Greek Goalkeeper 2004
Julia Dodoo
Odysseas Vlachodimos (Greek: Οδυσσέας Βλαχοδήμος, born 26 April 1994) is a professional footballer who currently plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Newcastle United. Born in Germany, he plays for the Greece national team.
Soon after being instrumental in UEFA Euro 2004 helping Greece to lift the trophy, Nikopolidis joined Olympiacos, making an immediate impact for his once rival team. Keeping a clean sheet in the first derby against his former club in the process, he went on to win two Doubles in a row, making him the only Greek player to win three consecutive doubles with two different clubs.
He played in the qualifying rounds of the 2002 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2004 where he excelled as Greece qualified for the finals. Nikopolidis was one of the cornerstones of the Greek win in Portugal, where he kept three clean sheets in the knockout stages. He was also voted goalkeeper of the Euro 2004 All Star team.
On 15 June 2008, Nikopolidis announced his retirement from international football after Euro 2008, claiming that he had made this decision before the tournament started, and also stating that it is about time for a major change in the Greece national team.[5]
Despite not being particularly tall or agile, his excellent positional sense made him an effective shot-stopper and his ability to read and understand the game helped him rush quickly off his line in order to face one on one situations or act as a sweeper-keeper.[8]
At the training center of Genoa, in Northwestern Italy, the goalkeepers of the Athens Goalkeepers Academy and the Greek Goalkeeping Network have been accommodated since Friday night for a week (9-16/2/2024).
Vasilios Barkas set his sights on helping Celtic to 10-in-a-row after joining the Scottish champions on a four-year deal from AEK Athens. The 26-year-old goalkeeper, who has been capped 10 times by Greece, has spent the past four years with AEK.
Boss Neil Lennon had been looking for a goalkeeper following the return of Fraser Forster to Southampton and the departure of Craig Gordon. Celtic begin their quest for a 10th successive Premiership title with a home game against Hamilton on Sunday.
Having rapidly moved up in the pecking order at Lazio, goalkeeper Christos Mandas has seemingly attracted the attention of two English Premier Premier League clubs, with his current side urgently needing to revisit the terms of his contract.
His first Serie A start would come in a 3-2 win over Udinese, before Maurizio Sarri shockingly quit as Coach and was replaced by Igor Tudor. The arrival of the former Croatia defender has appeared to not only galvanise Lazio, but also given newfound confidence to their young shot stopper.
Mandas has made eight appearances under Tudor, conceding just six goals in all competitions and keeping five clean sheets along the way. Helping his side to five wins (two over Juventus) with some impressive saves has appeared to attract major attention, seemingly even putting the player on the radar of Pep Guardiola.
Panagiotis Oikonomopoulos, also known as Takis, is a former Greek goalkeeper and goalkeeper coach. He played professionally from 1959-1976, making over 400 appearances including 40 for the Greek national team. As a player, he won 5 Greek championships and 2 cups with Panathinaikos FC. He also played in the 1971 European Cup final against Ajax. After retiring as a player, he served as goalkeeper coach for Panathinaikos FC from 1979-2007, helping the team win numerous championships and cups. He is currently the President of the Panathinaikos Alliance.Read less
In a massive road game against Greece, the Netherlands took a massive step toward qualifying for Euro 2024 with a late win. Virgil van Dijk scored the only goal of the game with a penalty near the end of the 90 minutes. The hosts now have the pole position to advance alongside France out of its group.
The Netherlands took advantage of a calamitous situation in the 25th minute. Hartman lobbed a cross into the box from the left-hand side. Virgil van Dijk waited in the penalty box among a crowd of Greek and Dutch players. Jostling with Konstantinos Koulierakis, van Dijk and the Greek defender went to the ground. With three Greek defenders on the pitch with van Dijk, the referee awarded a penalty. He deemed Koulierakis pulled down van Dijk.
The Netherlands had the other major chance of the half in the 44th minute. Virgil van Dijk played a superb ball from the back to Steven Bergwijn, who was now in on goal. Bergwijn took it on first time, but he bounced his shot into a diving Vlachodimos. The Greek goalkeeper parried the ball away for a corner.
After a lengthy penalty check from VAR that bled into the six added minutes, including the referee going to the monitor, the call on the field stood. Wout Weghorst, who took the first penalty, was on the bench after a second-half substitution. The man to step up was the one who won the original penalty from the first half, Virgil van Dijk. The center-back made no mistake, as he powered a ball into the right side of the net to give the Netherlands a massive goal.
Greece had just six minutes to find a response. It sprayed balls forward, but the Dutch held strong on each attempt. In fact, it was the Netherlands who forced another VAR review for a potential penalty. The referee still waved it off, and he added more time to the original six minutes. It did not matter, and the Netherlands picked up a massive three points in Euro 2024 qualifying.
Odysseas Vlachodimos has been playing for Benfica Lisbon since 2018 and has finally arrived in Portugal. We talked to him about his new home, the Greek national team, the goalkeeper position and his goalkeeper gloves.
I hope that the fans still can go tot he games. Personally, I do not plan far into the future, I like to look from day to day. My goal is just to get better every day. I think the most important thing is to be healthy and injury-free, then everything else is secondary.
The people here are pretty crazy about soccer. In almost every game, no matter against which opponent you play, the stadium is full. The people are also very helpful, nice and very open off the soccer field, which I really appreciate. I feel very, very comfortable here. On the soccer field and also off the soccer field.
Of course, it is always nice and special to play for your home country or your country. I am proud to play for Greek and when you sing the national anthem before the games, it is always something special.
I have never known anything else (laughs). It is a special position. As a goalkeeper, you are the last one in the back, and I also think it is just cool to be a goalkeeper. Generally the training and also in the games the goalkeeper position is different from the other positions. But as I said, I do not know anything else and I would not want to switch. I love being a goalkeeper.
First of all, do well in school. If you have a goal in mind, you should pursue it. If you have talent, you should not rest on it but work hard every day to improve. You can always learn something new. If you have a dream, you should pursue it.
The best thing was becoming a dad. I enjoy every second when I am at home and can be with my family and my little daughter. In soccer, of course, it was always a big goal to play in the Champions League, and I managed to do that with Benfica. That was a highlight and a great feeling when you hear the Champions League anthem. I will never forget that.
I think the grip is outstanding. I really like the new closure system. You put the glove on and feel comfortable right away. You do not have to fiddle around with it or tighten any fasteners for the whole game. The goalkeeper glove fits perfectly in the hand and the grip is very good even in wet weather.
Dimitris Sotiriou. Professional OFI FC goalkeeper with over 160 professional appearances in his career. In the past, he has played for Panionios FC, Fostiras, PAS Giannina, AEL Larisa, Platanias, Ethnikos Piraeus, Ermis Aradippou and Levadiakos.
Dimitrios Konstantopoulos, better known as Dimi, is a Greek goalkeeper. He has played for teams across England and Wales, as well as in his homeland, but never with greater success than the times he was in the north east of England.
You live by your choices. And it didn't work out as I would have liked, partly because I went to a club [where] it was a season with a lot of new players coming in. We started alright, then we had a massive dip, and I found myself out of the team.
I wanted to play games, and Forest came in in the March of 2008. I signed for them until the end of the season, and on day one of training I snapped my Achilles tendon and I had to stay out for nine months. I left Forest, Coventry began to sign new goalkeepers and a lot of things changed.
Dimi had actually wanted to extend his contract with Swansea during the January of 2009, and the feeling was mutual, however the deal took time to complete and the clock began to tick a little too fast on deadline day.
I was really happy there [at Swansea] and Roberto Martinez made it very clear that he wanted me to sign permanently. That was the goal, but unfortunately, we actually got snowed in because of the snowstorm around the Midlands! A distance that would take 20 minutes normally took me three and a half hours to do. And I missed the deadline by about 5-10 minutes, I think. So it wasn't meant to be.
After seven turbulent (for better and for worse) years in the English game, filled with both successes and disappointments, the end had come - for now, at least. Dimi returned home to Greece, first with Kerkyra, then later with AEK Athens. He fought for and won the number one shirt in the Greek capital over two seasons. But after their relegation in 2013, and with his contract up, he was let go.
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