It's Been An Ugly Season And Apollon Limassol Don't Deserve To Win It

It’s been an ugly season. A league that has never been famous for its elegance and overall quality has found it in itself to manifest scenes even uglier than usual this year. And as unsightly as the league has been I can still muster up no courage to craft a case for Apollon Limassol winning it.

If your first thought in reaction to my statement involves the phrase “but no other club has been perfect either” you’re missing the point. A team aspiring to become champions should care little for the merits of its competitors. Not to mention that there’s a difference between perfect and worthy. Perfection is nigh on impossible. A consistently high level of performance is not, however,  and that is the standard a championship-chasing team should aspire to. Even the most ardent Apollon fan would find it difficult to claim that the Limassol club have done that.

Image rights: www.omonoia.com.cy

Ugly Season

I’m not hasty in my declaration that this season has not been too enjoyable for any particular set of fans. It’s not my aim to discredit the eventual champions. However, one must admit that this season has been as tasty as stale chicken soup left in the Arizona sun for the flies to feast upon.

Where does one begin? The quality of play has ranged from intermittently deliberate to amateurishly haphazard. Apollon perfectly encapsulate that with two games in particular posing themselves as perfect examples: The win over Anorthosis Famagusta at home in February being the former and the game against Omonoia Nicosia yesterday being the latter.

A quick look at the table is all you need to know about the average level of performance this season. Current leaders Apollon (Apoel can leapfrog them if they win against Ermis today) have scored 53 goals in 27 games, a league high, but have conceded a whopping 33 goals. By comparison, they conceded a paltry 19 goals in the regular season last year and an extra 10 during the playoffs for a total of 29. With 5 games to go, there’s nothing to suggest they won’t far exceed that. Meanwhile, Apoel have let in a much more respectable 17 goals this season, but have a scored just 38 goals themselves. They scored a massive 78 goals last season (playoffs included) and conceded just 25. Omonoia have scored one more than Apoel but have let in even more goals than their Nicosia counterparts.

As for the other reasons the league has been distinctly joyless this season, I’ll keep it brief because it isn’t my desire to depress you. Let’s start with the undying and thoroughly justified rumours of match-fixing. Frankly, the situation is getting out of hand. Corruption in Cyprus is an undeniable part of everyday life, but I think these few years, along with the coming one, are the tipping point. Even the prominent and influential New York Times saw it fit to cover the mess that is Cypriot football.

The bombs, threats, UEFA-sourced red flags, corruption and various other bits of nastiness are not alien to Cypriots, but I think there’s one differentiating factor that worsens things even further: the nonchalant fashion in which Marios Panayi’s accusations were swept to the side. For the first time, someone with clandestine knowledge pertaining to football in Cyprus decided to risk their livelihood and, if we’re being honest, well-being, and the authorities raised a single eyebrow and scoffed a sickly ‘we don’t give a toss’ at his and the public’s general direction. Panayi’s motives are wholly irrelevant. We all know that what he said was at the very least adequately factual. The CFA and Mr. Koutsokoumnis will point to Apoel and Apollon’s European endeavours as the sole indicators of Cypriot football’s quality and health. To allow him that would be detrimental and offensive to both the sport and common sense. The CFA’s one (potential) success is entirely political, but we’ll leave that topic for another day.

Furthemore, we’ve seen TV rights segregated and sold to different platforms all to the burden of the average football fan. It costs way too much for someone to have the privilege of watching this congregation of agent-shaped squads battle it out in dated stadia against a background of cynicism-fuelling din of rumours and leaks.

The CFA has dished out bans and fines in a scattergun approach that’s done little to keep hooligans away. It’s only helped to keep more people away from attending their club’s game. As for the ill-fated (one hopes this will not change) attempts of Mr. Ionas Nicolaou to impose slipshod measures that are supposedly aimed at curtailing violence, I have way too little bile and time to cover those properly. May they come up for discussion again.

Finally, the CFA went against both reason and public sentiment and refused to lower the number of teams participating in the league and alter its overall structure. They’re quite similar to FIFA in that regard.

Image rights: www.cfa.com.cy

Contempt for continuity

Here’s my reductive but probably accurate one-liner for the week: any team that’s had 3 different managers before the season’s over does not deserve to win the league. There it is. Does it really need further analysis?

I recently wrote to a friend that stability and continuity are as cherished here as kindness and humanity are in a Katie Hopkins column. I stand by that statement. There’s no need to look up who’s the longest serving manager in the league. At best it’ll be two years. Apollon and Apoel, the league’s two frontrunners, have had their current managers for a couple of weeks and four months respectively. Just think about that.

Regarding Apollon, in terms of vision and transfers, there’s no real evidence that there’s been a cohesive plan about the whole thing. Apollon had a decent squad last season. They finished third and needed a few additions that would both elevate the squad’s quality and help the current members up their level of performance. Instead, players have come and gone in numbers so large it’s baffling.

Not only that, but it seems the club has also served as a vessel for agents. Christos Intzidis  and Doneil Henry were both ‘funnelled’ through the club in shady fashion. Apollon is hardly alone in doing this in Cyprus. Let’s not forget that Doxa Katokopias are run by an agent, Costas Karavidas. Supposedly he’s not acting in that role whilst running the club, but we all know what’s happening here.

The best of a bad bunch

Apoel are probably favourites to win the league and are most likely capable of doing it. As I said earlier, it is not my intent to discredit the eventual champions, but whichever club manages to plod ahead in the least dire manner will be crowned league winners. That’s hardly an endorsement. Apollon can look at their game against Omonoia yesterday as proof of why they shouldn’t feel wronged if they miss out. It was a season low, despite the mitigating circumstances. 4 points in 5 games during the playoffs leave little room for misinterpretation. Worthy of the league? I’m sorry, but they’re far from it.  

Kyriacos Nicolaou

Sweet Sabotage and Seasonal Sourness: Lessons from the Weekend

The business end of the season has commenced and the top six are desperately trying to eek out a few decent performances like preening cockatiels. Sadly for some of them, not only are their feathers tangled and grimy, but their beaks are scuffed and their necks incapable of bending. Below we take a look at various points from the three games.

Roberto Garcia reaffirms reputation of poor goal-getter

Roberto Garcia didn’t arrive in Cyprus with the greatest stats for a forward. He scored 16 goals in 73 goals for Huesca and a paltry 4 in 34 for Gimnastic. He has other qualities, however, which help his case, but not at the highest level. He’s astoundingly professional, a hard worker and a very competent target man. He can bring the ball down well and his link-up play can enable those around him to prosper. Unfortunately, not only was this not enough for Omonoia on Sunday, but his poor finishing and lack of pace both came to the forefront once more as he could neither fashion a quality chance for himself, nor slot the ball into the net when a couple opportunities fell to his feet. It’s been rumoured that manager Kaiafas does not hold him to a particularly high regard and that’s perhaps dented his confidence even further. I would be very surprised if he remains an Omonoia player past this summer.

image right: www.omonoia.com.cy

Thuram has improved but far from a natural winger

I once had the misfortune of uttering some mildly unflattering comments about a player belonging to a Limassol club in front of his agent. This club may or not may be Apollon. That player may or not be Thuram. The Brazilian forward has not had the best of my times for Apollon and to be perfectly honest it’s hard to pretend that this is a surprise. Why? Because the Brazilian is a forward being played on the wing without having the attributes to be played there. Brazilian football is well-known for it’s disjointed tactical setup. Forwards and wingers don’t generally track back to help with defensive duties, especially at the level of players who find themselves in the lowly Cypriot league at the age of 24. There are lot of things to like about Thuram. He’s conducted himself well on the pitch and generally hasn’t shown much disdain about being played out wide. He’s even improved positionally and his work ethic is fairly high for a forward. He’s even slotted at right wing-back for half a game, despite that particular game’s manic and chaotic nature. The fact remains though. He’s not adept at playing wide. His first touch and spatial awareness out wide are unsatisfactory and his passing lacks accuracy or timing. It must be noted that the latter two attributes have improved greatly since the beginning of the season, but not to a degree where it’s merited for him to become a permanent winger. It’s fine when the game is open and Apollon is countering. His pace and willingness to go toe-to-toe with opposing full-backs can prove lethal when he’s on-song, but in tighter, more tactically demanding games, like the one against Ermis, he becomes fairly anonymous. Hopefully he’ll be given some more time as either a pure forward or one just behind the main attacker.

image rights: www.apollon.com.cy

Isma lacks both sharpness and fitness

Esmaël ‘Isma’ Gonçalves’ second stint on the island comes with minimal hype. He was a January acquisition by a club that’s currently working with a relatively limited budget and boy does it show. Isma does possess some quality. After all, that’s what prompted Apoel to take a bet on him a season earlier. Whatever excitement his loan move from Rio Ave had generated fizzled away after Apoel’s disqualification from the Champions League. At least he looked fit then. That’s not exactly the case now. He appears overweight and this shows not only in terms of pace and stamina, but also in terms of how sharp he is on the pitch. A leaner, more focused Isma would have grabbed a goal against Apollon and would have formed some semblance of a threat against the somewhat shaky Apoel. I’m not sure of his wages, and one would assume they’re not excessively high, but Anorthosi may have a decent forward in their hands if they manage to make him lose weight and maintain his focus. His career stats don’t the story of a clinical finisher, but he has the alleviating excuses of uncertainty and nomadism. He’s had two goals for the Famagusta club so far, but I think he could at least be a 10 goal forward for them. Things are always in flux in Cypriot football so I wouldn’t wager in favour of him being here next season, but let’s see. There’s discreet air of underlying positivity at Anorthosis. There’s the slightest suspicion of safe, careful reconstruction and renewal emanating from the club. The underdog status against the big boys makes for a platform on which calmness can blossom from, although this is somewhat devious and must not become permanent. Next season will be telling for both Anorthosis and some of its players.

image rights: www.apoelfc.com.cy

Ermis fully deserve their win

There’s no need for beating around the bush. Ermis’ win is rightful and just.  Mitchell Van der Gaag set his side up as he should and studied the opponent as well as anyone. He sat deep, absorbed Apollon’s lukewarm pressure with consummate ease and countered to a devastating effect. I’d venture to say that the one nil win actually flatters Apollon. For a number of reasons the Limassol club were dire and the effects of this loss will be felt for long, long time. Loss of momentum, losing first place, two major injuries, you name it. It all went wrong for Andones’ team against the boys in red and black. Ermis could have also had a penalty after the ball made contact with Merkis’ arm and might have also been entitled to a goal if Manu’s goal had indeed went over the line completely. And what of Ifeanyi Onyilo’s goal? Say what you want about Vale’s positioning and the defence standing the Nigerian off so much, but you can’t deny the beauty of the strike. Papoulis was the one who came into this game with the reputation of the occasional outside-the-box curler but the Red Star man outdid him and then some. If Ermis repeat their performance against Apollon in the following games it would be quite reasonable to assume that the Nicosia clubs are also under threat against them. The playoffs are shaping up to offer some tasty games ahead.