Greece vs Costa Rica Analysis Round 16 World Cup 2014 Brazil

IN a previous piece, when the Socceroos got knocked out by Holland I used an old World Cup joke to lighten the mood. For this piece I'm using a pun. A joke is a sign that your team has not really done that well, but a pun aside from trophies is a sign of football progression.

So here is my Pun:

Greece Ruiz Gekas Penalty Miss


Got the Costa Rica scorer in there as well as the Greek Penalty Missee too. I give myself 7 out of 10.

After a couple of days to soak in the penalty loss to Costa Rica there is no point in looking for an escapegoat; ("cough" "Gekas", "cough" "Salpingidis").  Greece drawing with their Prothoti (Betrayer) namesake Costa (Rica) is no big shame.

But like the Socceroos in 2006 when they played against Italy against ten men, Greece will never probably get as good of an opportunity to get to the World Cup Quarter Finals. A date with smug Holland was so close. In the upcoming Quarter Final I'd just love the Costa Ricans to beat the Dutch and make the semifinals. What a great World Cup story that would be.

So close yet so far away for the Greeks they should have won that game but the football gods tired of blessing them and cursed them in the end. Poor Theofanis Gekas now has to carry the boulder of World Cup failure on his shoulders for eternity. ( Go the Myth of Sisyphus analogy! My Philosophy teacher would be proud or probably skeptical knowing her )

Talking Points 

• Costa Rica Termatofilakas (Goal Keeper) Keylor Navas was on some Mexican beans, saving everything that came in his way. Just like the IMF Navas denied the Greeks time and time again. 
• After Costa Rica's Group D win against Italy seven of their players were tested for drugs by FIFA. I'm not saying the the Tico keeper was on the roids but some of his saves were so good I would have asked him to piss in a small cup just to make sure.  
• Since 1949 Costa Rica has had no standing army. Go you hippies! It's something the Greeks could learn from as they spend a shit load of their GDP on defence. Perhaps instead of having National Service the Greeks could use that time making their young men practice penalties
• In 2012 Costa Rica was ranked Number One in the happiest nation in the World index. There must be heads exploding after they reached the World Cup Quarter Finals. By contrast it's no surprise Greece's happiness index has been falling rapidly due to their economic problems in recent times. At least they'll have the Ivory Coast game.
• Athens also topped the ugliest people in the world index too. According to Old Bull Lee a character in the Jack Kerouac book "On the Road". Old Bull Lee or if you know the history of the book  is the famous writer William S Burroughs. In the book his character says that: "he used to look up from his Ouzo in Athens and see the ugliest people in the world" 
• What's the reason of these two last points? Maybe it's the contradictions of teams and how they are perceived by the world. Maybe it's Greece were one of the unfancied teams in Brazil, who played "ugly" football but they did get further than a lot of many other fancied teams. To use one of my favourite Englishmen to paraphrase Winston Churchill: "Greeks don't play football like heroes; heroes play football like Greece" 
• Take that Old Bull Lee at least no Greek footballer shot his wife in the head while trying to shoot an apple that was sitting on top of it (yet).

The Game

When Greece equalised in the last minute of play through Sokratis Papastathopoulos (say that name after a few ouzo's) it was a surreal moment in my house. I watched the game at my folks house, and because they have Foxtel IQ I was able to pause the game during the various toilet breaks. My mother was watching in the kitchen and in the other room were my two Brothers George, Phillip, Dad and myself .

With not much time in normal play to go we hear a loud shriek coming from the kitchen. It's my mother yelling "EEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIII,  EEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIII".  My mother is getting on in age and likes to yell at the top of her voice like most Cypriot mothers when they are in pain. At first we all thought she fell over or was reeling in pain due to a paper cut. But she came running into the room screaming "they put one in! Greece put one in!!". Then on we look up at the TV screen we were watching and Greece scored. Then the rest of the family realised what was gong on and we all EEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIII'd ourselves.

My mother was watching the game live in the kitchen but The Foxtel IQ was delayed in the other room hence the delay in reaction.

Such was the emotion of the penalties in our house my mother was crying as Gekas went to take his penalty. Thank goodness I only have The Socceroos and Greece to follow because having this much emotional involvement at the World Cup is too much. I got no more dodgy puns left in me.