Random Country Opinions Day 23: Greece

[GMantis]

What does a senile former Offenbach coach have to do with me?

Former?  Damn.

When I was in Germany and it was Greece vs. Portugal in some Eurocup final, all of the Germans were hardcore rooting for Griechenland.

Portugal defeated Germany 3:0 in the 2000 Euro championship. I suppose there are long and bitter memories.

[minionofmidas]

Former coach of Offenbach.

And no Mantis, we're perfectly capable of being bitter about quarter- or semifinal knockouts, but when we're knocked out that early, we prefer to completely forget it ever happened. This after a couple of months of discussion about how horribly bad we were and will remain for the next few years because the problems are deep-seated and structural etc... but even during that, the opponent in question - the game in question - hardly matters.

People rooting for Greece in the 04 final was mostly about Greece being such extreme underdogs - predicting them to win the tournament beforehand would *really* have led to people questioning your sanity - and then also about Germany being out early (again) and people needing to support *somebody* and settling on Greece because of the German coach. That he was a familiar face, but a blast from the past - he'd been hugely successful, and popular, once but his career seemed *over* by the time he took over Greece - probably helped a bit as well.

[opebo]

I like 'Greek', but I don't like Greece.

[Keystone Phil]

What does a senile former Offenbach coach have to do with me?

Former?  Damn.

When I was in Germany and it was Greece vs. Portugal in some Eurocup final, all of the Germans were hardcore rooting for Griechenland.

Portugal defeated Germany 3:0 in the 2000 Euro championship. I suppose there are long and bitter memories.

Germany didn't get out of the group stage so I hope you didn't mean the Final. That, sadly, was when the Italians fell to the French. 

[minionofmidas]

What does a senile former Offenbach coach have to do with me?

Former?  Damn.

When I was in Germany and it was Greece vs. Portugal in some Eurocup final, all of the Germans were hardcore rooting for Griechenland.

Portugal defeated Germany 3:0 in the 2000 Euro championship. I suppose there are long and bitter memories.

Germany didn't get out of the group stage so I hope you didn't mean the Final. That, sadly, was when the Italians fell to the French. 

Lunar meant the 2004 final.

[Keystone Phil]

What does a senile former Offenbach coach have to do with me?

Former?  Damn.

When I was in Germany and it was Greece vs. Portugal in some Eurocup final, all of the Germans were hardcore rooting for Griechenland.

Portugal defeated Germany 3:0 in the 2000 Euro championship. I suppose there are long and bitter memories.

Germany didn't get out of the group stage so I hope you didn't mean the Final. That, sadly, was when the Italians fell to the French. 

Lunar meant the 2004 final.

I know what Lunar meant. GMantis spoke of them losing 3-0 in the Championship though. They didn't make it out of the group stage.

[minionofmidas]

What does a senile former Offenbach coach have to do with me?

Former?  Damn.

When I was in Germany and it was Greece vs. Portugal in some Eurocup final, all of the Germans were hardcore rooting for Griechenland.

Portugal defeated Germany 3:0 in the 2000 Euro championship. I suppose there are long and bitter memories.

Germany didn't get out of the group stage so I hope you didn't mean the Final. That, sadly, was when the Italians fell to the French. 

Lunar meant the 2004 final.

I know what Lunar meant. GMantis spoke of them losing 3-0 in the Championship though. They didn't make it out of the group stage.

Ah, that's what you meant. He's referring to the final game of the group stage in 2000.  "Championship" here is just real language for the advertisement-invented "EURO".

[Landslide Lyndon]

Wow!
I must admit I never anticipated so much hostility towards Greece. We like to think ourselves as a small, inoffensive country, who takes perhaps a little too much pride in our historic past.

But objectively speaking, you are right on many aspects. Our political system sucks indeed. Our parties are a joke and we are the champions of corruption in EU. The people have become completely apathetic and dangerously self-involved.
And racism, religious intolerance and xenophobia have reared their ugly head some years now.

But I completely disagree with the view of some that we are somehow the bullies of the Balkans. We have tried time and again to be conciliatory towards FYROM, only to be rebuked and showered with outrageously nationalistic and History-defying rhetoric. Even the UN has admitted that.

As for Cyprus, it's a simple matter of demanding the enforcement of the UN Security Council Resolutions. And their demands in the Aegean are in direct violation of the international treaties between us, them and Italy (regarding Dodecanese).

And I think that our collaboration with Russia is one of the few good policies enacted by our current government. Especially considering how unpopular the United States had become during the Bush years.