Seasons Greetings

To everybody out there who reads this blog I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

(Delete as appropriate for religious preference)

And remember the Empire will strike back.

Winter blues

So its 12 Celsius, sunny and a bit windy and its the 24th December here in New Jooisy. what the hell is this, where is the snow, where is the ass-freezing, brass monkey affecting, cold weather!!!!! The Husband is not complaining he's out on his bike making room for the turkey and potatoes but me I just think there is something wrong about having nice weather at this time of year, unless you are in the Southern Hemisphere of course where Christmas is spent with a barbecue and a cold beer!!!!

No real football to talk about as the Turkish season is of course in hibernation until the real bad weather starts in mid January in Turkey. I do not count the Fortis Cup as that seems to be a tournament for the reserve teams at the moment. Of course if Galatasaray win it will be a different matter, like a couple of seasons ago when we won with the 5-1 thrashing of the hooligans.

So I am being forced to watch all the EPL games and even some rugby. IN the US footie is transmitted by Fox Soccer Channel which covers the EPL, French, German and yawn Italian leagues where you play spot the crowd. Then there is Setanta who also provides the missing EPL games as well as rugby, ozzie rules and various other odd games. So we spent all Saturday watching the EPL but today nothing!!!!!! What to do???? Luckily there is a James Bondathon on Spike TV today so thats sorted along with Sponge Bob!!!!

Actually I am glad the weather is good as taking the dogs for a walk can be a problem when it snows. We recently had a fence put around the yard though so when the weather is bad we can just let them in the yard.

Anyway time to go, You Only Live Twice

And now what???

So its Saturday night and Galatasaray beat Kayserispor in the Turkish Cup and now what!!!

No Super Lig until January guess I will have to watch all the English PL games. Not that I don't already but there will be no sanity break, in the unending display of bling, shaved heads and money for a few weeks.

Actually right now I am watching the NBA, New Jersey Nets and Detroit Pistons. Unfortunately I rarely get to see Orlando or Utah! I sometimes also get to see the Euroleague and have seen Efes Pilsen play.

Why I hear you ask? Well that's who Hidayet (Hedo) Turkoglu and Mehmet Okur play for and whilst I appreciate Jason Kidd et al I would rather watch the Turkish Players. I know I never mentioned basketball before but I have always had an interest in basketball and years ago, pre-Husband, dated a guy who played for Galatasaray in the Turkish League. Had to use an orange box to kiss him!!!

Here in NJ the weather is far from December, in fact its more like April! Won't last of course but we are making the most of it. Had a fence put up in the yard recently so that we can let the dogs out whenever we want without them running off. This will be important when its snowing horizontally!

Both the husband and I have been enjoying some Winter Ale from Weyerbacher. One good thing about living in the US is that it has more breweries than any other country, although the consumption per head is not that high. Weyerbacher is about a one hour drive from where we live and they make some excellent beers. Apologies to all those in Turkey who unless they can get to Taps in Istanbul do not exactly have a large choice of beers, not that theres anything wrong with Efes of course but sometimes variety is nice!!!

So enough for tonight, Sunday brings Chavski and then the Man Utd game so thats the day sorted!!!!!

Europe Calls

So the Kadikoy mob got through to the next round of the UEFA Cup albeit with 7 minutes to spare!!! Good job too so that the Turkish League gains some points for the next seasons. If it wasn't for that fact I would definitely have not been supporting them.

Given the recent poor performances of Turkish teams in Europe I am not exactly holding my breath for their long term involvement though. Lets face it any team that loses to Newcastle United cannot be that special as the Geordies are not exactly setting the EPL alight this season.

Next up is Besiktas and here's hoping that they also get through so the SECOND city crowd might, just might get a sniff of Euro footie next season when they finish below the first city teams (as usual)!!!

One other good thing is that with hopefully both the other Istanbul teams involved in the UEFA then they may get a bit stretched and leave the door open for another successful domestic season for Galatasaray. It also of course depends on how many players leave Kadikoy in January as it seems that a few are wanted by other clubs, especially Appiah, Alex, Tuncay etc.

Anyway thats all for now....

Poor but victorious

Not quite a vintage performance today more a shocker actually but 3 points is 3 points. Beating Bursaspor 3-1 was a result but should have been a bit easier than it actually was.

The first half was appalling, absolutely terrible...the defence was poor, the midfield non-existent and the attack barely functional. In addition the inept performance of the referee was not helping either team I mean there were three fairly clear penalty situations in the first half, one for Bursa and two for GS which he failed to notice, the one on Ergun being particularly blatant.

At least the second half was better from GS although it simply could not have been any worse than the first. Mondragon kept us in the match at times with a few excellent saves and the three goals were well taken even if Okan's was a bit fortunate. Sabri's goal was the best of the lot running the length of the pitch and chipping over the keeper, excellent.

So its into the winter break in second place, 7 points behind the Kadikoy mob. Sound familiar well it should as it was the same situation last season and we all know what happened then!!!

Of course there may be a lot of changes before the league restarts not least of which may be a new coach, I hope not but lets see what hasty badly informed decision the board makes. There may be some new players as we badly need an improved defence for the second half of the season and a holding midfielder, Saidou is badly missed.

Anyway now all I will be watching is the EPL where money bags Chavski are not having it all their own way this year, thankfully with teams standing up to them for once.

Bye for now.....

And the penalty is????

So Galatasaray won a meaningless game 3-2 against Liverpool tonight. Although they won, the usual problems surfaced especially with the defnece whihc has been the weak spot all this season. Lets hope the management recruit a couple of players in the January transfer window.

I also note from the Turkish media that Gerets is on his way out and that the short list includes Co Adriaanse, Ersun Yanal and unbelievably Graham Souness. So last season we won the championship and this season Gerets is not good enough despite not being able to recruit new players whihc is hardly his fault and then the board decide to play the European ames at the Olympic Stadium!!! Idiots.

Talking of idiots lets see whether the TFF have grown any testicles at all in dealing with the appalling behaviour of the Kadikoy mobs so called supporters during the derby match. It seems like all other teams get penalised if their supporters swear but for the Kadikoy lot no such penalties seem to apply. Whilst you can expect no better from the rubbish that passes as management over there and the crap that turns up at games with smoke bombs HOW the hell did such an object get smuggled in, one can only assume the polis are also on the payroll.

Forget whether GS should have had a penalty for the clear handball in the second half why was the match even going on after the smoke bomb incident. Selcuk Dereli should have had more concern for the safety of the players as obviously it cannot be guaranteed by the Kadikoy morons and the game should have been stopped. How embarrasing is it for the manager of the opponents to turn up with stitches in his head after being it by thrown objects.

Forget about fines and closed stadiums there is only one correct sanction for this, points deduction and blocks on transfer activity into the club like Roma recieved last season.

Dead men walking

Well here it isn't. What should have been a pulsating emotion filled evening in the cauldron that is Ali Sami Yen is going to be a meaningless affair played out in the echoing wastelands of the Olympic stadium. My goodness who would have thought when the groups were drawn that this would be the outcome. I thought we should at least have qualified for the UEFA cup and I guess we still can if we win about 6-0 and Bordeaux lose unless its done head to head when it is a truly meaningless game!!!!

From reports it seems that both teams will be effectively fielding reserve teams so I guess Hasan and Hakan will get games for once. Oh how the mighty have fallen!!!!!

With the lack of success in Europe it is getting harder and harder for Turkish teams to qualify and when they do they do nothing. It seems thath all teams want to do is win the Super LIg and have no other ambition. If it carries on like this we can expect to get headlines such as Stuffed Turkeys again when the National Team play becaues thie eventual lack of success will affect the National team.

Now I know that some countries have successful National Teams without strong National leagues or occasional strong teams, Norway, Denmark, Sweden immediately spring to mind. However when you look at where the plpayers earn their money most do it outside of their country in the EPL especially and elsewhere around Europe. In turkey however we have only one player in the EPL, Emre, a couple in the Bundesliga, one in Spain when he's not injured and that's pretty much it. Okay you say then we use home based players. Look at the rosters and Fenerbahce for example have not that many national level Turkish players (Tuncay excluded) as they rely on imports, Galatasaray have a few such as Arda coming through the ranks and the rest are playing for??????????

Is that depressing or what!

When is handball not handball

When its the 88th minute in Kadikoy apparently. My goodness I think the referee was probably the only person who thought Turaci's use of the elbow to deflect the ball away from Hasan Kabze was not a deliberate handball. I challenge any of the Kadikoy mobs rabble out there to justify otherwise, if you do then you obviously cannot be a true football supporter. Plus Alex, what a diving complaining cheat.

Anyway it was the typical game of two halves. Galatasary were definitely second best in the first half but were by far the better side in the second half and created virtually all the chances with Umit and Necati denied by Volkan. Despite the loss it was good to see Galatsasaray play some better football, which is a good sign for the rest of the season.

Unfortunately it means there is now 9 points gap at the top of the Lig but think back to last season it was somewhat the same so it does not mean the seaons is over but some of the other teams have got to step up and kick the budgies off their perch.

bye for now....

Medium day coming up

So tomorrow the match is in Kadikoy against the budgies. Seems like the media and all the kadikoy mob are hypeing this up to be THE MOST IMPORTANT MATCH OF THE SEASON. What a laugh. To be honest with you I am not worried about the result of the game at all.

This may be surprising and I will explain why.

Given the money that the Kadikoy mob have spent over the last couple of seasons just being able to compete with them is a minor miracle. Given the disparity in finances winning the championship last season was an incredible result which was probably a one off. The desperation to win anything is flowing out of the FB camp so obviously that all the other teams and supporters can feel it.

It is my belief that all the pressure is on them, not Galatasaray. If they don't win easily then that is an indictment on the team, manager and money spent. If Galatasaray can get some kind of result then I will be happy as it will keep the points to a sensible number. However give the run of results in the last few years Galatasaray will be lucky to get anything at all. Hence no stress for me.

I must say I am really glad that I do not support Trabzon, what happened to them. I mean they started off poorly and then get worse when they sacked the foreigner and brought Ziya Dogan. I am hoping they can improve as the wheels fell off the Vestel wagon, the second city teams are inconsistent as are Besiktas. Otherwise the Turkish league will become weaker and weaker as the Kadikoy mob simply buy their way to success!!

What will be will be........

Gokdeniz bets again????

So after all the bluff and bluster Trabzon produced a lacklustre performance against the Kadikoy mob, contracts that to their performance against Galatasaray. Wonder how much Gokdeniz had on this match??????

So that leaves them 6 points ahead with the derby match next week. Lets just hope that Galatasaray get their act in gear and at least get a point. The only positive is that Volkan is a terrible goalkeeper so lets see if we can exploit that....small crumbs of comfort.

Meanwhile over in England the Man Utd-Chavski match ended 1-1. Having watched the game Chavski would be the more grateful as they were the beneficiary of the one or two poor decisions made by Howard Webb who otherwise had an excellent game. I refer to the elbow from Ballack, who looks increasingly like a waste of money, on Ronaldo and then the quite clearly deliberate elbow by Drogba on Vidic which was a truly Sheareresque nastiness, I mean he checked where he was and made sure it connected. So besides those two missed red cards and tow bad misses by Utd as well as a clear push on Ferdinand and the usual histrionics from Chavski they were probably glad to get a point.

Definite improvement

After Wednesday's debacle it was important for Galatasaray to get back on track in the SuperLig to keep the pressure on the Kadikoy mob. And back on track they got against Sivasspor with a comfortable 3-1 victory to go within 1 point of the lead.

It was good to see the positive manner on which CimBom started today and although they were 2-0 up after just 10 minutes it should perhaps have been more as there was at least one penalty when Arda was brought down and maybe another when Song was taken out. Still 2-0 and the game was effectively over once Umit Karan scored the third after just 38 minutes. I must admit that I thought the team was playing well and that we could have had 4 or 5 on the first half.

Of course the second half was not so good and as usual the team gave me some hard and nervous times when I thought they might throw all that good work away. That was the case when Sivas scored. More very poor defending from the lads left Mondragon with absolutely no chance and it seemed like they would continue to do that. Tomas and Song are definitely not on song this season. looks like we need to buy a defender in January or get Orhan back and fit.

The most worrying part of the afternoon was the site of Arda being carried off. He has been one of our best players recently and with the match in Kadikoy next week this would be a bad time for him to be injured.

Lets hope Trabzon remember how to play tomorrow and do the business so that the gap is reasonable by next week. I have to admit though that I am not very optimistic about the result I have to say as our recent form against the mob has been unimpressive to say the least. Anyway one can but hope.

Excellent match in the EPL today with Bolton ruffling the aristocratic feathers of Arsenal and a former Kadikoy member scoring two goals, thats right Anelka managed his first goals for Bolton.
And tomorrow its Chelsea Man Utd.......

Thanksgiving Turkeys!!!!

What an embarrassing performance last night from Galatasaray against Bordeaux. It was only after Arda had got himself stupidly sent off that the team even looked like playing but by then it was too late.

I really think Tomas is not going to be at the club much longer if he keeps on playing like he did last night. Song was better but not by much and in general it was a very poor and embarrassing performance.

Given the lower quality of the Turkish league it was always going to be a struggle to qualify but it has not been helped by not playing home games at Ali Sami Yen and thereby giving up probably 3 points straight away. I don't care if the stadium is small the atmosphere intimidates the opposition and gives the team a lift, well normally it would but with this squad I am not so sure!!!

So looks like we will not even have the pleasure of UEFA Cup football unless we can stick about 5 past Liverpool and Bordeaux lose. Not much chance of that though.

I guess we can concentrate on the League from now on and make sure we win the Championship or at the least finish second.


Until the weekend and Happy Thanksgiving

Late birthday present

Excellent result today in Kadikoy with Besiktas drawing 0-0.

Now there is only 6 points between the top 5 teams I think which sets up the rest of the season quite nicely on the assumption that Galatasaray, Manisa, Kayseri, Besiktas and surprisingly Ankaragucu who are storming up the table having decided along with CimBom to not go for the draw title.

I guess the only people not happy are supporters and management of the Kadikoy mob who seemed to spend all their time complaining about the referee;s decisions. I tell you if Phil Dowd had been the official then there would have been a 7-a-side match going on out there. For those of you who did not watch the Blackburn-Tottenham game today Mr Dowd had a stinker and Tugay had one of those hero/villain days. First Tugay scored a screamer and then managed to get himself sent off for an imaginary trip on Ghally. So Tugay got a red card and Spurs a penalty which they scored from. Later Mido who was lucky to still be on the pitch handled the ball clearly in the penalty box and as he was on a yellow already everyone expected him to be off the pitch. But no, no card and no penalty....bizarre. So like I say be grateful for small merceis all the sari lacivert out there.

I was doubly glad as it was my birthday this weekend, good results and a good night out at Sultans Turkish Restaurant in Hackettstown, NJ. Most of the friends we were with we have met as a result of walking our dogs. Great things dogs for social contact!!! The exception is Mert who is our neighbour!!!!! Of course ot turns out he is a supporter of the Kadikoy mob, poor man but its incredible that we live next to each other in this corner of New Jersey!!!! Here is a picture of the Husband enjoying the attentions of the entertainment.......draw your own conclusions

Fun in the sun

Another day another win for the mighty CimBom and a rise to second place in the League.

I will be the first to admit that this was a fortunate win courtesy of lucky own goal, but a win is a win and at least we did not need referee or hand assistance. There were a few other chances but in reality neither Galatasary or Antalya played particularly well. Umit seemed to be keen to get the ball out of the ground with every chance he had and the rest of the team was struggling to pass the ball to each other. I wonder whether the problem was that Antalya were playing in the same white colours as Galatasaray played in last week!!! A notable exception from the mediocrity was Arda who once again had a good game.

I was also watching the Middlesborough - Liverpool game at the same time and with the lamentable quality on display from both games I have to say I dozed off a couple of times.

Elsewhere in the league Vestel Manisa got things back on track or at least stopped losing with a 2-2 draw, Oz Kanka is very happy and Sir Eski less so as Genc won and Ankargucu drew.


So lets hope the Eagles chew the budgies tomorrow to tighten things up at the top of the league.

What are they thinking

So the Turkish National team managed a draw against the World Champions, Italy for those of you with a short memory, 1-1 in Bergamo. Does this make Turkey the joint best team in the world??????

I guess not.

I did not manage to see the game as I could not find it on the Internet so all I know is the reports. Anyway it was good to see Emre starting his first game after the Blatter ban.

Not so good was the fact that Fatih Terim cannot find an alternative to Hakan or at least cannot bear to start someone else. What is his problem. I know Hakan scored four goals in the last real match but even so I wish he would stop and save what is left of his form for the true cause!!!

Nice to see Kadikoy players helping the cause of Turkish football again by gifting a goal to the Eyetalians, if Volkan is the second best keeper then I say carry on Rustu as long as possible....did I really say that.

I was also so happy that it was Masseratti who scored the own goal, I mean it could not happen to a nicer player really, is he aware that 70's style facial hair is out in the rest of the world!!!!

Looking forward to the weekend when Galatasaray look to continue their winning run to stay ahead of the chasing pack, or at least Ankaragucu (amazing), with a three point certainty against Antalyaspor if we can get through the hordes of Russian hook..........holidaymakers!

Finally

So finally something to be happy about, a Galatasaray win!! And a comprehensice one at that 4-0 over Sakarayaspor. And with Besiktas and Vestel Manisa losing and Denizli drawing this puts us up into 3rd spot 6 points of the lace. And with the programme over the next couple of weeks the season may not be all over just yet!

Admittedly the win was over the second from bottom team but a won is a win and it was good to see the team play a bit better than recently. The defence still looks a bit shaky, note to Gerets see if you can find a centre half in January, but managed to keep a clean sheet. One real plus is the form of Arda, he has been one of the few players to play consistently over the last few weeks and he was very good today. Midfield was solid f not spectacular and Hasan Kabze proved that he still remembers where the goal is. Nice to see Hakan get a few minutes and a goal. However I would have thought that Carrusca should have been given a few mnutes once the game was won so that we can have more of a look at him.

I am still not convinced that this is a genuine Galatasaray team that can challenge for the SuperLig crown this season, mind you I thought that last season as well and look what happened, but we have a good blend of experience and youth and if Gerets gets the mix right we will be there or there abouts. Lets hope we can get through to the Uefa Cup with some positive results in the remaining Chimps League games as well so we have something else to play for and give the younger players some more experience.

Anyway I guess the Kankas will also be happy this weekend following wins for all 3 of the Ankara teams!!!!!

Bye for now....

Finally

So finally something to be happy about, a Galatasaray win!! And a comprehensice one at that 4-0 over Sakarayaspor. And with Besiktas and Vestel Manisa losing and Denizli drawing this puts us up into 3rd spot 6 points of the lace. And with the programme over the next couple of weeks the season may not be all over just yet!

Admittedly the win was over the second from bottom team but a won is a win and it was good to see the team play a bit better than recently. The defence still looks a bit shaky, note to Gerets see if you can find a centre half in January, but managed to keep a clean sheet. One real plus is the form of Arda, he has been one of the few players to play consistently over the last few weeks and he was very good today. Midfield was solid f not spectacular and Hasan Kabze proved that he still remembers where the goal is. Nice to see Hakan get a few minutes and a goal. However I would have thought that Carrusca should have been given a few mnutes once the game was won so that we can have more of a look at him.

I am still not convinced that this is a genuine Galatasaray team that can challenge for the SuperLig crown this season, mind you I thought that last season as well and look what happened, but we have a good blend of experience and youth and if Gerets gets the mix right we will be there or there abouts. Lets hope we can get through to the Uefa Cup with some positive results in the remaining Chimps League games as well so we have something else to play for and give the younger players some more experience.

Anyway I guess the Kankas will also be happy this weekend following wins for all 3 of the Ankara teams!!!!!

Bye for now....

Other Istanbul teams blog

Looks like we have an addition to the rollcall of English Blogs about Turkish Soccer. Unfortunately its about Fenerbahce but well each to his own. I mentioned this blog a couple of post ago and so far it seems that Nathan the author is somehat touchy and does not like being wound up as he has not seen fit to add links to either the Kankas or my blog to his site, well what can you expect from a budgie fancier. Anyway in the spirit of encouragement I have added a link to me page so that if you wish to read about the Kadikoy Mob you can do, but why, I mean really!

Read the tea leves

Another disaster for Galatasaray today with losing to Rizespor. Its not just that they lost but the way they lost that upsets me. More poor defending and an inability to really step up the pace when it was needed. The players seemed to have no heart unlike last season when they fought for every point and in every game as if it were the last match they would ever play and of course eventually they were rewarded with the Championship.

I dont think that is going to happen this year though!

Players like Song and Tomas are not performing as well as last season and there is not much goal threat this year. Our main summer signings were Inamoto and an Argentinian who hardly gets to play! I know there is not much money at the club but were these the only players we could find to take the club forward. There are plenty of good young Turkish players coming from the youth team so maybe the club has to accept that this year is a rebuilding year and give those players their chance to show what they are made of.

Its ironic that in the weekend that Sir Alex Ferguson celebrates 20 years in charge at Man Utd that it seems inevitable that Gerets will be on his way in the near future due to the short sighted instant success culture that is Turkish football. He has done a lot to give young players a chance and whilst some of his decisions during games may be questioned he led a group of players to an unlikley triumph last year. However football is a results business so I expect that the board will sack him sooner rather than later even though the board handicapped him with their decision to play the Chimps League games away from Ali Sami Yen. I also imagine that there may be wholesale changes during the January transfer window, certainly a new defence is needed and a striker who regularly scores!

Looks like th wheels have fallen off the Vestel wagon in spectacular fashion after their 4-0 loss to Bursaspor this weekend. A pity as I would like to see any team other than the Kadikoy mob at the top of the Super Lig. So it looks like Aziz will get his championship this year as I really don't see any team with the quality to mount a sustained challenge out there. Just like in England with Chavski it seems like a team can buy its way to the top spot.

I notice that the eski will be tormenting the oz up in the snowy second city afer todays game!!!


Until next time

From worse to worser

Not sure if thats correct English but it adequately describes the state of Turkish teams in Europe at the moment with Besiktas following their usual dismal showing by losing to Dinamo Bucharest. It seems like The Eagles are simply useless in Europe as they never seem to win games at all, last year failing to beat even workmanlike teams like Bolton! As for the GS PSV match seems like most commentators agree that we were unlucky and that the sending off changed the game, typical!

PSV are usually one of the contenders for the Dutch League but I remember a few years ago they came to Istanbul in the Chimps League and we played them off the pitch at Ali Sami Yen. Maybe the idiots who decided we should play at the Olympic Stadium should think about that and learn from it.

As for the state of Turkish soccer this is seomthing that concerns me as you all know and I have posted on this before so I will save my fingers. But if this carries on the only chance the Ankara boys of seeing Euro football next season is by watching it on TV. Any more poor results and we may end up having to start in the first qualifying round in July with only one team. Suddenly the Intertoto Cup looks appealing.

Anyway this weekend Galatasaray will enjoy a fresh cuppa at Rizespor whilst the mid table teams play for bragging rights in the Chopin!!

Elsewhere Gaziantep carry the hopes of the other teams, even they are entering the Bermuda Triangle of referees and lets hope Vestel cne get back on track against Bursaspor

Talk about biased

Well its no wonder Galatasaray lost tonight. With a red card to Tomas after 38 minutes and 3 yellow cards to other GS players and guess what not a single caution to a cheese head. Maybe its a crime to be Turkish in Holland now, it certainly seems that way after a one sided and completely biased performance from the officials.

All we can do now is try and beat Liverpool and Bordeaux and make sure we qualify for the UEFA cup and try and win that again. Otherwise with the woeful performances of the other Turkish teams in Europe taken for granted, I mean when has any other team achieved anything, there will be fewer and fewer places for Turkish teams in the European competitions.

Over on Turkish Soccer, Ahmet has been saying something similar that the lack of success and the reliance on second rate imports is beginning to affect the teams performances in Europe and that of the National Team, where is Hakan's replacement?????

Think about that anyone who is gloating about this result.

Washing Machine springs a leak

Unfortunately Vestel Manisa could not continue their good form and lost 3-2 to the team from Istanbul that is not the champions. As I mentioned in my previous post I wondered how long it would take for normal service to resume in the Super Lig and lo and behold what happened, the team that was playing well and leading the league cam up against the Kadikoy mob and promptly lost...coincidence I don't think so. I mean lets face it if you were Aziz and had spent so much money last season for nothing and had emptied the coffers again to buy the Brazil B team plus other assorted mercenaries, rather than developing good young Turkish Players then you would also have to make sure that you got a return on your investment!!! I mean how good are the Kadikoy mob in reality, they could not even beat Newcastle who are pretty poor at the moment!!! (Not that the Champions are much better at the moment, Mondragon get some new gloves!). As a supporter of the only Turkish club to win anything in Europe I can safely say that that situation will not change this season, unless Besiktas wins something!!!

Galatsaray face a difficult game this week in the CHAMPIONS LEAGUE but should have the capability to beat PSV, lets hope the team that played the second half at Anfield turns up and not the other team.

Turns out Nathan does not have much of a sense of humor, or is extremely sensitive, anyone who reads this blog knows that I am not the biggest fan of the Istanbul team who is not 16 times CHAMPION, get a life and lighten up is what I say!!!! I mean how can you honestly support a team that wins games from outrageous dives for last minute penalties (almost any game last season), deliberate and blatant handballs (Anelka against Konya, wants its main rival kicked out of the ;league for being poor!, wants to increase the number of non-Turkish players from 6 (ie have a full 11 team of Brazilians) and basically cheats its way to points!!!

From the first city.....

We might be poor, cant

First city first

So relatively normal service resumes in the Super Lig with an Istanbul team beating one from somewhere else. Galatasaray, whilst not playing particularly well beat Genclirbiligigigigi 1-0 with a goal from the grand old man of Turkish football Hakan Sukur. Looks like we will be staying in 4th place whatever happens in the other games unless Trabzon score a bucket load, which with the odds that Gokdeniz may lay on the game is not impossible!!!!!

Wonder when we will get a sober post from the Kanka's??????


I have been somewhat underwhelmed by the season so far with CimBom stumbling form 1 draw to another and the fiasco in Europe is just embarrassing. At least of we were playing at Ali Sami Yen instead of the Olympic stadium there would be some atmosphere! In part the emotion of the way last season finished with the big spending, no class cheats being pipped at the post by the supposedly bankrupt classy team is unlikely to be topped this season. In fact with the way that Vestel Manisa are playing we could be looking at a champion from outside of the big 3 and the Kadikoy mob. So lets hope that Manisa repeat last years performance tomorrow against the budgies. I have to say I wonder just how long Aziz and his mates in the TFF will allow this situation to carry on, I mean where are all the last minute "penalties" and basketball goals that happened last season????? Oh yes Nobhead is at Besiktas and Anelka is at Bolton, strange how the team is struggling for those kind of advantages with only Alex the deciever left.

I see there is now a FB blog in English although compared to the blogs about the other teams it is of course of lower class. For example the writer appears to believe that that permatanned moron Halak Ulusoy is GS's best supporter....what planet has this guy been living on and how much does he really know about about Turkish Soccer!!!

Anyway must go and celebrate a good day, GS and Man Utd winning, the only downside being that the English equivalent of the budgies, Chavski, complained, whinged and cheated their way to a win as well, just goes to prove that class is independent of money......

'ere we go

As Gary Glitter said before leaving for a Vietnam jail;....." Did you miss me, yeah when I was gone?"

So where were we. Thats right a draw against Ankargucu. Since then there was Mondragon throwing the ball into his own goal in front of a passionless atmosphere followed by 2 wins......finally both by 2-1 against someone and someone else in the Turkish Cup.

Bad week for Turkish soccer min Europe with all the teams losing and only Emre being victorious, Besiktas being almost as poor as Cim Bom.

Anyway its a 3 point certainty this weekend at Genc so until then.......

Flu is a pisser

Another day another bore draw

The Husband was surfing ealrier today and was looking up something called Coleman Balls which apparently is a collection of the saying of David Coleman, a BBC sports commentator who was famous for saying crazy or just plain wrong thongs in the heat of the moment. One of these comments seems to sum up Galatsaray's season so far:

"It's now 1-1, an exact reversal of the score on Saturday." (Radio 5 Live)

although this is closely followed by....

"If history is going to repeat itself I should think we can expect the same thing again." (TERRY VENABLES)


Once again Galatsaray get themselves into a good position, score first and then give away a silly stupid goal to an inferior team, inevitably it seems to be a South American who scores...are there no Turkish Players playing in the SuperLig except for at Ali Sami Yen?????

So 1-1 with Ankargucu, the only thing good about that is is that both teams are top of the draw league. Can only hope that both the budgies and th eagles stuff up again this weekend but I doubt lightnoing will strike twice.

Good to see Hakan scoring 4 in the week, that is more in one match than the rest of the season!!! As I said its still time for him to call time on his international career.

Anyway time for me to go and watch the Noocassle Bolton match

Hungry Turkey

Well there is not much happening football wise recently except for the Euro 2008 qualification game against Hungary which was won by a somewhat lucky Tuncay goal. If Hungary had a touch more luck then we would have been celebrating a draw or a loss as the team did not really play that well.


There has been a lot of talk about Hakan Sukur and whether he should still be playing for the national team. I must say that if Fatih Terim really wants to include hom then keep him as a substitute as his best days are long past and the defenders he plays against know all about him these days. Personally I would use Altintop and keep Hakan on the bench and use him as a tactic if you need extra firepower in the last 20 minutes.

Anyway tomorrow is Moldova and lets hope that Terim gets the team right, although even as an ex CimBom manager I would like to see him out....

Hungry Turkey

Well there is not much happening football wise recently except for the Euro 2008 qualification game against Hungary which was won by a somewhat lucky Tuncay goal. If Hungary had a touch more luck then we would have been celebrating a draw or a loss as the team did not really play that well.


There has been a lot of talk about Hakan Sukur and whether he should still be playing for the national team. I must say that if Fatih Terim really wants to include hom then keep him as a substitute as his best days are long past and the defenders he plays against know all about him these days. Personally I would use Altintop and keep Hakan on the bench and use him as a tactic if you need extra firepower in the last 20 minutes.

Anyway tomorrow is Moldova and lets hope that Terim gets the team right, although even as an ex CimBom manager I would like to see him out....

Bubble Bursta

Just when I thought GS's performance was bad Bursa beat the other Istanbuil team in Kadikoy, and Besiktas drew.......some joy from the weekend.


Now all we need to do is find a way for the washing machine motor to fail!!!!!

Useless

When you are 3-1 up against a team who rolled over last week against the mafia team there is no way you should end up drawing 3-3.

Useless idiots. Do they want the cheats to win the league this year, how can you concede 3 goals at home against Kaonya for crying out loud.

Gerets get a grip, its obvious that some players are struggling this seaaon, get roid of them or we will be nowehere at the end of the season and the Brazil B team will win the league and that would just be a disaster for Turkish football.

But really what a terrible performance again........

Bribery and corruption

Excellent article in October 2006 edition of Four FourTwo, which in my humble opinion is the only football magazine worth reading, altough WSC comes a close second.

The article in question is about the match fixing in Serie A that of course got Juventus relegated. From what you read that was way too kind a punishment! But what was interesting was that some other bribery cases were mentioned including the Malatyaspor Denizlispor allegations from last season. Alos Eric Gerets gets a mention from when he was playing in Belgium, I think, that he tried to bribe some opposition players. Interestingly no mention of the Kadikoy mob but there's is a more Juventus style influencing and buying of the TFF etc.

Hope Eric has the cheques in his pocket for Saturday.............

Heartburn

Well the scouse stew got stuck in our throat tonight and now its going to be hard work qualifying for the next round with only 1 point from 2 matches.

The first half performance was poor especially Orhan Ak, but then better defenders will struggle against Crouch. It also seemed like the team was slower and not prepared for the speed of an English team, even it was Spanishpool.

The second half was much better, I guess Gerets put a rocket up the teams collective ass and even though we conceded on more goal the fact that we scored two and had two penalty appeals waved away gives me some hope for the rest of the season. Sabri had one of his best games for a long time and so did Umit but why did Gerets start with Topal and not have Hasan on from the start.

Also look at Anfield, I wonder if the board understands the importance of home advantage yet, all the websites talk about Ali Sami Yen being intimidating so why the hell are we playing at the Olympic Stadium!!!!!!!!!

Anyway the group is still open, two teams on 4 and two on 1 after 2 games but we will have to win our next game against PSV to have a chance, we have done that before so here's hoping......

Black Sea Pain

Sometimes things do not go right and sometimes you get idiots who affect things. Today's game falls into the second category thanks to Gokdeniz and Selcuk Derili.

First why is Gokdeniz allowed to play, he is corrupt and should have been banned for a lot longer, plus he is a cheat of a player. I think he must have had a bet with Derili about the result as Galatsaray got absolutely nothing from that joke of a referee.

The first goal was offside, Stepanovs the Tranbzon defender almost ripped Hakan's shirt off his back whilst fouling him in the penalty area every time there was a cross and what happened, Hakan got a yellow card for complaining. Bastards the lot of them.

Of course the result could have been closer if Umit could avoid passing to the goalkeeper from 3 metres out!!!

I cannot also believe the series of matches Galatasaray have as the Chimps league starts. Chimps league opener followed by Besiktas then Trabzon then Chimps league again. I guess Aziz and the TFF had a good laugh when they were fixing the fixtures so that the mafia team play Konyaspor away on Friday, 5 days before their UEFA Cup match. Corruption, incompetence and favoritsm its all on display in the SuperLig.

I may post again when I am less angry..........

Finally a win

And finally Galatasaray manage to win a match!!! Beating Besiktas 1-0 at Ali Sami Yen as I predicted, the win not the score that is.

A slightly more competent display although the lack of goal threat was a bit worrying and we had to rely on a penalty to win. Still a win is a win even an ugly win and it closes the top pf the leahue up a bit especially as the Kadikoy mob only managed a draw in Sivas. Surprisingly its Vestel Manisaspor setting the pace and scoring the goals courtesy of Ankara teams.

In other news Graham Poll once again reveled his lack of knowledge of the rules of the game in the Man Utd L'Arse match. When Lehman clearly picked the ball up outside of the box he gave him a yellow card......huh??????and sundry other decisions that usually went in L'Arses favour.

So our next match is Trabzon away who after a shaky start appear to have improved, lets hope todays win is the tonic CimBom need to wake them up....

Looking to the weekend

Its Friday, 8am and its raining here in New Jersey. I have taken the dogs for a walk, fed the cats made a coffee, read the headlines especially the recent hysterical outpouring of bile from Muslim readers about a quote the Pope used. I wish all religions would disappear from the face of the earth I have to say. Given that the Muslims are complaining about being described as evil you would think they would protest about the violenece and carnage in Iraq by Muslim on Muslim but these people are strangely quiet......and once again the whole issue of free speach and censorship raises its ugly head. I do not want to be told what I can and can't say by a bunch of people who are happy to reject the West but make use of its technological advances or by a bunch of overdressed idiots in Italy who seem to think chastity is the best form of defence against AIDS and overpopulation.

If it carries on like this all the Kadikoy mob supporters will start complaining when I criticise their so called (Brazil reserve) team and ask me to apologize.......never!!!!!

Anyway not much to report on the footie front, just the small matter of a derby match against Besiktas to look forward to on Sunday. Look forward may be an over statement as the team has not played all that well this season yet.

But still Besiktas at home should be a relatively easy 3 points in the bag.

Having said that the injury toll continues to mount with Necati and Ergun out as well as Orhan Ak and Tolga so the squad could be stretched a bit thin. Quick buy a Brazilian!!!!!!!!

I thought the Man Utd Celtic game was probably the pick of the weeks Chimps League games even though it was not the most high scoring and I was very happy to see Lyon beat the so called galactico egos from Espana.

Well I think thats enough for now......

Corked

Another day, another match and another draw for Galatasaray.

0-0 with Bordeaux at home is not excatly what I would call a satisfactory result. The performance was poor, the atmosphere was not intimidating, the defence was dodgy, the attack was non-existent and the midifeld invisible. About the only good thing was that we did not lose!

One thing I could not understand was that Hakan Sukur was not playing but the team inistied on playing high crosses into Umit who was 6 inches shorter than the two centre backs for Bordeaux....what was that all about???????

Any why were we not playing in the red and yellow, what was that girly white kit for. Do the GS management not understand psychology. First they give up the advantage of Ali Sami Yen and then they give up the honour of the red and yellow..morons that's all I can say.

Oh well at least Liverpool and PSV also drew 0-0 so everyone has one point. Roll on the next game and lets hope the team can win.

Till the weekend......

Tied up.....

Okay here we go agan now that my computer is up and running again after a fried hard drive. Good job I back up to an external hard drive thats all I can say.

Once again Galatasaray failed to win with a disappointing 1-1 draw with Denizli. Ilic missed a penalty and overall the performance was moderate. The team needs to start winning a few games and taking the chances that come their way or it will be like last season all over again where we have to wait until the last day to win the championship again. At the moment the Kadikoy mob are going well but I wonder how well all the imports will do when the weather turns bad in the second half of the season.

As for the Turkey Malta match well lets just say we won.

Looking forward we have Bordeaux in the Chimps League on Tuesday and I will be watching on setanta.com.

Until then......

Good guys go early....unfortunately

Usually I don't talk about politics or other stuff like that but a couple of things have happened recently which I just have to make a comment on.

Why is it that people who try to do good in the world seem to die early whilst people who spread messages of death and destruction disguised behind religion or politics or similar crap.

Whilst Osama Bin Laden, the Pope, and other sick and twisted morons who only care about power and control and brainwashing peoples minds appear to live forever a guy like Steve Irwin a.k.a the Crocodile Hunter dies whilst filming a stingray for a documentary!!! Irrespective of what you thought about his style or his actions he was a force for education, conservation and protection of the natural environment of the planet we call our home. What a sad day it is.

The other thing that attracted my attention was PM Erdogan's promise to recall the Turkish Troops from Lebanon if they have to disarm Hezbollah and the fact that some of my fellow citizens of a secular state protested about sending troops to work against "fellow Muslims". Why is it that other countries can send troops to oetyr countries to work irrespective of religion. I think some people in Turkey are forgetting that religion is a personal issue and that Turkey is not a Muslim state. I wonder whether the Police and the Prosecutors will be going after those protesters or even the PM himself for putting religion above state. Probably not as the only people they go after are writers who criticize Turkishness. Well in my opinion any Turk who is basing their protests on religion is also insulting Turkishness as is the PM.

Best in Turkey

Here is a quote to make your heart warmer.

"Galatasaray has once more proved that it is the only successful Turkish Trademark in Europe. Lets thank them by speeding up the Seyrantepe Stadium Project."

This apparenly was what PM Erdogan was heard to say after CimBom qualified for the 10th time for the Champions League. He obvioulsy forgot that he is normaly a supporter of the less successful Istanbul team.

Last season I recall the Kadikoy mob calling for Galatasaray to be suspended from the league. Well its a good job they were not as someone has to represent Turkish football succesfuly (or relatively successfuly) in Europe and that will never be the Brazil reserve team.

Of course now we have to pay for the stadium!!!!!

Turning Japanese

So our one big? signing was Junichi Inamoto, otherwise known as hello moto. I tell you it gives me the Vapors and feel like turning Japanese.

What do we know about him. For the National Team good for Aresnal, Fulham and West Brom not so good. I would have thought he would be a resue project for Big Sam at Bolton rather than joining the biggest Turkish Club. Obviously we cannot count the Kadikoy mob as Turkish anymore as Portugese is more frequently spoken than anything else over there.....even though they are not and never will be a bigger club than Galatsaray, class is permanent form is temporary......

I recall Inamoto as being a reasonable player before he went to England, maybe the less difficult environment of the Super Lig may suit him, providing he does not die of heat stroke, Birmingham to Istanbul in September can be a climate shock!

In related news Anakaraspor have snapped up Volkan who was the original hot and cold player, although usualy tepid. Ugur has gone out on loan at Kayseri and Ashley Cole has finally joined Chelsea. Who cares!!!!

No games, just a practice match this weekend and no National Team game until Wednesday when the Imperator tries to salvage his reputation against Malta. I just hope he remembers its a soccer match and not a Malteser eating contest we are going to.

Bye for now.......

Missed chance

Contrary to suggestions in some comments, I missed Saturday's game for a somewhat more mundane reason, traffic!!!!!

The Husband and I had been shopping at IKEA (dont laugh too hard) and on the way back on I-78 past Newark the road splits into tow sections, local lanes and express lanes. At the moment the express lanes are being replaced and this leaves only the local lanes for all the well trained and skilled New Jersey morons I mean drivers to use. This is a challenge to your average NJ driver. Now I dont wish to generalize but your average NJ driver is at least 50lbs overweight, drives a large SUV which of course can be driven whilst drinking coffee, chatting on the cell, changing the DVD for the kids and fixing the make up round your piggy fat eyes!!! All this at 80-mph and 3 ft from the car in front.

I guess you get the picture. Of course it rained heavily for the frirst time yesterday turning the road surface into a slippery mixture of rubber, diesel and dust with all the grip of ice. And of course there was an accident which with the tow trucks, cops etc. caused the road to be blocked for just long enough for me to get home after the match finished!

Not that I missed much by the looks of it. At least we have not lost yet but the team will have to get organised and stop giving up goals the way they are. The only good bit of news was that the Kadikoy Mob lost to Sakaryaspor so the gap is only 3 points after 4 matches.

I watched the Chelski game today. Is it me or is Muchael Essien immune from punishment???? and as for the penalty that was ironic given that John Terry was a victim of the Terry method of defending, called the otopus!!!

Now we have a break for EURO qualification, how bizzare...total contempt displayed by UEFA for the average fan, nothing new there then....

Dohhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Sometimes I can hardly understand why I support Galatasaray, or more precisel;y the intelligent, informed football fans who control the finances and club..... what have they done you ask, well nothing other than give up the biggest advantage we have when playing in Europe

ALI SAMI YEN.......

Are Liverpool going to play at Wembley are Man Utd going to play in Leeds, no so why on earth are Galatasaray going to play at the Olympic Stadium which has all the atmosphere and intimidation of a graveyard!!!!!

I can only think this is a cynical attempt by the management to earn maximum gate receipts but what about making sure we use our greta strength, the crowd and the atmosphere at Ali Sami Yen to get us through a group which it is possible to get through and then progress further.

Of course I may be missing something and our stadium is not fit for European games and if thats the case then there is no choice, but of its purely financial then shame on you Canaydin.

Scouse....a new dish

I am sure that all of you out there know the origins of the word scouse as used to describe those likeable witty rogues from Liverpool. Basically it is a stew of meat, vegetables and ships bicuits....sounds lovely.

So after tonights Chimps league draw we will start with a dish of scouse, washed down with fine red wine and finishing off with Dutch Cheese!!!!! And who said there was no taste in football.

To translate Galatasaray were drawn with:

Liverpool
PSV Eindhoven
Girodins Bordeaux

Not too bad really. Could have been alot worse if we had been drawn in the Barca Chelsea group and thankfully domestic harmony was not threatened as we avoided Man Utd!!

First match is 12 September against Bordeaux at Ali Sami Yen............

And on Saturday its Gaziantep at home....

Congratulations to Tranzonspor and Kayseri who made it through to the next round of the UEFA Cup.

Painless passage

At last Galatasaray managed to give me the chance to watch a game without getting totally stressed. A simple 1-1 draw played without difficulty got us through to the league stage of the Champions League. Meybe now we can earn some money to clear the debts and finish the stadium. I guess this also seals Ilic for the season.

Of course I am happy that the other Istanbul team did not qualify, a 2-2 draw at home against Kiev being totally not enough after losing the away game 3-1. On the other hand its now down to CimBom (as usual as Fenerbahce for all their money and mouth have never realy achieved anything in Europe) and whoever is still in the UEFA Cup to get as far as possible otherwise next seaason there may be only one representative team from Turkey in Europe, how have we gone backwards since Parken!!!

Just goes to show as well who the better team is league form not withstanding. For all the money and foreigeners FB never play well in Europe as its not so easy for the refs to understand when they are fouled! Wonder whether Appiah will be there at the end of August?

Tell me why.....I dont like

So according to half drunk Scotchmen in Wankara, Meduna the Vestel Manisaspor player who collapsed during the Saturday heat exhaustion clinic sponsored by the TFF was "butchered by a Galatasaray player". Whilst I can agree that the sight of a referee giving a penalty to CimBom may be enough to make a player or supporter faint I can honestly say that I think the heat is affecting more than just the players, it seems to be affecting ageing Jocks watching the match in their living rooms!!!! Maybe the kilt should be worn to make sure overheating does not occur! I for one am just glad that he is now out of hospital and that he will make a full recovery and maybe play again this season.

I cannot be bothered to debate the whys and wherefores of the match suffice to say that 2-2 was probably a fair result given Manisa's good play and Galatsaray's average play.


Anyway it seems that after a couple of deaths and collpases that finally the morons who run the TFF have finally agreed to let Aziz Yildirim decide who will win the League this year.....I mean change the times of the kick offs to 9pm so the players have a better than 50% chance of survival.

I see that Ahmet Hoca over at Turkish Soccer was complaining about the quality of the Super Lig. This from someone, like me, living in the US and who probably watches MLS, the no physical contact version of football. Compared to the English Premier then yes the Super Lig is not as exciting and not as even technically good, lets face it Emre struggles with the pace of the game at Newcassel. Also how many other Turkish players play outside of Turkey and Germany. Tugay and he is almost finished!

Is Ahmet Hoca right or not and if he is why.

Is it the number of foreign players in the League? According to the round ball in Ankara here are 102 non-Turkish players including 24 Brazilians, wonder if that includes Mehmet and Mert, Aurelio and Nobhead? Are they good foreigners or are they cheap and keeping Turkish players from the teams. Or is that some clubs simply buy foreigners and forget to develop their young players. I was looking at the Galatsaray team recently and the number of youth team players coming through, Arda, Ugur, Ferhat, Aydin etc. seems good, is that happening everywhere?

Should Turkish players play overseas? I think so. Hasan Sas would be a much better player for having spent 2 or three years being kicked by defenders like Alan Stubbs and Kevin Davies!!!

So is Turkish football going backwards and is Aziz totally to blame!!! You know the answer so lets hear your views!!!

Football second

Well what can I say, I am still finding it hard to understand what happened in Manisa today. The records will show a 2-2 result which was about fair give that Galatsarary were playing against 14 men.

What the reocrds may not show was the emotion and drama when one of the Mainuisa payers suddenly collpased and had to be taken off the pitch in anambulance, I still am not sure what happened nor what the result is.

Until tomorrow,

Normal service resumed

So finally Galatasaray kick their season off. After the 5-2 demolition of the Czechs in midweek it was the turn of Kayserispor to try to halt the CimBom express.

They failed.

All in all not a good week for the Kayserispor/Erciyespor area with a total of 10 conceeded against real teams. The same can be said of the capital teams as the Kadikoy mob are at the top of the league after the inept, pathetic and obvioulsy bribed performance of Genclerbirligi, no signs of Promise there then......and to think they did not even have Appiah or Serkan Balci playing after their red cards....and the Kankas think Ankaraspor are not worth supporting........

Anyway onto the match. The first 45 minutes, apart from the last minute can be filed in the garbage can, it was worse than watching paint dry, no passion, inept playing and that barn door kept on appearing. In the interests of fairness, an unusual concept for this blog it has to be said, Kayserispor should have had a penalty and Mondragon would have been taking an early shower and that may have changed the game, it might have woken them up!!!Having said that GS should have had a penalty in the first half which would have livened things up, but as usual when no Brazilian is involved (not wearing red and yellow) there was no penalty given. Then Arda scored in the last minute, just when I was thinking of watching Professional Poker on ESPN.

So the second half, cant get much worse, I thought and so it did not. 3 goals scored in the second half, Ilic (2) and Cihan, has he had a nose job, he looked more streamlined anyway. The performance was much better, the ability to pass to each other, score, etc. improving beyond recognition from the first half.

I thought Ilic had an excellent game, as he did on Wednseday as well. I guess he is well rested after the World Cup where he did not excatly spend much energy! I wish the transfer window was closed already as he could still be tempted away although if we get through to the frst round of the Chimps League I guess he will stay.

Who is Arda you say. He is a product of the youth system at Galatasaray, a seemingly unique concept in Istanbul. He has had a good week though, 2 in the Chimps League and one on Sunday.

No coment yet on Carrusca as he has not had much time to impress, but from the little seen of him he looks promising.

So to all the idiots out there shouting for Gerets removal after the 1-1 draw with Ankaraspor, get a life, when a goal keeper has an inspired day there is not much you can do.

Nice touch from Mondragon, after Hakan gave him the captains armband it needed tightening and he got one of the ball boys to do that. When he was finished he gave a kiss to the boys forehead, its amazing what fatherhood can do for a guy!!!

I think that's all for now, time for cay,

Home advantage

Excellent result today, even though I could not see much due to the very poor nature of Show TV's webcast. Of course this being Galatasaray they could not do things easily and allowed the Czech team back in to the game with two goals in 2 minutes. Stress andn anxiety resulted, I have to say. That is unforgivable when you are leading 4-0. Maybe they stopped concentrating or something and hopefully things should improve as the team plays more games. I was very glad though that Sabri got the 5th goal as this means we weould have to lose 3-0 in the return match and from what I saw today that does not look possible. But then again this is football and crazier things have happened although it could be said that the Czech's bounced.....

Whilst I am for the most part happy that the Kadikiy mob lost and another player got sent off, Aziz might have to buy some more Brazilians at this rate, if they fail to reach the next stage thenb Turkish football will get fewer points iun the UEFA league table and this can only hurt the opverall effort in the future. Still I hope they get knocked out though as a fanatic, bigoted and partisan CimBom supporter.

Chimps League begins

Due to the complete and utter under achievement of Turkish football's representatives in Europe since Galatasaray won the only European competition victory by a Turkish team, the UEFA Cup, Galatasaray despite winning with ease the Super Lig last season now have to go through the disgrace of a qualifying round to get into the Champions League group phases. This is shocking to compare us to Arsenal and other no hope teams. Really what is the world coming to.....

Anyway its a fact and tomorrow we play some unpronouncable team from Czech Republic, Mlada Boleslav. I really hope we play better than on Friday especially as we are at home for the first leg so need a couple of goals and not to concede any.....and if there are penalties I think Mondragon should take them!!!!

More later

Lig TV on the web

To anyone who could not find it here is the address for this seasons Lig TV on the Internet

Barn door

As in could not hit one. Whatever the Galatasaray players do at Florya penalty taking is obvfioulsy not high on the list. Missing one penalty is bad enough but 2 in the same game, useless...

Still a draw is better than a loss even if it was Ankaraspor.

No need to get too down but where is my Prozac......

All we need now os for the mafia to draw or lose

Knocking on the door

I cannot believe the season is only 2 days away from starting. It seems like only a heartbeat since the last season finished and then the World Cup kept us all busy if not enthralled. And now on Friday hostilities resume in the Super Lig, whatever happened to summer!!!!!


So Besiktas won the Turkish Super Cup. Normally I would not be too bothered about that except for the fact that Nobhead scored the only goal, typical! Transfers from you know who and then promptly scores against the only worthwhile team from Istanbul!!!

So far not much news on the transfer front but there is still a month almost to go until the transfer window closes so there may be more news to report on that before too long.

Over here in New Jersey the main news is the weather, it is so hot! Today the heat index was 45 which means the temperature plus humidity combined to make it feel like 45 Celsius and that is damn hot. I am suffering, the dogs are suffering and the Husband is suffering. Some rain would be welcome I have to say!!!

So here is looking forward to Friday and the first win of the season inAnkara.

Germ Warfare

Not a bad result I guess for Galatasaray against Monchengladbach with a a 1 all score. Considering the youthful nature of the team.

Next up is the Turkish Super Cup against Beşiktas in Frankfurt which seems a bit odd to me but then then the TFF I am sure have the situation completely under control just like the investigation into match fixing.

More later.

Arjentin at CimBom

Finally some news. It looks like Galatasaray have completed the transfer of Mareclo Carrusca from Estudiantes in Argentina. Check out the stories here and here. I seem to recall seeing this guy play during the year as we get to see the Apetura and Clausara tournaments in the US and if memory serves he is not a bad player.

And....according to Sabah there are another couple of players about to sign including the Swiss Captain Vogel and a Samoza from somewhere, but lets wait and see.

Holiday Over....for now

Well after posting yesterday and getting some typing under my fingers I figured I should get back to what I do best.....FB bashing and GS supporting or something like that.

The last couple of weeks have seen some rather odd events in the World of Football. Zidane recieving a 3 match ban, Masernazi 1 2 match ban whihc was quite okay, anyone with facial hair like that should be banned anyway. Then we have the ridiculous saga of the Spaghetti leagues match fixing saga. First relegate them all, now reinstate 3 of them and watch Juve will be back in Serie A at the start of the season. Funny thing is though they have now sold most of their good players!!!!

Of course the Turkish League has its own scandal with Denizili apparently bribing Malatya to throw their match or something. The only surprsie for me is that it was not the Kadikoy brigade bribing Denizli to lose and therefore guaranteeing the titel, alhtough maybe that would have been way too obvious even for Aziz. And there's a story, reign, no-one else steps forward and then be reluctantly brought back!!! Good for stability that is, as is appointing Zico who fails to undertsand that Anelka and his brothers can barely survive on three ferraris a year and needs another multi milion transfer to top up the family coffers. With Appiah looking to leave it looks like the wait for Chimps League success and the next Super Lig title will have to wait. Shame.

As for Galatasaray a somewhat indifferent warm up camp finished with a resounding 4-1 win against FC Brussles. This sprouted contentnment!!!

Still no real transfer news for CimBom although it seems as if Heinz will be away due to injury. Actually other than Chelski and Real Madrid (who want to buy everyone) not many players seem to be moving yet, still there is a month to go until the window closes and teams like Man Utd have not even really started.

This last few weeks has been really hectic. Moving from Cleveland to New Jersey in the middle of a heatwave and then holiday has taken its toll and I am glad of the rest. Anyway by the end of this week it will be back to reality!!

Stop Press: I see the TFF have granted the chance to Galatasaray to get the season off to a winning start in Ankara on August 4th with an away game at Ankaraspor. Bad time of year to playing there actually with the heat but should be a relatively easy three points in the bag.

Bye for now......

Holiday Fever

Well hello there.

I have not disappeared simply gone on holiday without a computer for once so this is being written from a friends PC.

I will be back to seal with all issues Galatasaray in the very near future.

How was it for you?????

So that's the World Cup done and dusted, Zidane in retirement and hopefully a long ban for the cheating Eyetie. I cannot help but be sickened by the comments coming from Maserrati and his agent, "Me I dont know the word terrorist, I never mentioned his mother" when lip readers have basically confirmed what he said, how stupid is this guy, and the recent one about Totti, classic!!!!!!

Anyway I feel this was a slightly indifferent World Cup and although superbly organized and hooligan free, more Poles and Germans were arrested than English for goodness sake, there was no real high drama, except for the Oz matches. Even the final was hardly edge of the seat stuff.

On reflection Italy were not the best team and really how could such a boring, cheating team be allowed to win. Brazil were crap and the stand out team were Argentina but the coach messed their chances up.

Enough though as the real action starts now.

Galatasaray have started the transfer ball rolling taking Tolga Seyhan on loan and Okan Burak for free. There has been alot of questions asked about Okan but even at 32 he can probably do a job for the team, especially as Saidou has gone. I am not sure he will play 90 mins or even all the games but as I say he can come on and tighten things up as he more a midfiled player than a winger these days. Tolga I am not sure about so lets wait and see but he has got potential.

At the moment Galatasary are failing to impress on a tour of Belgium and Holland losing the first match to a team called Germs 1-0 and drawing with that powerhouse Lierse 1-1. Well it can, I hope, only get better....maybe the Club should stop paying them.

My how time flies though, World Cup finished and only 1 month to the start of the EPL and the Turkish Super Lig, add in Intertoto matches, Chimps and Uefa qualifying games and football is an all year sport!!!!!

Back again

I am back.

Last few days have been hectic with relocating from Cleveland to New Jersey and the inevitable disruption in internet and TV services. I even missed the World Cup Final as a result of the move!!!!!

Anyway back online and ready for a new season.

So Italy won the World Cup, how the hell did that happen because they certainly were not the best team and any team that includes people who spit, Totti, elbow, racially abuse, cheat (remember the Oz game) and generally behave like low class scum cannot be considered as World Champions whatever the result.

Cheats Prosper

So England are out and the team with the worst disciplinary record and the worst attitude progress to the semi finals of the World Cup.

The amount of diving and cheating going on by the Portugese was a joke. Maniche made a clear dive clutching his face when it was clear he was not touched, where was the yellow card??? Figo spent most of the time falling over every time an English defender came near him and should of course not have been playing after the head butt in the Holland match.

I wonder whether Ronaldo will still be at Manchester United at the start of next season after his theatrics and blatant cheating. His part in Rooney's sending off was a disgrace. I thought FIFA had told players thath asking for psople to be booked etc. would result in a yellow card, but it appears that is not happening with Portugal who have managed to get three payers sent off by their asppaling whining attitude. Watching the tussle between Carvalho and Rooney, Carvalho had Rooneys leg in a scissors hold so just where was Rooney supposed to stand, and why was it not a free kick to England! His massive over reaction and Ronaldo's attitude got Rooney sent off. Pushing a player in the chest cannot surely be a red card. Still what mre can you expect from an Argentinian referee.

I am glad Scolari will not be the England coach next time because I would hate England to play the way Portugal do. Maybe its in the genes because Mourinho at Cheslki has his players doing the same.

Now for France to beat Brazil???

Fun filled Friday

Hello again. After a hectic week which involved a three day business trip to the Big Apple I arrived back ion Cleveland at 2am this morning after a 4 hr delay at Newark Airport. Oh the joys of flying.

So its biggggg Friday for the World Cup.

Now we will see how brave the Germans are, if the Argies are as good as the media keeps telling us, can Ingalland play football, are the Ukraine a one man band, can Itallians play without selecting the referee in advance, can Portugal play without cheating etc. etc.

Let the fun commence....

Blue Monday

After the firewirks of the Portugal Holland match todasy affair whihc saw the spaghetti eating girly men cheat their way to a victory over Oztrailer with another highly dubious penalty seemed quite tame. I am sorry to see the Ozzies go especially to the Eyeties who asre almost as bad as the Portugese in the cheating department.

Speaking of which I cant believe the nerve of fat Phil who wants Deco's red card rescinding because the Dutch did not give the ball back. Well after what Figo had just got away with if I were on the Dutch team neither would I have given the ball back.

Speaking of Figo I see FIFA had a collective lack of nerve in failing to apply the laws as they are published. A headbutt is a red card irrespective of whether Mark van Bommel recieves it or not.

Oh well I guess I will be supporting England from here on in..... until Saturday anayway...

Disgrace to football

This man used to be good player, now he just a diving cheating bastard.


Luis Figo is nothing other than a cheat pure and simple and should be thrown from the World Cup. I thought a headbutt was an automatic red card and what about his piece of pure acting tpo get the Dutch player sent off. He is a fucking cheat and was directly repsonsible for the farce this match descended into. Commentators on TV were saying that the only thing to be remembered would be the referee well I dont agree. I think the only deceision he got wrong was not sending Figo off after he nutted van Bommel the rest were all correct decisions given the instructions FIFA have given out and the rank stupidity of the players.

Disgrace to football

This man used to be good player, now he just a diving cheating bastard.


Luis Figo is nothing other than a cheat pure and simple and should be thrown from the World Cup. I thought a headbutt was an automatic red card and what about his piece of pure acting tpo get the Dutch player sent off. He is a fucking cheat and was directly repsonsible for the farce this match descended into. Commentators on TV were saying that the only thing to be remembered would be the referee well I dont agree. I think the only deceision he got wrong was not sending Figo off after he nutted van Bommel the rest were all correct decisions given the instructions FIFA have given out and the rank stupidity of the players.

The day after and the day before

So it looks like I succeeded with driving Ozkanka to the point of despair by waving a Coopers before his very eyes!! Tee heee....

I tell you what though the refs are so inconsistent. Today in the Germany Sweden game the Germans asked for a Swedish player, Lucic, to be sent off and the Brazilian ref obliged. His first yellow card was for actually winning the ball from a Kraut and his second was for putting his arm out, complete bullshit in my opinion. What was that all about, I for one am totally sick and fed up of players asking for other players to be booked. This decision basically killed the game and the Germans in my mind are cheating bastards who I really hope get knocked out as soon as possible. And then Frings who made a completely deliberate handball to stop a Swedish attack was only yellow carded and it was him telling the useless ref to send of the Swede. I was so happy when he got smacked in the face later, bastard square head.

Then in the Argentina Mexico match how did Heinze stay on the pitch. He is my favourite Man Utd player but when he took out the Mexican attacker he was the last defender and that should have been a red card. Plus the Swiss ref's performance had more holes in it than a cheese. They are so inconsistent it is so frustrating!!!

Anyway here is the last comment on Graham Poll.

I found this on the official Yahoo World Cup Site. This is the dream team of players leaving after the group stages, what do you think???

Team (4-3-3): Cech (Czech Republic); Eboue (Côte d'Ivoire), R Kovac (Croatia), Vidic (Serbia and Montenegro), Lee Y-P (Korea Republic); Nakata (Japan), Yorke (Trinidad and Tobago), Rosicky (Czech Republic), Nedved (Czech Republic); Drogba (Côte d'Ivoire), Kezman (Serbia and Montenegro). Subs: Kawaguchi (Japan), Jaidi (Tunisia), Acuna (Paraguay), Baros (Czech Republic), Prso (Croatia).

Oz envy

Sorry Ozkanka but I had to post these. Here is what I will be drinking for the next few days in the You Ess of Eh!



And here is what you all will be drinking in Turkey thanks to Tekel and the Turkish Government



and here is a great T shirt I found on the SMH web site whihc you pointed me to in your blog....



I am officially supporting Oztrailer now that the You Ess of Eh! has been sent home much to my Colonial Master husbands complete and utter disgust.....although he did jump from his seat, punch the air and shout yes, get in you bastard, when Kewell scored!!!!!!

Turkey at the World Cupl

Yes you read the title right. I know Turkey are not there but what about the players for other countries who play in Turkey, how are they doing, do you care well you should if they play for your team because if they are doing well the chances are they will be leaving which if truth to be told is good news for Galatasaray.

Galatsaray:
Marek Heinz - Czech Republic. Played for 13 minutes 1 game. Gone home already.
Sasa Ilic - Serbia and Montenegro. Played for 90 minutes 1 game. Gone home already.
Stjepan Tomas - Croatia. Played 1 game 82 minutes, 2 handballs. Gone home already.

Impressive eh!!

Fenerbahce:
Steven Appiah - Ghana captain. Played 3 games, 270 minutes, 1 goal. Through to second round.

Goodbye Appiah!!!! Shame........not.

Ankaraspor:
Richard Kingson - Ghana. Played 3 games, 270 minutes conceded 3 goals, through to second round.
Dragosalv Jervic - Serbia and Montenegro. 3 games 270 minutes, conceded 10 goals, gone home already.

Erciyesspor:
Riadh Bouazizi - Tunisia. Played 3 games, 188 minutes gone home already.

Samsunspor:
Anis Ayari - Tunisia. 2 games 146 minutes. Gone home already.

Gaiantepspor:
Sofiane Melliti - Tunisia. 0 games 0 minutes. Gone home already.

Trabzonspor'
Eul Yong Lee - South Korea. 2 games 112 minutes. Gone home already.

Switzerland:
Hakan Yakin - Through to second round.

Not exactly stunning stuff but at least the Turkish League is providing employment for some of the also rans!!!! There are other players who used to play in Turkey, as well but I have left those out. Anybody knows I have missed someone please let me know and I will update the list accordingly.

I really do wonder how long Appiah will stay after his performace to date though.

The worst referee in the World???

Is Graham Poll the worst referee in football. If you read the hysterical comments published in the Guardian and littering the cybersphere you would certainly think so but I have to say that in this case I disagree. First of all the Swiss idiot who runs FIFA, Splatter has opf course got his own take on things. He is quoted as saying "I'm not surprised about the reaction. There are people there and one of them should have intervened and run on to the field and said, 'Stop, stop.'

"That's why they have the communication system. The assistants and the fourth official have the right to call on the referee and tell him. It is not understandable how this happened."

Splatter seems to have fogotten that the refs and linesmen are miked up!!! Plonker. Of course he has yet to make commnents on referees who give penalties for nothing and send players off for breathing on others, the Swiss (no surpise there then) in Spain Ukraine and Merk in any match you care to mention but then they speak German so must be okay!!! FIFA also have themselvesd to blame, they asked no instructed refs to target time wasting, dissent etc. and the refs have been doing except to the Bazilians of course. The players know it so in my view if they throw or kick a ball away they only have themselves to blame.

Anyway on the specific accustaions, yes he gave three yellow cards and has admitted as much so that was definitley a mistake. As for the two penalties not given, the first one for the rugby tackle should have been easily spotted by the linesman as Poll maybe could not see clearly what was happening. Same for the second handball. When I watched the match I did not see Tomas, Galatsaray's best defender, make contact with his hand. It was only from the fifth slow motion replay that it could be seen. If you check where Poll was there was no way he could have seen it as Tomas's hand was below the level of the other heads. Mistake, absolutely not.

Remember the officials work as a team and the linesman can bring the referee's attention to incidents. This is especially true of the yellow card issue, was no-one else taking notes?????

Of course alot of the Oztrailer supporters are making a huge fuss conveniently forgetting that the linesman allowed an offside goal and that in the Japan Oz game Japan had a clear penalty claim waved away for a clear foul by Cahill a couple of minutes after Oz had scored. What goes around comes around!

Did Poll have a good game, maybe not but I really dont think he deserves the abuse handed out by clueless plonkers who have maybe never played the game and definitley not refereed one with Splatter breathing down you neck.

And before Ozkanka thinks I am being anti Oz I will be wearing the gold and green when they line up to take on the spaghetti eating diving girly men from the shit container that is the boot of Italy......

The good, the bad and the ugly

Tremedous day of football in Germany. The US lost to Ghana but played reasonably well. I do however think that the referee, Markus Merk had a large infuence on the game with the ridiculous penalty award, contrast that to the rugby tackle on Viduka in the Oztrailer game that was not given. On thing about Ghana I don't like is the diving that went on as the game progressed, too much Eyetalian footie watching I think.

Then on to the thud and blunder of Croatia and Oztrailer. Great game, maybe not the prettiest technically but hugely entertaining and tense and with the best goalkeeper mistake of the tournament. Amazingly for a country that is so good at sports that involve catching a ball that the Ozkeeper could not catch a slow moving football! Graham Poll also did well given the circumstances although Simunic should have been sent off about 5 minutes before he was. Hate to say it but one of our own, Tomas should have given up two penalties as he handled the ball twice, the first given the second not. Anyway history was made by the Ozzies, Porknaldo also made history and I hope the French go out tomorrow!

The good


The bad



and the ugly



I wonder when OzKanka will be sober enough to post!!!

The gay swede.....draws

Dams, damn, damn, for a moment there it looked like fast Freddy the gay diving swede was going to lose to Ingerlland but of course some comedy club defending allowed Larsson to score in the last minute. Oh well.

Overall though England looked better although with Owen and possibly Neville out for the remainder of the matches they may struggle later, that is on the assumption they beat Ecuador which I think they should. I tell you what though if Cole was called Colenaldo the entire football media would be dribbling all over their knees after thye goal he scored today. And just think he will be fourth choice at Chelski next season behind Lampard, Essien, Makelele, Bollocks, Mikel and the half dozen other assorted internationals the inflated ego thinks he needs.

So Sweden play Germany next. I hope fast Freddy and his mates stuff them!!!!

Anyone looking for a hotel in Turkey for the summer or wondering what to see check this website out.

Officially bad

With an average of 5 yellow cards per match and a number of reds it would seem that this World Cup could be considered a vicious dirty affair. Well not really. Leaving aside Italian Elbow Jobs there have not been that many really bad fouls or dirty games. I mean even the France Korea match attracted 4 yellow cards and there was hardly a bad tackle. I have watched many EPL games where only one or two cards are issued and there are many more physical challenges. I am obvioulsy not going to comment on Turkish ref's in this regard!!

One thing I have noticed is that in the World Cup the referee's appear to belioeve they just have to shout at players and not talk to them like the refs in the EPL do. Markus Merk set the tone in the Brazil Oztrailer game by basically shouting at the players after the first tackle. Then of course every time some poncy overhyped girly hair sporting Brazilian fell over he awarded a free kick. Obviously the Brazilians have been checking up on Nobhead's art of cheating video collection which by now runs to many DVD's. One thing else I noticed is that every time the Brazilians fell over they grabbed the ball with their hands effectively forcing Merk to give a free kick or daring him to red card them for deliberate hand ball! And lets face it who is going to send of Kaka or Ronaldinho!!! Talk about cheating, I wonder what Splatter would say about that!!!!

Having seen how the Ozzies took the game to Brazil and the very ordinary defending that was present I have a feeling that if a team with a really good playmaker, which lets face it is something the Ozzies do not have, but the same attacking attitude to take on the Brazilians could probably get a result. I hope so.

Bye for now....

Ouch!!!!!!

Who would have thought it, a great and enthralling game played between the US and Italy. The game finished 1-1 and the red card count 2-1 to the US. I have to eat some humble pie as a day after saying the Yanks can't tackle well tackle they certainly did, if a little bit too much at times! However I have some sympathy for the Masroeni as the replay showed he actually got the ball first and whilst it may have been 999/1000 a yellow card, a red card it certainly was not. I guess the total overreaction from the spaghetti eating diving cheat Pirlo helped make up the anti-Yankee referess mind for him. No wonder no-one watches Italian football! De Rossi deserved his, when you look at the player, throw the elbow and make no attempt at the ball its a red card all the way. Pope was perhaps a bit unlucky, certainly in the EPL he would not have been sent off but the ref seemed to want to make the headlines for all the wrong reason tonight. I hope Splatter is pleased that a great game was marred by the ridiculous refereeing performance. Lets hope that's the last we see of that useless moron.

Anyway tomorrow sees the Oz Brazil fest and the Croatia Japan love in. Will Oz Kanak be happy drunk or sad drunk tomorrow....only time will tell. I hope Oztrailer win if only so we get to see the inflatable sheep .........

Surprises and certainties

Well that was a somewhat surprising result, Ghana beating the Czech's 2-0. It could perhaps have been more with the penalty miss and Cech performing heroics in goal. What a difference 5 days can make, the same Czezh team that ripped the US apart were themselves made to look very ordinary by Ghana. I hate to admit it but Appiah had an excellent game, lets hope someone buys him from FB!!!

As for the rest well England are looking ordinary although they have not conceded a goal and against TnT were much better, just could not put the ball in the net!. Argentina are looking awesome but really do you want to peak for the group games or the knockout phase, the performance against Serbia will have given a lot of info to the knockout stage opposition!

Anyway here's hoping that the US can at least draw with Italy this afternoon....

OOps

Its safe to say that football or soccer has been dealt a blow here in the US of A by the crap display of the US team against the Czech's. Apparently 2.3million houselholds watched the match but I wonder how many switched off before the end. If only the team had played the way they talked!!

Whilst I cannot say there was the same sort of fever around that you find in most other countries when their team is in the World Cup there has been more interest shown by people here and more people seem aware that something is happening in Germany. But given the USA's performance in 2002 and contrast that with this year (so far) the locals are already beginning to lose interest. Americans love winning, a draw does not exist for them as they fail to appreciate the subtelties of the beautiful game. So unless the team can pull its collective finger out and win the next two games and progress, the cause of football may be hurt for a couple of years.

Bruce Arena's comments after the match should also be examined. Yes a number of players were awful, Beasley was non-existant and I lost count of how many times he passed backwards, Donavon, was he playing, the defence was poor especially for the first goal. However Arena deserves criticicm for playing Beasley out of position and maybe for not doing his homework on the Czech's. All the focus was on Koller and Nedved, had he never heard of Rosicky!

Having watched the Italy Ghana match I have a feeling that the US will struggle against them both. Italy because of their tactical acumen and skill and Ghana because of their physical presence. One problem the US based players have is that MLS is effectively non-contact so the players have a hard time adjusting to the physical game and I am sure that the match against Ghana will be physical.

I hope the US can improve and at least get a result but I fear for them....

Anyway onwards and upwards.....

Oztrailer set the sun on Japan

What a good game. I wonder when Oz Kanka will be sober enough to post anything remotely sensible!!

For 80 mins though it looked like Oztrailer were going to continue their fine tradition of never scoring a goal in the Workd Cup Finals and then suddenly 3 in eight minutes. The first a tad lucky but the second two excellent ones. Even the first could have been a penalty for handball but what the hell they all count. I bet the ref was glad though that his mistake in allowing the Japanese goal to stand after a somewhat blatant bodycheck on Schwarzer did not in the end affect the outcome. So all Oztrailer need to do now is beat the Oztrailer supply team from Croatia and draw with Brazil....easy really.

As for the other game yesterday, well Portugal looked good for 55 minutes until Ronaldo left and Mexico alos looked proimising whilst perhaps being a tad flattered by the 3-1 score, personally I thought 2-1 would have been a fairere reflection, but hey since when was football fair.

Anyway the TV is warming up for the US match so its bye for now.

Oh yes, Oztrailer basically got a Get OUt of Jaoil Free card today, how the first settlers would have wished for the same thing............tee hee!!!!!!!!!