Bursa reign on top begins, title race thrown wide open

The matches were postponed from week 18, the opening games in the season’s second half in January, due to inclement weather conditions in İstanbul.

The “official” league standings show the Galatasaray Lions as still leading with 50 points, followed by Bursaspor with 49 and Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş with 48. Don’t be fooled by that!

The simple reason is that the Bursaspor Green Crocs will be awarded a 3-0 victory and three precious points by default, sooner rather than later, after their week 24 match in Diyarbakır over the weekend was called off due to the misbehavior of Diyarbakırspor fans. The calculation is simple: 49 + 3 = 52, and that makes Bursaspor the undisputed unofficial leader.

First-half goals

Two first-half goals, by Argentine midfielder Pablo Batalla in the 11th minute and teen striker Sercan Yıldırım, who just recovered from a recurrent injury, in the 43rd, were all the Crocs needed to dethrone former leader Galatasaray

“We have the advantage now,” young Bursaspor coach Ertuğrul Sağlam said after the game. “For us, this was a must-win match to stay in contention, and we finished the job with goals in the first half,” he further stated.

“We will be playing Manisaspor and Denizlispor at home, and these are the matches we are thinking about at the moment. From now on, every match will be evaluated on a one-to-one basis. So we are not thinking about the end of the season or about Galatasaray, but about Manisaspor,” he added.

Kasımpaşa coach Yılmaz Vural heaped praise on the all-conquering Crocs. “I congratulate Bursaspor, and I hope an Anatolian team succeeds in carrying out a revolution [by winning the elusive league title],” he added.

İstanbul teams have dominated the Turkish league since its inception in 1959. Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray have won the championship 17 times each and Beşiktaş 12. Trabzonspor, the only team outside İstanbul that has ever clinched the championship, has six titles to its credit. But the saddest thing is that Trabzon last accomplished this feat in 1984.

Every season Anatolian pretenders prop up. In 2006-07 it was Vestel Manisaspor, which was relegated the following year only to return to topflight Turkish soccer this season. And last season it was Sivasspor, which is now battling the odds against relegation.

So the question every Tom, Dick and Harry is asking now is, “Can the Bursaspor Green Crocs break the Anatolian league hoodoo this season?” Too early to say for sure; time alone will tell.

Eagles keep up the pressure

Late starter Beşiktaş showed staying power by beating old nemesis İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor and proving beyond reasonable doubt that it is one of the hottest contenders for this season’s championship.

Prior to Monday, the Eagles had only beaten İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor once in their last four meetings.

On Monday the Eagles made no mistake, and goals from strikers Bobo in the 43rd and another by Filip Holosko in the 62nd moved them closer to pole position.

“The league henceforth will be very intriguing,” Beşiktaş coach Mustafa Denizli stated. “I had said earlier on that the league would start taking shape in week 30, but as you can see, it happened earlier than that,” he added.