Maintained by Erdinç Sivritepe
Turkish 1.League - Week 24 Review: We had another week with lots of goals. 35 goals in 9 games. Almost 4 goals per game. Gaziantep - Beşiktaş The first game of the week was between two top teams fighting for a UEFA Cups entry. Gaziantepspor was hosting Beşiktaş who had a technical director change during the week. Beşiktaş got Christoph Daum, who won them the last league champıionship, replacing Nevio Scala who had some health problems. The game was a super game especially in the first half. However Gaziantepspor was much better in the second half and there was no win for Beşiktaş in Gaziantep for the ninth year in a row. Hasan Özer scored twice for Gaziantepspor and they won 3-1. The win took them ahead of Galatasaray to the second place with two more extra games. Beşiktaş is now 11 points back of the leader Fenerbahçe. Daum may have to wait for the next year. Erzurumspor - İstanbulspor The game in Erzurum was very important for Erzurum especially. A win would boost their morales in their fight off the relegation. However, it was not meant to be. The first half ended in a goalless tie, but the 11 minute of the second half gave four goals. Unfortunately the three of them was not for them, but was for İstanbulspor. Albanian player Bushi scoring two of the goals. This loss also pushed Erzurum to the bottom of the table. They may not be one the teams which were not relegated from the 1.League so far, anymore. Erzurumspor 1-3 İstanbulspor Samsunspor - Denizli Samsunspor were favourite at their home against Denizli, which had lost their African players for the World Cup 2002 Qualifiers game again. But, Denizli got ahead at 35 th minute on a goal by another African player, Coulibaly. Samsunspor responded back just before the half-time and went ahead in the second half and got the expected win. 2-1 Samsunspor. Bursaspor - Kocaelispor Another game was in Bursa, on Saturday. Bursa was hosting Kocaelispor. Both teams were getting much better results in the second half of the league. Those results lifted them up from the relegation zone, but more points could do no harm. Bursa went ahead in the first half on a goal by their top scorer Okan. They could even made it 2-0, if Okan didn't kick the penalty off wide. While they were worrying about the missed penalty-kick, Kocaelispor came back and tied the score. Afterwards, nobody could change the score and they got a point each. 1-1. Galatasaray - Gençlerbirliği The last game of Saturday was in İstanbul. UCL quarter-finalist Galatasaray was hosting Turkish Cup finalist Gençlerbirliği. This game will be remembered mostly because of the refereeing. 10 yellow cards and two red cards by Mr.Erol Ersoy. While protesting a disallowed goal, Hagi got two yellow cards at 32 nd minute and was sent off. Mustafa Gönden of Gençlerbirliği also had to hit the showers in the first half at 43 rd minute. When we go back to the game Ümit Karan scored the first goal at 24 th minute for Gençler. Galatasaray crowd who cheered for Ümit Karan before the game, started booing. (According to rumours Ümit Karan is going to play for Galatasaray next year.) Jardel evened the score at 38' and Serkan got the winning goal just three minutes after his substitution. Rizespor - Adanaspor Adana went to Rize again with an interim technical director to avoid relegation. Erol Bulut put them ahead very early in the game at 4 th minute. Rize was not playing as well during the first half, but they evened the score on a penalty-kick by Ümit Ozan Kazmaz, who had to sit out last week because of injury problems. They came back strong in the second half. They went ahead on Saffet's goal and then Tetteh's goal was insurance. Erol Bulut scored a second goal for Adana, but Rizespor's Serkan signed the final goal just before the end. 4-2 for Rizespor. Trabzonspor - Siirt Jet-PA Another Black Sea team Trabzon was also at home like Rize and samsun this week. They were going to host last place team Siirt Jet-PA. The recent games had raised their hopes of catching some teams above in Trabzon, however Siirt was not the same bad team of the first half. So even the TD was taking the game very seriously. But, I guess they didn't take it serious enough. A team trying to get an entry into the European Cups allowed four goals at home to the last place team. When the fırst half ended the score was 0-3 already. After Substituting Sergen and Erhan with Oktay and Serafimovski, they got two goals back in the second half. However Siirt was the side who laughed at last, scoring another goal in the 90 th minute. Trabzonspor 2-4 Siirt Jet-PA Ankaragücü - Yozgatspor Ankaragücü was expecting a difficult home game against Yozgat. But, Yozgat is going the the wrong direction. So, it was an easy game for Ankara team. They scored two goals in each half on their way to a 4-0 victory. Fenerbahçe - Antalyaspor Fenerbahçe was playing the lucky thirteenth game at home. Would it be 13 wins in 13 games? Revivo gave hope very early at 8 th minute, but Antalya was not an easy target. They scored back at 15 th with Uğur. But, Fenerbahçe captain and one of my favourite player Ogün put his team back in the second half and Fenerbahçe won the hard-fought game and made it 13 in 13. Fener 2-1 Antalya The team of the week: Siirt Jet-PA - scoring four in Trabzon. The player of the week: Hasan Özer of Gaziantepspor
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What's up, Week 25?: Friday: Kocaelispor (15) - Samsunspor (5) Saturday: Gençlerbirliği (10) - Erzurumspor (18) Antalyaspor (11) - Ankaragücü (7) İstanbulspor (9) - Bursaspor (14) Rizespor (8) - Fenerbahçe (1) Sunday: Siirt Jet-PA (17) - Galatasaray (2) Yozgatspor (13) - Gaziantepspor (3) Denizlispor (12) - Adanaspor (16) Beşiktaş (4) - Trabzonspor (6)