CLUTCH TIME.............
As we get closer to the end of the season in the Turkish Turkcell Super League, every match and every weekend becomes very important to teams who are playing for the top spot and the teams trying to get out of the danger zone too.
So, This weekends, Saturday and Sunday matches are perfect examples ...
After Galatasaray won on Friday ,the other top teams like Sivasspor,Trabzonspor and Besiktas are feeling the pressure from Friday allready.............
Just think, on Saturday if Besiktas and Trabzonspor lose point or points ,the traffic on top will be really crucial...
In the early day time matches we have teams who are fighting for their life in the league who will take the stage first.
In Istanbul, Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediye will play against a team is desperate for points....
Istanbul B.B, also in need of points in the league...
In Gaziantepspor will host another team that is looking to get out from the fire zone Antalyaspor.
These two matches start in mid day local Turkish time...
The result out of these matches will effect the Saturday night another two matches which will be broadcast on LIG TV live......
THE OLD TRABZONSPOR(KONYASPOR) V THE NEW TRABZONSPOR..........
First, Turkcell Super Leagues one of the top teams Trabzonspor will face a desperate Konyaspor.Actually, The old TRabzonspor(KOnyaspor) will be against the Trabzonspor!.......
I say old Trabzonspor, because Konyaspor have at least four or five former Trabzonspor players and a former Trabzonspor coach Giray Bulak.......
Giray Bulak also was born in Trabzon on March 9th 1958.......
A win for Konyaspor will be the greatest gift for coach Giray Bulak,,,,,,,,,
Can they do it?...
Why not!....Denizlispor did it just a couple weeks ago.....
On the other hand, TRabzonspor and Ersun Yanal knows very well...
They have to win this clutch match...........
Lastly, the last match of the Saturday will be in Ankara...
Leagues last place team Hacettepe who fired their coach again, will face Besiktas.
Besiktas, has to win this match to recapture the third place from Galatasaray...
In the last three macthes Besiktas playing as a team...
And, coach Mustafa Denizli,finaly putting the pathes together ....
It will be better ,if he gives Holosko a chance again in the staring eleven...
But, Besiktas is on right track,so far,they should not have problem on Saturday in my opinion....
See you on Sunday Preview ,later on here again....
Ahmet Turgut
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
GALATASARAY MOVED UP TO THIRD PLACE
Galatasaray won their back to back second match in the Turkish Turkcell Super League after a coaching change at the helm.
Not to forget, they also beat Bordo team from France in the UEFA cup match too..
So, all of sudden things are looking goood in the Galatasaray side...
But, the play on the pitch today was not a good enaough, in my opinion....
Under, New rookie coach Bulent Korkmaz they are on good track for now before UEFA Cup match against German team Hamburg...
On Friday, Galatasaray moved up to third place in the Turkish Turkcell Super League courtesy of a 2-1 win over Bursaspor.
Galatasaray went ahead in the 10th minute of the match with Milan Baros goal than in the 31th minute Bursaspor's keeper Ivankov made a huge mistake and kick the ball to Aydin Yilmaz and the ball hit Baros and went in made a huge mistake and kick the ball to Milan Baros and the ball hit Aydin and went in and made it 2-0. .
Ibrahim Ozturk pulled one back for Bursaspor after the break but it was not enough to prevent Galatasaray moving to within two points of leaders Sivasspor and Trabzonspor, albeit having played one more game.
Not to forget, they also beat Bordo team from France in the UEFA cup match too..
So, all of sudden things are looking goood in the Galatasaray side...
But, the play on the pitch today was not a good enaough, in my opinion....
Under, New rookie coach Bulent Korkmaz they are on good track for now before UEFA Cup match against German team Hamburg...
On Friday, Galatasaray moved up to third place in the Turkish Turkcell Super League courtesy of a 2-1 win over Bursaspor.
Galatasaray went ahead in the 10th minute of the match with Milan Baros goal than in the 31th minute Bursaspor's keeper Ivankov made a huge mistake and kick the ball to Aydin Yilmaz and the ball hit Baros and went in made a huge mistake and kick the ball to Milan Baros and the ball hit Aydin and went in and made it 2-0. .
Ibrahim Ozturk pulled one back for Bursaspor after the break but it was not enough to prevent Galatasaray moving to within two points of leaders Sivasspor and Trabzonspor, albeit having played one more game.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
NY TIMES:"In Turkey, Women Playing Soccer Vie for Acceptance "
You could not find any kind of news like this in any Turkish news papers in Turkey.
Although number one sport in Turkey is Football, you can not find any extend news about Turkish Women soccer(football)league in the Turkish News papers..
But, New York Times did something what most of the Turkish National news papers did not do..............
Gave a extended coverage to Turkish National women's soccer league.....
Journalist YIGAL SCHLEIFER, went to Turkey and wrote about Turkish women soccer league...
Kudos to YIGAL SCHLEIFER and to New York Times..............
Here is the Article...................
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Players for Kartalspor and Gazi Universitesispor.
By YIGAL SCHLEIFER
Published: March 3, 2009
ISTANBUL — On a recent cold, gray Sunday, two Turkish premier league soccer teams enthusiastically ran onto the field of a small stadium on the outskirts of Istanbul.
Turks are soccer mad, with games regularly attended by tens of thousands of boisterous fans. But at this game, between host Kartalspor and Ankara’s Gazi Universitesispor, the 22 players on the field outnumbered the people shivering in the stands.
The weather was probably not to blame for the poor attendance; it was more likely because of who was playing. The two teams are part of Turkey’s new women’s soccer league, and although Turks may be soccer fanatics, there is a deep ambivalence in this socially conservative, predominantly Muslim society about women playing the game.
Halfway through its 18-game inaugural season, the league has met a combination of indifference, curiosity and occasional hostility.
“Football is seen as a man’s game in Turkey,” said Nurper Ozbar, 30, the coach of Marmara Universitesispor, the top team in the second division of the league, which also has two youth divisions.
“We’ve had men come to watch our practices and yell at our players: ‘What are you doing here? You should be at home, cooking!’ ” said Ozbar, one of the few women accredited as a soccer coach in Turkey, and the only one in Istanbul. “It’s going to take time to change this.”
Turkey has thriving professional women’s basketball and volleyball leagues. Soccer, for the most part, remains a men’s-only zone. In a country of 70 million, only 798 women and girls are registered as players with the Turkish Football Federation, soccer’s governing body. In comparison, about 230,000 male players are registered with the federation.
For the players in the women’s league, just finding their way to a team can be a monumental challenge. Deniz Bicer, a midfielder with Gazi Universitesispor, the only women’s team in the Turkish capital, Ankara, has to travel almost two hours each way to get to practice.
“In my neighborhood, because it was seen as a man’s game, there was pressure on me and my family that I not play football,” the 18-year-old Bicer said after Gazi’s 3-1 victory over Kartalspor.
“People kept telling me this is a man’s game, you should be interested in other sports, but football is a passion for me,” she said.
The new league is Turkey’s second attempt at establishing women’s soccer. An amateur league of about two dozen teams existed in Turkey for a decade until it was shut down in 2002 amid allegations of mismanagement and rumors of affairs between female players — particularly scandalous in this country.
This time around, the Turkish federation appears intent on promoting the idea of women’s and girls’ soccer to a skeptical nation.
“A lot of our work is public relations, to convince families that girls can play football,” said Erden Or, 33, the federation’s development officer for women’s soccer.
“Some believe that playing football can harm a girl’s build and make her manly,” Or said.
“They believe that it’s a man’s game, so we have to show them proof that they can play football without a problem,” added Or, whose wife chides him for kicking the ball around with their 3-year-old daughter.
Or has been crisscrossing Turkey, staging panel discussions in different cities with coaches and female players and answering questions from worried parents and resistant physical education teachers. When he finds out about a girl whose parents refuse to let her play soccer, Or said, he phones them to help ease their minds.
“If she wants to play, I will call them directly, like a father inquiring about a bride,” he said.
Selling women’s soccer also requires dolling it up. One of the new logos for the league features a slender woman’s hand with long, red-painted fingernails cupping a soccer ball. The background on Or’s computer screen is a photograph of a soccer cleat with a stiletto heel.
Despite Or’s effort and some financial assistance from the Turkish federation, getting by is a struggle for most of the teams in the new league. The news media have mostly ignored it, and sponsors have been hard to find. Kartalspor had to forfeit an away game a few weeks ago because the team could not afford to make the six-hour trip to Izmir.
“We’re getting a lot of moral support, but not a lot of financial support,” said Ozbar, the Marmara Universitesispor coach. “We don’t have a sponsor, so I’m paying for our expenses out of my pocket.”
She added: “Our players don’t look at this as a profession because they can’t earn money from it yet. They can’t picture a life for themselves in football.”
There are some hopeful signs for the league. Although the first-division teams tend to come from more liberal cities, girls’ teams are sprouting in unlikely places, including in Hakkari, a town in the predominantly Kurdish and conservative southeast region.
In Sakarya, just outside Istanbul, the local women’s team’s winning streak has led to real crowds at its games.
“In Turkey, the biggest power is success,” said Sinan Panta, 41, the president of the Sakarya Yenikent Gunesspor Kulubu team, currently atop the women’s first division with 10 wins, 1 tie and 1 loss. “At our first game, there were 100 people. As we started winning more games, we’re now seeing 2,500 or 3,000 fans at our games.”
For next season, Panta said he had rounded up enough cash to bring in a Nigerian transfer, midfielder Onome Ebi, who played on her country’s 2008 Olympic team.
“The people here initially weren’t friendly to the idea that women could play football, but we’ve broken that idea down,” said Panta, a former professional player. “We’ve achieved our goal: we’ve made Sakarya accept women’s football. We’ve succeeded in a conservative place.”
At the Kartalspor-Gazi Universitesispor game, a motley mix of curious men and boys gathered in the stadium, a bleak, half-finished cement structure overlooking a busy highway. Standing nearby was Selmin Odabas, the mother of a player named Selin, a speedy 20-year-old striker for the home team.
“In the beginning, we didn’t want our daughter to play,” Odabas said. “We were worried that it would affect her posture, her character, even her sexual orientation. We put her in volleyball, in track, but nothing could stop her.”
As Selin’s skills improved — she was named to the national women’s team — their attitude changed, Odabas said.
She pointed out a wiry man nearby shouting encouragement at Kartalspor’s players and cursing their opponents.
“Now her father is a fanatic fan,” she said.
Bulent Cinar, a translator, contributed reporting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/sports/soccer/04soccer.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
Although number one sport in Turkey is Football, you can not find any extend news about Turkish Women soccer(football)league in the Turkish News papers..
But, New York Times did something what most of the Turkish National news papers did not do..............
Gave a extended coverage to Turkish National women's soccer league.....
Journalist YIGAL SCHLEIFER, went to Turkey and wrote about Turkish women soccer league...
Kudos to YIGAL SCHLEIFER and to New York Times..............
Here is the Article...................
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Players for Kartalspor and Gazi Universitesispor.
By YIGAL SCHLEIFER
Published: March 3, 2009
ISTANBUL — On a recent cold, gray Sunday, two Turkish premier league soccer teams enthusiastically ran onto the field of a small stadium on the outskirts of Istanbul.
Turks are soccer mad, with games regularly attended by tens of thousands of boisterous fans. But at this game, between host Kartalspor and Ankara’s Gazi Universitesispor, the 22 players on the field outnumbered the people shivering in the stands.
The weather was probably not to blame for the poor attendance; it was more likely because of who was playing. The two teams are part of Turkey’s new women’s soccer league, and although Turks may be soccer fanatics, there is a deep ambivalence in this socially conservative, predominantly Muslim society about women playing the game.
Halfway through its 18-game inaugural season, the league has met a combination of indifference, curiosity and occasional hostility.
“Football is seen as a man’s game in Turkey,” said Nurper Ozbar, 30, the coach of Marmara Universitesispor, the top team in the second division of the league, which also has two youth divisions.
“We’ve had men come to watch our practices and yell at our players: ‘What are you doing here? You should be at home, cooking!’ ” said Ozbar, one of the few women accredited as a soccer coach in Turkey, and the only one in Istanbul. “It’s going to take time to change this.”
Turkey has thriving professional women’s basketball and volleyball leagues. Soccer, for the most part, remains a men’s-only zone. In a country of 70 million, only 798 women and girls are registered as players with the Turkish Football Federation, soccer’s governing body. In comparison, about 230,000 male players are registered with the federation.
For the players in the women’s league, just finding their way to a team can be a monumental challenge. Deniz Bicer, a midfielder with Gazi Universitesispor, the only women’s team in the Turkish capital, Ankara, has to travel almost two hours each way to get to practice.
“In my neighborhood, because it was seen as a man’s game, there was pressure on me and my family that I not play football,” the 18-year-old Bicer said after Gazi’s 3-1 victory over Kartalspor.
“People kept telling me this is a man’s game, you should be interested in other sports, but football is a passion for me,” she said.
The new league is Turkey’s second attempt at establishing women’s soccer. An amateur league of about two dozen teams existed in Turkey for a decade until it was shut down in 2002 amid allegations of mismanagement and rumors of affairs between female players — particularly scandalous in this country.
This time around, the Turkish federation appears intent on promoting the idea of women’s and girls’ soccer to a skeptical nation.
“A lot of our work is public relations, to convince families that girls can play football,” said Erden Or, 33, the federation’s development officer for women’s soccer.
“Some believe that playing football can harm a girl’s build and make her manly,” Or said.
“They believe that it’s a man’s game, so we have to show them proof that they can play football without a problem,” added Or, whose wife chides him for kicking the ball around with their 3-year-old daughter.
Or has been crisscrossing Turkey, staging panel discussions in different cities with coaches and female players and answering questions from worried parents and resistant physical education teachers. When he finds out about a girl whose parents refuse to let her play soccer, Or said, he phones them to help ease their minds.
“If she wants to play, I will call them directly, like a father inquiring about a bride,” he said.
Selling women’s soccer also requires dolling it up. One of the new logos for the league features a slender woman’s hand with long, red-painted fingernails cupping a soccer ball. The background on Or’s computer screen is a photograph of a soccer cleat with a stiletto heel.
Despite Or’s effort and some financial assistance from the Turkish federation, getting by is a struggle for most of the teams in the new league. The news media have mostly ignored it, and sponsors have been hard to find. Kartalspor had to forfeit an away game a few weeks ago because the team could not afford to make the six-hour trip to Izmir.
“We’re getting a lot of moral support, but not a lot of financial support,” said Ozbar, the Marmara Universitesispor coach. “We don’t have a sponsor, so I’m paying for our expenses out of my pocket.”
She added: “Our players don’t look at this as a profession because they can’t earn money from it yet. They can’t picture a life for themselves in football.”
There are some hopeful signs for the league. Although the first-division teams tend to come from more liberal cities, girls’ teams are sprouting in unlikely places, including in Hakkari, a town in the predominantly Kurdish and conservative southeast region.
In Sakarya, just outside Istanbul, the local women’s team’s winning streak has led to real crowds at its games.
“In Turkey, the biggest power is success,” said Sinan Panta, 41, the president of the Sakarya Yenikent Gunesspor Kulubu team, currently atop the women’s first division with 10 wins, 1 tie and 1 loss. “At our first game, there were 100 people. As we started winning more games, we’re now seeing 2,500 or 3,000 fans at our games.”
For next season, Panta said he had rounded up enough cash to bring in a Nigerian transfer, midfielder Onome Ebi, who played on her country’s 2008 Olympic team.
“The people here initially weren’t friendly to the idea that women could play football, but we’ve broken that idea down,” said Panta, a former professional player. “We’ve achieved our goal: we’ve made Sakarya accept women’s football. We’ve succeeded in a conservative place.”
At the Kartalspor-Gazi Universitesispor game, a motley mix of curious men and boys gathered in the stadium, a bleak, half-finished cement structure overlooking a busy highway. Standing nearby was Selmin Odabas, the mother of a player named Selin, a speedy 20-year-old striker for the home team.
“In the beginning, we didn’t want our daughter to play,” Odabas said. “We were worried that it would affect her posture, her character, even her sexual orientation. We put her in volleyball, in track, but nothing could stop her.”
As Selin’s skills improved — she was named to the national women’s team — their attitude changed, Odabas said.
She pointed out a wiry man nearby shouting encouragement at Kartalspor’s players and cursing their opponents.
“Now her father is a fanatic fan,” she said.
Bulent Cinar, a translator, contributed reporting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/sports/soccer/04soccer.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
IS TUNCAY SANLI "GREATEST TURK IN HISTORY?........."
Thanks to my blogger friend Oz Kanka who writes about Ankara football teams from Ankara posted this first time.
A well known Football columnist from England Peter Huges, called Tuncay Sanli "Greatest Turk in History" in his recent article!...
What is so absurd, He mentioned his name along with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Like my friend said in his blog sometimes the columnist go a bit over board, when they mix apples with oranges!....
Here is the article writing by Peter Huges..............
HE'S THE GREATEST TURK IN HISTORY...
Peter Hughes; 3 March 2009
…or so the song goes.
And with the greatest respect to Orhan Pamuk, Sertab Erener, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and even Sulyman the Magnificent, you have to think that when he’s on form, Tuncay Sanli IS the greatest Turk in history.
It’s great to have him back.
It was a mystery where he disappeared to. Whether it was his efforts in last summer’s European Championships taking their toll, having his head turned by talk of a move to Chelsea or even just a dislike of the North East winter, it has been clear that Tuncay has not been on top form of late.
Whatever the reason was, it has had a direct influence on the club’s form.
At the beginning of the season, he was outstanding. His hundred miles an hour, non-stop style led us to some great results and he seemed to be behind our every move.
He then picked up an injury playing for Turkey and missed all of our games in September. We lost them all.
He then came back into the team and we started to climb the table once more. After two good months, in which he was probably our best player, we were in the top half of the table and looking towards a UEFA Cup (sorry – Europa League) place.
After a hat trick for his country, he got a brace in our win at Villa Park and he, and the Boro, were in imperious form. We had the longest unbeaten run in the Premiership and things were looking good.
But then something went wrong.
Maybe he just ran out of steam. Maybe he was thinking of the warm beaches of Marmaris, when all he could have was the not so warm beaches at Marske.
Whatever went wrong, it affected the whole team.
I said earlier in the season that he is the link man, the man who makes the runs, the man who makes the space and just as importantly, the man who motivates the crowd. He is ‘the heart’ of the team.
When the heart stopped beating, the team seemed to die.
For three months, it looked like touch and go for the Boro. Many thought they wouldn’t pull round.
But then came the Wednesday match against the Hammers. He was linked up front with Aliadiere and he was a changed man. Back came the old Tunch. His bouncy run, his boundless energy… he was bound to score.
A goal in the twentieth minute and all was good in the world again.
Unlike some teams, we do take our cup runs seriously on Teesside. However, the priority is survival. The game against Liverpool was always going to be tough and so it proved.
They had 72% of the possession, nine corners to our two and twenty-three shots to our five.
We battled away though and when man of the match Stewey put in a dangerous corner, we got the stroke of luck we haven’t had for a while.
But just when you thought their pressure would tell, once again the former Fenerbahçe frontman fired home.
It could well be that it is the return of the warm weather (if you can ever call it warm on Teesside in February), that has brought out the best in Tunch. Or it could be good management to drop him from the away games at Man City and West Ham.
Gareth said that he felt he was feeling a bit jaded and wanted to give him chance to recharge his batteries. Well it certainly seems to have worked.
And God knows we needed him back.
Before the Liverpool game, we had had only one League win at the Riverside in over six months!
Before Alonso’s own goal, we had only scored once in fifteen hours of League football!
And yet now, instead of thinking about how much season tickets will cost in the Championship, we are looking forward to games for the first time in ages.
In our next five League matches we play the teams that are currently in fourteenth, sixteenth, nineteenth, tenth and thirteenth in the table.
One win could move us up into thirteenth place. What a great time to start hitting form again.
We are now unbeaten in four games and have only lost three out of our eleven games this year.
It’s amazing how a few good results totally change your outlook on life. A couple of good wins and we will shoot up the table. Hell, if we’d managed to get a win at West Ham earlier this season, we would only be six points off a place in Europe!
And if we ever do get back into Europe, I know we will give it our best shot.
What’s the point of spending all season trying to qualify for Europe and then playing a reserve team in the actual competition?
I cannot understand why Aston Villa did not put a decent team out against CSKA Moscow. It was their only chance of silverware this season and they didn’t turn up.
It’s like a family saving up all year for a holiday in Spain and then not going so they can work some overtime to try and go to Florida next year.
Although I have some sympathy with ’Arry having to play Shaktar three days before a Cup Final, he still sent out a weakened team to Ukraine in the first leg and so lost the tie.
Their players will be drained physically and emotionally after going out of both competitions in four days and it gives us a great chance to pick up three points down the Lane on Wednesday night.
It may be years before Spurs play in Europe again. It may also be years before the Boro play in Europe again but at least we went down fighting in the blaze of glory that is a European final.
If only we had shown the same fighting spirit that we showed on those wonderful European nights at the Riverside against bloody Cardiff. If we had done, we could have been making our way to Tuncay’s old stomping grounds in Istanbul for the Final in May.
http://www.comeonboro.com/columns/212923.php
A well known Football columnist from England Peter Huges, called Tuncay Sanli "Greatest Turk in History" in his recent article!...
What is so absurd, He mentioned his name along with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Like my friend said in his blog sometimes the columnist go a bit over board, when they mix apples with oranges!....
Here is the article writing by Peter Huges..............
HE'S THE GREATEST TURK IN HISTORY...
Peter Hughes; 3 March 2009
…or so the song goes.
And with the greatest respect to Orhan Pamuk, Sertab Erener, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and even Sulyman the Magnificent, you have to think that when he’s on form, Tuncay Sanli IS the greatest Turk in history.
It’s great to have him back.
It was a mystery where he disappeared to. Whether it was his efforts in last summer’s European Championships taking their toll, having his head turned by talk of a move to Chelsea or even just a dislike of the North East winter, it has been clear that Tuncay has not been on top form of late.
Whatever the reason was, it has had a direct influence on the club’s form.
At the beginning of the season, he was outstanding. His hundred miles an hour, non-stop style led us to some great results and he seemed to be behind our every move.
He then picked up an injury playing for Turkey and missed all of our games in September. We lost them all.
He then came back into the team and we started to climb the table once more. After two good months, in which he was probably our best player, we were in the top half of the table and looking towards a UEFA Cup (sorry – Europa League) place.
After a hat trick for his country, he got a brace in our win at Villa Park and he, and the Boro, were in imperious form. We had the longest unbeaten run in the Premiership and things were looking good.
But then something went wrong.
Maybe he just ran out of steam. Maybe he was thinking of the warm beaches of Marmaris, when all he could have was the not so warm beaches at Marske.
Whatever went wrong, it affected the whole team.
I said earlier in the season that he is the link man, the man who makes the runs, the man who makes the space and just as importantly, the man who motivates the crowd. He is ‘the heart’ of the team.
When the heart stopped beating, the team seemed to die.
For three months, it looked like touch and go for the Boro. Many thought they wouldn’t pull round.
But then came the Wednesday match against the Hammers. He was linked up front with Aliadiere and he was a changed man. Back came the old Tunch. His bouncy run, his boundless energy… he was bound to score.
A goal in the twentieth minute and all was good in the world again.
Unlike some teams, we do take our cup runs seriously on Teesside. However, the priority is survival. The game against Liverpool was always going to be tough and so it proved.
They had 72% of the possession, nine corners to our two and twenty-three shots to our five.
We battled away though and when man of the match Stewey put in a dangerous corner, we got the stroke of luck we haven’t had for a while.
But just when you thought their pressure would tell, once again the former Fenerbahçe frontman fired home.
It could well be that it is the return of the warm weather (if you can ever call it warm on Teesside in February), that has brought out the best in Tunch. Or it could be good management to drop him from the away games at Man City and West Ham.
Gareth said that he felt he was feeling a bit jaded and wanted to give him chance to recharge his batteries. Well it certainly seems to have worked.
And God knows we needed him back.
Before the Liverpool game, we had had only one League win at the Riverside in over six months!
Before Alonso’s own goal, we had only scored once in fifteen hours of League football!
And yet now, instead of thinking about how much season tickets will cost in the Championship, we are looking forward to games for the first time in ages.
In our next five League matches we play the teams that are currently in fourteenth, sixteenth, nineteenth, tenth and thirteenth in the table.
One win could move us up into thirteenth place. What a great time to start hitting form again.
We are now unbeaten in four games and have only lost three out of our eleven games this year.
It’s amazing how a few good results totally change your outlook on life. A couple of good wins and we will shoot up the table. Hell, if we’d managed to get a win at West Ham earlier this season, we would only be six points off a place in Europe!
And if we ever do get back into Europe, I know we will give it our best shot.
What’s the point of spending all season trying to qualify for Europe and then playing a reserve team in the actual competition?
I cannot understand why Aston Villa did not put a decent team out against CSKA Moscow. It was their only chance of silverware this season and they didn’t turn up.
It’s like a family saving up all year for a holiday in Spain and then not going so they can work some overtime to try and go to Florida next year.
Although I have some sympathy with ’Arry having to play Shaktar three days before a Cup Final, he still sent out a weakened team to Ukraine in the first leg and so lost the tie.
Their players will be drained physically and emotionally after going out of both competitions in four days and it gives us a great chance to pick up three points down the Lane on Wednesday night.
It may be years before Spurs play in Europe again. It may also be years before the Boro play in Europe again but at least we went down fighting in the blaze of glory that is a European final.
If only we had shown the same fighting spirit that we showed on those wonderful European nights at the Riverside against bloody Cardiff. If we had done, we could have been making our way to Tuncay’s old stomping grounds in Istanbul for the Final in May.
http://www.comeonboro.com/columns/212923.php
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
FORTIS TURKISH CUP SEMI-FINALS WRAP
Besiktas and Fenerbahce are one step close to the final.
Besiktas who had a clear victor in Ankara against Ankaraspor on Tuesday, have aadvantage for the second leg of the semi-finals in the Fortis Turkish Cup with an away victory of 1-3,coming back from one goal deficit to win it with three unanswered goals.
Bilal Kisa put Ankaraspor ahead in the 25th minute, but Besiktas scored with Matías Delgado (41), Filip Hološko (77) and Yusuf Simsek (89).
On the other hand, on Wednesday in Istanbul, Fenerbahce hosted the leader of the Turkish Turkcell Super League, Sivasspor.
Having beaten the leaders 4-2 in İstanbul just on Sunday in a league game, Fenerbahce was once again the winners, again with the same margin : 3-1.
After a goalless 65-minute start, Fenerbahce's goals came from Deniz (66), Edu (75) and Deivid (84), while Sivasspor's only goal scored by Bilica at 82.
With theese scores, Fenerbahce and Besiktas are seemengly the strongest candidates for the finals. The two İstanbul sides most likely meet in the Fortis Cup Finals.
Fenerbahce hasn't win the Turkish Cup since 1983.
The second leg games of the Turkish Cup will be played on April 22.
Besiktas who had a clear victor in Ankara against Ankaraspor on Tuesday, have aadvantage for the second leg of the semi-finals in the Fortis Turkish Cup with an away victory of 1-3,coming back from one goal deficit to win it with three unanswered goals.
Bilal Kisa put Ankaraspor ahead in the 25th minute, but Besiktas scored with Matías Delgado (41), Filip Hološko (77) and Yusuf Simsek (89).
On the other hand, on Wednesday in Istanbul, Fenerbahce hosted the leader of the Turkish Turkcell Super League, Sivasspor.
Having beaten the leaders 4-2 in İstanbul just on Sunday in a league game, Fenerbahce was once again the winners, again with the same margin : 3-1.
After a goalless 65-minute start, Fenerbahce's goals came from Deniz (66), Edu (75) and Deivid (84), while Sivasspor's only goal scored by Bilica at 82.
With theese scores, Fenerbahce and Besiktas are seemengly the strongest candidates for the finals. The two İstanbul sides most likely meet in the Fortis Cup Finals.
Fenerbahce hasn't win the Turkish Cup since 1983.
The second leg games of the Turkish Cup will be played on April 22.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
IT LOOKS LIKE BESIKTAS WILL BE IN THE FINALS!
BESIKTAS CAME FROM BEHIND TO WIN
This was the best Besiktas team I saw this year! .
They won the away match in the first leg of the Fortis Turkish Cup match, against Ankaraspor,with coming back from one goal deficit to win it with three unanswered goals.
Bilal Kisa put Ankaraspor ahead in the 25th minute, but Besiktas scored with Matías Delgado (41), Filip Hološko (77) and Yusuf Simsek (89).
Fenerbahce and Sivasspor will play on Wednesday
ANKARASPOR 1- 3 BESIKTAS
This was the best Besiktas team I saw this year! .
They won the away match in the first leg of the Fortis Turkish Cup match, against Ankaraspor,with coming back from one goal deficit to win it with three unanswered goals.
Bilal Kisa put Ankaraspor ahead in the 25th minute, but Besiktas scored with Matías Delgado (41), Filip Hološko (77) and Yusuf Simsek (89).
Fenerbahce and Sivasspor will play on Wednesday
ANKARASPOR 1- 3 BESIKTAS
LA Times: "Beckham Deal Done"
Getty Images
The Los Angeles Times,reporting that David Beckham has paid Major League Soccer to allow him to remain longer with AC Milan, though he will also rejoin the Los Angeles Galaxy in July.
Source says he will remain with AC Milan through the Serie A season, then come back to L.A. That could be the end of his MLS career.
According to the terms of the proposed agreement, Beckham would extend his current loan to AC Milan beyond its March 9 expiration and play there until the May 31 Italian season finale.
He would then have to wait until the MLS international transfer window opens on July 15 to rejoin the Galaxy, meaning he would miss the first 17 games of the 30-game 2009 MLS season. His first match for the Galaxy would be on July 18 at New York.
The complicated scenario does not end there.
Beckham would be under contract to the Galaxy until his buy-out clause takes effect at the end of this calendar year. From a practical standpoint, however, he would be free to leave once the Galaxy's regular season and possible playoff run ends, which would be at the end of November if the club reaches the MLS championship final.
At that point, Beckham would be free to rejoin AC Milan, although he probably would have to wait until January and the opening of the next international transfer period.
A source close to the negotiations said all parties -- the Galaxy, AC Milan, Galaxy owner AEG, MLS and Beckham himself -- were satisfied with the arrangement.
Financially, the agreement is said to be worth multimillion dollars to the Galaxy and to MLS, although no exact figures were known. The Galaxy had been seeking more than $10-million from Milan for an outright purchase of Beckham, but the new arrangement is believed to be worth far more than that.
Milan had said it would pay no more than $3 million for Beckham, knowing it could get him for free in November. It is now willing to pay far more than that, but again the exact figure was unknown.
For exercising the escape clause in his five-year, $32.5-million contract with MLS, Beckham, too, will have to pay hefty compensation.
The Galaxy would also benefit by not having Beckham's $6.5-million salary count against the MLS salary cap until he returns, leaving the club free to make other moves in the meantime. If Beckham is injured during the next four months while with AC Milan, the Galaxy, AEG and the league would be covered under an insurance policy.
From AC Milan's position, having Beckham available for its final 12 games of the season would help it immensely as it strives to finish in the top three in the league and thereby qualify for next season's European Champions League.
From Beckham's standpoint, staying with Milan will significantly help his chances of remaining on the England national team as it tries to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
England Coach Fabio Capello has said Beckham needs to be playing regularly and at a high level to be considered. England has six World Cup qualifying games and three friendly matches on its schedule in the rest of 2009.
The Galaxy would have to release him for three of those England qualifiers and for two of the friendly matches if Beckham is called up by the national team. They would not impact his Galaxy games, although he would have to make at least three transatlantic trips and play Galaxy games shortly after each one.
Immediately after the May 31 end of the Italian season, Beckham could be called up for England's World Cup qualifiers on the road against Kazakhstan on June 6 and at home against Andorra on June 10.
He could then train with the Galaxy before July 15, but could not be activated until that date.
Beckham's next match is on Wednesday night in Doha, Qatar, where AC Milan is playing a lucrative friendly against the Qatari club Al Sadd. His next league match in Serie A is on Sunday in Milan against Atalanta.
The close of business today is the deadline for MLS teams to reduce their rosters to the new league limit of 24 players. Beckham will still be included in the Galaxy's 24, since he will be returning, but MLS fans will not see him until July.
Source:LA Times
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