By Bill Roumeliotis.
Team Greece has begun its defence of their All Nations title with an emphatic 3 – 0 win over France.
Three first half goals from Christo Theodorakopoulos and two from Trent Skapetis gave the defending champions an unassailable lead at the halftime break, which eventually was the final result at the full time whistle.
Coach Kon Tangalakis was content with the result.
“After a long football season, it’s always difficult to get the boys up and running in an end of season tournament, however they feel so much pride playing for Team Greece, that it makes my job so much easier,” Tangalakis said.
“I’m proud of today’s performance however, we have drawn a difficult group and we know that the job won’t be easy to defend our title. We have put together a young and very talented squad of Greek boys and look forward to the weeks ahead.”
President of the Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM), Bill Papastergiadis, was there to support the team and had this to say following their emphatic win.
“Today we witnessed Team Greece playing an impressive brand of football from the start but importantly, they played united as a team. These young players brought joy to our supporters who packed the stand and celebrated each goal. Their commitment and determination today all goes well for the tournament,” Mr Papastergiadis said.
“Congratulations to our coach Kon Tangalakis and also to our other coach George Katsakis who, despite being in Greece and the time difference, called repeatedly during the match for updates. Many thanks to Tolis our team manager and to Michael Karamitos, Vice President of the GCM, for putting this team together.”
Team Greece now face Eritrea in its second group match next Sunday, October 22, at 3.30 pm at Knox City FC. Eritrea had a very convincing 6 – 1 victory against a very strong team in Afghanistan.
