Trabzonspor eyes big victory at Beşiktaş
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 14, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - How serious Trabzonspor is in its bid to win the Turkcell Super League title will be seen this weekend, when it meets another contender in Beşiktaş on Sunday.
Trabzonspor’s aim was to end its 25-year championship drought and made its intentions clear with a handful of high-profile signings at the beginning of the season. But it was not until its fresh squad grabbed a string of successful results that Black Sea Storm proved to be a contender. A fan of attacking football, coach Ersun Yanal seemed to dictate this mentality to his players.
However, Trabzonspor still needs to prove itself as a serious contender with a big win. So far, Trabzon has fared well against teams dwelling at the bottom or the middle of the table, but it is yet to win against the top five teams of the division.
Draws against Sivasspor, Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe and a loss to Galatasaray is not the brightest of resumes for Trabzon, and this may be the right time for Yanal’s boys to change the story.
Black Eagles troubled
Beşiktaş has been struggling with troubles all season long and despite being unbeaten since the start of the new year, it would be hard to say there problems are over. Coach Mustafa Denizli is yet to instil a consistent mentality in the team, making it impossible for fans to predict how Beşiktaş would fare the following week. Supposedly an attacking football lover like Yanal, Denizli failed to translate his mentality into a productive performance by his players.
An example of this could be seen in last Sunday’s goalless draw at Konyaspor. Throughout 90 minutes, Beşiktaş could not produce a decent goal chance and hardly looked a contender.
But still, Beşiktaş has its hopes as well. Most importantly, it will feel the support of 30,000-strong fans. Secondly, its squad will be deeper, as Argentine Mattias Delgado may be returningafter a serious injury.
As for the other games of the Turkcell Super League’s 20th match day, it will be interesting to see Galatasaray’s attempt to come out of a self-dug hole. Despite its skilled squad, Galatasaray has failed to find consistent form since the start of the second period of the league, and is now pointing the finger at the Turkish Football Federation.
After last weekend’s 1-1 draw against Kayserispor, Galatasaray issued a harsh statement asserting that the Federation was deliberately holding back the team.
The club could have conceded that Brazilian star Lincoln was to blame for seeing two yellow cards in only six minutes, but the all blame was reserved for referee Selçuk Dereli.
Dereli was not having his best day, sure, but given that he could have shown another red card to violent appeals by Milan Baros and could have called a penalty against Galatasaray after a handball by Emre Aşık, he was hardly the main reason the Lions slumped. Now, Galatasaray has declared war and whether the situation will help the players concentrate better or not will be seen in Saturday’s game at Antalyaspor.
However, Trabzonspor still needs to prove itself as a serious contender with a big win. So far, Trabzon has fared well against teams dwelling at the bottom or the middle of the table, but it is yet to win against the top five teams of the division.
Draws against Sivasspor, Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe and a loss to Galatasaray is not the brightest of resumes for Trabzon, and this may be the right time for Yanal’s boys to change the story.
Black Eagles troubled
Beşiktaş has been struggling with troubles all season long and despite being unbeaten since the start of the new year, it would be hard to say there problems are over. Coach Mustafa Denizli is yet to instil a consistent mentality in the team, making it impossible for fans to predict how Beşiktaş would fare the following week. Supposedly an attacking football lover like Yanal, Denizli failed to translate his mentality into a productive performance by his players.
An example of this could be seen in last Sunday’s goalless draw at Konyaspor. Throughout 90 minutes, Beşiktaş could not produce a decent goal chance and hardly looked a contender.
But still, Beşiktaş has its hopes as well. Most importantly, it will feel the support of 30,000-strong fans. Secondly, its squad will be deeper, as Argentine Mattias Delgado may be returningafter a serious injury.
As for the other games of the Turkcell Super League’s 20th match day, it will be interesting to see Galatasaray’s attempt to come out of a self-dug hole. Despite its skilled squad, Galatasaray has failed to find consistent form since the start of the second period of the league, and is now pointing the finger at the Turkish Football Federation.
After last weekend’s 1-1 draw against Kayserispor, Galatasaray issued a harsh statement asserting that the Federation was deliberately holding back the team.
The club could have conceded that Brazilian star Lincoln was to blame for seeing two yellow cards in only six minutes, but the all blame was reserved for referee Selçuk Dereli.
Dereli was not having his best day, sure, but given that he could have shown another red card to violent appeals by Milan Baros and could have called a penalty against Galatasaray after a handball by Emre Aşık, he was hardly the main reason the Lions slumped. Now, Galatasaray has declared war and whether the situation will help the players concentrate better or not will be seen in Saturday’s game at Antalyaspor.