The Canaries, after beating archrival Galatasaray 3-1 in week 10 of the Turkcell Super League, celebrated as if they had already sewn up this season’s championship, forgetting that the title is won not in week 10 but at the end of the season. Complacency crept in, and the Canaries began to drop points.
They were held 1-1 away by Kayserispor in week 11, awarded three points by default in week 12 because of their match-up against relegated Ankaraspor, were crushed 3-0 away in by Beşiktaş in their week 13 İstanbul derby and were pounded 3-1 by Paşa at home in week 14 on Saturday. This means that apart from a default victory, the Canaries have not won a single match since their victory over the Galatasaray Lions.
“We made far too mistakes and our opponent capitalized on our mistakes and scored,” Fener’s German coach Christoph Daum lamented after the Kasımpaşa match on Saturday. “We could not get into scoring positions and things just didn’t go our way,” he further noted. And if we may add, Herr Daum, the coach is paid not to cry over spilled milk but to right the wrongs.
Galatasaray has fared even worse. At the beginning of the season, the Lions’ attacking force looked awesome. A frontline made up of Aussie Harry Kewell, Congolese Shabani Christophe Nonda, Ivorian Abdul Kader Keita and Czech Milan Baros was the best in the league and the Lions were scoring with gay abandon.
But after Baros broke his foot in the second minute of the match against Fenerbahçe in week 10, the decline of Galatasaray began. Without Baros the Lions lost to Fenerbahçe, but managed in weeks 11 and 12 to beat whipping boy Sivasspor 2-0 at home and Diyarbakırspor 2-1 away, before drawing 1-1 at home with Manisaspor in week 13 and losing away to Bursaspor 1-0 away in week 14 on Friday.
One man’s misfortune can be another man’s fortune. And so the fall of Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray has revived the hopes of Beşiktaş and Bursaspor.
