Turkcell Super League – Week 7 recap

Friday action

    Only one match would be featured on Friday, as Trabzonspor would travel to the capital Ankara to take on Gençlerbirliği. Trabzonspor would be looking to consolidate third place in the standings. It looked likely considering that Trabzonspor scored a total of nine goals in the last two matchdays. Scoring would come furious and early in this match, as Drago Gabriç would put Trabzonspor ahead in the fourth minute. Gustavo Colman would double the lead for Trabzonspor in the 16^th minute.     Gökhan Ünal would get the ball at midfield, and would avoid players like he was slalom skiing. He would pass a deft ball to Colman, would put it in the back of the net for the 2-0 lead. But this would be the last goal Trabzonspor would score in this game.
    Gençlerbirliği, slowly yet steadily, would come back for the tie. Their first goal would be scored in the 31^st minute, as Labinot Harbuzi would score off a Mustafa Pektemek pass to halve the lead. Halftime would end with Gençlerbirliği behind 2-1. Bilal Çubukçu would come into the game as a substitute for Pektemek in the 71^st minute. Çubukçu would tie the match with a free kick that beat Trabzonspor goalkeeper Tony Sylva in the 76^th minute. That would be all the scoring in this game. It would be a disappointing two points lost for Trabzonspor. Trabzonspor seemed to play well during the first 16 minutes, but then couldn't get it together for the rest of the match.

Saturday action

    Fenerbahçe would travel down to Antalya, a city known more as a vacation hot spot than its soccer, to take on Antalyaspor. One of the big questions would be if Roberto Carlos would be on the roster or not. It was reported earlier in the week (or I had reported, via Turkish newspaper Milliyet) that he would be returning to Brazil within the next few weeks. He had expressed interest to return to Brazil, but the Fenerbahçe board basically said that Carlos was under contract until the end of the season and he wouldn't be sold. My guess is that he will attempt to leave during the January transfer window. Carlos would be part of the bench for this match.
    The match would show Fenerbahçe not being as impressive in winning as their rivals Galatasaray in the last six weeks, but getting the win nonetheless. The scoring would open in the 10^th minute, as Colin Kazim-Richards would score off a flick from Alex de Souza. Alex would get a pass from Mehmet Topuz to set up his through flick. Kazim-Richards would get a yellow card in the 18^th minute for arguing with the linesman over a call, giving him a one match suspension for yellow card accumulation. The 21^st minute would see the Antalyaspor equalizer. Ali Zitouni would beat out Fenerbahçe defender Gökhan Gönül, and make a diving header into the net. The first half would end 1-1, but Fenerbahçe had many more chances than Antalyaspor. The second half would feature early aggressive play from Antalyaspor. In the first ten minutes of the second half, Antalyaspor looked like a team with a mission to win, but couldn't convert chances. Antalyaspor goalkeeper Polat Keser looked like he was having a stellar day, as many Fenerbahçe shots were saved, or were off the posts. One of Keser's moments came in the 78^th minute. Dani Guiza of Fenerbahçe would make a run into the box from the right wing, flicked the ball to Alex, who flicked it back to Guiza, but the attempt from near point blank range was saved by Keser. The deadlocked would be broken in the 89^th minute. On a counterattack, Alex would pass the ball behind the defense to Guiza (who was in the Fenerbahçe half of the field), Guiza would spring down the field with two others in tow. Guiza, seeing that Polat Keser came out to defend the attack, passed to Semih Şentürk, and Şentürk would put the ball into the goal for the lead and eventual win. It wasn't pretty for Fenerbahçe, but they escaped and now have a seven game winning streak to start the season, the best start for the club since the 1964-65 season.
    The Gaziantepspor – Ankaragücü match would end 3-1 to the visitors. Julio Cesar da Silva would open the scoring for Gaziantepspor in the 11^th minute. Metin Akan would score in the 42^nd minute to even the score for Ankaragücü, and the 1-1 scoreline would be the halftime score. Akan would score again in the 52^nd minute to put Ankaragücü ahead for good. Emre Aygün would tack on an insurance goal in the 79^th minute to make the score 3-1. Anakaragucu got some bad news the previous day as Darius Vassel will be out for at least two weeks with an injury to the back of his foot. The Ankaragücü head coach Hikmet Karaman was quoted as saying that his team couldn't catch a break.
    Speaking of teams that can't catch a break, Sivasspor would suffer yet another loss. This time around it would be the heartbreak of losing a game in stoppage time. Istanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor would gain a victory through Marcus Vinicius's goal two minutes into stoppage time to send Sivasspor to yet another loss. Sivasspor's point total at this point is only 1 point.
    Bursaspor's impressive home field play continues. The club, nicknamed the Crocodiles, would make it three out of four game won at home in emphatic fashion. Diyarbakirspor would fall to Bursapor with a scoreline of 4-0. Volkan Şen would open the scoring for Bursaspor in the 30^th minute, and it would be a 1-0 scoreline heading into the halftime break. Bursaspor would then pour it on in the second half. Dimitar Ivankov would come out of his goal to score off a penalty in the 48^th minute. Ivan Ergić would make it 3-0 to Bursaspor in the 63^rd minute. The scoring would conclude as Ozan İpek would score in the 75^th minute to conclude the rout. Bursaspor head coach Ertuğrul Sağlam had this to say about his side's victory: "We found the goal we were looking for in the first half. The breaking point of the match was the penalty goal. Later on we became comfortable during the match, and found a way to win by four goals." With the win, Bursaspor increased its point total this season to 13, leapfrogging Trabzonspor in the process.

Sunday action

    Sunday would see the attempt of Galatasaray to keep pace with Fenerbahçe with a perfect record. This week Eskişehirspor would come into the Ali Sami Yen stadium, perhaps to be another notch on the belt of a perfect season. Frank Rijkaard would make a shock benching, as he would bench both Elano and Milan Baros. It seemed like it wouldn't have mattered as Shabani Nonda would continue to be a goal scoring machine. In the 38^th minute, Abdul Kader Keita would get past Eskişehirspor defender Murat Önür, keeping the ball in bounds on the right touchline, and would pass the ball to a wide open Nonda. Nonda would put it away for the 1-0 lead. That would be the score going into halftime. But it seemed that Eskişehirspor would not go down easy. Eskişehirspor would come out with more enthusiasm in the second half. In the 56ht minute, Eskişehirspor would get the tying goal. Eskişehirspor's Bülent Ertuğrul shot the ball just outside the box. The ball would deflect off Galatasaray defender Hakan Balta and end up at the feet of Mehmet Yılmaz, who put it in the back of the net to make the score 1-1. Milan Baros would come into the match in the 74^th minute, and Galatasaray would have a flurry of chances to go ahead near the end of the match. However, Eskişehirspor held on and Galatasaray would lose a valuable two points, falling to second place behind Fenerbahçe.
    After a historic first win at the Inonu Stadium last week, Kayserispor looked to keep the momentum going against Kasımpaşa. However, this would be all for naught as the match ended up as a 0-0 draw. There weren't many scoring chances in this game.
    The Aegean derby this week would feature Manisaspor going to Denizli to take on Denizlispor. This would be a match up of a Manisaspor team that has only given up four goals in six games, against a Denizlispor club that has only scored two goals in six league games. The first half would end without a score. In the 69^th minute, Nizamettin Çalışkan took a corner kick from the left corner flag, finding Joshua Simpson. Simpson's first attempt would be blocked by the defense, but his second chance would be the go ahead goal for Manisaspor. Denizlispor would get their tying goal in the 82^nd minute,     Rahim Ouédraogo of Manisaspor brought down Caner Celep, getting the referee to point at the spot for the penalty. Darryl Roberts would convert from the spot to tie the game. That would be how the game would end up.