Have you ever heard of the American Hellenic Education Progressive Association? (AHEPA) It is a service organization for Greek-Americans founded about 85 years ago. They funded the establishment of the AHEPA Univ Hospital in Thessaloniki, Greece. Thessaloniki is where former FCD players Juan Toja and Carlos Ruiz are currently playing for Greek powerhouse Aris. (Check them out at 11 am on Tuesday Aug 17 when Aris plays Austria Wein in Europa League qualifying). WAIT...there is more, much more! Those of you who have been paying attention this past year may have heard that one of FCD's current players is Greek-American, in fact he has won the national Greek Dancing title (but that was before he started playing for FCD). His FCD teammates call him "Greek" or "John John". That's right, George John John (not a typo, his last name and his middle name are the same). At halftime of the game in DC last weekend, George John was honored with the Award for the outstanding Male Greek-American Athlete of the year, the AHEPA Harry Agganis Award. Check out the story on FCDALLAS.net http://www.fcdallas.com/news/2010/08/george-john-named-2010-recipient-ahepa-harry-agganis-award Congratulations George!
YES! Have you not been following the whole Adu drama thing going on over in yanks abroad?! Also, does this mean if John starts heading in some set piece goals for us, he will show us some of his sweet dancing moves?
I've said it before and I'll say it again George John is better than Clarence Goodson was his second year in the league....will he go to the heights that Clarence did? Who knows, but lock him up long term after this season.
Yet Another Dallas/Greece connection: Former Dallas Burn player Eddie Johnson played with Thessaloniki in the first half of 2010- on loan from EPL Team Fulham. Unfortunately he did not come back for the 2010/11 season - then we would have had THREE former Burn/FCD players on the same overseas squad.
I've never watched a Greek team before but it was a very interesting game. I thought Wien were a better organized team but Aris had some nice players in attack. I expected to see two defensive displays but it was quite the opposite. Toja started in what I guess could be called attacking midfield (maybe closer to Dax's role with us) but was underwhelming. I don't know why but I always pull for him to do better than he does. He's still got the relentless motor and still 95% left-footed. Ruiz must be something incredible over there because he didn't come in until around the 63rd but the announcers must have said his name 40 times before that, and even then, he didn't seem to come on until the starting forward got his lip busted big time from a loose elbow. Maybe there are several words in Greek that sound like 'Ruiz'. In any case, Ruiz was lively and dangerous as hell in the remaining time, and, in typical fashion, poached a very difficult goal in the 93' for the 1-0 win.
Holy Santa Clause Sh!t, that better not have been there in 2004 when I was there because I'll be mad for missing out on those girls...