Capital Display

I must say that watching a match being played in an empty Ali Sami Yen is a strange experience. I really don't want to hear what the players shout to each other, I mean if I wanted to do that I would go and watch my husband when he plays with his local team. Wonder when the team that cannot be named will be playing in an empty Kadikoy stadium, oh that's right never, as the TFF seem blind to that teams indiscretion!!! Biased, me, never.

After Malatya failed to do the decent thing and win in Kadikoy, Galatasaray needed a good win today to go back to the top of the league. Here is how it went.

The first half was a surreal experience, with the noise of the machinery changing the advertising panels, jets flying overhead and the noise from the E5 behind the stadium mixing with the shouts from the pitch. Whether it was the complete lack of atmosphere but Galatasaray seemed to be playing like they were half asleep, I cant say whether Ankaragucu normally play like this but it was not the most inspiring 45 minutes of the beautiful game. Still real supporters watch through thick and thin and this was definitely thin! I could hardly believe my eyes though when Hakan Sukur scored. His previous attempts in the first half had followed his recent habit of passing to either the goalkeeper or defender when it should be easier to score. Anyway it was a reasonably good goal and came at a time when Ankaragucu had made a couple of chances through Balic leading Mondragon to make a couple of smart saves.

Second half saw Hasan Kabze on the pitch but the same half asleep performance although Hasan Sas appeared to show some interest in the match...finally. Anyway after 20 minutes Cihan woke up, played some dazzling 1-2's with half the GS team and scored an excellent goal to put us 2-0 up. Few minutes later there was a clear penalty on Hasan Kabze which was not given presumably because he plays in red and yellow not blue and yellow and secondly is not Brazilian. After that it was mostly one way traffic with Hakan heading over an empty net (please retire Hakan whilst we remember you with pride) Hasan Kabze hitting the bar, missing an open goal, Furry Hat being replaced by Ergun (nice to see him back). Oh yes I think Ankaragucu got a kick but really they were poor!

So that was how the match went. Hope the TFF are happy with their experiment of playing games on a Wednesday afternoon, idiots. And to the guys in Ankara hope the beer did not taste too bad and the swearing was tolerable in the Knight and Flight!

Now its time for Fox Soccer Channel and Man Utd against West Ham.