Greece (National Football)

Already facing a steep uphill battle in Group C, Greece lost their captain in the first half of Thursday's fixture against Japan. 

In the 38th minute, Konstantinos Katsouranis flew in with a late tackle in the midfield and was shown his second yellow card of the match. LiveFootball on Twitter provided a look at the tackle that earned the 34-year-old veteran his marching orders: 

While the tackle wasn't especially heinous, it was poorly timed—and an especially poor decision from Katsouranis, since the midfielder was already on a yellow and had support in defense. World Soccer Talk gave its opinion on the matter:

According to WhoScored.com, this is nothing new for Katsouranis. However, it is something that his country has never faced in the World Cup before, per ESPN Stats and Info: 

Infostrada Sports provided a recent historical look at the foul: 

Unfortunately for Greece's leader and engine in the midfield, this could very well be his swan song, according to ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox, who reminisced on the captain's marvelous performance during the Greeks' title run at Euro 2004: 

While Katsouranis has noticeably declined over the last couple of years, you never want to see a player go out like this. 

Of course, if any team is capable of having success with 10 men, it's probably Greece, a team known for often playing far above their talent level and exceeding expectations. Without Katsouranis, they won't change their style. They will continue to hang in the back, defend like mad and play for a tie. 

As one fan noted, it wasn't a bad strategy:

Still, sitting behind Colombia (six points) and Ivory Coast (three points), Fernando Santos' side is going to need more than two draws. If the Greeks have any ambition of advancing out of the group, they will have to push forward and get some goals at some point. 

That was already extremely difficult for them in the first place. Without Katsouranis, it becomes an even tougher task. 

Fernando Santos' Greece side go into the 2014 World Cup with one of the clearest delineations of all the squads at the tournament, between their key weapon and Achilles' heel. In essence, their key weapon is their defense, and their Achilles' heel is their attack.

Let's take a closer look...

Key Weapon

In qualifying for a second World Cup in a row for the first time in Greece's history, Santos has pulled off a remarkable feat. In order to achieve this, Greece conceded the fewest goals of any team in European qualifying.

Greece conceded just four goals in 10 games. They were all conceded away from Athens. No team scored past them on their home turf. Three of the four were conceded in one game, against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other against Latvia.

In their three pre-World Cup friendlies Greece have conceded only once and kept clean sheets against World Cup-bound Portugal and Nigeria.

Their defensive record is a team-wide affair, but the back four are, of course, an instrumental part of this. Particular praise is due for Greece's two excellent centre-halves.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos of Borussia Dortmund and Kostas Manolas of Olympiakos are a pairing whose strengths complement each other well. Papastathopoulos is blessed with excellent pace, and he reads the game well. He did a fine job of man-marking Lionel Messi at the 2010 World Cup.

He has made 28 appearances for Dortmund this season, making him a key part of Jurgen Klopp's side. His role at Dortmund means he probably plays the highest level of club football of any Greek player.

Alongside him, the young Olympiakos and former AEK Athens prodigy Manolas has made the second centre-back position his own in the latter part of qualifying, and he seems very likely to start the group stages of the World Cup.

The rest of the team are integral to Greece's defense—they really do defend as a collective unit—but it is on the shoulders of these two men that Greece's fate most heavily rests.

An honourable mention for a key weapon of Greece's goes to their capacity for attacking set-pieces, notably the abilities of their captain Giorgos Karagounis.

Achilles' Heel

How fitting to be discussing the Achilles' heel of the Greek side. The legend of Achilles is, of course, the legend of a Greek hero. It tells us that his mother, Thetis—upon hearing his death foretold—dipped the young Achilles into the River Styx, a river whose waters would bestow invulnerability upon the child.

However, when dipping him, she held onto his ankle, meaning the waters never touched his heel, leaving that a weakness which eventually saw him perish to Paris' arrow in the Trojan War.

If the Greek national football team had a collective mother, she was obviously holding it by the strikers when she dipped it into the Styx, because they really do struggle to score goals.

In qualifying they managed only 12 goals in 10 games. They only managed a 1-0 victory away in Liechtenstein, a team who Bosnia and Herzegovina put eight past.

They managed an impressive 3-1 win over Romania in the first leg of their play-off to reach the World Cup finals, but that is only the 11th time they have scored three or more goals in a single game in the past decade. The Greek lack of goals is perhaps not as ancient a problem as was the problem of Achilles' heel, but neither is it new.

For some context, England, who have played more games but have hardly been a powerhouse of international football in that period, have managed to score three or more goals in a single game on 38 occasions in the past decade.

In their three pre-World Cup friendlies, Greece have only scored two goals, both of those coming in their 2-1 victory over Bolivia, who finished second from bottom in South American qualifying. Greece failed to register against either Nigeria or Portugal.

Greece will be relying on set-pieces and hoping that Kostas Mitroglou finds some of the form that earned him a move to the Premier League.

It is a delicate balance between their fine defense and blunt attack, but if the Fates tip it in Greece's favour, they may just score enough for their defense to do its work and qualification from the group stages may not be impossible.

Perhaps no other team embodies the World Cup spirit of team unity than Greece.  

They proved it in 2004, when they lifted the Euro Cup trophy on the back of a strong defense and a disciplined core of players who moved together like a well-oiled machine under manager Otto Rehhagel.  

Since then, defense is still king, even under the more adventurous Fernando Santos. In World Cup 2014 qualification, Greece only conceded four goals in group-stage play, despite rotating the starting back four at times. However, the team will need to balance their defensive approach with attacking bite if they are to see off their World Cup opponents in order to advance to the round of 16.

Greece's defense was, unsurprisingly, particularly dominant during the World Cup 2014 qualifiers. The central-defensive leader Sokratis Papastathopoulos saw the lion's share of the minutes in qualification, only missing a single match due to injury. His club form has also been inspiring, with 27 Bundesliga matches under his belt this season for Borussia Dortmund.  

Three of the four conceded goals in group-stage play came against a single opponent (Bosnia-Herzegovina), away, due to set-piece errors. From open play, the Greek defense never allowed attackers to penetrate, despite frequent rotation. In fact, Greece's only other conceded goal came against Latvia from the penalty spot.  

Despite the brick wall in the back, it was offense, particularly from one man, that lifted Greece over Romania with a 4-2 aggregate score in the two-match playoff set for qualification. That man was Fulham striker Kostas Mitroglou, affectionately called "Mitrogoal" by the fans. Mitroglou scored three of Greece's four goals against Romania, and prior to his arrival to Fulham in January he was a man on fire for Olympiacos.

"Pistolero” scored 41 goals in 84 appearances for the Greek club prior to his move. He also became the first Greek player to score a hat-trick in the Champions League against Anderlecht in October 2013.  In 2013-2014 alone, Mitroglou scored 17 goals in 19 appearances, helping crown Olympiacos Greek champions.  

Mitroglou signed a four-and-a-half-year contract in January for a reported fee of £12 million. Since then, his form has dipped due to a nagging knee injury, with minimal playing time for his new club.

For the national team, Portuguese manager Fernando Santos has regularly played Mitroglou throughout World Cup 2014 qualification. Despite only scoring one goal in group-stage play in a traditionally conservative team, Mitroglou was an essential part of Greece's qualification effort with his hold-up play and link-up ability with the midfield.  

Since his debut in 2009, Mitroglou has earned 28 caps to his name, with a goal tally that stands at eight. For a team whose philosophy is very much rooted in the collective, Mitroglou has been one of the most consistent forwards on the roster.

In a World Cup group that includes Colombia, Japan and the Ivory Coast, Greece's defense will have its fair share of work cut out for it.  However, with the attacking nature of their opposition, Greece will have their own opportunities to score goals.  

Mitroglou, aided by a seasoned core of midfielders which includes captain Giorgos Karagounis (132 caps), will have plenty of opportunities to create space for his teammates or to score himself.

If Mitroglou can rediscover his Olympiacos and Romania form, minimalist results aided by the defense may be enough for Greece to secure a place in the round of 16.