Gerets gone

Not altogether unsurprising but still a shame. He was a good coach who managed to get an unpaid bunch of players to the Title last season and 3rd place this. I am not sure anyone else could have done much better. Thanks to that arrogant asshole Terim the squad he inherited was full of hangers on and some has beens who should have been pensioned off a couple of years previously, Ergun, Hakan etc. He also had no money to recruit. When Inamoto is your main attraction you know there a re problems, still he's also gone as well as I predicted.

We all know that Ribery was a big loss when he left but what about the other one who got away, Berkant, remember him. Well here is a good story from Soccernet about what can happen when things go wrong.

That was the season that was

Finally its all over and Galatasaray signed off with a whimper losing 2-0 away to Bursaspor. Pathetic.

A points haul of 56 is hardly going to keep Gerets in his job for too much longer and despite his new contract signing I have a feeling there will be a new coach for the start of next season. Fiishing in third spot at least means we have UEFA Cup football to look forward to. I just hope that the team gets to play at home rather than in the anonymity of the Olympiat stadium. Of course it could be that UEFA say Ali Sami Yen is not fit for European matches.

Of course now th silly season starts with regard to transfer rumors etc. It seems already that Mondargaon is going to Koln and Rustu is moving to CimBom. I hope Hakan and Ergun realise its time to retire. We need to find a new central defence or at least someone to cover when either Song or Tomas is out, Emre Asik is not the answer. A few other underperformers could also be on the way out, Okan, Hasan Sas, Cihan, Carrusca, Inamoto, Ilic etc. These guys have played well occasionally but not consistently enough and their body language has been wrong, at times they did not look interested. I really hope that Arda stays and that of Gerets is the coach that he has the courage to let some of the young players take centre stage.

Of course the fact that we have no money is not exactly going to help the situation in attracting good players from outside of Turkey but so what. I believe that CimBom have some good youngsters who can be developed into a good team.

Now the question is what to do with the summer. No World or Euro's just a bunch of friendlies and some qualification matches. Of course living n the US we have the arrival of the messiah.....I mean Beckham to the LA Galaxy. I guess I can entertain myself for a while with the Formula 1 season, the NBA playoffs and finals hopefully with Mehmet Okur and the Utah Jazz and the MLS. If I can get tickets I may even get down to Giants stadium to see the New York Red Bulls when LA come to town. That should keep me going to August or whenever the hell the TFF decide to start the season this year.

Morons

What a bunch of idiots in the Ali Sami Yen last night. And I am not referring to the players although they were not much better. I am referring to the idiots in the stands who tuynred the game into a fiasco.

Its fine to be passionate about your club but this was too much, although its not surprising given the abuse that happens when Galatsaray play in Kadikoy. I recall Hasan being hit by eggs one year!! But to rip seats out and thrown them on the pitch and then set fire to what is left, pure madness. CimBom have not had the best season and I would have expected a better performance against the Kadikoy mob but the "supporters" behavior was too bad. I guess there will be a big fine and games behind closed doors. In my view the club and Polis should use the match video to identify those responsible and make sure they are not let in again, but that will probably not happen.

I can see there being a big clear out of players during the summer. There are too many players just making up the numbers and there was no hears on yesterdays performance. New defence is needed and I hope Arda stays but I have a feeling he will be moving on. I know Gerets has signed a contract extension but I have a feeling he may also be leaving.

Oh well. Thats life

Looking forward to the weekend

So this weekend should be the last weekend of football here in New Jersey. On TV that is as the Husband is playing every Sunday morning at the moment. I think he is one of three non-Spanish speaking players in the team!!!!! Weatgher forecast is crap for the weekend so nits a perfect day for sitting watching TV.

Should be a good weekend though. Man Utd - Chelsea in the FA Cup and then Galatasaray later the same day against someone else. It will be good to see Chavski only win the Carling Cup after all the moment they have spent. Mourinho's shaggy dog story this week will not have helped either.

As for Galatasaray, a win on Saturday together with Besiktas not winning would put them into second on goal difference. Then its Bursa away for CimBom and Kayseri away for BJK. We could sneak into the Chimps League if we are not careful!!

The fat lady has sung....

So thats it for another season, the EPL title back where it belongs n Manchester and the SuperLig title temporarily over in Kadikoy.

I notice there are not so many conspiracy theories around at the moment from the boys in yellow and blue. I guess a bit of silverware solves all the problems! Pathetic.

Gulay and I cannot comment on the weekends match with Galatasary as Digiturkwebtv did not seem to able to get the feed sorted. All I know is that Sivas scored in the last minute, a depressinly common occurrence this season to cause points to be dropped and for the Kadikoy mob to be handed the title with games still left to play after Besiktas capitulated at Bursa. Bet Tigana is glad he is leaving before he is chased out.

Somehow this season has felt very anticlimactic after last season. It just felt like the title was going to Kadikoy irrespective of how teams played on the pitch. We can't even get particularly enthused about this weekends game even though the UEFA spot is on the line. If Galatasaray had spent so much money on players etc. we would have expected more than just the championship but I guess our standards are higher, having won the UEFA cup etc and being the most successful team in Turkey in terms of points gained, matches won, goals scored etc.....

I think thta is all for now.....

Fresh air and hills

Last year when we were in Cleveland I commuted to work every day by bike. Since we moved back to New Jersey that is not possible because that would give me a 100 mile ride every day in and out of Manhattan. Somehow I dont think that is practical. So I have been riding at weekends and whenever else I can find the time.

Snce last fall and all through winter I was riding on my mountain bike in the loal state parks and now that Spring has sprung I am back on the road again. Well at least I have been for the last three weekends since I got the warranty replacement rear wheel from Trek.

So I decided that today would be a long ride and cover some roads I have never used before, I tell you internet maps are the way to go. I had ridden about 50% of this route before so some of the scenery was not surprising but some was. Near where we live its quite hilly, not mountainous but there are a number of lakes and ridges which makes riding tough as you are either climbing or descending, no flat bits where you can spin and recover. So the first part of the ride included a 35 minute gradual uphill pull from the lake past Mahlon Dickerson reserve, through Russia and on over to Ogensburg. that was the familiar but. Dropping into Russia was the highlight speed wise where I hot 78km/h!! The next part was all unknown and started with a cruise past the Sterling Mine Museum and then a rolling ride into more "English" countryside, the rock shattered areas near home giving way to rolling fields and greenery. With no wind and a pleasant 25 degrees this was great, very mind relaxing. Eventually picked up a known route near Andover and then headed back into the ridges and the West shore of the lake to get home.

Rode for 3hrs and 20 mins at an average of 25 km/h which compared to many is not great but then I am not that bothered with comparisons, I enjoyed it.

One thing I believe is that the best way to see a place is on two wheels, you have time to look around and check things out. In a car you just zoom past with the iPod hooked up and the brain in neutral.......

Tomorow will be a short ride after attending to Mothers Day duties!!!!

Nationalists wet dream

Better be careful what I say here but morons springs to mind....

Turkey adopts law to block 'insulting' websites

Monday, May 7, 2007

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ANKARA - AFP

Turkish lawmakers adopted a law on Friday allowing the state to block access to Internet sites that are deemed to insult the country's founder, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The legislation also authorises authorities to cut off access to sites whose content includes criminal activities, such as the sexual abuse of minors and prostitution.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who proclaimed modern day Turkey in 1923 on the ashes of the Islamic Ottoman Empire, is seen as a national hero by secular Turks in the mainly Muslim country and his legacy is protected under a special law.

In March, the country's largest telecommunications provider, Turk Telekom, blocked access to the popular video-sharing site YouTube on a court order over a clip that allegedly insulted him.

Users regained access two days later after YouTube removed the video and Turk Telekom petitioned the court to revoke the ban

Bah humbug

I have been an intermittent if opinionated contributor over at AmerikanTurk with regard to politics etc. which will come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog. However there is something I feel the need to say as someone who is proud of her country and proud to be a Turk.

Erdogan, Gul and the AK Party are not the problem in Turkey right now, neither is the Army who are after all fulfilling the legacy of Atatürk in defending the Turkey we have today and its separation of religion and state. Much as it pains me to say it but the man in the picture is the biggest single obstacle to progress in Turkey.

I cannot believe that a responsible political party boycotted the vote in Parliament today and this mans ignorance and intolerance is almost single handedly handing the country to the AK Party.

There are a number of things that are severely wrong with the CHP and Baykals position in particular:

1) Proportional representation as practised in Turkey is absurd with the 10% threshold limit. Why is a party that attracts less than 3 million votes not accepted as being representative? However the CHP and other educated secularists supported that as it meant the hardline Islamist parties and other assorted nutters were kept out of Parliament. Now the AK Party has a massive majority in Parliament with only 30% of the vote because of it.
2) Not being present today shows contempt for democracy. The CHP and its allies should have been there and voted against instead of not bothering to turn up. That is childish.
3) The great unwashed in Turkey will be lapping this up. The media will be pumping out that fact that the AK Party wants to make sure people power elect the President, etc. As the CHP have appeared to stop due process electing a President in accordance with the laws and procedures they themselves were party to this virtually guarantees that the AK Party will be providing the next President.

Alot of commentators have stated that Ataturk would be turning in his grave at the thought of a President with a headscarf wearing wife in Cankaya. Surely the Law would prohibit Mrs Gul from actually entering Cankaya as it is a public building? I am not so sure. What could be a better example of separating religion and state than an outwardly religious man being president of a determinedly secular country and upholding that separation. Surely this would have been the best example of how democracy and acceptance of religion as a personal statement rather than as an article of government could be articulated.

Whilst I do not disagree with the protesters who tuned out en masse their hijacking by Baykal and his cronies is odious. If anything this is likely to result in an increased majority and vote for the AK Party of new elections are held and a definite vote for an AK Party Presidential Candidate. As much as I dislike Erdogan for his hectoring, arrogant, patronizing, shouty manner you have to give the man his dues he is a far better politician than Baykal and understands the 60 million in Turkey who do not live in villas or apartments near the Bosphorus....

In summary Baykal has left the filed open now for the AK Party to dominate the discussion....what kind of politician is that.......a very, very bad one.

What a difference a day makes

Football is an amazing game. Yesterday morning there was all to play for oin the Super LIg and th EPL. At 2.15pm Eastern Time the EPL is finished for the season with Mancehster United claiming the 9th Championship in 15 years and Chavski finishing second after a draw with L'Arse. And the SuperLig is pretty much done and dusted as well. Looks like all the money spent over the last few seasons on refer....I mean players has finally paid off for the kadikoy mob short of an implosion of massive standards, whihc cold happen but is looking more and more unlikely, unfortuantely.

Of copurse Galatsaray's shprtcomings have not excatly helped this season and today's match was a snapshot of the season. Dodgy defending giving up a soft goal early in the match then meant we had to chase the game for the next 80 minutes against a side, which could be labeled as Besiktas old boys, was desperate not to lose to avoid relegation. Mind you CimBom had chances to score but did not take them, Necati in particular and why Hakan Sukur was playing I really do not know as he just confused Umit and Necati.

As for the match at Iononu stadium yesterday, Besiktas totally dominated the game but appeared to have left their shooting boots in the changing rooms and even when they got shots on target they managed to hit the goalie. As for the complaints about the TFF having some kind of plan to upset the kadikoy mob, well the extremely indulgent and lenient treatment of Kezman yesterday should put paid tp that myth. The only time he stayed upright was when he scored the goal, he spent the other 85 mins feigning injury, praying to the ref to book people and generally behaving like a petulant spoilt prick. I noticed as well Tumer having a chat with the ref as they came out at half time, I guess the converstaion was along the lines of, look in 15 mins time there is a red card for one of these balck and whites and then on 25 mins its a poenalty when Alex trips over his own laces by the corner flag okay, and the cheques in the post.......

This weekends results were a pity because it was developing into an exciting finish but now its hardly worth bothering with. The only thing I hope is that the team who have scored more goals, won more games and earned more points since Super Lig started and therefore are the most successful win in two weeks time to put the other lot in their place.

Squeaky Bum Time

A couple of posts ago I mentioned the predicament the Anakara based teams find themselves in, that is still not safe from relegation and looking nervously over their shoulders.

I use the phrase "squeaky bum time" and I was wondering where that came from, well now I know. Apparently it was from the great man himself, Sir Alex.

Link to this article courtesy of The Global Game

From The Times

June 9, 2005

Have a word - Dowie and Ferguson rewrite the dictionary

By Tom Dart

THEY are wordsmiths with a genius for originality whose linguistic inventions have passed into everyday usage and given us a greater understanding of what it means to be human: Shakespeare. Dickens. Joyce. Dowie.

Iain Dowie may have failed to preserve Crystal Palace’s Barclays Premiership status but he has secured himself a place in history as the author of “bouncebackability”, one of 1,500 new words in the latest edition of the Collins English Dictionary. Football-speak has an oblique relationship with the English language and while Ron Atkinson’s removal from the commentary box seems to have slowed the flow of neologisms , Dowie is not the only manager capable of producing coinages as well as corner routines. Also giving the dictionary some verbals is Sir Alex Ferguson, whose memorable description of the climax of the 2002-03 campaign, “squeaky bum time”, is another addition.

There is a nod to terrace chant culture with the inclusion of “Ingerland”, the fans’ solution to the unmelodic shortage of a third syllable in “England”.

Justin Crozier, an editor of the dictionary, which is out today, said: “Language doesn’t belong to professors and lexicographers, it belongs to its everyday users and that’s what we want to reflect. The language of the terraces is real, spoken language.”

The first citation of bouncebackability was in September last year, with the word passing into common football parlance by December. It has four times as many recorded instances of usage than a typical neologism according to Collins’ database of words, underlining its popularity. “Bouncebackability works better than resilience, and squeaky bum time is almost poetic in the way it describes nervousness at the end of the season,” Crozier said.

“Galactico”, the Spanish term that, roughly, means “highly-paid, famous Real Madrid footballer who has lots of skill but wins no trophies”, is added. Few at Stamford Bridge will need to thumb to the “T” section to find out what “tapping-up” means. Reflecting football’s trends, “groundshare” and “silver goal” are fresh inclusions. Jargon from rugby, cricket and extreme sports is also featured.

The Lions will aim to avoid being “monstered” this month by the All Blacks; England’s batsmen will hope they are not victims of an Australian version of “chin music” (a baseball term for a ball thrown near the head). This summer, the Ashes could bring another set of neologisms to popular attention. “There’s the Antipodean thing of making everything shorter. Australians love to shorten. Why say ‘scrum half’ when ‘scrummy’ will do?” Crozier said.

Hakia Search Engine

I don't know how many of you may have heard of this company but there is a new concept in search engine technology. This is where you type a sentence and the engine tries to understand both the words and the meaning of your search. There are a number of companies out there looking into this and one of them has a significant Turkish element to it.

Te company in question is called Hakia and is based in New York with a satellite office in Istanbul. The founder is a fellow by the name of Dr Rize Can Berkan who I believe has been in the US for a while and at one time represented Galatsaray in water polo amongst other achievements.

Just though other Amerikan Turks out there might like to know about this and setting aside loyalties check out the engine.

A funny smell alright

I tell you what, with all the bans and fines handed out by the TFF recently to those poor misunderstood and victimized folks over in Kadikoy they should be thankful they are not in France.

Baros gets three-match ban for nose pinching

PARIS, May 3 (Reuters) - Olympique Lyon's Czech striker Milan Baros was handed a three-match ban by the French professional football league (LFP) on Thursday for pinching his nose in front of an opponent. Former Liverpool and Aston Villa player Baros pinched his nose in front of Stade Rennes's Cameroon-born midfielder Stephane M'Bia and waved his hand as if he were repelling an offensive odour during the French champions' 0-0 draw at Stade Rennes on April 18. The LFP's disciplinary committee said in its ruling that it came to the conclusion the gesture was not racist. Baros is suspended until the end of the season and the sanction will take effect on Monday, the LFP said in a statement. That means the player will miss his side's last three Ligue 1 matches. Lyon have already made sure of winning a sixth consecutive title. Baros has said there was nothing racist in his gesture and that he had only wanted to signify to M'Bia that he should move back and let him breathe. Baros, 25, joined Lyon from Aston Villa in January.

It always ends in tears

The Husband was originally planning to post something triumphalist I believe but one look at him slumped in the chair with the look of a stunned disbelief on his face tells me I had better post instead....

Man Utd got their asses handed to them tonight ion a Milan that more resembled Manchester thro the rain or was that tears from the Manyoo fans. Whilst it was a poor display from Man Utd and Milan deserve to go through it has to be said that they were helped by some dodgy defending by one of the most consistent performers in Heinze, when he could have cleared he passed and then Brown slipped leading to the second goal courtesy of a lucky ricochet to Seedorf.It was one of those games where nothing seemed to go right and they could be playing still next week and Man Utd would not score.

One interesting stat was that not one Milan player was on a yellow from the first game whereas Scholes, Ronaldo and Heinze were and you could sense that depite the pre-match words there was some trepidation there. Personally I find that incredible given the tackles Gattuso puts in but he seems to be able to get away with tackles that others such as Scholes regularly get booked for.

I must admit that one point it seemed that every decision was going Milans way and over the last few matches it must be said that Milan have benefited from some shall we say generous refereeing, the phantom penalty against Bayern readily springs to mind and tonight the rather blatant push on Rooney when he was in mid air that went unpunished only for seconds later when Pirlo tripped over his hair a free kick was awarded. English clubs remain in my opinion more naive than Italian and Spanish clubs in ref manipulation and Milan gave a master class in frustrating the opposition. Every time Ronaldo or Scholes got the ball in the first 20 minutes they were flattened by a different Milan player which never allowed Man Utd to get into a rhythm, although I'm not sure it would have made much difference if they did.

Anyway it was infinitely better than Tuesday nights tosh and although Man U did not make many chances they played some football at least.

Must be emabarrasing for UEFA though to have a club found guilty of match fixing and referee pressuring to be in the Chimps League final and you really do have to ask whether they are there on merit or whether there is any slightly dodgy stuff going?

Whatever all we can do now is hope that Liverpool repeat Istanbul in Athens......

Tedium, laziness and helium

My goodness I thought it would never end.

I am referring of course to two things, one being the "good advert" for the EPL that was dished up between the port of Manchester and Chelski. Six shots on goal, lots of huff and lots of puff but hardly any class, it was almost worse than watching the Kadikoy mob play. The Milan Man Utd game can only be better after that rubbish.

The second is the comment on my previous post that was cut and pasted from AmerikanTurk. I freely admit that my previous post was, shall we say, a bit free form and stream of consciousness and deserving of criticism especially from a literary sense and maybe even a factual sense and especially a conclusion sense, so why not make your comments like that, what you did was just lazy.

Meanwhile over at planet TFF record breaking fines have been imposed on the Kadikoy mob as well as suspensions. I am sure the fact that coincides with the Besiktas game will have all the budgie fanciers reaching for their X-Files but really what choice did the TFF have espeially with Aurelio? As for the rest I don't know, not that I am upset or anything, me?, but this may be a final reckoning as far as the TFF are concerned! Or maybe they were just snorting helium!!!

Having said that this will have one of three outcomes.
1) They will either be fired up for the BJK match and rip Besiktas to pieces and go on to win the Superlig on a wave of "no one likes us we don't care" type mentatlity, or
2) They will be fired up for the BJK game and take matters into their own hands on the pitch leading to even more suspensions for red and yellow cards
3) Or their will power will be drained and they will sulk at the injustice and the season will get flushed away

Whatever, this Saturdays match up looks set to be tasty, not sure if the ref has been decided for the game but lets just hope it is Cem Deda now that would make for entertainment