Eagles stuffed and trussed

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.