Greece hasn’t fared as well on the world stage as they have in Europe. The Greeks proudly lifted the European Championship trophy in 2004, but have only qualified for one World Cup before this one, and that was back in 1994, when they didn’t make it past the first round. They also failed to go anywhere during the Confederations cup in 2005. The question is which Greek team is going to show up at the upcoming World Cup, the result-producing European version or the mediocre world one.

The pressure’s definitely going to be on manager Otto Rehhagel of Germany to show that his troops can finally handle playing with soccer’s big boys. The 71-year-old Rehhagel, who was nicknamed ‘King Otto’ after the 2004 Euro crown, is about to find out what his squad is made of. He should definitely be able to improve on Greece’s first World Cup appearance in America as they lost all three games and were outscored 10-0.

It’s still going to be a tough task though, as the Greeks are scheduled to meet South Korea, Nigeria, and Argentina in Group B. However, most bettors don’t see Greece advancing as Expekt.com lists them as third favourites at 6/1 odds to win the group behind Argentina and Nigeria. The world’s 13th-ranked team is also a long shot to win the Cup being listed at 125/1.

Rehhagel has done a decent job with the team since taking over in 2001, but it’s now time for them to step up to the plate to prove the Euro victory wasn’t a fluke. The players appreciate what their manager has done for the team and country over the years. Striker Theofanis Gekas said the nation should build a statue to honour him as he’s inspired the team, and they play hard for him. He added they were lost in obscurity before Rehhagel came along.

The team looked pretty good in qualifying for South Africa as they came in second to Switzerland in their group before taking out Ukraine 1-0 on aggregate in two playoff matches. But, they’re still looked upon as underdogs at this World Cup as their group opponents all have more World Cup experience. However, the players look at that as a motivational tool as they compare it to 2004 in Portugal where they weren’t expected to do much, but won the whole thing even though they were grouped with Portugal, Russia, and Spain. They drew Spain lost to Russia and beat Portugal to advance and then beat the hosts again to lift the trophy.

But that was six years ago and Greek fans and media are putting pressure on the current team to step it up. Rehhagel has come under fire for using older players and fans would like to see him play more attacking football with a smaller pool of players. However, the Greeks were successful in Portugal by adopting a defensive system and it’s likely they’ll do it again this summer.

Rehhagel wasn’t always a defence-first coach though as he led some powerful teams in the Bundesliga such as Werder Bremen and Kaiserlauten. He led Bremen to the Cup Winners’ Cup and took Bayern Munich to the 1996 UEFA Cup final, but was sacked before the game took place.

Perhaps, the lack of any international stars on the team has led the manager to think of defence first and team play instead of relying on individual skill and talent. The closest anybody on the team comes to star status are Kostas Katsouranis and Georgios Karagounis. Midfielder Karagounis played with Benfica in Portugal for two seasons before heading home to play with Panathinaikos in 2007. He’s well known for his accurate free-kicks and is best remembered for scoring with a stunning long-distance one in 2004. He’ll be relied upon again this summer and if the Greeks can manage to score a goal or two a game, they just may make it out of the group as they usually don’t let too many in at their end of the pitch.