Sunday, August 31, 2008

Consolation...maybe

So after being dumped out of the Chimps League Galatasaray get the consolation of a place in the UEFA Cup, the only European tournament won by a Turkish Club in 2000 when Galatasaray beat Arsenal.

And in the first round we have been dawn against Bellinzona FC a team from the Swiss League. Now before we get carried away by this a quick check on Wikipedia reveals that as Bellinzona is in the Italian speaking area of Switzerland they are a feeded club for AS Roma so we can expect there to be a few good players there looking to make a name for themselves.

So we have a chance for redemption after the dismal showing in the Champs League. Lets hope the team relaize this and take their chance.

Next up Kayserispor who we beat already this season.

In other news I see FB's referee buying has already started. They could only beat IBB after 2 players had been sent off, surprised, I'm not.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Crap

Enough said

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Not sure to be honest

Milan Baros has apparently signed a 3 year contract with CimBom. He is not, and never will be despite how successful he may be, one of my favorite players. He falls over much too easily for my liking and should therefore really have joined the other lot........

Last season was a bit of a mixed bag for him with half a season at Portsmouth and the other half warming the bench at O Lyonnais.

Still it potentially adds more speed to an already quick forward line that includes Kewell and Arda so it could be an interesting season...

Lets just hope the team plays better in Bucharest tomorrow than in Istanbul two weeks ago. At least it looks like Skibbe may have an almost full squad to choose from altthough Kewell was sporting a large bandage on his left knee. Mind you a good 30 minutes may be the best we can hope from him in matches this season, whihc if they are as effectove as in the first leg may be good enough but on the other hand lets hoipe the rest of the team pick up the tone and beat Bucharest properly.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Roosters roasted and chili budgies

So we're off and the hunt for the SuperLig championship started in style today with lots of games and excellent quality streaming feed from Dodgyturk.

First off Galatasary, defending champions, were at home to the roosters of Denizli. Game got off to a good start with CimBom bossing things without really creating very much. Then in crept Harry Kewell to knock home his first SuperLig goal with ease. That should have been the start of domination from Galatasary but oddly it seemed to encourage Denizli who started to attack and finally scored a somewhat dodgy goal, still not sure if the goal scorer was onside. The second half started with CimBom looking rather flat, creating no real chances and then Denizli decided to make it easy for us by getting a man sent off and having to play the last 40 minutes with only 10 men. But GS did not make the keeper work for a long time, the ball retention was good but the final ball seemed lacking and no-one wanted to have a go except from long range.

Anyway finally we got the goals with Hakan, Baris and Lincoln knocking in 3 more goals to seal a 4-1 win and ensure we start the season top of the league.

Of the new signings Meira had a solid game at centre back with Servet and seems like a good replacement for Song. Kewell did his usula by drifting in and out of the game with some excellent play and then disappearing for 10 minutes at a time, still at least he did not get injured.

Meanwhile over in Antep budgies were getting made into chili kebabs......

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Silverware

It may only be the Turkish Super Cup but at least Galatasaray started the season with a victory over the powerhouse of Kayserispor.

Nonda made it 3 in 2 games and Kewell scored on what I think was hos competitive debut, so all in all not too bad. Lets hope this is where the team kicks off from especially with the Chimps League return game coming up.

Obvioulsy its going to be hard to win the 18th League title bnut here in NJ both the supported teams are aiming for that, Man Utd as well as CimBom are aimining for no. 18 in case you wondered.

Meanwhile the stadium and team rebuilding goes on so by next season not only will we have the best team but also by far the best stadium in Turkey, no Migros in the stands for CimBom for example.....

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Not the best start

So I finally found some time to make a post.

New manager, some new players but no different result in the Chimps League. I mean Steau Bucharest were a good team but have not been for a long time and Galatasaray should really have done better than the 2-2 draw. Having said that we could have won the game with the 2nd half performance its just that the first half was poor. I could only watch the game on delay as I could not find it live anywhere!

As for the new players its a bit difficult to say anything about them after just one meaningful game. Anyway lets hope the team play like the second half next week to make sure we are in the group stages of the ChimpsLeague, if not the campaign is not off to a very good start!

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Vacation over

So after 2 weeks away from the computer the vacation is over and its back to work and blogging again. In my absence it seems that Galatasaray have gone on a shopping spree and Harry Kewell is injured again, well no surprise there.....

Anyway I have to catch upon what has happened, what is true and what is rumor although one for sure is that we have been drawn against Steau Bucharest in the Chimps League qualifying round which gives us a reasonable chance of progressing as they are not quite the force they were the last time we met them...