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

Soccer Week (1 of 8): Games to Watch in Mediterranean Countries

This is the first entry in our first ever Soccer Week series (we were originally going to call it Futbol Week). For this entry, we look at ten games being played in Mediterranean countries. Alas, we didn't have room for Portugal or Israel. But, we do feature France, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Spain in this preview of what one might call dev machlar (giant games) in Turkish.

The three images above are of: 1) Pablo Batalla*, an Argentine international who is a star player for Bursaspor in Turkey; 2) Didier Digard who is a French international and a captain for OGC Nice in France and 3) Manolis Moniakis who has a short name (by Greek standards) the defender and Greek international plays for OFI Crete in Greece.


We hoped to provide you with the start times (as they would be in New York), but we realized that would cause much confusion. Keep in mind that Madrid and Paris are six hours ahead of New York and that Istanbul and Athens are seven hours ahead of Boston. Most games are played when it is morning or early afternoon in Baltimore or Tampa; we hope to provide you with the scores of these games on Monday:

Turkey:

Sun. Bursapor  vs.  Besiktash (Istanbul) 

Mon. Kasimpasha (Istanbul) vs. Fenerbahce (Istanbul)

France:

Sun. Lille vs. OCG Nice

Sun. Lyon vs. Rennes

Greece:

Sat. Veria vs. PAOK (Thessaloniki)

Sat. OFI Crete vs. Astera Tripolis (Tripoli)

Spain:

Sat. Villareal vs. Real Madrid (this might be the best game in all of Europe)

Sat. Athletico Madrid vs. Almeira

Italy:

Sat. Inter Milan vs. Juventus (Turin) (this might be the best game in Europe as well)

Sat. Napoli vs, Atalanta

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

http://greeksoccer.com/

http://www.ligue1.com/ (French soccer)

*- Alas, we have Pablo's last name spelled incorrectly in our tags......

Coming This Week (we hope): Futbol Week

If all goes well, we are hoping to launch a seven-week series entitled Futbol Week. Our aim is to post lists, soccer results and perhaps Twitter feeds from soccer experts, such as Turkish soccer enthusiast Ahmet Bob Turgut and Grant Wuhl.

We will also be focusing on specific domestic league, and see how some of you favorite teams, including the Dutch futbol team Go Ahead Eagles (yes, that is their real name) with Turkish international Deniz Turuc (pictured above) who grew up in the Netherlands and Turkish soccer team BursaSpor with Argentine national Pablo Battalla (pictured below) perform as Week 4 gets underway in most UEFA-sanctioned domestic leagues.

Of course, the big news in the soccer world today is that Mesut Ozil, a German international player of Turkish heritage, has signed a 'cok para' (Turkish term for lots of loot) to transfer from Real Madrid to Arsenal.

Ironically, Aresnal ousted Turkish soccer team Fenerbahce from the UEFA playoffs just over a week ago without Ozil's help.

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

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).