Turkish Football

[kartalkalkar]

Turkish Turkcell Super League
Turk Telekom Lig 1
Turkish Football Association(TFF) Lig 2= group 1-2-3-4-5 =
TFF Lig 3 = group 1-2-3-4 =

*Turkish Turkcell Super Lig has 18 teams
*Turk Telekom Lig 1 has 18 teams
*TFF Lig 2 each group has 10 teams
*TFF Lig 3 groups have 16 teams except group 3(17 teams)

FIFA World Ranking: 24th

[gunnersfan]

eh, ill go ahead and but in here, and say wtf???!

[kartalkalkar]

wtf???!

what does it mean?

[Vip]

wtf???!

what does it mean?

what the fuck ...


.

[kartalkalkar]

what the fuck ...


.

so am i guilty?

[kaku]

so am i guilty?
No, you are not guilty of anything.

The guy wants to start a thread about the Turkish league or football in general.What's the problem?:confused:

[Masry]

The guy wants to start a thread about the Turkish league or football in general.What's the problem?:confused:

no prob, Welcome, kartalkalkar :) what team do you follow?

[gunnersfan]

heh, i didnt have a clue what your initial post was about :p

[kartalkalkar]

no prob, Welcome, kartalkalkar :) what team do you follow?

Besiktas JK

Rogerio Da Silva Bobo "Eye of the Storm"
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/9758/bobo2fq1.jpg

Yesterday Bobo scored 2 times again. One for himself, one for Besiktas. I am calling him as the Eye of the Storm just for being calm when sorrounded by tough defenders similar to fierce windings. He is neither "el conejito" nor static electricity "Super Mario Jardel". He can beat every defenders by his multicoloured style. The first habit for a striker must be timing like super heroes
not early or late. His hearthbeat just like tick-tock of the goal, his inner force managed himself to blow the ball with right moves(even you can think them by chance). He has been in Turkey since 2006 January and told the newspapers his admiration for Adriano, his role model. He was physically weak when he first stepped into the Inonu Stadium with the help of Jean Tigana, he mastered himself as a painkiller for fans' agony. Then scored and his windings got thicker, thicker and thicker. The rookie became your majesty. He is the best striker for Dunga's Brazil when dictating more tempo without ball. Keep an eye on him. He has magic bean inside Inonu's ground. When eyedrops fall onto grounds, he will be in Galactica!( Maybe you should pull back the windings by making him worthless. I use metaphor man you real dont want him alone :))

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/4910/166827ml9.jpg

[jorquera]

I watched the Turkish Super Cup the other day and I have to say I'm impressed. I don't know much about Turkish football since I don't have opportunities to watch it. However the Super Cup was on Al-Jazeera sport so I could watch it. It was very fast and fluent game. Hopefully Al-Jazeera or ART Sport will show more Turkish League games.

Fenerbache is full of Brazilians, isn't it? Roberto Carlos, Edu Dracena, Alex, Deivid, Mehmet Aurelio, Mateus, Wederson.

[kartalkalkar]

I watched the Turkish Super Cup the other day and I have to say I'm impressed. I don't know much about Turkish football since I don't have opportunities to watch it. However the Super Cup was on Al-Jazeera sport so I could watch it. It was very fast and fluent game. Hopefully Al-Jazeera or ART Sport will show more Turkish League games.

Fenerbache is full of Brazilians, isn't it? Roberto Carlos, Edu Dracena, Alex, Deivid, Mehmet Aurelio, Mateus, Wederson.
with zico yes braziliaN TEAM

[illenium]

I am half turkish and have been there 3 times, i am a true FENERBACE fan for life!!!!

[Phenom]

hi mate..got any good english speaking sites that can keep me informed about the turkish league,i like to see how carlos is doing at fernabace:)

[hyperform]

Hi, there is no news site as far as I know about Turkish football. I mean goal.com and uefa.com got news about scores and some important games but not detailed. But you can get some information on this web site: http://www.angelfire.com/nj/sivritepe/

As for Carlos, he is doing much for Fenerbahçe in domestic and Champions League. He's scored once against Sivasspor with head not using left foot but more important he is like an asisstant coach on the pitch with his experience and knowledge. So his acts during the game help team mates especially young players lighten. Recently he told that he wants to stay in Turkey and continue as a coach for Fenerbahçe in the future.

hi mate..got any good english speaking sites that can keep me informed about the turkish league,i like to see how carlos is doing at fernabace:)

[Phenom]

Hi, there is no news site as far as I know about Turkish football. I mean goal.com and uefa.com got news about scores and some important games but not detailed. But you can get some information on this web site: http://www.angelfire.com/nj/sivritepe/

As for Carlos, he is doing much for Fenerbahçe in domestic and Champions League. He's scored once against Sivasspor with head not using left foot but more important he is like an asisstant coach on the pitch with his experience and knowledge. So his acts during the game help team mates especially young players lighten. Recently he told that he wants to stay in Turkey and continue as a coach for Fenerbahçe in the future.

thats nice to know carlos is a true legend and im glad he went to fener and not galatasaray:D

[joaq17]

himm.. this thread seems uncrowded..

anyway, did you know beşiktaş gave up 5m€+2 good players for slovak footballer filip holosko? holosko is considered a good player, but many people was unease with 5m€.. also, one of the exchanged footballers was beşiktaş's third captain, while the other one was bought for 1m€ last summer and was considered as a wonderkid who could be sold for 10m€ in the future by tigana (ex beşiktaş coach)..

[sportsmen]

while the other one was bought for 1m€ last summer and was considered as a wonderkid who could be sold for 10m€ in the future by tigana (ex beşiktaş coach)..
What's his name?

[deathcab]

Burak Yilmaz, I think. The experienced one was Koray Avci. Both were reluctant to leave the club, but that's how much they wanted Holosko.

[joaq17]

yes, burak yılmaz..

tigana really had high expectations of him and he was in team rotation last year (if he was not first team regular).. ertuğrul sağlam (new coach) decided to play serdar özkan (a player from beşiktaş reserves, '87 born) instead of him, and he was forgotton for the most of the time.. his finishing was very very poor and probably he was a party-boy in istanbul clubs & scenes, however he has a very unique talent and easily could have been the one of the best right-wingers/forwards of his generation.. i have to admit he was not my or most of other fans' favourite but he didn't get enough credit this season..

i got that 10m€ thing from wikipedia by the way.. it was $, not €, my mistake,sorry..

for any of your questions about turkish football, i will be more than happy to help, if i can.. just don't ask anything about the number eight.. =p

[deathcab]

Umm... Baki? He's crap on FM too.

I have a few questions about Turkish football, if you don't mind.
1) What's the deal with the "reserve" teams in the SüperLig? Last season there was a Kayseri reserve, this season Genclerbirligi reserve in the top flight. Or is their connection something else, not exactly reserve-type of thing (feeder club?)? As in other league, including my own, reserve teams are not allowed to play in the same league as the parent club.

2) Most of us proper football fanatics know the Istanbul trio, also Trabzon is supposed to be on their heels somewhat. Could you tell a little about the other clubs, like who do you like (e.g. Konyaspor? Genclerbirligi? Ankaraspor? Ankaragücü? etc.)? Also, could you name some good players from outside the top four Turkish clubs? I ask because it's a good way of memorizing names of good players for me and for whoever else might be interested here.

3) Also, how's the attendances? There have been some highlights on here that I've seen and from that I gather that the facilities outside Istanbul are not good at all, and that the attendances are pretty low-ish. What do you reckon? Also, from Football Factories International I remember Danny Dyer was at some lower league match and even there the hooligans were very dominant and the players and the club were pretty supportive of them. Might that be the main reason for low-ish public interest?

Other than that, I just wanted to say I enjoy watching the Turkish league very much, when I get the oppurtunity (there have been a few), the atmosphere at the top clubs is amazing, and the level of play is very good, which makes up highly attractive matches to see. Deserves more interest really, but the new generation of footie fans are mainly into glory-stuff unfortunately (AC Milan, Barcelona, Man Utd etc.).

You don't need to answer it all at once, I don't mind at all if you can't be bothered at all, no worries :)

[joaq17]

i'm glad to see someone interested in turkish football and i'm very happy to answer your questions. for me, sharing the local football knowledge & experience with other fans is a better way to past the time than studing my finals.. =) i will try to answer all your questions one by one, so i can find time to do a little research.. plus i'll have more posts.. =p

first of all, baki mercimek is seen as a pascal cygan type of player (arsenal era) by many people, clumsy and mistake-prone.. media and fans criticized tigana for giving lots of chance to baki (mainly as a left-back, and i have to admit, he was not very good at lb) and he saw limited playing time beginning of the season under ertuğrul sağlam's coaching. with gökhan zan's injuries (a dc who has a lot of potential but injured all the time) baki played alongside ibrahim toraman.. it's a common point of view that baki is a mistake waiting to be happen; he can see a red card for unnecessary positions, flamboyant attackers can destroy him, etc etc..

imo, he's very underrated and can be a nice backup-rotation player for almost every team in the country. he has good strength and height.. yes, he can lack concentration & decision making and he can make stupid mistakes from time to time, but he played some excellent games for beşiktaş last year and this season, such as marsilya match at inönü..

first question; "kayseri erciyesspor" is not kayserispor's reserve team.. two or three seasons ago, when both teams were playing in the minor league, ke got promotion to play in the super league.. however, ke and kayserispor changed colours and names, so instead of ke, kayserispor played in super league for that year.. next year, ke, again, got promotion to play in super league, so as a city, kayseri had to teams playing in super league.. afaik, they didn't changed their players but i'm not sure..

however, "gençlerbirliği oftaşspor" is gençlerbirliği's reserve team.. gençlerbirliği bought the team 7-8 years ago and have been using it as a reserve team since then.. however, oftaşspor was already playing in first or second league (super league==serie a; first league==serie b), but their players were under special contracts with gençlerbirliği.. they got promotion last year, and according to rules, they had to have a different chairman to play in super league.. (thanks to wikipedia) gençlerbirliği chairman ilhan cavcav tried to sold the team, so the buyer can change its name like kayseri did, but nobody bought the team..

oftaşspor is seen as a professional team on paper.. for example, normally, there's a reserves league in turkey, aka paf league.. there's a reserve team playing there for oftaşspor..

many people found it very unethical beginning of the season and many writers criticized the situation.. however, as i we call it in turkey, they made everything according to the book, so there are two gençlerbirliğis playing in super league..

oftaşspor seriously lacking fan-base; i believe they had 1000> attendances for some of their games..

second question; turkish league was established in 1959 and since then there are only 4 champions; fenerbahçe (17), galatasaray (16), beşiktaş (12, some say 10) and trabzon (6).. since they find more opportunity, these teams have more success (and failure) in european competition.

to be fair, aside from these four, no other team in turkey gets national attention by media or the fans. you can only watch four clubs' games on tv, and press doesn't give a s*** about anatolian teams.. from year to year, there's an overachiver in the league (this year sivasspor, last year kayserispor) but in the end the trophy goes to galatasaray or fenerbahçe mostly.. there are several reasons for this situation; lack of funds, players' ambition to play for the bigger clubs and not wanting to hurt their transfer chances, chairmans' lack of ambition, lack of fan support, etc etc..

imo, turkish league is not very likeable if you don't support a team. many teams play boring football (including mine) and you have to feel lucky to watch an exciting game. however, there's always one or two teams, who play beautiful football each season.. (2002/03 - beşiktaş, gençlerbirliği; 2003/04 - beşiktaş, fenerbahçe, trabzon; 2005/06 - galatasaray; 2006/07 - fenerbahçe, manisa; 2007/08 - fenerbahçe)

gençlerbirliği has a strong tradition; they have been a upper-mid club in the league for quite a long time. the club is located in ankara, and have an annoying chairman ilhan cavcav.. he's famous for finding good players for cheap and selling them for lots of money (geremi, skoko, youla, risp, ahmed hassan, ümit özat playing abroad; deniz barış (fenerbahçe), serkan balcı (fb, trabzonspor), ümit karan (galatasaray), ergün penbe(galatasaray)).. although they are more successful, ankara's biggest team is ankaragücü if you ask me.. they have more (dangerous) supporters and have rivalry with gençlerbirliği. their most famous fan group is gecekondu (shanty).

gaziantepspor have much common with gençlerbirliği, but they don't have a dominant chairman. they usually have a very good team and were so close to championship in 2000/01 season. they have been in the super league for almost 20 years.. they also have more fans (not violent) since there's only one big team in gaziantep (has population around a million by the way)..

bursa is a big city with probably the best club besides the big four. bursaspor was founded in '63 and their symbol is crocodile. they used to have very good squads and played well in intertoto cup a long time ago, but they weren't very good recently. they were eliminated and spent 2 seasons in first division. they got promoted 2 years ago. there's a conflict between bursaspor and beşiktaş fans because of the elimination. bursaspor fans claim that, in year 2003/04 beşiktaş involved in matchfixing scandal and lost two games on purpose other in-danger teams.. since then, beşiktaş and bursaspor fans are banned for away games which they play against each other. bursaspor fans see ankaragücü fans as brothers, one of the leaders of bursa fans spent their college years in ankara and became friends with ankaragücü fans. after his death they continued to chant other teams name at 6th and 16th minutes. (licence-plates of ankara and bursa based vehicles)

aside from ankaragücü and bursaspor, other big city teams like, konyaspor, rizespor, denizlispor, manisaspor and first division teams, antalyaspor, eskişehirspor (has a popular fan-base, used to be very good in 70-80s), sakaryaspor, kocaelispor, samsunspor have good teams occasionally.

ankaraspor is team of the ankara municipal. it doesn't have a lot of fan, but had/have some good players, necati, wederson, etc.

some promising players are;
beşiktaş;
bobo ('85 striker with 0.5< goal ratio in ~60 games), serdar kurtuluş (used to be a very good dm with tigana, but plays as right-back and suffers injury this season), matias delgado (has good vision, great passing), ibrahim kaş ('86 defender, saw limited playing time but played for national team's important norway game), batuhan karadeniz ('91 striker, with tremendous upside, great height and body, youngest player to score a goal in the league, but can be easily forgotton due to lack of discipline)

fenerbahçe;
lugano (great defender, will probably go to italy or spain), edu (good defender but not good as lugano), well.. you know carlos, alex, appiah and kezman.. aurelio is the player on the rise, a very good midfielder, kinda reminds me gilberto silva.. can go to valencia, although not seem possible with the arrival of banega.. fb also have a very talented winger called mateus but he was on loan..

galatasaray;
you know lincoln, hakan şükür, okan buruk, hasan şaş (last two are not good as used to be).. gs promoted very good players from reserves in recent years.. arda turan has great dribbling talent and football iq, but lack strength, discipline and normal iq (just kidding =p).. sabri, uğur uçar, ferhat are all very good role-players when given chance.. barış özbek is another bright prospect that can shine for years..

trabzon;
gökdeniz is the best player trabzon has.. he's like a lite-version of maradona. yattara is probably the most talented player you can ever see, just search him in youtube and see what he done to his defenders.. he absourdly lacks discipline and strength which is the reason he's not playing for a giant club in europe.. cm phenom risp plays for ts as well..

sivasspor;
currently no. 1 team in turkey, has mehmet yıldız.. the strike is a target for all 4 clubs.. he plays a lot like rooney but with lack of technique.. he's very strong but i consider him a bit overrated..

kayserispor;
cangele is a player with enourmous talent with a lack of work ethic.. he came from boca juniors, and you can see his talent easily, but as a common thing in turkish football, he lacks strength and discipline.. gökhan ünal and mehmet topuz are probably the best two players outside istanbul.. striker and midfielder are a part of the national team, and the main reason of kayseri's success in last two years.. gökhan is a former top scorer in the league, while mehmet topuz is seem as a complete midfielder who is a warrior with a nice technique..

[deathcab]

Wonderful post, thank you very much.
Hows the general view on foreigners in the Turkish league? Some years ago, after seeing an Euro U17 Championship finals tourney with Turkey in it, I remember the commentators saying the clubs are putting more trust in local talent, hence the success at youth level. That was when Ilhan Parlak was spearheading the attack (remember his name from those finals while he was at Kayserispor), who was thought to be a gem for the future (has now moved to one of the big boys in Turkey, iirc). I mean what's the concentration of foreigners in mid-table teams, for example?

Another thing, what's the general view on domesticated players like M. Aurelio and M. Nobre? Do fans accept them as part of their national team (Aurelio mostly)? I personally don't mind at all if once in a long while someone feels distant with his birthplace and wants to represent his new homeland (Colautti, Eduardo da Silva, Aurelio? to name a few...), but when they begin to be domesticated in sake of the national team (e.g. Azerbaijan), then it's just out of hands.

I'm not sure, but is there a trend in Turkey towards the selling of the club names to raise revenue and not go bankrupt? Like there's a club called Telekomspor in the 2nd div if I'm not mistaken, I doubt there's a city named Telekom in Turkey though :)

About the players, Appiah is absolutely one of my favorite players out there everywhere, let alone the Turkish league. Wonderful talent. I remember seeing Baris Özbek and another bloke, what's his name... (playing for Greuther Fürth in the 2. Bundesliga at the time) in the Toulon tournament last summer, and both were pretty good. Baris Özbek looks like he'll be an international soon? A few years ago Nuri Sahin looked like he'd be a world-class midfielder (scored for Turkey on his debut, iirc), I've seen Feyenoord many times this season, and he looks like he's getting back on track with his career (actually missed why he left Dortmund on loan, injury setbacks?).

Btw, I also should be studying for my uni exams, but it's just too boring. Anything football-related is what keeps me going instead.

[joaq17]

3) Also, how's the attendances? There have been some highlights on here that I've seen and from that I gather that the facilities outside Istanbul are not good at all, and that the attendances are pretty low-ish. What do you reckon? Also, from Football Factories International I remember Danny Dyer was at some lower league match and even there the hooligans were very dominant and the players and the club were pretty supportive of them. Might that be the main reason for low-ish public interest?


well.. attendances are bad, simply.. =) Last years attendances were; (avarage att. - most att. in a game)

1. Fenerbahçe 39.542- 47.400
2. Beşiktaş 26.249 -33.000
3. Galatasaray 16.307- 20.750
4. Bursaspor 16.225 -22.500
5. Denizlispor 13.491 -35.200
6. Konyaspor 13.479 -17.350
7. Trabzonspor 12.957 -20.300
8. Kayserispor 12.250 -17.500
9. Sakaryarspor 11.883 -14.500
10. Kayseri Erciyesspor 11.742 -21.000
11. Gaziantepspor 11.227- 15.800
12. Sivasspor 10.827 -14.500
13. Gençlerbirliği 10.238 -21.250
14. Ankaragücü 9.921 -13.000
15. Vestel Manisaspor 9.764 -12.500
16. Ankaraspor 9.472 -14.600
17. Antalyaspor 9.380 -12.600
18. Çaykur Rizespor 8.222 -10.200

i highly doubt that newly promoted teams - istanbul büyükşehirbelediyespor (another municipial team), gençlerbirliği oftaşspor and kasımpaşaspor (an istanbul team, hometown of prime minister) - have attendances as much as çaykur rizespor..

actually, this year, first division is pretty good attendance-wise.. almost every team has a big local fan-base..

low attendance's main reasons are;
1) people don't want to pay for tickets.. economy in turkey is not that good, and people don't go to games unless the game is important or tickets are free.. also people seem to like watching games on pay-tv..

2) as you mentioned, hooligans.. people got fed up with them and didn't tired themselves with going to games.. a beşiktaş fan was killed in the stadium and in many games, its common to beaten by a police.. there's also many *high* fans which make matches very interesting.. (a man at my right side was smoking and there was a police at his right side) etc..

3) lack of quality football.. well, most of the matches are boring.. i went to nearly all games of beşiktaş this season, and there was only 2-3 matches that i had joy.. other ones were just terrible..

ps.: those teams in football factory are karşıyaka and göztepe.. they are from izmir, third biggest (and imo the most beautiful, ~4million population) city in turkey.. there's a big rivalry between them, as big as fenerbahçe-galatasaray.. göztepe had a brilliant european success, they managed to play uefa and cup winners cup semi and quarter finals in 70s.. now, they are both at lower levels, göztepe was bankrupt and playing in third league, afaik.. karşıyaka is playing in first division, but their basketball team is better than their football one..

Wonderful post, thank you very much.
Hows the general view on foreigners in the Turkish league? Some years ago, after seeing an Euro U17 Championship finals tourney with Turkey in it, I remember the commentators saying the clubs are putting more trust in local talent, hence the success at youth level. That was when Ilhan Parlak was spearheading the attack (remember his name from those finals while he was at Kayserispor), who was thought to be a gem for the future (has now moved to one of the big boys in Turkey, iirc). I mean what's the concentration of foreigners in mid-table teams, for example?


well, in big clubs, for about 10-15 years, most favourite players have always been foreigners.. fenerbahçe's most liked players are alex, carlos and aurelio.. beşiktaş's are bobo, tello, delgado.. galatasaray's were lincoln, hakan şükür and song.. fenerbahçe wanted to be able to play with more foreigners and that is still a hot topic about football in turkey.. teams don't want to spend time waiting for young prospects to shine, instead they buy cheap foreigners.. also, most young turkish footballers seriously lack football fundamentals.. they don't know when to shot or pass, or can't read the game at all.. for example, mehmet sedef, one of the stars of beşiktaş reserve team, play attacking midfielder for the reserve team.. however, he's given chance at left-back and defensive midfield at pro. level.. they also lack discipline and alcohol, women & partying all the time don't help either..



Another thing, what's the general view on domesticated players like M. Aurelio and M. Nobre? Do fans accept them as part of their national team (Aurelio mostly)? I personally don't mind at all if once in a long while someone feels distant with his birthplace and wants to represent his new homeland (Colautti, Eduardo da Silva, Aurelio? to name a few...), but when they begin to be domesticated in sake of the national team (e.g. Azerbaijan), then it's just out of hands.


that was a hot topic.. this was discussed several times, and people were split into two groups.. one group, mostly fenerbahçe fans, was OK with aurelio playing with the nt team and saying aurelio was playing in turkey for 5 years and considered aurelio as a turk.. other ones, mainly non-fenerbahçe fans, claimed that its weird to play a foreigner in turkish national team and this move was made only because our team lacks a defensive-midfielder.. later, people saw aurelio performing on a high level and giving enormous effort and determination for turkey and well, he's one of the most loved national team footballers.. everybody see him as a real turk now, myself including (despite aurelio having a fight with a beşiktaş player-ricardinho)..



I'm not sure, but is there a trend in Turkey towards the selling of the club names to raise revenue and not go bankrupt? Like there's a club called Telekomspor in the 2nd div if I'm not mistaken, I doubt there's a city named Telekom in Turkey though :)


that team was (is) turkish communication service's team.. since they were sold by the state, the team was sold too.. they have a very good basketball team, by the way, they can win uleb cup this year..

and yes, there's a trend selling club names or selling team's stocks to the market.. afaik, beşiktaş, galatasaray, fenerbahçe, trabzonspor, all four sold their stocks.. their basketball teams (trabzon doesn't have one) did the other option, their names have changed to ülker (big company, food-chocolate releated) products.. çaykur rizespor (çaykur is a tea-producing company in rize), vestel manisaspor (vestel has a factory in manisa, although the company stopped their support for manisaspor) are the examples for selling club names.. league's name was sold to turkcell, a phone operator in turkey..



About the players, Appiah is absolutely one of my favorite players out there everywhere, let alone the Turkish league. Wonderful talent. I remember seeing Baris Özbek and another bloke, what's his name... (playing for Greuther Fürth in the 2. Bundesliga at the time) in the Toulon tournament last summer, and both were pretty good. Baris Özbek looks like he'll be an international soon? A few years ago Nuri Sahin looked like he'd be a world-class midfielder (scored for Turkey on his debut, iirc), I've seen Feyenoord many times this season, and he looks like he's getting back on track with his career (actually missed why he left Dortmund on loan, injury setbacks?).


i loved appiah, too.. he was class and one of my favs while he was in italy.. then he came to fenerbahçe.. =p he's dealing with major injuries this year, and i highly doubt he can play for fenerbahçe this year or in the future.. he wants to play with ghana in african nations cup, but i heard that if he does, he risks his career (and some even claim that his life) .. and he wants to play in europe again afaik.. schalke offered fenerbahçe 7m€s our so, but was declined.. my guess would be, his departure at the end of the season to, possibly, schalke..

barış is a very good prospect, he's kalli's favourites this season.. i don't know if he made his decision, but i'm guessing he'll play for turkish national team.. nuri was seen as a savior for turkish football, but i guess he was a bit overrated too.. he's playing good football with feyenord and i'm sure he'll be a bigger part of national team as time pass.. as feyenord move, ex-dortmund coach marjiwk went to feyenord and took nuri with a loan agreement.. that helps him on the long run, i hope, seeing different kinds of football..



Btw, I also should be studying for my uni exams, but it's just too boring. Anything football-related is what keeps me going instead.


one day, everybody will face the fact that our way is the best way the follow.. =p

[deathcab]

From what I've read, Appiah might be in Ghana but as a moral support (such an important figure he is to his country) and not playing. And Baris Özbek did commit himself to Turkey instead of continuing with Germany, I read from uefa.com a few days ago.

I actually had no idea Vestel and Caykur were sponsor names, I'll definitly never use them in my speech or whatever I write anymore :)

Oh, those attendance figures are not bad at all, I think. Lots of very interesting leagues have ca 10k attendances, some even less, but are still intresting (Scandinavian, Scottish, Austrian, Swiss, Greek etc.). Maybe I got that impression from watching those newly promoted teams then.

[joaq17]

on a second look, those attendances seem a little bit high.. i don't think beşiktaş & fenerbahçe played for 25000-40000 attendances.. but it could be right though, it's almost impossible to find a ticket for derbies..

by the way, you asked about ilhan parlak.. he was a very talented player and people were very high on him, however, as it's common for all big three clubs (mainly for fenerbahçe, recently for beşiktaş, less for galatasaray) talented local players rarely get chance and improve.. i guess he can go on a loan..

if you're interested in watching goals and news about turkish super league and turkish cup, i can recommend the pay-tv's site; LigTV (http://www.ligtv.com.tr)

you have to sign-up for free, and all the goals are in videolig section, news are in videohaber sectin.. haber means news in turkish.. =)

[deathcab]

Do you know any sites that have attendances for matches? I don't mean the average attendance per season, but something for every match on their own. I took a look at the Süper Lig's official website, and although it is quite useful in terms of match squads, I was unable to find the attendances.

Or maybe you could tell me how's something like 'attendance' in Turkish, then I'd know what to look for :)

[joaq17]

it's hard to find super league match attendances.. media doesn't give a **** about those 'useless' statistics, they have much important duties like, making "fener signs adriano/ronaldo" articles for every single day last six months..

attendance: seyirci ortalaması / seyirci ortalamaları / biletli seyirci

(seyirci: people who went to game.. (watch the game)
ortalaması: avarage, ortalamaları: plural
biletli: with ticket)

i couldn't find much info, hope you'll have more luck than me.. =)

[joaq17]

by the way some fan/football videos that i really like:

sakaryaspor (group called tatangalar): http://youtube.com/watch?v=ecxChC-5VhU "bizim için ölümüne saldır sakarya"; fight/attack to death for us sakarya..

göztepe (yalı): http://youtube.com/watch?v=EwP4hUkrA74 "isyan marşı"; rebellion march

beşiktaş (çarşı): http://youtube.com/watch?v=PLKWOGvrx1w "beşiktaşım oley"; my beşiktaş ole =)

yattara (trabzonspor winger, attacking midfielder): http://youtube.com/watch?v=IjKRHBdhOZ8 song in video is a typical black sea song with pop elements..

i'll post more stuff if anybody's interested.. i'd appreciate it and be very happy if you/anybody shared their comments..

[johnny1186]

Thank you so much for your post Joaq, I love reading them a lot.
(Indeed I have just saved these articles into my hdd for future
reference. :) )

Media in my hometown often focus on English and Scottish football
(which I hate), somehow they do cover La Liga and Serie A but not
much, let alone the other european leagues. I always think that I
have missed a lot of gems / unseen talents. (That's why I like reading
such posts becoz of the wonderful inputs like these.)

So please keep us/me informed ! Thanks !

[joaq17]

thanx mate, i really enjoy reading other people's comments about my posts.. =)

some recent news; according to press, kezman claimed that he was leaving fenerbahçe in a couple of weeks.. imo, he really underachieved since he went chelsea, and he played poorly in turkey.. he scored some nice goals, especially the one against my team, brought championship last year, however ~0.3 goal ratio is not something you expect to get from a player like him..

and some videos:
alex's best goals: http://youtube.com/watch?v=3kIO8m2ubT8 + great assist against inter: http://youtube.com/watch?v=rhYkQVyKpZc

arda compilation: http://youtube.com/watch?v=pi1dukjIKZQ (video quality is a bit bad)

bursa fans (texas): http://youtube.com/watch?v=8jjk83M9O4M

sergen yalçın ('72 born attacking midfielder from beşiktaş youths, played for all 4 big clubs, most talented player of 90s and 00s, absolutely the biggest legend and waste of god-given talent of his generation, his pure talent -but not other aspects of football- can only be compared with zidane, hagi, maradona (just watch the second video), playing for eskişehirspor now): http://youtube.com/watch?v=U5TC2gCl4w4 & http://youtube.com/watch?v=_kb5j4zh4pM

you may think i overhyped sergen but when you watch him play (especially live), you just see what he is capable of.. and i must say, i truly dislike sergen.. despite being the most loved footballer by my fans, despite the numberous times that he made me proud and happy, he lacked a work ethic and had all kinds of bad habits and a worse physical condition, he really truly underachieved..

there was a story about his overweight.. it has been said that when federico giunti first came to beşiktaş, he thought sergen was the equipment manager, a staff person because of his overweight belly..

[deathcab]

Nice videos there, the Sakarya fans video was the most enjoyable :) I wonder though, and I do not mean absolutely anything harm by it, but do those guys carry with them some kind of a hooligan element? Because that kind of wonderful atmospheres often have a hooligan side-effect somewhat... But, as I said, nothing personal or anything.

It would be so nice to have regular Turkish league coverage though... Watching the Cup of Nations, there're some players there too from 'lesser' Turkish teams (meaning not the top 3) which shows that there is quality in the Turkish league as a whole. Kanfory Sylla (Guinean, Sivas), seen him twice now, had a better match yesterday against Morocco than the opening game, his team-mate Mohamed Cisse (Bursa) looked good too (better than Sakho against Ghana anyway, but the latter is young and inexperienced of course), Zayatte of Trabzon (only played 10 or so minutes thus far though)...

[joaq17]

Nice videos there, the Sakarya fans video was the most enjoyable :) I wonder though, and I do not mean absolutely anything harm by it, but do those guys carry with them some kind of a hooligan element? Because that kind of wonderful atmospheres often have a hooligan side-effect somewhat... But, as I said, nothing personal or anything.

well, truthfully, except for some matches (galatasaray-fenerbahçe-beşiktaş derbies, göztepe-karşıyaka derby, bursa-beşiktaş games), violence is not usual in turkish football.. fights used to happen more in the past, but it's not a very big issue right now.. however, you need to be careful if you're going to attend to those games.. try avoiding attending as a visitor fan, it can be very tiring and stressful.. however if you're attending to a derby as a home fan, probably nothing will happen..

there's no organized fights in turkish tribun culture like polish or russian hooligans.. big fights ended since mid 90s and bjk-gs-fb fans agreed to make peace with each other.. occasionally, some fans act violently (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smZNEm4mIZg & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVpNJbZhdAc) and some lame people try to scare other people and make a name for themselves, but number of these violent events got much much lowered.. with so many cops and security, its hard to cause a fight or act disturbingly..

i'd love to write about the clubs other than big 3, however turkish media avoids anything related to them.. it's not just europe, you have to wait until 2 o'clock to watch other teams' matches.. you can't watch any of these games live.. it's a shame really..

ps. afaik zayatte doesn't play for trabzon.. think you're confusing him with yattara.. =)

ps2. almost forgot.. it's almost like a culture to shout in stadiums in turkey, as i mentioned before violence is still seen, but it happens very rarely..

ps3. feel good to post again in this thread.. =)

by the way, i saw a brilliant turkish director attending to beşiktaş-gaziantep game this night.. i always heard that he was a beşiktaş fan and a regular in the most fired part of the stadium (çarşı), but it was nice to see a famous person jumping with the rest of us.. =)

for more info: Zeki Demirkubuz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeki_Demirkubuz)

[deathcab]

Oh, the Trabzon defender was Daouda Jabi instead. Jabi along with the frightening figure of Bobo Balde (excellent defender) have been Guinea's best parts in defence in Ghana (Kalabane has been a bit shaky though he is a good defender too, and he as well plays in Turkey with Manisa).

Lots of Guineans in Turkey then :)

[joaq17]

actually, yes, there are lots of african footballers in turkey, trying to get a chance.. even for amateur clubs, there can be 1-2 african players playing there..

foreign player trends in turkey change from year to year.. in 80s teams were interested in yugo's, in 90s africans came to stage (some of the continent's biggest names like okocha & amokachi), later 90s-early 00s a slight romanian trend (hagi, popescu, tamas, moldovan, ilie), and now brazilian-south american trend.. sometimes its really shocking to discover some big-name players played in turkey a time ago.. like kevin campbell or les ferdinand.. or i don't know, i find it interesting that toledo is playing for kayserispor at the moment..

by the way, did you know gaziantepspor almost signed kaka (yes 22 milanisti kaka) years ago? or samsunspor missing hyppia and floyd hasselbaink? or galatasaray not signing appiah when he was young? and fenerbahçe withdrawing offer for gökhan inler?

video part: last night, when fans going (literally) mad: link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neVcrikXfso)

[deathcab]

Well, Baris Özbek is in the Germany U21 squad, despite uefa.com writing some time ago he chose Turkey.

[5STARS]

Hey guys, I am just wondering which is the best way to watch gala matches/highlights of this upcoming season on the internet? There's a lot of stuff on youtube but im wondering if there are any better video feeds and extended highlights?

thanks for any information I am really curious about the turkish superleague

[hasan.red]

First week scores:
Galatasaray:4-1: Denizlispor
Gaziantepspor:1-0:Fenerbahçe
Antayaspor:2-3:Beşiktaş(First half was 2-0:eek:)

Fenerbahce was very poor and played with air-long balls.Also Gaziantep spent very good goal positions.

Galatasaray played great but there is no good striker(Umit Karan is ill)
Harry Kewell played wonderfol but he was bad in second half.Galata was pressing...:p
Also Galata will go to Stau Bukarest away.They have draw with 2-2.So Galatasaray must be good team and must win.

[sof2xlc]

where can i get tickets to the galatasary and fenerbache game. i am travelling to turkey for the game so i am out the the country

thanks

[sergioka]

Damn! What a goal by Elano in this match !!!!!!
The fans already love him :)

Galatasaray 4- 1 Kayserispor
Goals (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqlTTPLa52o)

Arda is getting better and better, I love his style of Football !

[lifeboat13]

Hey, anyone feel like posting the fenerbache vs galatasaray games in the full matches section? (without spoilers...)