The second Istanbul of the Derby was a feisty affair with the Lions of
Galatasaray devouring the
Besiktas Black Eagles.
6 goals and a red card tell the story of the game that
Galatasary won 4-2 with a
hattrick from Milan
Baros and a rare toe poke from
Servet as
CimBom ran out 4-2 winners over the third Istanbul team who on current form may be in relegation trouble. Or perhaps not as 3 of the bottom five places in
SuperLig are being
occupied by teams from the second city.
So sitting here in New Jersey as the snow fell (again) giving 12 inches for the weekend and watching a match played in raw weather
in Istanbul I felt
sorry for the fans standing on the terraces but then again you can never forget the real atmosphere of being at the games. At least we now can watch the matches over the Internet but on the TV rather than the computer screen thanks to a new set top box
received in the recent past. Much better even if the feed does sometimes freeze.
So back to the match
which after the romps up the
TEM over the last couple of weekends promised to be a real game. Well it was feisty
alright with tackles flying in and bodies crashing to the turf with regularity. Once again Arda showed his immaturity and also lack of pace for a winger with his inability to beat people for pure pace and then every time he gets tackled dropping down to the turf and screaming for a foul. Thankfully
Baris Ozbeck and
Mehmet Topal are back and playing well in the midfield
which is helping the team as they were important last season and are showing how much
they have been missed whilst injured. Once
Emre Gungor is back and fit we will have a much more solid look about us.
Lincoln had an excellent game and I just hope he will still be
around at the restart of the
Lig and the Board are not tempted to sell him. The pass for
Baros second goal was superb and his all around play was excellent.
As for the sending off, well players have to learn not to make the gesture about yellow cards as the referees in Turkey are
penalizing players who do this every time and its not the first time a player has ended up with a red as a result this season.
The penalties, well the first one and the second was clear. Having said that anyone who watched the
FB Konya game will
understand that referees are having a hard time
this seasons with the outrageous decision to
give FB a gaol when it was clearly a deliberate handball that should have been a card. Lets face it in the normal run of things
Onder Turaci would have had a yellow and if that had been in
his own penalty area a red, however when
FB play
Konya it seems that a handball goal is
de-
rigeur, remember
Anelka anyone a couple of years ago. It was a disgraceful and
shocking decision
especially as the ref had already awarded
Konya a free kick and changed his mind on the
word of the assistant who could see nothing whereas the ref was
directly behind the situation.
