Perfect fly with easyjet, we arrived on time in Athens at 14.05, cloudy, a bit cold but no rain.
Just a 30 minutes trip with the Metro and we found Spyros who collected us at the Metro station to join his family for a wonderful Lunch (Capital letter for lunch is intended) cooked by Tatiana, who gave a great pleasure to our palates

We had fun also with the Spyros’ daughters, it was funny to see them speaking with Mary, expecting a quick reaction or a quick answer in greek! They are really lovable!
Spyros lives just outside Athens, on a hillside and just out of his wonderful and huge living room, is it possible to see the whole Athens, having also a look to the sea.
We staid at his flat. Actually we staid in his “secondary” flat at the ground floor.
I don’t know how many of you know that Spyros is a collector o retro game stuff.
I’m too. Many of you sow my collection of Amiga games in the Kick Off Room. Well, compared to Spyros, I’m just a kid amateur. He has EVERY kind of retro hardware dozens of games for every platform. A real treasure, a gold mine. Awesome. We have been delighted by the great hospitality, it was tangible in every detail, in every word.
In late afternoon, Mary, Spyros and I had a very nice tour of the city riding bicycles. It has been fun, in particular when I used the electric one, really comfortable! We liked a lot that tour, besides to see a nice town, we saw also a very nice and coloured sunset from the hills at the doors of Athens.
In the evening we joined the KOA for the dinner and, of course we were in late as usual, I guess it is become a ritual… I remember in Dubai, Robert said a different time of meeting to us, hoping to have us on time… unluckily, it wasn’t enough!
I was very happy to see some faces I didn’t see from long time. I appreciated really much the incredible hospitality of the Greek KOA, we had even the surprise of a very nice T-Shirt with our names in Greek!
I liked a lot every thing I tasted, btw, thanks to have cared about my intolerance to cheese!Then we chatted a lot, chats and tales of the KOA are always very welcome! every time you know something more of the background of the players, some gossip

some jokes

The following day, Mary have been with Tatiana and his family the whole day, she stole my camera so I had to take my pictures with my iphone, which isn’t precisely the best device to take picture, anyway I grabbed some nice video and pictures the same.
Spyros and I reached the venue using his old and fantastic car. Unluckily I have no pictures about that car

The Vagelis’ shop was amazing. I really liked it, also the retro and super new stuff for supreme pro players, like plutonium keyboards, jet mouse and stuff like that. And on the other side nice amiga joysticks, Arcade cabinets and so on, my personal heaven.
The tournament venue was behind the show room, really nice, many amigas, many friends, what can you ask again?
It was required to follow the fixture, so I did. My first opponent was a tough player: Nikos. I would have liked a soft beginning but that was. I felt him in a very good form. My sensation has been supported by his great tournament: very close to the top, with one more victory he would have been Greek Champion and winner of the tournament together. I beat him in a very tense game where defences dominated the game with blocking headers, wallstop and so on. Nice game.
Then another one very difficult opponent: Panayotis. Like Nikos, he is a real threat. In our last official match he got a draw at the very last second in Milan, this time he was leading by 3-1. He forced my defence easily in the beginning of the match, then played better stopping him many times, scoring in few following counter attacks. I had a break of 5-0 and the game finished 6-3.
I was glad about those two victories but I wasn’t happy about my performances, to many mistakes in front of the opponent goal, and in front of mine.
Then I played Stelios.
As said by Nikos, KOL were announced before the the kick off whistle. Perhaps I’m lacking of practice to defend KOL since Sandro is a bit far away and it is long time I don’t play Fabio, so he scored 3 of his 5 attempts. KOL apart, he showed a very good way to master the ball, it seems he knows the way, at least against me.
BTW, just a quick digression: I noticed that every time in every tournament, most of the guys who aren’t used to stay at the top of the standing, play their best kick off against me. Usually, against me they have always a best goal scoring rate, compared with their goal scored AVG in the tournament, perhaps they unleash their best against me! End of digression.
Then my first defeat. George played very well. On the other side I leaked a lot in defence, and I let him to score 3 easy goals. Usually this isn’t a big problem, when my attack works correctly. But It didn’t so in the end while we were drawing the match, George found two diagonal chip and header goals which gave him the final victory. Well done!
I couldn’t take a breath even with Anotnis. He closed the first half leading 3-1 Then I had a very good come back in the second.
After that game we had the lunch time and I eat a very very good Pita-souvlaki. Glad to meet the Vagelis’ sons and his wife. There where a very nice and cosy atmosphere.
I played Kostas O then, a good challenge in the first haf.
Then the game with Robert. A pity it hasn’t been recorded, since it has been a very good game.
With Robert we have strange games: in some games I win without a real opposition, like in Duesselrdorf. Other times we have great challenges until the final whistle, like the famous Milan match and other great matches.
Anyway he had a wonderful tournament and his overall performance has been reflected also in our game. Perhaps with one minute more, he could complete the come back.
A couple of fun games with Vasilis and Michael then, It was our second game (Vasilis) and the first encounter with Michael!
Then it was the turn for Ektoras. He wasn’t doing very well and with me he didn’t change registry, on the other side I played my first very good game, having a very high percentage on goal attempt/goal scored, I recorded my first DD of the day.
Perhaps I had to save some goals for the following game with Alkis!

But I didn’t. Alkis after a very hard beginning of tournament, (3 L in a row, if I remember correctly) token again confidence with him self and he managed to play a very good game with me, putting the word “end” to my streak of 8 wins in our personal challenge in official games.
After Alkis, I played with Kostas, recording my only clean sheets of the tournament.
Before the tournament had to start, many players joked on my possible victory in Greece but, during the whole day, I haven’t been at the top of the standing for a single moment, until the final game.
If I lose with Spyros, I would have recorded my worst performance since 2004 World Cup.
Spyros was performing very well and no matter the last match, he was already Greek champion with one game in advance.
Also this time I got the lead and even stronger than usual, at the beginning of the second half I was leading 6-2. but die hard Spyros started a very dangerous come back and in less than 3 minutes we were 8-6 and seen the trend of the second half, the come back seemed more than possible. Luckily I had a sudden reversal and I closed the doors, scoring a deadly one-two very quickly, giving me a cushion of 4 goals. A gap that was impossible to cover in so short time.
So, with just one match I jumped over Alkis, Nikos and Spyros getting the final lead of the tournament.
I’ve been really happy to attend this tournament, it has been a Royal Rumble.
After the tournament we went to eat in a very nice pub, having lot of fun and eating very good food and beers!
We had the flight in early morning and Spyros was so gentle to bring us to the airport, we got the flight and everything went good to be on time at work in the noon.
It has been an unforgettable week end, I big thanks to Alkis, to invite me in Athens, when we were in Duesselrodf , a great thanks to Spyros and Tatiana for their great hospitality, it has been really a pleasure to stay at you, we felt like at home, and even better! Thanks also to the Greek KOA, I will remember your great hospitality!
See you next time!