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Many who know
football well will consider Greece as outsiders at the 2010 World Cup
in South Africa, but the Super Eagles of Nigeria must not be part of
this group. That will be because of their German coach, Otto Rehhagel.
In the only previous encounter at the 1994 World Cup, the Eagles beat
the Greeks 2-0, to finish top of the group. The Greek side finished the
tournament with no points and no goal scored. That record was abysmal
but will not be repeated by the 2010 side led by the wily old fox, Otto
Rehhagel at the tail-end of his enviable career.

The Greek gift Otto
Rehhagel became the coach of Greece in 2001 and not much was expected
of the German tactician with the Greek national side that had qualified
for the European Cup and the World Cup just once in their history. He
was a Bundesliga veteran with varying degrees of exploits with his
various clubs but his most outstanding and compelling character trait
had always been his doggedness. That showed up in the Greeks as his
influence began to show on the team. They qualified for Euro 2004,
where they beat Portugal twice, France and the Czech Republic on the
way to lifting the cup.

There were no stars
in his team but despite that slight handicap, the Greek team won the
championship, conceding no goals in the knock-out stage.

His approach was a
defensive network of all players behind the ball and strict adherence
to using spot kicks to get goals. The score-line of 1-0 was the most
constant with which the Greek side won matches.

At that time
Rehhagel said: “No one should forget that a coach adapts the tactics to
the characteristics of the available players. But no one should make
the mistake of labelling Rehhagel as a defensive coach because in his
time as Werder Bremen coach, they played quality and attractive
attacking football that was a delight to watch.

Qualifying for South Africa 2010

Greece picked up
three consecutive victories over Luxembourg, Latvia and Moldova,
scoring eight times and conceding none in the process. They lost twice
to Switzerland which ultimately landed them in the second position and
a playoff berth against Ukraine.

Rehhagel and his
team beat Ukraine in a two-legged play-off. After drawing 0-0 in
Athens, no one gave them a chance in Ukraine but they surprised the
world and their hosts with a hard won 1-0 win in Donetsk with the
decisive goal coming from Dimitrios Salpingidis.

The Rehhagel factor at South Africa 2010

Otto Rehhagel has
turned Greece into a rigorous defensive unit, usually adopting a rigid
4-5-1 or even a 5-4-1 formation with huge emphasis on set-pieces. Their
success at the Euros was partly due to Rehhagel deploying an
old-fashioned man-marking system with a sweeper which most teams had
forgotten how to play against. That was a surprise wand to winning the
Euro 2004 edition to many but immediately teams got a hang of it, it
lost its magic. They failed to qualify for the 2008 European
Championships but a fall back on the 2004 set of players has brought
Greece to the 2010 World Cup.

What you will get
in abundance with Rehhagel’s team is loads and loads of experience. The
spine of the side, the goalkeeper, Konstantinos Chalkias is 36,
defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos of Liverpool is 30, midfielder cum talisman
for the side, captain Georgios Karagounis is 33 and top scorer for the
side in the World Cup qualifiers with 10 goals, Theofanis Gekas is 30.

Rehhagel
popularized the phrase kontrollierte Offensive (controlled offence)
where he stresses the importance of two big, strong headers in central
defence – Sotirios Kyrgiakos and Giourkas Seitaridis. Rehhagel likes
his defenders tall and robust, not given to too much football skills –
they will take no prisoners in their tackles.

There will be a lot of wing play as Gekas, the lone striker, is a good header of the ball.

So expect the team to always widen their approach as they get near the opponents goal area.

This Greek team
will play with a lot of patience from back to front and will be
deployed in an ultra-defensive formation with emphasis on closing all
avenues into their box and relying on free kicks and corner kicks to
hurt the opponent.

Finally, Rehhagel
is a good motivator and his teams usually display a lot of oneness and
fighting spirit. The Greek team will not be short of motivation coming
to South Africa as most of them will not be around for the 2014 edition
in Brazil so they want to go out with heads held high.

In a long and
distinguished career as both a player and coach, World Cup rookie coach
at 71 years old, Rehhagel has achieved a lot but his swan song could
yet be getting the Greeks into the second round of the World Cup. He is
a battle hardened general who will deploy his troops most effectively
and with that squad brimming with a lot of age and experience, they
know their limits and how to achieve it.

Greece will open
their World Cup campaign against Korea Republic on June 12 at the newly
built Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and the name of the stadium reeks of
wisdom and age – a perfect combination for the Greeks.