Maintained by Erdinç Sivritepe
Turkish 1.League - Week 26 Review: 30 goals in 9 games. Still more than 3 goals a game. Kocaelispor - Denizli The opener was in İzmit again this week. Kocaeli team was missing three of their players in Pazin, Alexandrox, and Timko. There were two goals in the first six minutes. The score was already 1-1. The visitors went ahead on 20th. That was it for them. Kocaeli tied the game before the game and scored early in the second half. The penalty kick at 73' assured the win for the home team. It was a game played well both teams. With the win Kocaeli is further away from the relegation zone. Denizli is going nowhere. No European Cups hope, no relegation danger. Erzurumspor - Siirt Jet-PA Both teams were trying to create some hope for themselves to avoid relegation. The game was about even for most part of the game. Siirt scored the first goal at 76' and it looked like they were going to get thier fourth away win for a while, 9 minutes to be exact. Erzurumspor came back and tied at 85' and got the win with a last minute goal. Erzurumspor is now 8 points behind the team above. For Siirt it is over, even though they can still do it mathematically. 12 points gap makes just 4 wins. It would be too much to expect from them to win 4 games in the last 8. So far they played 26 games and won only 3. Ankaragücü - Rizespor Ankaragücü was one the teams gained a lot this week-end. When both Trabzon and Samsun lost points at home, they jumped to fifth spot with a clear 4-0 win over Rizespor. Fifth spot means an UEFA Intertoto Cup Place. Cafer Aydın scored twice again. The other two goals were by Augustine Ahinful. For Rize, this was an away game after 10 consecutive home games. They seemed to forgot how to play away from home. Bursaspor Gençlerbirliği Bursa was playing to get out of the relegation zone for most of the year. Gençlerbirliği was looking a spot in the European Cups next year, forcing the top for a while. Two things changed the fate of these teams. Bursaspor got their old trainer Biyedic back, Gençlerbirliği got an European Cup place by way of Turkish Cup (If Fenerbahçe finishes in the first two). Then all of a sudden everything started to change. Bursaspor was on the rise Gençlerbirliği was on the fall. So, the logic was saying a Bursaspor win and they won 2-0. Bursa is only two points away from GB now. GB is like a bunjee jumper going down that fast. They are at 10th place this week-end. Galatasaray - Beşiktaş This was the game of the week. GS wanted the game to be postponed late in the week because of the upcoming UCL game vs Real Madrid. But, BJK didn't want to postpone. GS was missing six players to the injury and the penalties. A postponement would mean those players could be back. Why choose to play a stronger team, when you got them guards down? Even FB didn't want the game postponed. They must be hoping some GS loss on their way for an easier championship. There was no comment from Gaziantepspor by the way. Well talking of the game, BJK was in the game for the first 5-10 minutes. GS had an easy win with their substitute players. It didn't look like BJK was playing for an UCL place. Trabzonspor - Yozgatspor Trabzonspor got their two national teams back to the team. Sergen played all game Oktay didn't. But he scored their only goal on a sergen assist. Yozgat was trying to score through Ayew and Preko and succeeded through Preko in the last minute and tied the game. Samsunspor - İstanbulspor This game started very easy for Samsunspor. They went ahead at 2nd minute. When Istanbul's Petkov was dismissed from the game at 21', it looked easier. But, no. They forget Sertan Eser. 10-man İstanbul scored two quick goals just before the first half and went ahead. They even added a third by Sertan again on a penalty-kick. Ertuğrul got one back at 83rd minute. They could even tie the game at 88' on a penalty awarded, but this time İstanbul goalkeeper was there. İstanbul team is the best improved team for my opinion. The credit should go to Metin Türel since they didn't do big transfers like other teams. Gaziantepspor - Antalyaspor Antalyaspor is one of the team who can play as well away from home, but during the week they sent 6 players off the squad for disciplinary reasons. The squad was filled with players from the youth team. Unfortunately, their rivals were playing to win it all. Gaziantep won the game 2-0. Fenerbahçe - Adanaspor Fenerbahçe who has not a single point at home, didn't this time either. There was not much resistance either. They kept 6 points margin with GS and Gaziantep. This was the tenth game in fourteen for FB in which they scored three or more goals at home. Adana should face the reality and regroup for next year now. They are 12 points away from Yozgatspor. In order to close the gap of 12 points with their rate, they need 52 weeks (they have 2 wins in 26 games), or 12 weels with ties. But we have only 8 weeks to go. The team of the week: İstanbulspor and Galatasaray The worst team of the week: Rizespor The player of the week: Sertan Eser İstanbulspor
Place your cursor on numbers to enjoy the table more.
What's up, Week 27?: Denizli (11) - Fenerbahçe (1) Antalyaspor (12) - Trabzonspor (6) Adanaspor (17) - Ankaragücü (5) Siirt Jet-PA (18) - Bursaspor (13) Beşiktaş (4) - Erzurumspor (16) Rizespor (9) - Gaziantepspor (3) Gençlerbirliği (10) - Samsunspor (7) İstanbulspor (8) - Kocaelispor (14) Yozgatspor (15) - Galatasaray (2)