Greece national football team profile

The Greece national football team represents Greece in international football and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation.Greece national football team participated only twice in the final tournaments of the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championship, in 1994 and 1980 respectively.They have also been proven more competitive than they used to be and often reach high places in the FIFA World Rankings.The team's success in qualifying for the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the USA, marked the first time they had made it to the FIFA World Cup finals. Greece finished first and undefeated in their qualifying group, surpassing Russia in the final game. In the final tournament Greece were drawn into group D with Nigeria, Bulgaria, and Argentina.After winning the Euro 2004, Greece were considered favourites to top their group, in the 2006 World Cup qualification. The team was drawn into Group 2 along with Ukraine, Turkey, Denmark, Albania, Georgia and Kazakhstan.In their first qualifier, Greece could not handle the game with Albania and lost 2-1, which was the reason Greece could not go to Germany for the 2006 World Cup.By way of the November 2007 FIFA World Rankings, Greece was seeded in Pot A for the European zone group stage draw for 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying. They were drawn into Group 2 with Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia and Luxembourg. Greece's group stage campaign began and ended with matches against Luxembourg on 6 September 2008 and 14 October 2009. While earning only three clean sheets in ten qualifying games, Greece relied heavily upon the scoring prowess of Theofanis Gekas, who led all Europeans in scoring with 10 goals. Two losses to Switzerland placed the Greeks one point behind the Swiss group winners, leaving Greece's 2010 World Cup hopes to be decided in a play-off with Group 6 runner-up Ukraine. A 0-0 tie in Athens preceded a 0-1 second-leg Greek triumph in Donetsk to secure a spot in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Provisional squad list:
GK Konstantinos CHALKIAS
GK Michail SIFAKIS
GK Alexandros TZORVAS
Angelos CHARISTEAS
Lazaros CHRISTODOULOPOULOS
Georgios GALITSIOS
Theofanis GEKAS
Pantelis KAPETANOS
Georgios KARAGOUNIS
Konstantinos KATSOURANIS
Sotirios KYRGIAKOS
Evripidis MAKOS
Stelios MALEZAS
Konstantinos MANOLAS
Stergos MARINOS
Konstantinos MITROGLOU
Vangelis MORAS
Sotiris NINIS
Avraam PAPADOPOULOS
Sokratis PAPASTATHOPOULOS
Christos PATSATZOGLOU
Athanasios PRITTAS
Dimitrios SALPINGIDIS
Georgios SAMARAS
Giourkas SEITARIDIS
Nikos SPIROPOULOS
Vasileios TOROSIDIS
Georgios TZAVELAS
Alexandros TZIOLIS
Loukas VYNTRA

source by-wikipedia