Marked for Gilles van der Wal
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Sep 2040
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom3 Sep 2040
The Kifisia board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Match1 Sep 2040
No end in sight to Kifisia's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kifisia has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad3 Sep 2040
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kifisia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Sep 2040
No clean sheets in sight for Kifisia
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad3 Sep 2040
“The easiest signature of my career.” Miroslav Vaněček and Kifisia agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Sep 2040
Giorgos Pontikos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings3 Sep 2040
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match1 Sep 2040
Kifisia share the spoils with AEK
A 2‑2 draw with AEK leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Aug 2040
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad6 Aug 2040
Michalis Pardalos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad6 Aug 2040
Words at Kifisia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Pontikos is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Oct 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match15 Oct 2039
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Fotios Donis scored in the 88th minute, Volos NPS had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Kifisia took the lot.
Squad17 Oct 2039
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad17 Oct 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kifisia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Oct 2039
Giorgos Pontikos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match15 Oct 2039
It finished 2‑1, and it was Fotios Donis’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kifisia.
Player ratings17 Oct 2039
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The terraces17 Oct 2039
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Market17 Oct 2039
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dimitris Theodoridis signs something — a contract at Kifisia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces10 Oct 2039
The mood at Kifisia has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad10 Oct 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad10 Oct 2039
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match8 Oct 2039
4 matches without a win for Kifisia
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Kifisia are no longer polite ones.
Squad10 Oct 2039
Michalis Pardalos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Oct 2039
Words at Kifisia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Pontikos is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match8 Oct 2039
Kifisia are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match8 Oct 2039
0‑2 to AEL Larisa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings10 Oct 2039
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Oct 2039
Nowhere to hide for Kifisia
1‑5 against OFI, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad3 Oct 2039
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match28 Sep 2039
The cup run ends for Kifisia
1‑2 against AEK, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad3 Oct 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad3 Oct 2039
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Zacharias Petousis commits to Kifisia for another 4 years.
Squad3 Oct 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kifisia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Oct 2039
Aaron Nour among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Aaron Nour on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Kifisia and OFI.
Player ratings3 Oct 2039
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Kifisia deserved better, and so did he.
Player ratings3 Oct 2039
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Sep 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market26 Sep 2039
Only the photograph left for Florian Thomas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Florian Thomas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kifisia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Sep 2039
Michalis Pardalos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match24 Sep 2039
Beaten 3‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match24 Sep 2039
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Kifisia and PAOK in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad26 Sep 2039
Words at Kifisia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Pontikos is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Sep 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Sep 2039
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad19 Sep 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kifisia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Sep 2039
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad19 Sep 2039
Giorgos Pontikos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match17 Sep 2039
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dimitris Theodoridis. 1‑0 against Panetolikos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings19 Sep 2039
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market19 Sep 2039
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dimitris Theodoridis signs something — a contract at Kifisia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings19 Sep 2039
Successful dribbles: 8. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces12 Sep 2039
The mood at Kifisia has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad12 Sep 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match10 Sep 2039
Kifisia leaking at the back
8 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad12 Sep 2039
Words at Kifisia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Pontikos is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad12 Sep 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kifisia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Sep 2039
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match10 Sep 2039
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market12 Sep 2039
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Apostolos Papastathopulos has his answer from Kifisia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market12 Sep 2039
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Zacharias Petousis signs something — a contract at Kifisia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Sep 2039
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad5 Sep 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom5 Sep 2039
The Kifisia board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market5 Sep 2039
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings5 Sep 2039
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Apostolos Papastathopulos provided it, and the 7.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match3 Sep 2039
Kifisia leaking at the back
7 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad5 Sep 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kifisia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Sep 2039
6 goals as Kifisia and AEK go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Kifisia and AEK, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match3 Sep 2039
A bad afternoon for Kifisia against AEK
2‑4 to AEK, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Aug 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Aug 2039
Florian Thomas has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kifisia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match27 Aug 2039
Kifisia leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad29 Aug 2039
Michalis Pardalos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match27 Aug 2039
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Kifisia and Aris Thessaloniki, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match27 Aug 2039
2‑4 to Aris Thessaloniki, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom29 Aug 2039
Graduation day at Kifisia
12 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad29 Aug 2039
Words at Kifisia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Pontikos is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market29 Aug 2039
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dimitrios Tsadjaris has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Aug 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Aug 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kifisia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Aug 2039
Giorgos Pontikos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces15 Aug 2039
The mood at Kifisia has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad15 Aug 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Aug 2039
Michalis Pardalos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Kifisia training over how hard people work
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Squad
Tuur Daenens has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Aug 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad8 Aug 2039
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dimitris Theodoridis and Kifisia agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Aug 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kifisia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Aug 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom1 Aug 2039
Pressure builds in the Kifisia boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market1 Aug 2039
Florian Thomas has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kifisia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 Aug 2039
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Donny Promes is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad1 Aug 2039
Michalis Pardalos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad1 Aug 2039
Words at Kifisia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Pontikos is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jul 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad25 Jul 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kifisia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jul 2039
Giorgos Pontikos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces18 Jul 2039
The mood at Kifisia has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad18 Jul 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Jul 2039
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jul 2039
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad11 Jul 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kifisia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jul 2039
Giorgos Pontikos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces23 May 2039
The mood at Kifisia has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad23 May 2039
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kifisia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad23 May 2039
Michalis Pardalos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad23 May 2039
Words at Kifisia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Pontikos is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad23 May 2039
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Miroslav Vaněček and Kifisia agree another 2 years.
Market23 May 2039
No fee and no drama: Miroslav Vaněček has signed at Kifisia, and the wage bill is the only line that moved.
In brief
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Market
Kifisia shop where it costs nothing
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Market
Kifisia shop where it costs nothing