A winning run......not!

Great performance by the lads in yellow and red tonight, losing 1-0 to Hertha Berlin. Guess who scored.......Yildiray!!!!!

Here are the last five results before tonight:

Galatasaray 3-1 Bursaspor
Galatasaray 1-0 Kayserispor (Fortis Türkiye Kupası)
K. Erciyesspor 4-1 Galatasaray (Fortis Türkiye Kupası)
Galatasaray 1-2 Feyenoord (Efes Pilsen Cup 6)
Galatasaray 1-1 Beşiktaş (penaltılarla 6-7) (Efes Pilsen 6)


What a tremendous, inspiring, warm fuzzy feeling making sequence of results that is........or maybe not. Its ridiculous and somewhat pathetic and should in normal circumstances result in Gerets being put in a sack and sunk of Seraglio Point. The fact there appears to be no wailing and gnashing of teeth also worries me as it means that the club, the management and the team may appears to have accepted this mediocrity and that we simply cannot catch the all conquering juggernaut of footballing excellence that is Kadikoy.

Of course I may be wrong and this seeming indifference is merely a cover for a cunning plan.......I know the club will not pay the players causing them to strike and win the Lig... that has to be the answer.

I may also have been taking mind altering drugs to make me feel better about the situation.

And all this just before the end of the winter break when the snow will start and games be cancelled, TFF and organisation.....please!!!!

Comings and goings

It all seems horribly quiet on the transfer scene at the moment. Hardly anyone sems to be moving in the Turkish League although it looks like Alex has decided that money beats loyalty every time and has entered a bidding war with Besiktas. What a classy player!!!

As for Galatsaray, it looks like Ilic will be leaving for Monaco. This I think would be a blow especially after losing Saidou last summer and letting Volkan leave. Ayhan is not getting any younger so who will play in midfield? As for Altintop joining, why would he leave the German leagues to play in the SuperLig, I mean really. It would be great of he did but he probably does not want to lower his standards so much!

What CimBom really need is a defender to help Tomas and Song, a midfiled enforcer and a striker becasue none of the ones currently at the club are consistent enough. We should get rid of Hasan Sas who is living on past glories,get rid of Okan for the same reasons and Emre Asik as well. All these old players eating salary for what?????

Gerets should trust the youth team players, look at Arda who I hope we do not sell yet, and some of the others who are playing well and can make it at the senior level. It would be good to win the Lig again but of we can at least finish second with a good new crop of younger players then the future is bright and we wont have to rely on a sugar daddy with long pockets buying new players all the time!

This says everything

You know when you have won an argument when people start swearing and being insulting. I support Galatasaray and as Murat says diss and generally have a go at Fenerbahce, its players, management and supporters. This rivalry and I would say that most of my comments are normal and natural for a supporter of the most successful team in Turkey to make about the next most successful team. I also criticize my own team and the players when its deserved, which is most of the time at the moment!!!!!

So I was a bit put out but not very surprized when I got this comment about a recent post. Apologies for the language but it is not mine!

"Hey Gulay bitch, have you ever tasted Sukru Saracoglu atmosphere? 52500 full erected cocks waitin for u! GS tastes it every year and never get fulls, wants more and more and more.. Your wide cunt will like also it! Try sometime ;)"

All this because I put a picture of a crying Rustu on my post. Of course this was posted by Anonymous.

How brave you are posting garbage like this, I guess you have a severe personality disorder and maybe were rejected by a girl because of your inadequacies, that is supporting a losing team, and probably have a very small penis. If you were a man at all you would put your name to your comments.

And by the way Galatasaray won the league last year even we lost at that cesspool in Kadikoy because its all about consistency not just beating one team. Also we have to play there every year because thats the rule of the league. By the way did you forget the Turkish Cup final result 5-1 I think it was, but obviously with such a small brain you cant remember things like this.

If there are any intelligent Fenerbahce fans out there that can engage in debate bring it on but otherwise I have to assume all are like this!

Anyway enough about that.

Great game today in the EPL, Newcastle -Tottenham. I thought it was a very, very exciting and great game. Why do we never get games like this in the SuperLig? Why is the standard so average?

Anyway thats all for now

Blast from the past

Just when you thought you had got rid of someone, what happens they pop up again to make your life a misery! So it was in the last two games.

First against Feyernoord there was van Hooijdonk and then tonight against Besiktas it was Nobhead scoring in the last minute!!! Typical two ex Kadikoy guys influencing the results for tow new clubs........

So not a very successful campaign for CimBom at the Efes Cup, maybe they were using the sponsors products too much!!! I don't think so as whilst they might not be the best in the world, they are professional players and they are not English.

I think thats enough said about the Efes Cup for now, next up is Hertha Berlin and lets hope for a more convincing display....and some transfers please!

Be of good cheer

Found this picture the other day by going to Google images and searching for Galatasaray.


Oh dear, what can the matter be?????

Certainly cheered me up, lets hope there is a repeat this season.

Anyway I was wrong with my previous post. The next SuperLig match is on January 28th at home to Ankaragucu which strikes me as a nice warm up 3 pointer for the rest of the season.

In between there is the small matter of the Efes Pilsen Cup in Antalya. CimBom will be taking on Feyernoord on January 9th and then the winner of Besiktas-Werder Bremen on January 11th. After that there is a warm up match against Hertha Berlin where I am sure we will give Yildiray and his mates a good seeing to.

So far not too much information on the transfer situation but I am sure Galatasaray's management will be scouring the bottom of various barrels to pick up a bargain or two.

Nice to see Henrik Larsson back and in good form at 35 scoring on his debut for Man Utd!!

Anyway bye for now......

Addiction depletion......

You know how it is with addictions, the loss of your regular fix does not seem to bad at first but after a few days the real withdrawl symptoms start. Headaches, sweating, cramps etc. etc.

Well in this case with the ongoing winter break in the Super Lig I am beginning to suffer those symptoms as the league only starts again on 14th January.

Well thats normal you say. Actually no.

The symptoms are because of the thought of what will be coming back on January 14th rather than the fact I am missing it. Having spent Christmas and New Year watching as many EPL games as I could the thought of going back to the average standard dross on offer in Turkey does not enthuse me. I mean really who are we kidding, the standard is poor, the refereeing is poor, the stadiums are poor, the players are poor quality, media coverage is poor and the TFF is a joke.

Apart from that, no worries mate!!!!!

I cannot wait.......

New Year....again,

So thats another year done and dusted. A year older but not necessarily wiser!!!!!!

Here in New Jersey it was a mild of damp New Years eve. The Husband and I decided not to go out as the roads are crawling with cops and even if you don't have a drink there are too many other headcases out there who may have and think they can drive! So we stayed at home and watched a couple of movies, the new Pirates of the Caribbean and a classic, the Magnificent Seven. Its the first time I had seen the Magnificent Seven as I am not that keen on westerns but the Husband persuaded me and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot. Yul Bryner was certainly a charismatic man!!!!

Then around midnight we watched the neighbors letting of fireworks and trying to burn themselves. There are some very stupid people around I have to say!! Of course the dogs got a bit frightened from the fireworks so we then spent an hour calming them down.

I once spent New Year in London at Trafalgar Square but I have to say that these days the thought of going to Times Square or similar leaves me cold! I mean, you cant a get a drink, you cant get a toilet, you get your bag snatched and all to do what? Count down from 10!!!! Big deal.

Great post from Murat over at AmerikanTurk about the numbers of people who ended up in hospital as a result of injuries incurred in murdering animals in Turkey for the Kurban Bayram. Idiots! I wonder what will happen to such displays of tasetlessness if Turkey reaches the EU?

Anyway thats a whole post with no mention of football as according to Sinan over at Turkish Soccer Have a Take I have no right to talk about that game, why because I am a woman?

Anyway back to the Liverpool-Bolton match!

Seasons Greetings

To everybody out there who reads this blog I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

(Delete as appropriate for religious preference)

And remember the Empire will strike back.

Winter blues

So its 12 Celsius, sunny and a bit windy and its the 24th December here in New Jooisy. what the hell is this, where is the snow, where is the ass-freezing, brass monkey affecting, cold weather!!!!! The Husband is not complaining he's out on his bike making room for the turkey and potatoes but me I just think there is something wrong about having nice weather at this time of year, unless you are in the Southern Hemisphere of course where Christmas is spent with a barbecue and a cold beer!!!!

No real football to talk about as the Turkish season is of course in hibernation until the real bad weather starts in mid January in Turkey. I do not count the Fortis Cup as that seems to be a tournament for the reserve teams at the moment. Of course if Galatasaray win it will be a different matter, like a couple of seasons ago when we won with the 5-1 thrashing of the hooligans.

So I am being forced to watch all the EPL games and even some rugby. IN the US footie is transmitted by Fox Soccer Channel which covers the EPL, French, German and yawn Italian leagues where you play spot the crowd. Then there is Setanta who also provides the missing EPL games as well as rugby, ozzie rules and various other odd games. So we spent all Saturday watching the EPL but today nothing!!!!!! What to do???? Luckily there is a James Bondathon on Spike TV today so thats sorted along with Sponge Bob!!!!

Actually I am glad the weather is good as taking the dogs for a walk can be a problem when it snows. We recently had a fence put around the yard though so when the weather is bad we can just let them in the yard.

Anyway time to go, You Only Live Twice

And now what???

So its Saturday night and Galatasaray beat Kayserispor in the Turkish Cup and now what!!!

No Super Lig until January guess I will have to watch all the English PL games. Not that I don't already but there will be no sanity break, in the unending display of bling, shaved heads and money for a few weeks.

Actually right now I am watching the NBA, New Jersey Nets and Detroit Pistons. Unfortunately I rarely get to see Orlando or Utah! I sometimes also get to see the Euroleague and have seen Efes Pilsen play.

Why I hear you ask? Well that's who Hidayet (Hedo) Turkoglu and Mehmet Okur play for and whilst I appreciate Jason Kidd et al I would rather watch the Turkish Players. I know I never mentioned basketball before but I have always had an interest in basketball and years ago, pre-Husband, dated a guy who played for Galatasaray in the Turkish League. Had to use an orange box to kiss him!!!

Here in NJ the weather is far from December, in fact its more like April! Won't last of course but we are making the most of it. Had a fence put up in the yard recently so that we can let the dogs out whenever we want without them running off. This will be important when its snowing horizontally!

Both the husband and I have been enjoying some Winter Ale from Weyerbacher. One good thing about living in the US is that it has more breweries than any other country, although the consumption per head is not that high. Weyerbacher is about a one hour drive from where we live and they make some excellent beers. Apologies to all those in Turkey who unless they can get to Taps in Istanbul do not exactly have a large choice of beers, not that theres anything wrong with Efes of course but sometimes variety is nice!!!

So enough for tonight, Sunday brings Chavski and then the Man Utd game so thats the day sorted!!!!!

Europe Calls

So the Kadikoy mob got through to the next round of the UEFA Cup albeit with 7 minutes to spare!!! Good job too so that the Turkish League gains some points for the next seasons. If it wasn't for that fact I would definitely have not been supporting them.

Given the recent poor performances of Turkish teams in Europe I am not exactly holding my breath for their long term involvement though. Lets face it any team that loses to Newcastle United cannot be that special as the Geordies are not exactly setting the EPL alight this season.

Next up is Besiktas and here's hoping that they also get through so the SECOND city crowd might, just might get a sniff of Euro footie next season when they finish below the first city teams (as usual)!!!

One other good thing is that with hopefully both the other Istanbul teams involved in the UEFA then they may get a bit stretched and leave the door open for another successful domestic season for Galatasaray. It also of course depends on how many players leave Kadikoy in January as it seems that a few are wanted by other clubs, especially Appiah, Alex, Tuncay etc.

Anyway thats all for now....

Poor but victorious

Not quite a vintage performance today more a shocker actually but 3 points is 3 points. Beating Bursaspor 3-1 was a result but should have been a bit easier than it actually was.

The first half was appalling, absolutely terrible...the defence was poor, the midfield non-existent and the attack barely functional. In addition the inept performance of the referee was not helping either team I mean there were three fairly clear penalty situations in the first half, one for Bursa and two for GS which he failed to notice, the one on Ergun being particularly blatant.

At least the second half was better from GS although it simply could not have been any worse than the first. Mondragon kept us in the match at times with a few excellent saves and the three goals were well taken even if Okan's was a bit fortunate. Sabri's goal was the best of the lot running the length of the pitch and chipping over the keeper, excellent.

So its into the winter break in second place, 7 points behind the Kadikoy mob. Sound familiar well it should as it was the same situation last season and we all know what happened then!!!

Of course there may be a lot of changes before the league restarts not least of which may be a new coach, I hope not but lets see what hasty badly informed decision the board makes. There may be some new players as we badly need an improved defence for the second half of the season and a holding midfielder, Saidou is badly missed.

Anyway now all I will be watching is the EPL where money bags Chavski are not having it all their own way this year, thankfully with teams standing up to them for once.

Bye for now.....

And the penalty is????

So Galatasaray won a meaningless game 3-2 against Liverpool tonight. Although they won, the usual problems surfaced especially with the defnece whihc has been the weak spot all this season. Lets hope the management recruit a couple of players in the January transfer window.

I also note from the Turkish media that Gerets is on his way out and that the short list includes Co Adriaanse, Ersun Yanal and unbelievably Graham Souness. So last season we won the championship and this season Gerets is not good enough despite not being able to recruit new players whihc is hardly his fault and then the board decide to play the European ames at the Olympic Stadium!!! Idiots.

Talking of idiots lets see whether the TFF have grown any testicles at all in dealing with the appalling behaviour of the Kadikoy mobs so called supporters during the derby match. It seems like all other teams get penalised if their supporters swear but for the Kadikoy lot no such penalties seem to apply. Whilst you can expect no better from the rubbish that passes as management over there and the crap that turns up at games with smoke bombs HOW the hell did such an object get smuggled in, one can only assume the polis are also on the payroll.

Forget whether GS should have had a penalty for the clear handball in the second half why was the match even going on after the smoke bomb incident. Selcuk Dereli should have had more concern for the safety of the players as obviously it cannot be guaranteed by the Kadikoy morons and the game should have been stopped. How embarrasing is it for the manager of the opponents to turn up with stitches in his head after being it by thrown objects.

Forget about fines and closed stadiums there is only one correct sanction for this, points deduction and blocks on transfer activity into the club like Roma recieved last season.

Dead men walking

Well here it isn't. What should have been a pulsating emotion filled evening in the cauldron that is Ali Sami Yen is going to be a meaningless affair played out in the echoing wastelands of the Olympic stadium. My goodness who would have thought when the groups were drawn that this would be the outcome. I thought we should at least have qualified for the UEFA cup and I guess we still can if we win about 6-0 and Bordeaux lose unless its done head to head when it is a truly meaningless game!!!!

From reports it seems that both teams will be effectively fielding reserve teams so I guess Hasan and Hakan will get games for once. Oh how the mighty have fallen!!!!!

With the lack of success in Europe it is getting harder and harder for Turkish teams to qualify and when they do they do nothing. It seems thath all teams want to do is win the Super LIg and have no other ambition. If it carries on like this we can expect to get headlines such as Stuffed Turkeys again when the National Team play becaues thie eventual lack of success will affect the National team.

Now I know that some countries have successful National Teams without strong National leagues or occasional strong teams, Norway, Denmark, Sweden immediately spring to mind. However when you look at where the plpayers earn their money most do it outside of their country in the EPL especially and elsewhere around Europe. In turkey however we have only one player in the EPL, Emre, a couple in the Bundesliga, one in Spain when he's not injured and that's pretty much it. Okay you say then we use home based players. Look at the rosters and Fenerbahce for example have not that many national level Turkish players (Tuncay excluded) as they rely on imports, Galatasaray have a few such as Arda coming through the ranks and the rest are playing for??????????

Is that depressing or what!

When is handball not handball

When its the 88th minute in Kadikoy apparently. My goodness I think the referee was probably the only person who thought Turaci's use of the elbow to deflect the ball away from Hasan Kabze was not a deliberate handball. I challenge any of the Kadikoy mobs rabble out there to justify otherwise, if you do then you obviously cannot be a true football supporter. Plus Alex, what a diving complaining cheat.

Anyway it was the typical game of two halves. Galatasary were definitely second best in the first half but were by far the better side in the second half and created virtually all the chances with Umit and Necati denied by Volkan. Despite the loss it was good to see Galatsasaray play some better football, which is a good sign for the rest of the season.

Unfortunately it means there is now 9 points gap at the top of the Lig but think back to last season it was somewhat the same so it does not mean the seaons is over but some of the other teams have got to step up and kick the budgies off their perch.

bye for now....

Medium day coming up

So tomorrow the match is in Kadikoy against the budgies. Seems like the media and all the kadikoy mob are hypeing this up to be THE MOST IMPORTANT MATCH OF THE SEASON. What a laugh. To be honest with you I am not worried about the result of the game at all.

This may be surprising and I will explain why.

Given the money that the Kadikoy mob have spent over the last couple of seasons just being able to compete with them is a minor miracle. Given the disparity in finances winning the championship last season was an incredible result which was probably a one off. The desperation to win anything is flowing out of the FB camp so obviously that all the other teams and supporters can feel it.

It is my belief that all the pressure is on them, not Galatasaray. If they don't win easily then that is an indictment on the team, manager and money spent. If Galatasaray can get some kind of result then I will be happy as it will keep the points to a sensible number. However give the run of results in the last few years Galatasaray will be lucky to get anything at all. Hence no stress for me.

I must say I am really glad that I do not support Trabzon, what happened to them. I mean they started off poorly and then get worse when they sacked the foreigner and brought Ziya Dogan. I am hoping they can improve as the wheels fell off the Vestel wagon, the second city teams are inconsistent as are Besiktas. Otherwise the Turkish league will become weaker and weaker as the Kadikoy mob simply buy their way to success!!

What will be will be........

Gokdeniz bets again????

So after all the bluff and bluster Trabzon produced a lacklustre performance against the Kadikoy mob, contracts that to their performance against Galatasaray. Wonder how much Gokdeniz had on this match??????

So that leaves them 6 points ahead with the derby match next week. Lets just hope that Galatasaray get their act in gear and at least get a point. The only positive is that Volkan is a terrible goalkeeper so lets see if we can exploit that....small crumbs of comfort.

Meanwhile over in England the Man Utd-Chavski match ended 1-1. Having watched the game Chavski would be the more grateful as they were the beneficiary of the one or two poor decisions made by Howard Webb who otherwise had an excellent game. I refer to the elbow from Ballack, who looks increasingly like a waste of money, on Ronaldo and then the quite clearly deliberate elbow by Drogba on Vidic which was a truly Sheareresque nastiness, I mean he checked where he was and made sure it connected. So besides those two missed red cards and tow bad misses by Utd as well as a clear push on Ferdinand and the usual histrionics from Chavski they were probably glad to get a point.

Definite improvement

After Wednesday's debacle it was important for Galatasaray to get back on track in the SuperLig to keep the pressure on the Kadikoy mob. And back on track they got against Sivasspor with a comfortable 3-1 victory to go within 1 point of the lead.

It was good to see the positive manner on which CimBom started today and although they were 2-0 up after just 10 minutes it should perhaps have been more as there was at least one penalty when Arda was brought down and maybe another when Song was taken out. Still 2-0 and the game was effectively over once Umit Karan scored the third after just 38 minutes. I must admit that I thought the team was playing well and that we could have had 4 or 5 on the first half.

Of course the second half was not so good and as usual the team gave me some hard and nervous times when I thought they might throw all that good work away. That was the case when Sivas scored. More very poor defending from the lads left Mondragon with absolutely no chance and it seemed like they would continue to do that. Tomas and Song are definitely not on song this season. looks like we need to buy a defender in January or get Orhan back and fit.

The most worrying part of the afternoon was the site of Arda being carried off. He has been one of our best players recently and with the match in Kadikoy next week this would be a bad time for him to be injured.

Lets hope Trabzon remember how to play tomorrow and do the business so that the gap is reasonable by next week. I have to admit though that I am not very optimistic about the result I have to say as our recent form against the mob has been unimpressive to say the least. Anyway one can but hope.

Excellent match in the EPL today with Bolton ruffling the aristocratic feathers of Arsenal and a former Kadikoy member scoring two goals, thats right Anelka managed his first goals for Bolton.
And tomorrow its Chelsea Man Utd.......

Thanksgiving Turkeys!!!!

What an embarrassing performance last night from Galatasaray against Bordeaux. It was only after Arda had got himself stupidly sent off that the team even looked like playing but by then it was too late.

I really think Tomas is not going to be at the club much longer if he keeps on playing like he did last night. Song was better but not by much and in general it was a very poor and embarrassing performance.

Given the lower quality of the Turkish league it was always going to be a struggle to qualify but it has not been helped by not playing home games at Ali Sami Yen and thereby giving up probably 3 points straight away. I don't care if the stadium is small the atmosphere intimidates the opposition and gives the team a lift, well normally it would but with this squad I am not so sure!!!

So looks like we will not even have the pleasure of UEFA Cup football unless we can stick about 5 past Liverpool and Bordeaux lose. Not much chance of that though.

I guess we can concentrate on the League from now on and make sure we win the Championship or at the least finish second.


Until the weekend and Happy Thanksgiving

Late birthday present

Excellent result today in Kadikoy with Besiktas drawing 0-0.

Now there is only 6 points between the top 5 teams I think which sets up the rest of the season quite nicely on the assumption that Galatasaray, Manisa, Kayseri, Besiktas and surprisingly Ankaragucu who are storming up the table having decided along with CimBom to not go for the draw title.

I guess the only people not happy are supporters and management of the Kadikoy mob who seemed to spend all their time complaining about the referee;s decisions. I tell you if Phil Dowd had been the official then there would have been a 7-a-side match going on out there. For those of you who did not watch the Blackburn-Tottenham game today Mr Dowd had a stinker and Tugay had one of those hero/villain days. First Tugay scored a screamer and then managed to get himself sent off for an imaginary trip on Ghally. So Tugay got a red card and Spurs a penalty which they scored from. Later Mido who was lucky to still be on the pitch handled the ball clearly in the penalty box and as he was on a yellow already everyone expected him to be off the pitch. But no, no card and no penalty....bizarre. So like I say be grateful for small merceis all the sari lacivert out there.

I was doubly glad as it was my birthday this weekend, good results and a good night out at Sultans Turkish Restaurant in Hackettstown, NJ. Most of the friends we were with we have met as a result of walking our dogs. Great things dogs for social contact!!! The exception is Mert who is our neighbour!!!!! Of course ot turns out he is a supporter of the Kadikoy mob, poor man but its incredible that we live next to each other in this corner of New Jersey!!!! Here is a picture of the Husband enjoying the attentions of the entertainment.......draw your own conclusions