The bad news for Panathinaikos is that Stelios Kazazis, the head coach resigned after the Saturday’s game. Mr Kazazis was the heart of the team and continued to inspire his players till the game against PAOK in Thessaloniki. 

 

 

Mr. Kazazis stated that some players don´t trust him anymore. The basic problem is economical not only for Panathinaikos but for the majority of Greek teams. Panathinaikos will face Iraklis and Olympiakos as a guest in the following month so they must work harder to have possibilities to take the championship.

The 19th round has finished with only 19th set in 6 games! On Friday Olympiakos easily won 3-0 (17-25, 17-25, 19-25) over Aris in Thessaloniki. Aris had to play without the main diagonal Nikos Roumeliotis. For Athens team Mitar Tzourits and Despaigne scored from 15 points each.

In Saturday games Iraklis easily won 3-0 (14-25, 21-25, 18-25) over Panellinios and remain in the first position of the League.  American stars Ryan Jay Owens and Brook Billings was effective for a second game in a row. The weakness of Panellinios forced Freddy Brooks to use some younger players in the third set such as Charalampidis, Pipergias and Efraimidis. With the same score 3-0 Panathinaikos won over Ethnikos Alexandroupolis, EAPatron over Apollon Kalamarias and PAOK over Lamia.  We saw a fourth set game only in Thessaloniki where Kifisia won 3-1 over Epikouros. Jarmoc with 21 and Yiannis Nanga with 20 points Kifisia were the stars of the game.

It was a round with no surprises and big battles. In the standings Iraklis is leading the league with 45 points. Panathinaikos is following with 43, PAOK with 41 and Olympiakos with 40 points.

Best volleyball actions of 18th round

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Big problem was created by the decision of the police authorities to do not allow Iraklis and Olympiakos fans to follow their teams in Orestiada for the final of the Greek cup. Olympiakos agreed with this but Thessaloniki’s club stated that it is not legal to prevent their fans to follow their favorite team. Iraklis is well known in Europe such a club with the most amazing fans and it seems impossible for the Greek authorities to stop them. The final is scheduled for the 19th of March so next weekend there will no games for the championship.

Iraklis Thessaloniki’s amazing fans Final Four in Prague 2009