Turkish delights continue to surprise
This weekend unfashionable Sivasspor have the chance to put a rocket up the Istanbul hierarchy of Turkish football with a fury not seen since Lagari Hasan Çelebi flew a gunpowder-powered jetpack over the Bosphorus in 1633.
Sivasspor, in case you haven't been paying attention, are the surprise leaders of Super Lig, and the first team to threaten the Besiktas-Fenerbahçe-Galatasaray stranglehold in a generation. They have been propelled to the summit by incredible home form: played 10, won 10, scored 20, conceded three. In the second half of the season Sivasspor face each of the big three at home. A win over Fenerbahçe this Sunday will set up the most exciting Turkish title race in recent memory.
Sivasspor actually owe much of their new-found success to Fenerbahçe, and have been rescued from obscurity by the former Istanbul Canaries' midfielder Bulent 'The Soldier' Uygun. The 36-year-old Uygun - once a tigerish, goalscoring midfielder in the Frank Lampard mould - has drilled Sivas into a formidable machine of the ugly-winning variety. "We are a professional team," he explains. "But we have the spirit of amateurs."
A rookie coach, Uygun credits his managerial success to the influence of Carlos Alberto Parreira, the manager who schemed Brazil's unBrazil-like 1994 World Cup triumph and was responsible for Fener's mid-90s revival. But equally key to Sivasspor's success is Uygun's own training system (nicknamed "Turbulence") in which players alternate between performance-enhancing fitness binges and prolonged rests, the idea being that form-sapping fatigue can be meticulously scheduled against breaks in the fixture calender. Sivasspor also go heavy on bonding sessions. As their president Mecnun Odyakmaz put it: "Money is not a major concern. We are a brotherhood."
Indeed, while over in neighbouring Greece it's taken awesome financial backing to move Asteras Tripoli into contention with the big Athenian teams, Sivasspor are a team of anti-stars very much like the Wimbledon of the past. They have a limited squad with average players. Their success depends on speedy counter-attacking football. It says it all that when the club announced they were ready to listen to offers for star player, Mehmet Yildiz, the silence was deafening.
The team's recruitment policy also seems to depend on Fenerbahçe. During the current transfer window, Mahmut Hanefi and Onur Tuncer have further swelled the Sivas ranks of fallen Fener stars - ranks that have recently included Servet Cetin, Can Arat, Gurhan Gursoy, Ilgar Gurbanov and Gokhan Bozkaya.
Despite Sivasspor having 'won' the first half of the season, Turkish journalists are dubious they can last the distance. Ebru Koksaldi of Fanatik urges caution. "Remember Real Sociedad in the 2002-03 season?" he says. "They had no stars but 13 or 14 players with incredible motivation. It still wasn't enough to beat Real Madrid. The next year, they collapsed. Now they are in the second division."
Added to the lack of resources, injury to pivotal Israeli forward Pini Balili - the 28 year-old forward who has bagged seven goals in 29 games for his country, but who muffed his lines during England's dismal 0-0 draw in Tel Aviv - is also a serious dent to Sivasspor's chances. "Nobody can say they will be the champions," says Koksaldi. "But it is clear that they will be the new power in the Turkish league, like Genclerbirligi and Gaziantepspor once were."
Still, from the very beginning, pundits have been expecting steady Sivas to fade as quickly as last season's great white hopes, Vestel Manisaspor, whose eye-catching start to the 2006-07 season ended in mid-table mediocrity and serious crowd trouble. They're still waiting.
With Anatolian Sivasspor well placed to take advantage of a hostile home climate that can mean games are played in knee-knocking temperatures of below -10C, it may be that the dramatic loss of form never comes. A Uefa Cup place already looks nailed on, but victory on Sunday will further shorten the odds on Sivasspor becoming only the fifth Turkish club ever to win the league title.
Scott ANTHONY/ The Guardian
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