Today Marks Our Ninth Year of Blogging

Greetings to those of you in Dubai, Singapore and the Republic of Istanbul (forgive the Turkish-American humor).

Yes, we count only candles as well, but today marks the ninth anniversary of our very first blog entry on Sept. 21, 2005, on "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

In 2005, Zappa the Family Cat was still a one-year-old kitten, it had only been four years since Sept. 11th, and gun wackos only had one Uzi per household.

We have frequently mentioned everything from George F. Will to Zippy the Pinhead and from H.R. Puff N Stuff to Alice Cooper as well as everything from Turkish soccer player Burak Yilmaz to Katarina Witt.

Hopefully, we will continue blogging (when we have time) for years to come even though blogging, which is a product of modern tech, might soon be nullified by modern tech as well....

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/

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