Fenerbahçe: 5 - Honved: 1

(http://www.cnnturk.com/2009/spor/futbol/07/30/fenerbahce.honvede.gol.yagdirdi/537245.0/)

Last year Fenerbahçe finished the league in 4th place with Spanish coach Luis Aragones who was the coach of Spanish National Team when they won EURO 2008. When he first became the new coach of Fenerbahçe (after they cancelled Arthur Zico's deal) he was thought to be succesful there. Everyone thought that he could bring discipline and controlled playing style to Fenerbahçe. At the beginning of the season Fenerbahçe seemed to be very succesful. But after several matches, the problems started; the players in bench were not so effective players, Luis Aragones always made the team play with the same tactic, the midfielders couldn't contribute the team very well and the Spanish striker Daniel Guiza (who was transferred for €14m from R.C.D Mallorca) was lack of condition and couldn't score so many goals during the season. So, after the season finished, they sacked Luis Aragones and came an agreement with the German coach, Christoph Daum.

Despite these problems, Fenerbahçe was a little bit better than Galatasaray. They played final in Turkish Cup (Fortis Türkiye Kupası) but lost against Beşiktaş JK. And finished the season in 4th place thanks to Daniel Guiza's last minute strike against Trabzonspor in the last match of the season (2-1). So, they got the chance to play one less qualifying round in UEFA Europa League.

The first-leg against Honved FC was the first important match for Fenerbahçe in 2009-2010 season. Before the match had started, the coach of Honved F.C said that he knew how difficult the match would be. Actually he was right! Fenerbahçe scored the first goal with Roberto Carlos' free kick. But then he was injured and substituted with Deivid De Souza. Fenerbahçe scored two more goals at the first half with Daniel Guiza at the 30th and 40th minutes. The score was 3-0 at the first half. At the second half Guiza scored one more goal at the 61th minute. Then the captain Alex De Souza scored the fifth goal for Fenerbahçe at 69th minute. 9 minutes later Zsolnai scored the only goal for Honved FC with a header. So, the match ended 5-1.

I think that Fenerbahçe created a good team with new transfers. They empowered their squad with Fabio Alves Da Silva Bilica, André Santos, Cristian, Mehmet Topuz, Özer Hurmacı and Bekir Irtegün. Especially Bilica, Santos and Cristian contributed to the team very well. Fenerbahçe won the match with their quality players and experience. Honved were too weak to defend their goal and they were so inexperienced. After the M.Netanya-Galatasaray match ended, before the Fenerbahçe-Honved match started, I said to my friend (who is a Fenerbahçe fan) that Fenerbahçe was going to win the match by scoring 5 goals. It was true, they won the match with a good play and they deserved such a victory. Good start to the new season!

Maccabi Netanya: 1 Galatasaray S.K: 4

(http://www.gazetevan.com/images/news/3431512714.jpg)

Last season the Turkish side, Galatasaray S.K finished the league in 5th place after Beşiktaş J.K, Sivasspor, Trabzonspor and Fenerbahçe. Usually Galatasaray finished the league in top three but last season they had some problems with coaches. First Michael Skibbe, the German coach, was sacked in the middle of the season because of some games which Galatasaray unnecessarily lost. Then Bülent Korkmaz became the next coach but he was always criticized because of his defensive playing style. In the end of the season, he left the team too. There were also some big problems with injuries. Galatasaray never played with the complete squad. The chemistry was not so good too. Especially Cassio Lincoln, Brazilian midfielder, couldn't play very well at the second half of the season and created so much problems. And Galatasaray sold team's defensive rock Fernando Meira to Zenit St. Petersburg just before some very critical UEFA Cup matches. All of these problems made Galatasaray finish the season in fifth place.

After the transfer season had started, Galatasaray added some popular and effective players to their squad. Leo Franco, Kader Keita, Gökhan Zan and Mustafa Sarp were some of the new players (yesterday Elano Blumer was transferred from Manchester City as well). And also Frank Rijkaard accepted Galatasaray's offer and became the new coach. They empowered the squad very much before the new season has started to be ready for UEFA Europa League matches and win the championship in Turkish League.

Yesterday night, Galatasaray played against Maccabi Netanya F.C. Before the match was played, some people had thought that Maccabi Netanya will be challenging very much and it would be a difficult game for Galatasaray. As the match started, they seemed to be right. Both sides missed some very important goal opportunities. At 25th minute Maccabi Netanya scored the first goal of the game. Yampolsky's header made the score 1-0. 5 minutes later Galatasaray made the score 1-1 with Hakan Balta's header. In the second half, with Arda Turan's perfect play and his assists, Galatasaray scored 3 more goals. Harry Kewell scored at 47, Sabri Sarıoğlu scored the third goal for his team just 6 minutes later and the last goal of the game was scored by Milan Baros at 73th minute.

It was the best game for Galatasaray since the season had started. In the second qualifying round Galatasaray eliminated Tobol from Kazakhstan with 1-1 and 2-0. Even though I couldn't watch the matches, I heard that Galatasaray couldn't score the goals so easily. But in this game Galatasaray scored 4 goals with their perfect play after they conceded a goal from corner kick. I think that if Galatasaray continue to play their games like they did in Maccabi Netanya match, they can score goals easily with a lot of passes and win the games much easily than last season. Maccabi Netanya... They were not able to do something beneficial against Galatasaray because they neither had enough experience to win the game nor the players in their squad were as good players as Galatasaray's.

In short, Galatasaray seem very advantageous now. Unless Maccabi Netanya don't win the game in Istanbul with 4-0, 5-0, 6-0, 4-1(extra time) or 5-2, 6-2 or with a similar score (At least 3 or 4 goal difference), probably Galatasaray will be playing in the next round.

Anderlecht:5 Sivasspor:0

(http://fotogaleri.ntvmsnbc.com/galeri.aspx?galleryId=1247&position=1)

Yesterday night was a very special night for the Turkish team Sivasspor. Sivasspor finished the Turkish league in second place for the first time in the club history and got the chance to play in the third qualifying round in UEFA Champions League. It was a great success for Sivasspor because usually 3 Istanbul teams; Beşiktaş, Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe finish the league in top three but last year Sivasspor was in the second place. Sivasspor is a team from the city Sivas which is in the middle of Turkey. Sivasspor is also so new in Europe, they don't have so much experience. They finished the league in 4th place in 2008 and participated to the Intertoto Cup. First they eliminated OFK Grbalj from Montenegro. The first match finished 2-2 in Montenegro and Sivasspor won the second match 1-0 in Turkey. Then they paired off with SC Braga from Portugal. But they lost the first match 2-0 in Turkey and the result of the second match was 3-0 in Portugal, Sivasspor lost the game again.

Some of the key players in Sivasspor squad such as Pini Balili, Fabio Alves Da Silva Bilica and Mohamed Ali Kurtuluş were transferred after the transfer season had started. And also their central forward Mehmet Yıldız, who was the top scorer of the team in last seasons was injured. The squad was full of new players and they were playing with a new tactic.

At the beginning of the game, it was easily seen that Sivasspor was not ready for the game. The new players in squad had adaptation problem and they hadn't played with each other for so many times before the match. Probably this match was the first important match for them since the season had started.

First-half ended 3-0 in favour of Anderlecht and the goals were from Tom De Sutter, Mbark Boussoufa and Thomas Chatelle. The first goal was a header scored from corner kick. Second goal and third goals were the mistakes of Sivasspor defence. After the second half, the result was 5-0 which was a great disappointment for the Turkish side. The goals were scored by again De Sutter and Frutos.

Generally we don't expect an UEFA Champions League third-qualifying round match to end with a score like this. But as I said Sivasspor was not ready for such a difficult match. Anderlecht won the match with their experiences. They played in UEFA Champions League for so many times and they know what the difficulty of the matches being played in UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League (old UEFA Cup) is. This match was only the 5th match for Sivasspor in Europe. They seemed to be so inexperienced. They couldn't play with a good tactic too. Also their players were new and they were not used to playing with each other.

These are the facts that made Sivasspor lose the match. An UEFA Champions League match was too difficult for them. Maybe they can gain experience by playing in UEFA Europa League and playing against standard or weak teams. They probably lost the chance to play in the next round, in the group stage. But I think they learned how difficult and important an UEFA Champions League match is and next time they'll have to train and work much harder to be ready for hard matches like this.

About Turkish Football

Turkey is a country in which so many people are interested in football. Football is a passion for the most of the people living in Turkey. In the old years Turkish National Team and the club teams were not so succesful in international arena. Only a few great victories were won in international arena by national team and club teams. But in last 10 years we can easily see the development of Turkish football; either club teams or national team.

In 2000, Galatasaray S.K won the UEFA Cup after the final match against Arsenal F.C (penalties 4-1). It was seen as a turning point in Turkish Football and after 2 years in World Cup 2002; Turkish National Team was in the 3rd place. (The most part of the squad of the national team in 2002 were Galatasaray players who won UEFA Cup in 2000.) In 2001, Galatasaray S.K won the Super Cup against the former Champions League winners Real Madrid (2-1) and also played quarter-final in UEFA Champions League against Real Madrid C.F again but this time they were defeated. After all these Galatasaray became more popular and then the most-known Turkish football club. As years passed Fenerbahçe S.K and Beşiktaş S.K also won some important matches against popular clubs. In 2008, Fenerbahçe S.K also played in quarter-finals in UEFA Champions League with the coach Arthur Zico who was one of the best Brazilian players in 80s.

Of course when people hear something about Turkish Football, they probably think about only Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş (and national team as well) because of their successes and the quality players that they have in their squads. For example Fenerbahçe made a deal with Roberto Carlos in 2008 who is one of the best left back players in the world. Galatasaray S.K have some players such as Harry Kewell, Milan Baros, Kader Keita, Leo Franco. In the first division in Turkey there are so many popular players, known by most of the people.

In short, Turkish Football and the quality of the Turkish league are developing. Today, almost all the Turkish fans expect the club teams to win more trophies and want to see them in the next rounds in European competitions; in UEFA Europa League and in UEFA Champions League. But the only thing that Turkish fans can do is to be patient. Patience, training and being experienced are the only ways for the Turkish clubs to be succesful. Turkish football, Turkish football teams started to be heard more in Europe and if people living in Turkey want to see a good future and more development then they have to show patience and support their teams and the football teams should work much harder than they did before.