Greece national team boss Fernando Santos was highly critical of his players after they made a disastrous start to the World Cup 2014 campaign with a 3-0 defeat against Colombia. Greece may not have had the top strikers in world football, but they have been extremely resilient in defence over the years. This has enabled them to win the likes of the Euro 2004 against all the odds, but there was no sign of disciplined defending against Colombia. Despite not having great players like Radamel Falcao in the line-up, Colombia were able to dispatch Greece with relative ease.

Armero scored after just five minutes on the clock, while Gutierrez doubled the advantage for Colombia just before the hour mark. A goal in injury time by Monaco forward James Rodriguez confirmed the thrashing, which puts Greece at a serious disadvantage compared to the likes of Japan and Ivory Coast. Ivory Coast secured a win from their opening match, which sees them in a strong position along with Colombia. Greece must now take something from the match against Japan in order to go to the final match against Ivory Coast with an opportunity to reach the knockout stages.

A similar poor performance against Japan will condemn them to an early exit. “This defeat makes things very difficult for us. I will talk to my players, we will study our mistakes and we will correct this situation. We will present ourselves in a much better state in the coming two games. Some of my players have to understand there are more group games coming, this is not over.  Some of them did not seem to realise where we are and what we have to do,” said the Greece manager. Captain Konstantinos Katsouranis was also highly critical of the players after the opening match humiliation.

Greek outfit Olympiakos are interested in signing Sunderland striker Nacho Scocco in the summer. The former Internacional striker has struggled to fit into the Premier league, as he played very little football towards the end of last season after coming to the club in only January. However, manager Gus Poyet is determined to give him a chance in the team. His presence in the first team could very well depend upon the form he shows in pre-season. He will have a tough job on his hands in order to overcome players like Connor Wickham, who proved towards the end of last season that he can score the goals.

Apart from that, goalscoring does appear to be a major problem for Sunderland going into the new season. Poyet, though, reckons that Scocco will be able to benefit from his six months in England and he expects the striker to start performing from the new season. He has likened the last six months as a crash course to the Premier league for the striker. Sunderland barely managed to survive in the division after managing a run of a couple of victories in the last few matches. They were bottom of the table on Christmas, but they became the first team apart from West Brom to survive after being in this position.

“We are all different, and how we adapt is different. And it depends on the situation they come into. For instance, take a player who finds it hardest to adapt in England – I don’t know, maybe you sign someone from Dubai where they are playing in 40C heat and then you bring them to the North East in winter. If you put them into a team that is playing well, it takes them two seconds to adapt,” Poyet said about the striker.