Swapping the Red-and-White for the Blue-and-White

By: Peter Katsiris | March 27th, 2009

Don’t worry the Blue and White refers to the Greek Flag and not Iraklis FC or something like that. It’s international weekend and unlike the MLS, the Greek Super League takes a break to embrace the national team in their quest to reach the World Cup Finals in South Africa. Many Olympiacos players will be part of their respective country’s international endeavours.

The most obvious Olympiacos players off on international duty are of Greek descent as Vasilis Torosidis, Christos Patsatzoglou, and Avraam Papadopoulos have all made the trip to Ramat Gan, Israel ahead of Greece’s double-date of qualifiers against Yossi Benayoun and Israel.

Kostas Mitroglou is part of the Greece U-21 scheduled to face northern neighbours FYROM (personally I just say Skopia like they do in Greece) in Tripoli. The striker has reportedly overcome a fitness setback and could feature on Saturday as Greece attempts to qualify for the 2011 U-21 European Championships.

Another Greek, or should I say another Papadopoulos, or the youthful Kyriakos Papadopoulos is also on duty with the Greek team but instead Olympiacos’ defensive starlet is part of the U-17 ranks who challenge Switzerland, Poland and Slovenia this weekend in Greece.

Matt Derbyshire has already put Olympiacos on the ma this weekend after securing a brace off the bench as England’s U-21 squad thrashed their Norwegian equals 5-0.

Other members part of the international scene for the weekend and midweek include Polish defender Michal Zewlakow who will likely captain the Poles against Northern Ireland and then San Marino on Wednesday.

And that appears to be it for call-ups but there are several members within the Erythrolefki ranks that deserve a shot at their respective national team. Nonetheless, Olympiacos has just a few more weeks of smooth sailing in the Super League, a tricky replay in the Greek Cup against Asteras Tripolis, and another season is in the books, signalling my time to keep more than an eye on the MLS.