Thursday, October 29, 2009

Cup Success

I am still pissed about what happened on Sunday so I am going to refrain from too many comments other than to the following:

1) Offside
2) Penalty.....having a laugh??
3) Just how much money was made available......9 minutes to count your money is ridiculous when it delays kick off.

And to cap it all Baros suffered the dreaded curse of the Metatarsal and is likely out until January.

So it was with relief that we could concentrate on the Turkish Cup this week and celebrate a win over Bucaspor 2-1. Of note was that Linderoth played 65 minutes. I really hope that he has finally overcome his injury problems as he will be a welcome addition back into the midfield as back up for Ayhan and Sarp.

Next up are Sivasspor at Ali Sami Yen and hopefully last yeasr surprise team will be put firmly back in their box and GS get their campaign back on track.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Better

Right so after a brief pause in my blogging activities due to lack of time here we are back with a report on the last couple of weeks activities in CimBom land.

The disappointment of Turkiye missing out on going to the World Cup and having to listen to the Husbands comments as England cruised through to South Africa, although if they think they will win they have another thing coming, was slightly offset by the fact that Terim resigned. I just hope that the GS board are not tempted to bring him back as the coach or Director of Football and upset what is going with Rikjaard. I think there are a few vacancies he can fill, Notts COunty or maybe the boss of South Africa as Santana just quite. Somewhere along way away from Istanbul would be good.

Then it was back to the cut and thrust of the SuperLig where GS made hard work of disposing of Trabzonspor at the weekend. The defence still needs some work it has to be said. Servet does not look the same player as last year, probably as a result of the injuries he received and I am not sure that Rijkaard has settled on the best defence line up yet although Hakan, Servet, Gokhan and Sabri is probably the first choice. Would be interesting to see how Caner would fit in at left back in this line up as well as Ugur Ucar on the right just as a viable alternative as I am not sure Hakan Balta's best position is left back. In midfield the pairing of Sarp and Ayhan is solid but lacks creativity. I would prefer to see Arda, Sarp, Baris Ozbek and Kewell in there and play Keita with Baros up front. Still I'm not the coach and so far apart Rikjaard seems to be getting things right.

The big test though is this weekend with the first GS-FB derby match of the season. Given last weeks result in Antep and the fact that the gap is only 2 points now I am sure that pressure is already being applied to the referee for the match to ensure another dodgy FB victory with plenty of red cards for GS you know for complaining about having smoke bombs thrown at their heads etc.....

Before that through is a small matter of Dinamo Bucharest in the Europa League so Rikjaard will need to make some careful decisions about the team he plays on Thursday to ensure he has the best team available for Sunday.