Top Comics from the Sunday Roanoke Times

Greetings to our blog readers in Italy, Belgium and France........

Here is our latest installment of the funniest comic strips in today's "Roanoke Times," which features comic strips for children (the usually boring "Family Circus"), hip Gen Xers such as myself ("Pearls Before" and........hmmmm..........ok, "Get Fuzzy" and lastly comic strips for old people at a nursing home in Troutville, Va. ("Pickles," "Hi and Lois," "Blondie," et al.....)....

Our top comic strip of the week is "Speed Bump" which shows what a prehistoric meteor drill may have been like, followed by "Get Fuzzy," this week the Siamese cat argued with the dog over a tennis ball, and "Dilbert" which asks the question what would you do if you were named Worst Employee of the Month (that strip is the reason for the image of a yellow and blue necktie, which are also the colors of the Turkish soccer team Fenerbahce; we personally root for their rivals Galatasaray).

Here is our list:

1) Speed Bump

2) Get Fuzzy

3) Dilbert

4) Pearls Before Swine

5) Agnes

6) Doonesbury

7) Funky Winkerbean

8) Zits

9) Non-Sequitur

10) Garfield

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy

http://www.dilbert.com

World Cup Lists (3 of 4): Turkish League Players

Wow! We are still recovering from the Belgium-USA World Cup game that was won 2-1 in extra time by the Land of Tintin, though Team America saw goal-keeper Tim Howard save a World Cup record 16 saves.

Amazingly enough, there is one player_Jermain Jones_ on the American roster who plays for Istanbul powerhouse Besiktash whereas there are no American players from the current World Cup team from D.C. United.

There is also a Greek player in Theofanis Gekas who plays for the Turkish team Konyaspor.

Two of the players on this list are from the Cameroon national team which is embroiled in a match-fixing scandal regarding their 4-1 loss to Croatia, but neither of the two players listed here have been cited.

Here is our list of international players who played pro soccer in Turkey as of the 2013-14 season:

1). Pierre Webo. 32. Fenerbahce. Cameroon.

2) Jermaine Jones. 32. Besiktash. USA. (pictured top)

3) Wesley Sneijder. 30. Galatasaray. Netherlands.

4) Didier Drogba. 36, Galatasaray. Ivory Coast

5) Aurelien Chedjov. 33. Galatasaray. Cameroon.

6) Dirk Kuyt. 33. Fenerbahce. Netherlands. (pictured midle)

7) Sol Bamba. 29. Ivory Coast. Trabzonspor.

8) Fernando Muslera. 28. Uruguay. Galatasaray (plays goal-keeper)

9) Theofanis Gekas. 34. Greece. Konyaspor (pictured bottom)

10) Emmanuel Emenike. 27. Nigeria. Fenerbahce.

11) Izet Hajrovic. 22. Bosnia. Galatasaray.

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 Week (5 of 8): Games of the Week Results

There were a handful of soccer games played tonight in Europe: Among them is the Turkish Super League match-up between two Istanbul teams, Fenerbahce and Kasimpasha. Thanks to two goals from Pierre Webo of Cameroon (pictured here) the Yellow Canaries came from behind for a 3-2 win over Kasimpasha. Yes, we are wondering why Webo is not wearing a yellow jersey with blue stripes (Fener's traditional uniform colors) too!

Here are the results from the Games of the Week entry posted on Friday:

France:

Lille 0 Nice 2 (both goals came from Argentine national Daro Cvitanich)

Lyon 0 Rennes 0 (tie)

Also, Paris St. Germain won over Bordeaux 2-0

Turkey:

Bursapor 0 Besiktash 3 (Three international players: Hugo Almeida of Portugal; Tomas Sivak of Slovakia, who is also the team captain; and Julien Escade scored for BJK).

Kasimpasha 2 Fenerbahce 3

Also, GalataSaray tied Antalyaspor 1-1

Italy:

Inter Milan 1 Juventus 1-1 (tie)

Napoli 2 Atalanta 0

Greece:

Veria 1 PAOK 2 (Miguel Vitor of Portugal and Miroslav Stoch of Slovakia scored for PAOK)

OFI Crete 1 Asteras Tripolis 1 (tie)

Spain:

Villareal 2 Real Madrid 2 (tie)

Atl. Madrid 4 Almeira 2 (Goals from Spanish stars David Villa and Koke for Atl Madrid)

http://www.greeksoccer.com

http://www.turkish-futbol.com

http://nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com/2013/09/soccer-week-1-of-8-games-to-watch-in.html (Friday's entry)

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.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

Image of the Day/Week- Children's Day in Turkey

Until this week, we were unaware that Google puts aside a special image just for Google Turkey users in honor of National Children's Day, which has been celebrated in Turkey on April 23rd since the founding of the Republic of Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923.

Ironically, the national holiday is celebrated around a time when people of Armenian heritage around the world target Turkey politically for a highly controversial matter which occurred nearly 100 years ago which we refer to as "The Rashomon Nightmare," a term that neither my fellow Turkish-Americans or Armenian-Americans seem to care for, which means there may very well be logical reasoning for my viewpointhttp://www.ataa..orghttp://www.turkishfutbol.blogspot.com.

This year, Enes Karabulut, age 9, was declared 'Kucuck Baskbakan/Little Prime Minister" by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Karabulut headed a delegation of 18 young students from across Turkey who visited Ankara in honor of National Children's Day.

And, like most adult politicians and political leaders, Karabulut may have isolated many people in Turkey by boldly declaring that he wanted to see his favorite soccer team Fenerbahce, an Istanbul powerhouse. win the Turkish soccer championships.

On Sunday, Fenerbahce faces cross-town rivals Besiktash. On Saturday, GalataSaray, also an Istanbul powerhouse and a team I've rooted for since childhood, will face Trabzonspor in the semi-finals of the championship.

This is the very first year that Turkey has held a play-off system to determine the league champion. Interestingly enough, the four teams in the semi-finals are also the four most popular teams in Turkey. In something 'that could only happen in Turkey,' the GalataSaray-Trabzonspor game will be held in front of women and children spectators only.

I suppose the people who made the seemingly futile decision would say that in neighboring Iran women are not allowed to attend soccer games at all.

Incidentally, tonight we are coming to you live from a bowling alley in Bethesda, Maryland*.

*-This is not really where I am, but I enjoy these gags, which has been a tradition of this blog since its founding in 1984.

UEFA Madness: Those Darn Ruskies

Since I'm a Turkish-American, I was hoping that Black Sea power Trabzonspor, the lone Turkish team in the UEFA Champions League, would pull through as they were expected to. But, CSKA Moscow went to Milan, Italy, and pulled a stunning 2-1 upset over Group B leader Inter Milan. This eliminated not only Trabzonspor, but the French team Lille. Trabzonspor and Lille played to a 0-0 tie yesterday.

Hence, we are posting an image of Misha the Bear from the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and in what is simply a ploy to arbitrarily get more hits on this blog, we are also featuring the famed 1993 "Sports Illustrated" switsuit issue with the Swedish supermodel Vendela, who is now 43 and reportedly newly single.

The goals for CSKA Moscow were scored by Seydou Doumbia, an Ivory Coast national, in the 50th minute of play, and Valli Berztutzki in the 86th minute. The Argentinian player Esteban Cambiasso score for Inter Milan in the 51st minute.

In Group C, there were some stunning developments as well as traditional English powerhouse and reigning UEFA runner-up Manchester United failed to qualify for the round of 16 as they fell to the Swiss team FC Basel 2-1. The Swiss side's goals came from Marco Streller (9th min.) and Fabian Frei (84th min.), both Swiss nationals while the lone Manchester United goal came from 19-year-old wunderkid Alex Jones late in the game.

FC Basel is also the team with Pak Kwang Ryong, the lone North Korean player in the UEFA Champions League and the first ever North Korean player to play in the tournament. He made his debut in a match at Manchester United on Sept. 14th.

The other team to advance from Group C was Benefica (Portugal) as they beat Otelul Galati (Romania) 1-0 on the road. Oscar Cardoza scored for the winning side a mere seven minutes into match play.

Here is a complete list of the scores from Wednesday's UEFA action, rundowns on the other four games will be on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time:"

*- Teams which advanced

y- Teams which won their groups

Group A

Napoli (Italy) 2 Villareal (Spain) 0

Manchester City 2 *y Bayern Munich 0

Group B

*CSKA Moscow 2 *y Inter Milan 1

Trabzonspor 0 Lille 0, tie

Group C

*y Benefica 1 Otelul Galati 0

* FC Basel 2 Manchester United 1

Group D

*y Real Madrid 3 Ajax Amsterdam 0

* Lyon (France) 7 Dinamo Zagred (Croatia) 1

SIDEBAR: There was also a major domestic game in Turkish soccer yesterday as two of the three main Istanbul rivals Galatasaray and Fenerbahce met (the third Istanbul power team is Besiktash), and it was Galatasaray which prevailed 3-1. The goals for the winning yellow and reds came from Emmanuel Eboue, yet another Ivory Coast player who is shinning in European soccer, John Elmanders, a Swedish national and Felipe Melo of Brazil. It was another Brazilian national Alex de Souza, who is also the Fenerbahce captain, who scored the lone goal for the yellow and blues.

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.

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)