Level pegging

Kayseri away was always going to be a hard match and it was made even harder because all of the strikers were injured. So all in all a 0-0 draw was a good result, even though we perhaps should have taken advantage of the fact that Kayseri had a man sent off in the 60th minute. Keita looked tired as if he was still adjusting to playing in the cold after the Africa Cup of Nations but all in all a satsifactory result which kept Kayseri 4 points behind us.

Next week is Ankaraspor which means three points and a rest for the team which is perhaps fortunate as it will give the medical squad time to get the various damaged players back to health so maybe Servet, Hakan Balta, Kewell and Jo will be available in two weeks time. IN between we have the second leg of the Cup match and we need to overturn a 1-2 deficit against Antalya which even with the shortage of players should be achievable.

Then Sunday I watched the FB match against Diyarbakir. What a bunch of whining, complaining, cheats was on show.....obviously Aziz will be upset as despite the referees best efforts to let FB win due to continuous free kicks awarded for phantom fouls it did not work and in fact almost backfired as a 1-1 draw was the result which means the Kadikoy mob are still one point ahead.

Poor result

First Baros gets injured, then Kewell gets injured and now Jo is injured.........what is this some form of curse???? Probably just bad luck but still its frustrating. Of course with Nonda gone we are now somewhat short of strikers although Keita will be available this weekend after returning from the Africa Cup of Nations.

Having dispatched Denizli at the weekend 2-1 with goals from Arda and Jo the team was brought down to earth with a bump losing 2-1 to Antalya in the Cup with our old friend Necati scoring the second Antalya goal. It would be expected that we will win the return leg on the 10th but it means we will probably have to field a slightly stronger side than expected with the risk of injuries that brings.

Its still too early to say whether the new signings will turn out to be a success or not but I have a feeling that Rijkaard will be shuffling the pieces in midfield quite frequently as we seem to have an abundance of players for that area. Santos was hardly played at Spurs so its a bit difficult to assess him. The one player that does need to get a grip this half of the season is Elano, he has played some very good matches but has also disappeared in others. He needs to find some consistency and if he does a midfield of Arda, Elano, Keita and Sarp would be quite an effective one with the forwards taken from Kewell, Jo, Santos and Baros. In defence it looks like Neill, Servet, Hakan Balta and Ugur or Sabri when fit which has a solid look to it.

Overall it looks like the Superlig may be developing into a two horse race although Bursa are still lurking 4 points behind with a game in hand. Besiktas had a major dip in form and the other top 4 team from last season, Sivas will be lucky to survive this season with their current form. However iven that Ankaraspor are relegated and Denizli's horrible form it is going to be a fight for that third spot with Ankargucu, Kasimpasa, Manisa and Diyarbakir in the mix with Sivas.

Snow business

With the bad news that Kewell will be out for at least 2 months to join Baros on the sidelines, Linderoth leaving the club and the horrible weather in Istanbul it was good to finally have a match to watch.

All in all this was hardly a free flowing easy to watch match but at the end of the day it was three more points gained by CimBom. There is little point making any real comments about individual performances as it was not really the weather or conditions for that today. However Neill had a solid match, with juts a couple of mis-communications during the match, Jo looked okay when he finally came on although he should have done better with his one chance. Nonda again failed to look like the replacement for Baros. After one of the clearest penalties you will ever see his penalty kick was awful and saved easily by the Antep keeper.

Anyway, as I say three points was the important thing here and that was achieved by Sarp with a good run and well taken goal from an Arda free kick.

Choices......

So here we are in the New Year, season start is tomorrow and what am I posting about.......toilets.

I recently started to keep on eye on Vassells world even though he plays in the second city. I must admit that its interesting to hear from a player rather than the endlessly optimistic Kankas...

There was a recent post about hamsi....and also toilets.

So anyway here is a picture of, what is I suppose the ultimate in toilet choice, I believe its taken in a club in Istanbul but whatever....

Stroll in the park

Looks like the CiMBom are taking the Turkish Cup more seriously this year as they recorded a 5-1 win over Denizli BD spor.

So top of the pool with a healthy goal difference and only Ankaragucu to play to finish off with, no worries.