Today We Mark Our 8th Year of Blogging

It was a very dark and stormy night (apologies to the late Charles Schultz, the creator of "Peanuts"), on that fateful day on Sept. 21, 2005.

Hmmm.....this reminds me.........one of my favorite comic strips is "Sherman's Lagoon" which has underwater creatures, such as sharks, sea turtles and crabs as its main characters; I'm not sure if I've seen an octopus yet (?!)

When we began blogging, there was no Facebook, there was no Twitter, no Miley Cyrus, no Sarah Palin, no "Breaking Bad," no "Mad Men" and no "Parks and Recreation." The oxy-moronic good Samaritan serial killer series "Dexter," which concludes tomorrow night, was on the air but it was a very new show at the time. 

One of our earliest entries on "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," which is our sister (please visit it, we need the hits!) was a mere shopping list!

I'm sure like all shopping lists I've ever written it included bananas.


Here's to the next eight years............

(We used an octopus for our image because it has eight tentacles; one can see live octopuses at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland, or the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta).

http://www.peanuts.com

http://www.aqua.org

georgiaaquarium.org

Soccer Week (8 of 8): Suppose They Gave a Soccer Game in Cyprus, and No One Cared (plus 11 European teams you've never heard of)

Hmm....we were going to post a photo of Trabzonspor's Turkish soccer player Yusuf Erdogan, but what we got were photos of Turkish Prime Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is about as popular amongst Turks abroad as Porky Pig cartoons are in Dubai (forgive the political humor).

At any rate, this image is of Marco Streller, the Swiss international and captain of the Swiss team Basel, which is ranked 51st in UEFA club standings. He kicked the winning goal for Basel in the Champions League. Basel went into London on Tuesday and shocked the global soccer community with a 2-1 win over Chelsea.

Our lead though is in reference to today's soccer game in Limassol, Cyprus, between traditional Turkish soccer power Trabzonspor and Appolon Limassol, the team that surprised Europe last year by reaching the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

Even though Cyprus is just across the sea from Turkey, Trabzonspor traveled quite a ways for the game as Trabzon is located in northwestern Turkey.

For those who feel asleep in your history class at Cornell University (next time we'll pick on Princeton), Turkey and Greece had a short, but ugly war over Cyprus in 1974. Even though I was four years old at the time, I remember the Cyprus War quite well, or at least as well as the Vietnam War, for my late father Mehmet Gokbudak hailed from Turkey.

Thankfully, no one on either side of my family died in Famagusta or Hanoi.

Before we get to the ten European soccer teams you've never heard of, let's look at some scores that will help you the blog-reader get through this entry:

UEFA Champions League:

Sociedad (Spain) 0 Shkhar Donesk (Ukraine) 2

Chelsea 1 Basel 2

Benfica (Portugal) 2 Anderlecht (Belgium) 0

UEFA Europa League:

Apollon 1 Trabzonspor 2

Dynamo Zagreb (Croatia) 1 Odessa (Ukraine) 2

PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands) 0 Ludogorets (Bulgaria) 2

Standard Liege (Belgium) 1 Esberg (Denmark)  2

Freiburg (Germany) 2 Liberec (Czech) 2...........tie game

Rubin Kazan (Russia) 5 Maribor (Slovenia) 2

Now here on the 11 teams you've never heard of:

1. Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine): This was considered the second biggest upset in the Champions League. Brazilian international Alex Teixeira scored both goals for the Ukrainian club in their 2-0 win in Spain).

2. Basel (Switzerland)

3. Benfica (Portugal): They are seemingly a team which always sneaks up on other teams in European play.

4. Anderlecht (Belgium)

5. Apollon Limassol (Cyprus): "The Daily Hurriyet," an English-langauge newspaper in Turkey said Trabzonspor won in 'Greek Cyprus,' but we don't like to get into politics here. Well, at least, not when we are writing about soccer. Gaston Sangoy (Argentina) scored for the Cypriot team in the team's close loss to Trabzonspor.

6. Trabzonspor (Turkey): This squad is one of only two teams outside of Istanbul that has won a Turkish domestics championship; Bursasapr from Bursa is the other team.

7.Dyanmo Zagreb (Croatia)

8. Ludogorets (Bulgaria): Amazingly enough Virgil Misidja a Dutch international player for this Bulgarian team kicked in the second goal in his native country today to help Ludo upset PSV Eindhoven 2-0.

9. Esberg (Denmark): Not to be confused with Swedish team Elfsborg, which is also in the Europa League, this Danish squad celebrated a road win in Belgium thanks to the game-winning goal from Musaga Bakenga, a Norwegian player of Congolese heritage.

10. Rubin Kazan: This team which plays in the Tartar region  of Russia boasts Gokdeniz Karadeniz, one of Turkey's better exports. Today, he scored a goal today in their win over Maribor of Slovenia.

11. Maribor (Slovenia): Today's lop-sided loss to Rubin Kazan was apparently closer than the score sheet indicates. Maribor is a competitive team from the former Yugoslavia and today the team saw a goal from Slovenian national Martin Milec.



http://www.turkeyfootball.blogspot.com

http://www.turkish-football.com

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com

http://www.trabzonspor.org.tr (in Turkish)

http://www.russianfootballnews.com

http://www.apollo.com.cy

http://www.uefa.com

Soccer Week (7 of 8): Dutch Soccer Game Has Three Cards

During domestic weekend action in the Eredivise (Dutch Premier League), one game between Heerenveen and Gromgen featured six goals and three red cards, one of which went to Dutch nationl Tjaronn Chery (pictured).

The game's other two red cards went to Mitchell Dijks of Heerenveen  and Jim Letschert of Gronngen.

Other highlights from Holland/The Netherlands included a two-goal performance form Belgian Steve de Ridder of Utrecht and two goals from Chery's teammate from Iceland, Alfred Finnbogason, who should have made our soccer players with long names list, who kicked in two goals for Heerenveen.

One lowlight which was shown on soccer highlights shows around the globe was Dutch player Maikel van der Werff's unfortunate own goal which helped his team Zwolle lose to traditional Dutch power Ajax Amsterdam 2-1.

Here are the scores:

Utrecht 2 Waalwijk 1

AZ Alkmaar 3 Go Ahead Eagles 0

Heerevveen 4 Gromgen 2

Roda 1 Breda 5

Njmegen 3 Feyrenoord 3 (tie)

Twente 2 PSV Einhoven 2 (tie)

Cambour 2 Heracles 0

Ajax Amsterdam 2 Zwolle 1

http://www.dutchnews.nl

http://www.rnw.nl

http://www.holland.com


SIDENOTE: This marks our 1,500th entry on "The Daily Vampire"...........yes, we are surprised by how long we've stuck with this blog as well.

Soccer Week (6 of 8): Turkish Soccer Game Sees Seven Goals

Ali Adnan Kerim, who goes by Ali Adnan (pictured), is an Iraqi player who is a rising star in the Turkish Premiere. Kerim, who is known as the 'Asian Gareth Bale' scored one of five goals for Rziespor, located in the tea mecca of Rize, in the 12th minute of play. His Turkish teammate Sercan Kaya added two goals, including the game-winning penalty kick in the 80th minute, for Rizespor's electrifying 5-2 win over Gaziantepspor.

Sivasspor, located in the northwestern city of Sivas, defeated Eskisehirspor, located in Eskisehir, a western city where meerschaum pipes are made, by a 3-2 score. The game-winner for the Sivas side came from Moroccan player Aatif Chahechouhe, who somehow didn't make our players with long, long names list, in the 73rd minute of play.

Here are the complete results from Week 4 in the TPL and (Spoiler Alert!), we have some UEFA Champions League scores, including how GalataSaray, a traditional Istanbul powerhouse, fared at home against Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid.

Here are the Turkish domestic scores from weekend (actually Friday-Monday) play:

GalataSaray 1 Antalyaspor 1 (tie)

Erciyes Kayseri 1 Akihisar 0

Gaziantepspor 2 Rizespor 5

Trabzonspor 1 Karabukspor 0 (Goal came from Brazilian Paulo Henrique in 76th minute)

Ankara Genclerbirligi 1 Kayseri 1 (tie)

Sivasspor 3 Eskisehir 2

Bursaspor 0 Besiktash (Istanbul) 3

Elazig 2 Konyaspor 0

Kasimpasha (IST) 2 Fenerbahce (IST) 3

Here are some UEFA Champion League scores:

It was a good day for Cristiano Ronaldo, as he scored a hat trick, in Istanbul in Real Madrid's 6-1 win over GalataSaray. But, it was not a good day for Greek team Olympiacos as they fell at home in Piraeus (a city outside Athens) to French powerhouse Paris St. Germain by a 4-1 score with two goals (scored within minutes of each other) by French player Thiago Motta.

Here is the complete UEFA Scoreboard:

Manchester United 4 Bayer Leverkusen (Germany) 2

Sociedad (Spain) 0 Shktar Donetsk (Ukraine) 2*

Benefica (Portugal) 2 Anderecht (Belgium) 0

Plzen (Czech Rep.) 0 Manchester City 3

GalataSaray 1 Real Madrid 6

Olympiacos 1 PSG 4

Bayern Munich 3 CSKA Moscow 0

Copenhagen 1 Juventus 1 (tie)

*- Shakthar Donestsk's win was considered the upset of the day. Brazilian player Alex Teixeira scored both goals in the victory. This team is not to be confused with Shakter Karagandy, a team from Kazakhstan, which will play in the Europa League on Thursday.

For more information on Turkish soccer, we highly recommend our good friend Ahmet Bob Turgut's blog http://turkeyfootball.blogspot.com/

http://www.angelfire.com/nj/sivritepe/

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

http://www.psg.fr/en/Accueil/0/Home (Paris St. Germain's web site, in English)

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 Week (4 of 8): Players with Very Very Long Lastnames

Who is this Greek soccer player who plays for the Greek league team Panathinaikos? Well, you will have to find out by scrolling below because we don't want to try to spell his name twice.

We only needed to look a few European (UEFA) leagues to come up with this list. Among those who were eliminated from contention because of long surnames that were simply not long enough was Turkish soccer Gokhan Deirmeci of Kayserispor, a team that plays its games in Kayseri, Turkey.

Here are some last names you probably will not envy, but then again not all of us can be as luck as Dr. Mehmet Oz (Dr. Oz......yes, that is his real last name, and most Turkish names, including our very own Tilly Gokbudak's are longer than that):

1. Jakub Blaszcykowski (Polish player with Bayern Leverkusen in Germany)

2. Kyriakos Papadopoulos (Greek player with Schalke 'O4 in Germany)

3. Konstantinos Triantafylloppoulos (Greek player with Panathinaikos in Greece; he is the mystery player who is pictured.......you see why I'm only spelling his name once!) *

4. Stefanos Kragiopoulos (Greek player with Iraklis in Greece)

5. Adrian Mierzejewski (Polish player with Trabzonspor in Turkey)

6. Oguz Daglaroglu (Turkish player with Akhisar Belediyespor in Turkey)

7. Tigran Gharabaghtsyan (Armenian player with Ararat Yerevan in Armenia)

8. Rey Mammadbayli (Azeri player with AZAL PFK in Azerbaijan)

9. Shimon Abudhatzira (Israeli player with Maccabi Haifa in Israel)

10. Sergei Parshivlyuk (Rusian player with Spartak Moscow, we almost didn't get his name right!)

11. Aleksandr Ryazanatsev (Russian player with Rubin Kazan in Russia)

http://www.greeksoccer.com

http://www.turkish-futbol.com

http://www.armenia-soccer.com




*- Hopefully, we spelled the Greek player pictured correctly!

Soccer Week (3 of 8): Turks Abroad

With this image of Omer Toprak who plays in the German Bundesliga, which is where more Turkish international players (many of them are born in Germany) play outside of Turkey, we take a look at Turkish soccer players who play overseas. Every single one of the players mentioned here does play in Europe. We will mark those players who were born in Europe with an *:

1. Erol Bulut* (Veria, Greece_ a Turkish player playing in Greece was once unthinkable).

2.Tolga Cigerci* (Hertha, Germany)

3. Mehmet Ekici* (Werder Bremen, Germany)

4. Mevlut Erdinc* (Saint-Etienne, France)

5. Gokdeniz Karadeniz (Rubin Kazan, Russia_ a Turkish player playing in Russia was also once unthinkable).

6. Alpaslan Ozturk* (Standard Liege, Belgium)

7. Sercan Sarae*r (Stuggart, Germany)

8. Omer Toprak* (Bayer Leverkusen, Germany-pictured)

9. Tunay Torum* (Stuggart, Germany)

10 Arda Turan (Athletico Madrid, Spain)

11. Deniz Turuc* (Go Ahead Eagles, Netherlands)

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

http://turkeyfootball.blogspot.com/

http://www.bundesliga.com/en/