A winner no matter the score
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Çetin Cem Yılmaz
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Haziran 01, 2009 00:00
SİVAS/ISTANBUL -Istanbul and Sivas were very alike on Saturday night. Rapturous football fans invaded the streets of both cities and beer was nowhere to be found.
The Turkish football league drew to a close Saturday evening with Istanbul’s Beşiktaş becoming the champion and minnow Sivasspor finishing as runner up, sending its supporters to seventh heaven on a rare night where coming in second still felt like a major win.
Beşiktaş fans celebrated their first league title in six years, while Sivasspor enjoyed its best-ever league finish and earned its first chance to play in the Champions League next season, meaning that a small club is on the brink of becoming part of European football’s elite group. Ironically, that achievement came with a defeat. The team lost its final game 2-1 to Galatasaray in Istanbul, but maintained its second spot, thanks to Fenerbahçe.
As the final whistle was blown, some 2,500 fans watching the game on the giant screen at Cumhuriyet Square in Sivas were upset about putting a dismal end to a glorious campaign. However, the gloomy atmosphere was chased away when many fans got score updates via their mobile phones: Third-place Trabzonspor had fallen 2-1 to Fener.
"Fener won!" shouted one of the many updaters, holding a phone close to his ear with one hand while raising the other to the sky in a victory fist. Word spread with the wind and the town began to celebrate.
A young boy in his early 20s was a concrete symbol of the fast, but definite change of mood. Drowning in disappointment one moment, shouting happily the next: "We are going to play Barcelona!"
That was clearly what it was all about. For once, being in second place did not mean being the first loser. This time, everybody won and a city of just 380,000 started dreaming about hosting the world’s best football team next year. Witnessing that brimming hope and peaking enthusiasm was enough to fill even the most cynical outsider with sympathy, before a decent proportion of the positive emotions was lost when a group of fanatics started literally and outspokenly searching for Beşiktaş fans, as if there were any daring enough to celebrate their title in Sivas. However, this was only a small group, and immediately the police intervened, making way for the peaceful jubilant fans.
Fans were celebrating as if their team had actually won, but in a different way from the party in Istanbul. The fans were not drinking gallons of beer, not surprising for a town that Sivas coach Bülent Uygun once boasted was almost alcohol-free. He was right; it is difficult to find a shop with beer on its shelves anywhere along the city’s largest avenues, İstasyon and Atatürk.
Uygun said there were only a couple of beer sellers in the city, and he was friendly with all of them, so they would tell the coach whenever a player bought booze. Another time, he said that there was nothing to distract his boys in Sivas.
"In Istanbul, there is Laila," Uygun said at a press conference, referring to the city’s once-popular celebrity nightclub. "In Sivas, we have ’La ilahe illallah,’" a phrase in the Koran that means, "There is only one God."
Celebrating all night long
Meanwhile, in Beşiktaş, another deserved victory was being celebrated, and there too the fans were having trouble buying alcohol, but for a completely different reason. The shops were having a hard time meeting the demand for drinks from fans watching the game on another giant screen that had been set up on the square in central Beşiktaş.
"There is no cold beer here," one Beşiktaş fan said before the kick-off. Later, hours after the game, he added, "Now there is no beer in Beşiktaş."
Beşiktaş’s famously passionate fans celebrated their team’s victory with drinking, chanting, fireworks, honking horns, dancing and doing it all over again, all night long.
"We are having six years of fun," said another fan, referring to the team’s long period without a title.
Unlike Sivas, Istanbul hosted no drama Saturday night. Beşiktaş did not rely on any other result, comfortably beating Denizlispor 2-1 and never looking back. In a way, the fans were almost sure that the triumph was theirs, especially following last weekend’s 2-1 win over Galatasaray.
Again unlike Sivas, where the party ended before midnight, Beşiktaş did not hold back from having fun, even though their team’s success was expected. The fans started to gather in the district again at 1 p.m. Sunday to warm up for the main event: The trophy was to be handed over to the team at its own İnönü Stadium late Sunday.
After all, it was a weekend when everybody, at least the top two, won, but still, there should be one that gets the biggest prize. There always is.
Beşiktaş fans celebrated their first league title in six years, while Sivasspor enjoyed its best-ever league finish and earned its first chance to play in the Champions League next season, meaning that a small club is on the brink of becoming part of European football’s elite group. Ironically, that achievement came with a defeat. The team lost its final game 2-1 to Galatasaray in Istanbul, but maintained its second spot, thanks to Fenerbahçe.
As the final whistle was blown, some 2,500 fans watching the game on the giant screen at Cumhuriyet Square in Sivas were upset about putting a dismal end to a glorious campaign. However, the gloomy atmosphere was chased away when many fans got score updates via their mobile phones: Third-place Trabzonspor had fallen 2-1 to Fener.
"Fener won!" shouted one of the many updaters, holding a phone close to his ear with one hand while raising the other to the sky in a victory fist. Word spread with the wind and the town began to celebrate.
A young boy in his early 20s was a concrete symbol of the fast, but definite change of mood. Drowning in disappointment one moment, shouting happily the next: "We are going to play Barcelona!"
That was clearly what it was all about. For once, being in second place did not mean being the first loser. This time, everybody won and a city of just 380,000 started dreaming about hosting the world’s best football team next year. Witnessing that brimming hope and peaking enthusiasm was enough to fill even the most cynical outsider with sympathy, before a decent proportion of the positive emotions was lost when a group of fanatics started literally and outspokenly searching for Beşiktaş fans, as if there were any daring enough to celebrate their title in Sivas. However, this was only a small group, and immediately the police intervened, making way for the peaceful jubilant fans.
Fans were celebrating as if their team had actually won, but in a different way from the party in Istanbul. The fans were not drinking gallons of beer, not surprising for a town that Sivas coach Bülent Uygun once boasted was almost alcohol-free. He was right; it is difficult to find a shop with beer on its shelves anywhere along the city’s largest avenues, İstasyon and Atatürk.
Uygun said there were only a couple of beer sellers in the city, and he was friendly with all of them, so they would tell the coach whenever a player bought booze. Another time, he said that there was nothing to distract his boys in Sivas.
"In Istanbul, there is Laila," Uygun said at a press conference, referring to the city’s once-popular celebrity nightclub. "In Sivas, we have ’La ilahe illallah,’" a phrase in the Koran that means, "There is only one God."
Celebrating all night long
Meanwhile, in Beşiktaş, another deserved victory was being celebrated, and there too the fans were having trouble buying alcohol, but for a completely different reason. The shops were having a hard time meeting the demand for drinks from fans watching the game on another giant screen that had been set up on the square in central Beşiktaş.
"There is no cold beer here," one Beşiktaş fan said before the kick-off. Later, hours after the game, he added, "Now there is no beer in Beşiktaş."
Beşiktaş’s famously passionate fans celebrated their team’s victory with drinking, chanting, fireworks, honking horns, dancing and doing it all over again, all night long.
"We are having six years of fun," said another fan, referring to the team’s long period without a title.
Unlike Sivas, Istanbul hosted no drama Saturday night. Beşiktaş did not rely on any other result, comfortably beating Denizlispor 2-1 and never looking back. In a way, the fans were almost sure that the triumph was theirs, especially following last weekend’s 2-1 win over Galatasaray.
Again unlike Sivas, where the party ended before midnight, Beşiktaş did not hold back from having fun, even though their team’s success was expected. The fans started to gather in the district again at 1 p.m. Sunday to warm up for the main event: The trophy was to be handed over to the team at its own İnönü Stadium late Sunday.
After all, it was a weekend when everybody, at least the top two, won, but still, there should be one that gets the biggest prize. There always is.