Noon Rush Hour Tweets: No More Garden Yeti Statues

Greetings to our blog readers in Canada, Kuwait and Japan........

We took down some tweets from the noon hour on the east coast, which was three hours ago, but perhaps those of you joining us from San Jose, Calif., have time to read this on your lunch break. Did you get Chinese take-out? Just wondering.

Congrats to Ghana for its 1-0 win over Algeria at the Africa Cup of Nations in Guinea, the winning goal came from Asamoah Gyan in the 91st minute. Our favorite Turkish team (well, we like Galatasaray too) Bursaspor also won 3-2 at the last minute, as Brazilian international Fernando kicked in the game-winning goal over Konyaspor in the 92nd minute.

The images above are of 1) Big Ben Clock in London, which actually has a Twitter account; 2) A Garden Yehti statue; and 3) Hillary Clinton, who is the current favorite to win the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2016.

Here are the tweets:

1) Big Ben: BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG

2) WDBJ Weather (tv station in Roanoke, Va.): Snow now falling across the Roanoke Valley and Salem area. We'll see a mix with sleet this afternoon.

3) NPR News: Goodbye, Garden Yeti....in-flight catalog SkyMall files for bankruptcy

4) Karia Pacheo: Legitimately more upset about SkyMall than any celebrity death I've about on Twitter.

5) Sean Lemon (Guitarist for Room 94):........... (hashtag MakeSexAwkwardin5Works): Can my friends watch please?

6) Chris Cillizza (aka The Fix, a Washington Post political columnist): I am taking August off! DNC says Dem convention will be held week of July 25, 2016, back-to-back with GOP convention (Yea, this is the reason why we have an image of Hillary)

7)  What the F*** Facts: None of the menu items on the McDonald's menu are certified vegan or vegetarian. Even French Fries, which use natural beef flavors.

8) The Guardian (UK newspaper): Laura Deas takes World Cup skeleton bronze in St. Moritz (Switzerland).

9) Felix Salmon: I wanted to cover a protest event, but, it's scheduled to last 3.5 hours. No one has that kind of time in Davos (Switzerland).

10) Nona WillisAronowitz (contributor to The Nation): Sorry, old white Republican dudes; tweeting like a teen won't make us vote for you. (Perhaps, she has Cong. Bob Goodlatte in mind........we always make fun of him on this blog)

11) DCist: Maryland once again tops list of most millionaires per capita.

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.visitlondon.com

http://www.dcist.com

http://www.thenation.com

Turkish Soccer Scoreboard: Galatasaray Wins the Battle of Our Favorite Turkish Teams

Greetings to our blog readers in Hungary, Kuwait and Japan as well as of course Turkey and here in the United States.

Ironically, none of three Turkish nationals who also play in the Turkish Premiere League are from the traditional Istanbul powerhouse Galatasaray, the lone Turkish team in the UEFA Champions League. On Saturday, Galatasary, my personal favorite team (I am a Turkish-American) defeated my second favorite Turkish team Bursaspor 2-0 with goals from Burak Yilmaz (52m) and Olcan Adin (90m). This was also Bursapor's first domestic game without the team's long-standing star player Pablo Battalla who now plays for Beijing Guoan in China.

For Gaziantepspor, located in southwest Turkey, the young rising star Muhammet Demir (pictured top) scored two goals in the 72nd and 78th minutes for the team's 2-1 win over Sivasspor.

In another clash of mid-level teams, Eskisehirspor from the western city of Eskisehir, the hometown of Cuneyt Arkin, a Turkish matinee idol from the '70s, got goals from Hurriyet Gucer (pict. bottom) in the 65th minute and Erkan Zengin, a Swedish national of Turkish heritage, who kicked in the game-winning goal in the 76th minute.

Cenk Tosun (43rd min) delivered the only goal for Istanbul powerhouse Besiktas, which was recently eliminated from the Champions League by Arsenal, but BJK will now play in the Europa League. BJK beat Mersin 1-0.

Lastly, it was alas not a good weekend for Rajko Rotman, a Slovenian national, who plays for Basakdemir; he got a red card for his Istanbul team Basaksehir, but the team managed to still get a 1-1 draw with cross-town rival Kasimpasa.

Here are the soccer scores from weekend play in Turkey:

Bursaspor 0 Galatasaray 2

Mersin 0 Besiktas 1

Fenerbahce 3 Karademir Karabuk 2

Kayseri Erciyes 0 Trabszonspor 0, tie

Sivasspor 1 Gazinantepspor 2

Eskisehirspor 2 Konyaspor 1

Rizespor 1 Ankara GB 1, tie

Balikesirspor 1 Akhisar GS 2

Basaksehir 1 Kasimpasa 1, tie

Link to Ahmet Bob Turgut's blog on Turkish soccer:

http://turkeyfootball.blogspot.com/

Turkish Futbol Notebook: A Wild Tie Game in Istanbul

Argentinian soccer player Fernando Belluschi (pictured) of Bursaspor may get overshadowed by this countrymen and Bursaspor teammate Pablo Battala, but they won a game on the road against Elazigspor 2-1. The game also saw red cards for Serdar Aziz of Bursaspor and Pepe Sow of Elazigspor.

Trabzonspor won its home game over Kayseri Erciyesspor 3-1 with two goals from Florent Malouda of France.

And, finally, there was a zany Istanbul derby match between powerhouses Fenerbahce and Besiktash which ended in a 3-3 draw. The highlights of the game included goals from Fener's star Moussa Sow of Senegal (77th min) and Dirk Kurt of the Netherlands (83rd min). For BJK, Portuguese national Hugo Almeida had two goals very close to each other (43 min. and 45th min.) The game also saw two red cards!

Here are scores from domestic weekend play in Turkey:

Eskisehirspor 0 Karademir 0 (tie)

Kasimpasa 1 Galatasaray 1 (tie)

Trabzonspor 3 Keyseri Erciyesspr 1

Fenerbahce 3 BJK 3 (tie)

Elazigspor 1 Bursaspor 2

Anakara GB 1 Gaziantepspor 3

Kayserispor 0 Akhisar 0 (tie)

Konyaspor 2 Rizespor 1

Sivasspor 0 Antalyaspor 3

http://www.flashscore.com

Futbol Notebook: All Three Istanbul Powerhouses Win in Weekend Domestic Play

Greetings to our blog-readers in Austria, Azerbaijan and Colombia.

Tonight, as Galatasaray prepares to head to Spain for a UEFA battle with Real Madrid, we reflect back on weekend domestic play in the SuperLiga which had some interesting headlines, especially in the Galatasary-Sivasspor match, but no major surprises as all three Istanbul powerhouses and perennial contender Trabzonspor all won their respective games.

We start with Fenerbahce, one of the three Istanbul power teams, had a fairly competitive 2-1 win over Antalyaspor on the road in Antalya, Turkey's largest resort city. For the Yellow Canaries, goals from Pierre Webo (Cameroon) and Moussa Sow (Senegal). The lone goal for the home team also came from an African player as Lamine Diarra (Senegal) scored.

The lone goal in Trabzonspor's 1-0 home win over Eskisehirpsor came from Paulo Henrique (pictured bottom, Brazil) in the 74th minute of play.

One of our favorite teams Bursaspor tied 1-1 at home in Bursa with Kasimpasha, the fourth team from Istanbul in the Superliga, with the home field Crocs' getting a goal from Sebastian Pinto (Chile) while another South American player Ezequiel Scarionne (Argentina) scored for the visitors.

Georges Mandjeek (Cameroon) scored the lone goal  in Kayseri Ericyesspor's 1-0 home win over Ankara G.B.

There were four red cards issued in Galatasaray's home win in Istanbul over Sivasspor, including three from the visitors from Sivas, a city in northeast Turkey. But, the game did see Turkish star Burak Yilmaz (pictured top) kick in his 100th career in the 13th minute of play. We have to thank our good friend Ahmet Bob Turgut for filling us in on that.

The third Istanbul powerhouse Besiktas had a relatively easy home win over Konyaspor 3-1.

Here are the scores:

Besiktas 3 Konyaspor 1

Anatlyaspor 1 Fenerbahce 2

Trabzonspor 1 Eskisehirspor 0

Akhisar 0 Karabuk 1

Gazinantepspor 3 Elazigspor 1

Kayseri Erciyesspor 1 Ankara G.B. 0

Bursaspor 1 Kasimpasha 1 (tie)

Rizespor 0 Kayserispor 2

Galatasaray 2 Sivasspor 1

http://www.turkish-football.com/

http://turkeyfootball.blogspot.com/

http://www.turkishsoccer.com

Futbol Notebook: A Turkish Guy Named Jimmy???

With the images of Portugal international Jose Bosingwa (pictured top), who got a red card over the weekend, who plays for Trabzonspor and Jimmy Durmaz (pictured middle) a Swedish international with Turkish citizenship, who kicked the winning goal for Ankara Genclerbirligi, over Trabzonspor, we are informing soccer fans around the world of the goings-on in Turkish soccer.

Unlike our good friend Ahmet Bob Turgut, we don't blog about Turkish soccer every week,  but the giant match between Istanbul powerhouses Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, which resulted in a 2-0 win for the Yellow Canaries from Fenerbahce, we thought this would be a good week for an entry on Turkish soccer.

The two goals for Fenerbahce, who played on the Asian side of Istanbul, whereas Galatasaray plays on the European side of the Bosporus, came from Turkish international Emre Belozoglu in the 23rd minute. In the second half, a second goal from Brazilian player Cristian Baronir in the 66th minute.

This was a tough week for Galatasaray as they lost to Copenhagen 1-0, thus Didier Drogba, the heart and soul of the team wasn't able to produce a goal and neither was his team.

The other Istanbul powerhouse Besiktas scored a 3-0 win over Kayserispor, but in spite of their win over the team from Kayersi, in central Anatolia, the Eagles' Matta Roman, a Brazilian international. got a red card in the second half.

It was also a good for Sivaspor, a team from Sivas, in northwest Turkey, which beat our beloved Bursaspor 2-1 thanks to two goals from Aatif Chahechouche, of Morocco; Bursaspor got a goal from another African continental player as Taye Taiwo of Nigeria scored the lone goal for the crocodiles (yes, we don't think there are any crocs in Turkey either), which reminds us that if any blog readers are contemplating a trip to the central African country of Burundi to photograph Gustave the man-eating crocodile, perhaps it's just best to say home and watch futbol and "Doctor Who"!

Here are the results from Week 11 of Turkish domestic soccer play:

Fenerbahce 2 Galatasaray 0

Ankara Genclerbirligi 3 Trabzonspor 2

Kayserispor 0 Besiktas 3

Sivasspor 2 Bursaspor 1

Konyaspor 0 Antalyaspor 2

Kasimpasha 3 Gaziantepspor 0

Karademir Karabuk 2 Rizespor 1

Eskisehirspor 2 Akhisar G.K. 0

Elazigspor 0 Kayseri Erciyespor 1

Currently, Fenerbahce is winning the league with 28 points, ahead of Kasimpasa (24 points), Sivasspor (22 pts) and BJK (21 pts).

Turkish national player Deniz Turuc, who is also a Dutch citizen, plays for the Dutch team Go Ahead Eagles, to find out how they fared in domestic play, go to our sister blog http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com


http://www.turkish-football.com/

Soccer Night-Turkey: Ah Those Altintop Twins

Merhabalar to everyone/ Herkese hello demek istedim..... Hmmm....Turkglish is perhaps not a language which is spoken much in the blogosphere, but, well we try to be original.

We made a big (insert English or Turkish obscenity here) goof last week when we said Fenerbahce was playing Swiss team FC Basel in the UEFA Europa League while English powerhouse Chelsea was playing Benefica of Portugal.

In actuality, Chelsea was playing Basel, whom they defeated, and Fenerbahce alas fell to the Portuguese side in Lisbon 3-1, which eradicated the Yellow Canaries' 1-0 win a week prior in Istanbul. Of course, since this blog is based in America (our executive editor Tilly Gokbudak, who is me, is a Turkish-American), we aren't quite sure how the aggregate system works in soccer, and we think there should be a best 2 out of 3 system instead.

Of course, Turkish futbol blogger Ahmet Bob Turgut, one of our favorite people to follow on Twitter, would have never made this mistake.

Before we go into our dated scores from last week, let's explain a few thing, starting with the twins: Hamid Altintop of GalataSaray (formerly with Read Madrid; pictured top) is the twin brother of Halil Altintop of Trabzonspor (pictured bottom). They are both 30. If for some reason, we got the two mixed up, hopefully, Ahmet Bob Turgut will correct us.

And, we have two new scores from today (Saturday): First, Kayseri upset Trabzonspor 2-1, so we image Halil is not in not in a happy mood right now, but hopefully he'll have a great olive and feta cheese Turkish kahvalti/breakfast (it's 7:30 a.m. and Sunday in Turkey as we are writing this).

We found out that Kayseri, a central Turkish team, has Icelandic national Gretar Steninsson, we presume he is one of the few Icelanders in the TPL.

But, our beloved BursaSpor doubled up on struggling OrduSpor 4-2 with two goals from Slovakian Stanislav Sestak.

The logo in the middle is of Sivasspor which beat bottom-dwelling Istanbul BB last week, but tomorrow, they have the daunting task of facing Burak Yilmaz, Didier Drogba and league-leading GalataSaray.


In leagues standings, these are the top four teams:

1. GalataSaray 65

2. FenerBahce 58

3. Besiktash 52

4. Bursaspor 50

And, here are the results from LAST weekend:

1. BursaSpor 1 Akhisar 1, tie

2.  Trabzonspor 2 Ankara GB 0

3. Elazig 1 Karabukspor 0

4. Sivasspor 4 Istanbul BB 1

5. Mersin 1 Antalyaspor 1, tie

6. Besiktash 2 OrduSpor 0

7. Fenerbahce 2 Kayseri 1

8. GalataSaray 1 GaziantepSpor 0

9. Eskisehir 2 Kasimpasha 1

We are also going to arbitrarily mention Turkish Airlines in the hopes that they will give us a free plane ticket from JFK (New York) to Istanbul.

http://www.turkish-football.com

http://www.turkishairlines.com

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (Our sister blog)

Turkish Premiere League Soccer Scores

It has been at least one full year since we last posted Turkish Premiere League Soccer scores, but since today is the 43rd birthday of our executive editor Tilly Gokbudak (who is me), we thought we'd post the scores from this past weekend.

The 'dev mach'/giant game was between two Istanbul powerhouses Besiktash and Fenerbahce; Besiktash won the game 3-2 as Olcay Sahan kicked the game winner in the 93rd minute of play.


Argentinian striker Pablo Battala helped our beloved Crocs from Bursaspor to a 1-0 win over Sivasspor with a goal in the 67th minute in a game that was played on Sunday, as was the dev mach.

But, the weekend's most exciting game may have well been the shoot-out between Antalyaspor and Gaziantepspor. Antalyaspor won the game 5-2 with Nigerian Isaac Promise kicking the go ahead goal in the 37th minute which made the game 3-2, that turned out to be the goal winner. Omer Sismanoglu, whose last name actually means 'fat boy' in Turkish scored in the 82nd minute for Antalyaspor in the seventh and final goal of the game.

In another wild one, Samil Cinaz kicked the game-winner for Orduspor in a 3-2 triumph over Karabukspor in the 73rd minute.

Here are the scores:

Besiktash 3 Fenerbahce 2

Antalyaspor 5 Gaziantepspor 2

Galatasaray 0 Eskisehirspor 0

Bursaspor 1 Sivasspor 0

Orduspor 3 Karabukspor 2

Kayseri 2 Mersin 1

Elazigspor 1 Akhisar 0

Kasimpasa 2 Trabzonspor 0

Ankara Genclerbirligi 0 Istanbul BB 0

Reptile Week Cont'd_ The Alligators

Yesterday, we started with the turtles. We forgot to mention that the Minnesota-based folk/rock band Trampled By Turtles will be performing in Buffalo, NY, at the Town Ballroom and The Port City Music Hall in Portland, Maine, on Dec. 2, in addition to their show at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio. The band plays many other days in the northeast during that interval as well.

For those of you in North Carolina, my good friend folk singer Bruce Piephoff will play at the Southern Lights Bistro in his hometown of Greensboro, NC, on Nov. 29 and Dec. 4; I'm not sure if he has ever written a song about reptiles.


Today, we continue with the mighty alligator, which can be found from North Carolina to Florida here in United States. Initially, we were going to post an entry for crocodiles, which were the subject of a kitschy, but catchy Elton John song "Crocodile Rock."

But, we couldn't find a good image of Gustave, the notorious man-eating croc in the central African nation of Burundi to use. Gustave, who has reportedly devoured some 300 people, perhaps some of whom were photographers, was mentioned in a "Mental Floss" article about Burundi within the last year.

That same magazine said that 9:30 a.m. was the best time to post blog entries. It's actually 9:30 p.m. here on the east coast, but it is that time in Beijing, China, right now.  Perhaps, it's that time in Hong Kong too.

The Crocodiles are also the nickname of the Turkish soccer team Bursaspor, located in Bursa, Turkey, in western Turkey; the city is Turkey's fourth largest. This weekend the Crocs' tied Istanbul powerhouse Besiktash 3-3. I suppose taking photographs of the game is less risky than sneaking up on Gustave.

As for alligators, if one is in St. Augustine, Fla.,  then one can visit the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in St. Augustine, which is open from 1:00-5:00 p.m.

http://www.trampledbyturtles.com

http://www.brucepiephoff.net

http://www.southernlightsbistro.com

http://www.mentalfloss.com

http://www.alligatorfarm.us

http://www.bursaspor.net (In Turkish)

Saturday Morning Tweets_ Picking Up Those Pesky Pennies

It's been a long time since we talked about Turkish soccer, but we learned today that our beloved Bursaspor, a team nicknamed the crocodiles even though Gustave the notorious man-eating croc' lives a long way from Turkey in the central African country of Burundi, tied Istanbul powerhouse Fenerbahce 1-1.

Here is a look at some tweets we have digested (yes, that is a nudge to Gustave) from the 11:00 a.m. hour (New York time, which seven hours behind Bursa and Istanbul):

1. @TheMuslimGuy (Arsalan Iftikhar, a progressive Muslim-American): "DC Friends: Sunday night check out my friend comedian Dean Obeidallah @DeanofComedy shows in Wash. DC, will be fun!" (Obeidallah is a Palestinian-American comic, he is pictured top).

2. @current (Current TV): "In Colorado, a ballot initiative to legalize pot is more popular than either Romney or Obama."

3. @FSU_Volleyball (Florida State Seminoles Women's Volleyball, featuring two Turkish student athletes Fatma Yildirim and Duygu Duzceler, this tweet is in reference to their very close win over Georgia Tech last night): "@FSUVolleyball is on the road and headed to Clemson. Thanks everyone for their Twitter love last night! We love our fans."

4. @HuffingtonPost (Huffington Post): "Burger King unleashes pumpkin burger" (pictured, middle).

5. @LOLGOP (LOL GOP): "The other freedom ObamaCare offers is the chance to create your business w/out fear of losing or not being able to afford health care."

6. @neilhimself (Neil Gaiman, a famed fiction writer): "Wife is jogging somewhere."

7. @wamu885news (WAMU 88.5-FM, a new station based in Washington, DC): "The Baltimore National  Aquarium is asking the public to help name its baby sloth."

8. @TheOnion (The Onion is a faux news journal): "Area Man Spends Absurd Amount of Time Trying to Pick Up a Penny."

http://www.deanofcomedy.com

http://www.current.com

http://www.seminoles.com

http://www.aqua.org (web site for the National Aquarium)

Sports Desk- GalataSaray 3 Besiktash 2

The Swedish national player Johan Elmander is our poster boy for the day as he kicked in two goals in the 15th and 91st minutes respectively to help Istanbul powerhouse win a crucial home game over arch rival from the other side of the Bosporus with a 3-2 win over Besiktash on Sunday.

Felipe Melo, a Brazilian national, also scored for the yellow and red in the 52 minute.

For the Besiktash (BJK) side Turkish national Ibrahim Toraman scored in the 49th minute. BJK was also helped by an own-goal from GalataSaray's Semih Kaya in the 73rd minute which assuredly horrified the fans at Ali Sam Yen Stadium. Toraman's old team Sivasspor fared slightly better as they came away with a 3-3 over Ankara Genclerbirligi, one of two cities representing the capital city in the league. Their rival Ankaragucu fell to Karabukspor 3-2.

Even without the GS-BJK game, it was a huge weekend in Turkish Premiere League play as two major upsets occurred.

Eskisehir upset Fenerbahce, the third Istanbul powerhouse Fenerbahce 2-1 with goals from Bulent Ertugul (31st minute) and French-Senegalese player DiOmansy Kamara (55). Ironically, the Senegalese star player Moussa sow scored for FB in the team's lone goal during the 75th minute of play.

In spite of a goal from the star Turkish-German player Halil Altintop (his twin brother Hamid Altintop plays for Real Madrid, both players play for Turkey) in the 60th minute, Trabzonspor fell to Mersin Idmanyurdu 3-2. Olcan Aydin scored the other goal for Trabzonspor, while two goals from Mert Nobre and one goal from Hasan Ucuncu helped the team from Mersin pull the upset. Coming into the game, Trabzonspor, a team that is also competing in the UEFA Champions League, wasin fifth and Idmanyurdu was in 11th place in league standings.

Our beloved Crocodiles from BursaSpor won 3-0 over Samsunspor with goals from the popular Argentinian player Pablo Battalla (14th minute) as well as Musa Cagiran (68the min.) and Turgay Bahadir (88th min.).

Gaziantep scored a 2-0 win over Manisa with goals from Muhammet Demir and Cenk Tosun; while Orduspor beat Kayseri 1-0 on a goal from Yalcin Ayhan.

Here are the complete results:


Eskisehirspor 2 Fenerbahce 1
Orduspor 1 Kayseri 0
Karabukspor 3 Ankaragucu 2
Gaziantep 2 Manisa 0
Bursaspor 3 Samsunspor 0

Anakara Genclerbirligi 3 Sivasspor 3, tie
Istanbul BB 4 Antalyaspor 0
Idman Yurdu (Mersin) 3 Trabzonspor 2
GalataSaray 3 BJK 2

Quote of the Day/Week- Halle Berry

Today, in honor of Black History Month, we are quoting actress Halle Berry, 45, who was a model before she became an actress. Berry won an Oscar for "Monster's Ball" (2001), becoming the first African-American to win a Best Actress Oscar.

Amazingly enough, three years later, she won a Golden Raspberry for Worst Actress for her performance in "Catwoman" (2004), a film where she actually injured herself and was briefly hospitalized, and then surprised the world by accepting the dubious award in person.

We were about to say she was the only person to have won both 'honors,' but we remembered (ok, we asked Google) that Sandra Bullock actually won both in the same year!

Here is Berry's quote:

"Beauty is not just skin deep."

SIDEBAR ONE: Tilly Gokbudak, the managing editor of this blog (ok, I just referred to myself in the second person) jokingly tweeted that he would put in the words Yerevan, Liberace and Newt Gingrich (who lost to Mitt Romney in Florida Republican Primary yesterday) so that Google would think he was a 'gay Armenian Republican.'

Well, he actually took this upon himself and in the process he found out through "Yerevan" magazine (a publication actually based in Los Angeles as opposed to the Armenian capital) that Armenian-American playwright Vahe Berberian's** new play "Gyank" opens at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood, Calif., on March 16th.

SIDEBAR TWO: Since Tilly Gokbudak is a Turkish-American*, he thought it would also be good to mention that his two favorite Turkish soccer teams Bursaspor, from Bursa, Turkey's fourth largest city, and GalataSaray, a traditional Istanbul powerhouse, played over the weekend.

Surprisingly, the underdog Crocodiles (yes, that is BursaSpor's nickname even though we are fairly certain that if there are any crocs in Turkey, they would be in the Ankara Zoo) beat GalataSaray 1-0 on a goal in the 50th from the team's star Argentinian player Pablo Battalla.

*- For those of you living in a desert island near The Bahamas, Turkey and Armenia have bad relations; we would explain more, but Tilly Gokbudak has an urgent dentist appointment.

**- We almost didn't spell the playwright's last name correctly, but alas we don't expect any friendly emails from ANCA, the main Armenian-American lobbying group because we caught it!

In the News_ American Postage Stamps Increase

On Monday, here in the United States, standard stamps for letters and bills will increase from 44 cents to 45 cents, though most stamps are now 'Forever Stamps," meaning they can be used even if stamp rates increase.

This image above is of the 1997 Marilyn Monroe stamp, which was part of the Legends of Hollywood stamp series.

SIDEBAR: Kudos to soccer star Clint Dempsey for being the first American to score three goals in the English Premiere League. His team Fulham defeated New Castle 5-2 yesterday.

In Turkish soccer, Istanbul powerhouse team Besiktas beat Antalyaspor 2-1 thanks to two goals from Portuguese nationals: Hugo Almeida (63rd min) and Manuel Fernandes (89th min).

Our favorite team in the Turkish league, Bursaspor fell to Sivasspor 2-1, but Argentinian star Pablo Battalla did kick one for the Crocodiles. Interestingly enough, the game-winning goal for Sivasspor, a team from eastern Turkey, came from Azerbaijani national Cihan Ozkara, who I mistook for a Turkish player (names are similar in both countries).

Sports Desk- Istanbul Powerhouses Have Solid Weekend in Soccer

Back in the '70s and '80s, "Monday Night Football" was a regular American sports spectacular. It seems that Europeans have taken their own liking to "Monday Night Futbol" as major games were played today in Turkey, England, Spain and Italy_ and those are just the ones we are aware of.

In Turkey, it was a great weekend for the three traditional powerhouses. Today (Monday), one of those three titans Besiktas scored a 2-1 win over Orduspor, a team from Ordu in the far-eastern Black Sea, in the neutral Mediterranean tourism mecca of Antalya.

The first goal of the game, according to Besiktas' web site, came from Turkish-Austrian player Veli Kavlak in the 36th minute of play. Argentinian national Culio scored the equalizer for Orduspor in the 66th minute. But, it was a solid header from German star Fabian Ernst (pictured here) which clinched the game for Besiktas.

Another Istanbul power Fenerbahce drubbed last place Ankara Gucu 4-2 with goals from Slovakian star and former Chelsea player Miroslav Stoch (18th and 58th mins.), Brazilian player Cristian (51st min.) and Senegal national Issia Dia (88th min.).

For the third traditional giant, Galatasaray's Emmanuel Eboue, an Ivory Coast national and former Arsenal player, scored the team's lone goal in the 71st minute for a 1-0 victory over Ankara Genclerbirligi.

Eskisehirspor beat our beloved Bursaspor Crocs 1-0 on a goal from Brazilian player Dede in 87th minute of play. And, Trabzonspor, a team that is also playing in the UEFA Champions League, tied Sivasspor 2-2 with a goal from former Bursapor star Volkan Sen in the 69th minute of play. Erman Kilic, a wingback, scored a late goal for Sivasspor in the 75th minute for the tie.

Fenerbahce is currently first in league play with 28 points; followed by Galatasaray with 25 points and the very surprising Manisaspor with 23 points.

Here are the scores for the entire Turkish Premiere League from this week; Galatasaray and Fenerbahce are reportedly going to play on Wednesday as Trabzonspor, which is in fourth place domestically, faces French power Lille in the UEFA Champions League on that same day:

Sivasspor 2 Trabzonspor 2, tie

Gaziantepspor 1 Samsunspor 0

Galatasaray 1 Ankara Genclerbirligi 0

Fenerbahce 4 Ankara Gucu 2

Antalyaspor 2 Karabukspor 1

Kayersispor 1 Istanbul BB 0

Idman Yurdu (Mersin) 0 Manisaspor 0, tie

Eskisehirspor 1 Bursaspor 0

Besiktas 2 Orduspor 1

For more info on the latest developments on Turkish soccer, we highly recommend following Ahmet Bob Turgut on Twitter (twitter.com/turkishsoccer) or on his blog at (turkeyfootball.blogspot.com).

As for the Greek soccer game we mentioned earlier in the week, Olympiacos previaled over Panatlikos 2-0; they now have the daunting dask of playing Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League tomorrow. Another Greek soccer power AEK Athens won its game over Kekrya 1-0.

CORRECTION: In our last entry, ee incorrecly stated that the previous record from The Cars came out in 1985; it came out in 1987 and the current release is the seventh one from the band (it's already been corrected!).

UPDATE: West Virginia University did indeed win their 'free mustache giveaway' home game over Boston University by a 78-53 score, which we mentioned on Saturday. Asya Bussie had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the winning Mountaineers. Turkish player Deniz Kilicli plays for WVU's men's basketball team.

Sports Desk_ More Info on Tennis and Futbol

While the ceremonies at Ground Zero, The Pentagon, and Pennsylvania were making headlines this weekend, there were also lots of things going on in the sports world.
Alas, due to space constriants, we can only talk about tennis and soccer.

Let's begin with the U.S. Open women's tennis final where Samantha Stosur, 27, from Gold Coast, Australia, (pictured above) became the first Aussie woman to win the tournament since 1973: 6-2; 6-3.

In the process, she was able to win over favorite and crowd favorite Serena Williams, 29, who has 27 grand slam titles, including doubles, to her credit.

In the quarterfinals, Williams had defeated one of my favorite players, Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (I love people with long, difficult surnames since I have one myself). But, the 20-year-old should be moving up from her current number 16 ranking after her stellar play in New York.

In the soccer universe, we start in Italy where Juventus beat Parma 4-1 at home in a game that was mentioned a few entries ago. Two of the four Juventus goals game from Italian stars Simon Pepe and Claudio Marchisio.

In England, in a game that was nationally televised in America, Chelsea beat Sunderland 2-1 with goals from John Terry and Daniel Sturridge.

I was under the impression that play in the Turkish Premiere League would be delayed due to a match-fixing scandal, but the league started action over the weekend. Yesterday, my favorite Turkish team (well along with GalataSaray) Bursaspor won a home game over Kayserispor 3-0, in Bursa, with goals from Turkish star Ozan Ipek as well as Gokcek Vederson (who is half-Turkish and half-Brazilian!) and Argentine Pablo Battalla.

Here in the United States, in MLS play, D.C. United traveled from the nation's capital to Los Angeles over the weekend where they beat Chivas USA 3-0. All three goals were scored by Charlie Davies (pictured here).

Now, back to the regular news....

Things We Learned on Google Today-Galatasaray Founded in 1905

I wasn't sure if the year was 1905 or 1907, but Google told me that the famed Turkish soccer powerhouse club Galatasaray (they play in Istanbul) was founded in (what year was it again) 1905.

While researching this piece, I found out some other interesting things about the team I root for in Turkish soccer, along with Bursaspor in Bursa, Turkey.

Apparently, the current GS captain Arda Turan, 24, is on his way to play for Chelsea in the English Premiere League in exchange for the Ivory Coast legend Didier Drogba, who captained his country's national team at the 2010 World Cup. This was reported in the English newspaper "The Daily Mail," though Turan is still listed as a member of GS on his Wikipedia page.

This would be quiet ironic for two reasons. The first is that there was an ugly incident involving soccer fans from another English team Leeds when they played in Istanbul in 2000. An argument broke out between fans for both teams and two Leeds fans were murdered. The fact that Turkish authorities were not able to convict anyone until just last year was actually given as a reason why Turkey shouldn't join the European Union, which ironically many Greek citizens now want out of. (Irony is perhaps my favorite word in the English language, so perhaps I allowed to overuse it!).

The other surprising item I came across is that former GS captain and legendary soccer player Hakan Sukur (b. 1971) who scored a record 228 goals in Turkish Premiere League is now a member of the Turkish Parliament in Ankara. Alas, he represents President Abdullah Gul's and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's conservative AK Party. I would have actually preferred to see him play for Fenerbahce (the main GS rival).

Viva Bursa Spor! - The New Kings of Turkish Soccer

We want to congratulate the residents of Bursa, Turkey, including my good friend Ugur Celikkol, and the fans of BursaSpor, my favorite Turkish soccer team (ok, so I root for IStanbul powerhouse GalataSaray too).

I saw the BursaSpor Crocodiles play two games at Ataturk Stadium in Bursa several years ago. One of the guards at the gate asked me why an American (my late father came from Turkey) would want to see a BursaSpor game? He was genuinely confused, but I suppose there is a college student from Istanbul at UNC-Greensboro who wonders what this NASCAR thing is all about here in North Carolina (I wonder the same thing myself, actually!).

BursaSpor won the Turkish Premiere League by defeating another Istanbul powerhouse Beshiktash 2-1 over the weekend.

The championship, one of only two in the franchise's history (I believe the team was formed circa 1963), will mean that BursaSpor will able to compete in next season's UEFA Cup.

The team's roster consists of captain Omer Erdogan (a Turkish national) along with his countrymen Yavuz Ozkan, Serdar Azin, Volkan Sen and Ozan Ipek. The international players include Tomas Zaposay (Czech) and Leonardo Iglesias (Argentina) as well as star goalie Dimitar Ivankov (Bulgaria).

As the old Queen song goes: "No time for losers 'cause we are the champions......of the world!"

Turkish Futbol Update- BursaSpor Hanging Tough

Cyprus. Greece. Armenia. The Kurdish Situaion. Spat with Israel. Spat with Iraq.

Yes, most headlines in Turkish online newspapers can give one a headache (well, the one I have at the moment is being caused by being on the net for freaking four hours!), but that is not the case with Turkish soccer.

Futbol in my father's country is always an interesting affair and that appears to be the case again this year.

My two favorite teams GalataSaray (Istanbul) and BursaSpor of Bursa, Turkey, with team vice captian Omer Erdogan pictured here, both tied this week. BursaSpor's star Bulgarian goalkeeper Dimitar Ivankov held Ankaragucu scoreless, but the team got no offensive input from the likes of midfielder Ali Tandogan. BursaSpor is having a banner year as the team is currently in third place. Other players on the team, nicknamed the Crocidilees, include Turkish nationals Yavuz Ozkan, Volkan Sen and Ceyhun Demircan as well as Romanian star Giani Kirita.

But, traditional Istanbul power Besiktash woke up to score a big 4-1 victory over Ankara Genclerbirligi this weekend. League leader Fenerbahce (Istanbul) tied Diyarbakir 1-1.

Galatasaray's coach former Dutch soccer star Frank Rijkaard told "Hurriyet" newspaper that his team's performance against KayseriSpor should have been good enough to win, but the team's partisan fan base is getting restless as they remain in second place in the Turkish Premiere League standings.

Here is a complete list of the Turkish Premiere League scores for the weekend of Feb. 6-7, with some other international leagues scores thrown in for good measure:

Turkish League

Besiktash 4 Ankara Genclerbirligi 1
EskisehirSpor 1 Istanbul BB 0
GalataSaray 0 KayseriSpor 0
BursaSpor 0 Ankaragucu 0
Kasimpasha 2 AntalyaSpor 0
Sivas 2 Denizli 0
Trabzon 3 Manisa 0
Fenerbahce 1 Diyarbakir 1

English League (some scores)

Chelsea 2 Arsenal 0
Liverpool 1 Everton 0
Birmingham City 2 Wolverhampton 1
Burnley 2 West Ham United 1
Manchester United 5 Portsmouth 0

Other International Scores:

Italy

Juventus 1 Livorno 1
AC Milan O Bologna 0
Inter Milan 3 Cagliari 0

Spain

Barcelona 2 Getafe 1
Real Madrid 3 Espanyol 0

France

Lorient 3 Paris SG 0

Holland

Ajax Amsterdam 3 Twente Enschede 0

Germany

Bayern Munich 3 WFL Wolfsburg 1

Mexico

Guadalajara 2 Gallos Blancos 0
Puebla 1 Atlante 1

Turkish Futbol Update- Fenerbahce Still in Charge

Since one of my favorite Turkish soccer teams Bursaspor from Bursa, Turkey, is having a banner year as the team is currently in third place, we thought we'd post another Turkish Futbol update.

My friend Ugur Celikkol who lives in Bursa and is in charge of a fan team for the Gators (their nickname is Timsah, which means alligator in Turkish) told me recently that he is very pleased with the team.

Here are some scores from last weekend's play. Traditional Istanbul powerhouse Fenerbahce remains in first place, while their rival my beloved GaltaSaray is in a close second place:


Bursaspor 3 Eskisehirspor 1
Kayserispor 1 Gazinantepspor 0
Fenerbahce 5 Sivasspor 1
GalataSaray 2 Denizlispor 1
Trabszongspor 2 Diyarbakir 1
Besikttash (Istanbul) 1 Antalyaspor 0
Istanbul BB 4 Kasimpasha 2
Manisa 0 Ankara Gucu 0 (tie)