Charity to the poor

Its that time of year again, you know when poor disadvantaged people need help and charity to get them through the holiday season. Obviously Feldkampf and his players were in a generous giving mood and fielded what is definitely not the first team, no Lincoln, Linderoth, Hasan Sas or Ayhan. Lost of young players in the team with Umit and Hakan on the bench.

First half was relatively even except for Songs very generous decision to play Semih onside when all he had to do was step up and it would have been offside, or maybe not as we shall see later. The worrying thing from CimBom's point of view was that they were not creating too many clear cut chances and testing one of the weakest goalkeepers in Turkey. However FB's defense has obviously been absorbing more and more South American influence as the cynicism with which any GS attack was ended with a foul to break up rhythm was noticeable.

So the second half. It would of course not be an Istanbul derby hosted in Kadikoy without some controversy regarding the referee, have you ever noticed this only happens in Kadikoy though and rarely on the historical and culture rich side of the Bosphorus. There was no foul on Semih, Ugur won the ball but somehow this becomes a free kick from which the ball pinballs its way in to the net. Now contracts that decision with the inexplicable decision to award only a corner when Lugano made no effort to take the ball and simply cleared Nonda's legs from beneath him in the penalty area. One of the clearest penalties you will ever see, unless of course you are the referee when FB are at home to Galatasaray. Contrast that with the penalties FB regularly get when Alex gets breathed on and you will understand all GS fans frustration. Comparing the penalty Ronalda got for Man Utd earlier in the day with the non-penalty here really makes me wonder sometimes about the need for video referring being added.Would it have changed the eventual result, may be not as GS did not deserve to win, not enough chances made, but I guess we will never know.

Deivid should really know better as well, his reaction making it clear that he knew he had head butted a GS player, maybe he was provoked but retaliation will always be more severely punished. The only surprise was that Alex had not been penalized for a similar incident a few minutes earlier when he clearly kicked out at Ugur when he refused to play the ball out just because some FB player was feigning injury on the pitch. The unwritten law has been set aside, as long as the ref does not stop play the players don't have to.

All in all a reasonable performance from the Carling Cup team. IF thats the best FB could do against our second team then I would much rather be in the position Galatasaray are in than FB I have to say.