With just a few hours before the Greek national team left for South Africa and the
World Cup 2010, coach Otto Rehhagel talked to the press alongside his players. Rehhagel spoke about the fantastic morale of the Greek team, asked his players to perform at 1000% in the World Cup 2010, and said that the support of local Greek fans in South Africa will be valuable.
“We all feel great, there is lots of excitement and fantastic atmosphere in the team. We do have a couple of players with small injuries (Vangelis Moras and Theofanis Gekas), but nothing serious really. We are happy to qualify in the World Cup 2010, it will be a unique experience for the players, but we also want to come back successful. We saw South Korea last week, they are a fast and strong team and we have to give 1000% at that first game. We always have the support of the fans on our side, there are Greeks everywhere in the world and South Africa is no exception.”
Otto Rehhagel also talked about the 1994 World Cup, when Greece also played against both Argentina and Nigeria but came back empty handed: “1994 was completely different, has nothing to do with today. We still have a few days to prepare a little bit more and create the necessary balance in the team. The 4 goals we conceived are troubling us a bit (during the last two friendly games), but Greece definitely has the personality we want on the field and we are optimistic that the good results will come also.”
The microphone was then passed long to a few of the players, that also commented on the upcoming World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
Avraam Papadopoulos: “This is the biggest tournament on the planet, it is the very first time for all of us and we need to give everything to succeed. We worked hard during practice and on some specific things, we must be careful, concentrated and optimistic at the same time.”
Georgios Samaras: “We have to enjoy the tournament, we don’t know if we will ever come back. We need good psychology, confidence, and happy to play football in the biggest competition that is the World Cup. We worked hard to prepare, maybe it didn’t show that much in the recent friendly matches, but I think we will be ready for the official games.”
Vasilis Torosidis: “I think we are well prepared and we still have another week to work. We have to be healthy for the opening game and ready to overcome any difficulties that may come up. We run a lot in the field, if we keep doing that we will be fine.”