Wade and strongly dislike Pat Riley, but James is clearly the best hoopster on the planet, worked hard after last year's humbling loss to Dallas, and Miami was the best team.  The decision show and the stupid and preening celebration with Wade and Chris Bosh will always be viewed as huge, ego-driven mistakes. However, James learned from those mistakes. Isn't that the point of life?  Congrats to him.

Maybe Football DOES Explain Everything

Yesterday's post pointed out how, contrary to one book's title, soccer does NOT explain the world.


But today's 1-1 tie between host Poland and the motherland was practically a microcosm of Greece's current plight. 


Facing the host nation in the Euro 2012 opener, Greece came out with what appeared to be a mixture of lethargy, sluggishness and even disinterest.  The players on the pitch vividly, too vividly, represented the populace of a proud nation whose citizens have been worn down by recession, unemployment, incompetence and pessimism.


Less than 20 minutes in, Greece trailed 0-1 after Poland took advantage of our goal keeper getting out of position; was it a metaphor for Greece's out of whack accounting ledgers? 


Things got even worse - believe it or not - when Sokratis Papastathopoulos was forced to swallow the equivalent of hemlock when we was given two highly highly dubious yellow cards (which equals a red card) and was ejected.  


So Greece was cheated by a referee and after the ejection were reduced to 10 players - a metaphor for austerity?


The combination of lethargy and being a player down resulted in Greece being thoroughly outplayed in the first half, and down 0-1 after 45 minutes.


But then, improbably and hopefully, some rays of hope emerged.

One, instead of giving in to the notorious Greek fatalism the Hellenes fought back.  Led by second half substitute Dimitris Salpingidis - the best player during the qualifying round of EURO 2012 - Ellas was much more aggressive and active.


Salpingidis was rewarded for his effort when he scored the equalizer less than 15 minutes into the second half after he poked in a rebound off a header from Fanis Gekas.  Despite being down a man Greece had come back and tied it.


The good fortune continued in the second half when the Polish goalie was given a red card for taking down Salpingidis in front of their goal.  


Of course, we are talking about Greeks here, a peoples who seldom do a good job with good fortune (for instance, we get the Olympic games but they help bankrupt the country; after World War I we're given half a loaf of Asia Minor but blow it trying to conquer the entire loaf, etc. etc.).


Today, that turned into George Karagounis, the Greek captain and a hero of the 2004 European champions, failing to convert a point-blank penalty kick.  Though we were down a man, we should have scored there and won the game.


Ten minutes later, Greece's bad luck struck again when a iffy off sides penalty was called against Kostas Fortounis - a Greek footballer who plays where else, in Germany - and negated another potential goal from Salpingidis. 


What a game.


Greece, a country battered by their own political incompetence and punished with a draconian austerity plan imposed by their European partners, fielded a team that had their own battles against a partisan home crowd, a bad referee who called two crazy yellow cards, a 10-player squad for most of the game, and a tight off sides call that negated the potential game-winning goal - yet still managed a tie and thus a point against Poland.  


Being down a player seemed to inspire fight rather than fatalism.  It was a proud nation showing admirable fight and pride in the face of adversity.  


I think all Greeks, members of the Greek diaspora, and phil-Hellenes hope that kind of fight continues in Euro 2012 but also inspires our motherland to do the same.


Zito H Ellas!

• Greece's next game is Tuesday at noon against the Czech Republic. The Czech's were demolished 1-4 against our Orthodox brothers from Russia today.  
• If Greece plays 90 minutes versus the Czechs the way they fought in the second half today I love our chances.  Greece was on the attack in the second half, and made a great comeback.
• Kudos to ESPN's crew for their Hellenism.  
• One, Greek-American Alexi Lalas proudly talked about the Greek squad in the pre-game show, complete with excellent Greek language skills pronouncing the long Greek last names.
• Two, ESPN's Ian Dark pointed out the many Greek Communists settled in Poland after their side lost the Greek civil war. Excellent historical note!
• Finally, three, Bob Ley summed up 2,500 years of Greek history when he said in the post-game shpw: "Sometimes your good, sometimes your lucky, sometimes your Greek."