Sunday, April 25, 2010

Split Personality

I have to say that I was not exactly sure which result I wanted today. With the horse thieves winning yesterday against Kasimpasa, no surprise there really with the Erdogan connection at work, I mean no-one seriously expected the fat whinger to leave anything to chance did they??????

A win for GS and whilst that would improve our chances it would virtually hand the championship to you know who and we don't want that to happen so a draw was in some ways the best result as the points are now 67,66 and 61 with BJK on 58. Bursa are guaranteed 3 out of the remaining 9 points as they "play" Ankara and finish with kayseri and BJK at home. The others finish Eskisheir at home, Ankargucu away and Trabzon at home. As long as GS win their remaining games we are at least guaranteed Europa League for the new stadium next season.

As for todays match its a pity Bünyamin Gezer was not the referee for the Kadikoy derbi given what he gave out yellow and red cards for today. Lets face it Lugano would not survive in a league where the referees are not bought for your teams matches and he would definitely have seen red due to his octopus antics in the box. The red cards for Neill and Zapo were ridiculous goiven what normally is allowed to happen in the SuperLig at corners. For a 0-0 draw this was a good game though with lots of attack and why of why has Aykut not been in goal all season a couple of superb saves today. On balance I think GS had the better chances but the 0-0 was probably a fair result with the whole team except for Jo having good games. Baros looked sharp and on another day could have had a couple and I hope the Board do not let him leave in the summer.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Getting tense

So GS went to Manisa, picked up a Vestel and three points and back to Istanbul.

Overall an acceptable performance although again as against Diyarbakir we seemed to switch off at about the 65/70 minute mark and gave the opposition some hope. I cant really blame Mehmet Topal as the ball hit him and went in but even so Manisa sensed an opportunity and went for it. Of course if we had converted one of the many chances that were easier to score than miss we would have been out of sight but at least we won and picked up the three points.


One way or another the top of the SuperLig will show some changes, at least from a points and played perspective as unless BJK beat FB by at least 7 goals there will be no position changes. A draw would be good as it would spread the teams out although a BJK win may actually be better for CimBom than a draw as it would put FB within one point.

I watched the Bursa match on Friday and although they won they were not excatly convincing and with having to play GS and BJK there may be a few twists and turns yet although out of the 12 points remaining they could win they already have three as they play Ankaraspor!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Better

It would be easy to say that if Baros had been fit all season that we would not be in third position in the SuperLig. It might be true but it might not be, all I know is that he has been missed as his hat-trick against an admittedly poor Diyarbakir showed. When he plays the team has a focal point, a real centre forward who is available and working for the team. The other players we tried up there this season are not really out and out goal machines like Baros, in fact at times we looked like we had no leadership in the forward line when he was not playing. So like I said it would be easy to make the assumption that if he had been fit we sould be leading the Lig.

Although CimBom won 4-1 on Sunday the overall performance was still moderate and Rijkaards constant adjustments of the team probably dont help. Since the winter break he seems unsure of his best defence and tried another version on Sunday comprising Hakan Balta, Sabri, Neill and Caner. Personally I would go for Hakan, Neill, Emre Gungor and Sabri with Caner playing in front of Hakan, but hey what do I know. These changes are not helping the team to consolidate a style or become totoally familiar with each other.

Anyway a win is a win and we moved ahead of Besiktas on goal difference and are now 5 points behind Bursa who have still to play both Besiktas and ourselves so I would not make any assumptions about the title until the last game especially as Besiktas and FB have to play each other this weekend.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Oh well

So this last couple of weeks has been disappointing for both the Husband and myself.

CimBom's loss of heart in Sivas despite scoring first and having other chances was disappointing although a draw is a draw. The last couple of matches the only player who really seems to want to win has been Lucas Neill, the others seemed somewhat apathetic. This result plus the loss to the cheats and the laz have seen us drop to fourth and in danger of not qualifiying for Europe next season. Of course we can say we have not been helped by injuries to Kewell and Baros but the quality of the bargain bin replacements has not really been there although dos Santos appears to be regaining his form.

Of course our exist from Europe and the loss to the cheats could have been prevented if we had competent referees, the handball and psycho Lugano incidents.

Anyway the match this weekend should be a chance to pick up 3 point against Diyarbakir. We also still have to play Bursa at home so if we can get the attitude sorted out there could still be some surprises at the top of SuperLig. Looking at the run in for the top 4 other than Bursa GS have a relatively easier end of seaon then FB, BJK or Bursa. Especially as the last game is Bursa vs BJK and BJK and FB still have to play each other.

Its interesting how the so called media experts consider Rijkaard should go but I have to ask it is that easy why are you sitting on your fat ass on a chair in a TV studio and not managing a team.