gulay, a galatasaray fan, is the only other turkish football blogger writing in english whom i respect. she understands humour, she understands that humour is spelt with a "u" and she understands how to put the knife in, take a hit and hit back.
having said all that she is a complete and utter fraud and obviously blind to boot and she should go back to her knitting (i think that is what someone urged her to do on a blog about politics that is much more juvenile than this one).
i'm not a sexist person by nature but when it comes to attacking galatasaray and gulay i will use every weapon in the book. (by the way, am i the only person who thinks gulay wears much to much make-up for a 54 year-old).
i should also point out that i have given up smoking. four days now and this may also influence the extreme bile i am about to launch upon the referee.
spine has also given up and it was certainly a weird experience to sit down at the chopin bar and not light up. of the 13 of us gencler fans at bar only alpine kanka wolfgang was smoking... and boy did the smoke smell wonderful.
i'm not going to name everyone who came along, too boring, but i must make a special mention for smart arse yankee kanka and mrs. smart arse yankee kanka (no feminist-style differentiation between husbands and wives names here) finally managed to use their season tickets which they bought about 10 months ago. the tickets have always been put to good use throughout the season and anyone else who would like to buy a season ticket next year, and then not use it, are encouraged to contact us.
the match...
i am disgusted. not with genclerbirligi, not even with galatasaray (well, umit karan really is wanker, even if he is a former gencler player) but the referee and linespersons were the worst i have ever seen.
when we walked into the stadium today i spoke to one of the gencler fans. he said straight up that galatasaray would win because of the way that fenerbahce beat denizli last night. the referee, he said, had to be totally on galatasaray's side because otherwise the cimbom lot would cry foul.
the bloke wasn't wrong. fouls were given against us left, right and centre for absolutely nothing. offsides were given against us practically every time we were making a run.
but the knock-out blow was the absolute and complete and utter incompetence of the referee when he didn't give us a penalty. after the match we went to the cappadokia bar and watched the replay about 323 times and if this wasn't a penalty the pope must be a buddist. we are talking big, big, travesty of justice, think of lindy chamberlain, david hicks, and that bloke from eastenders who went down for a crime that every single viewer knew that he didn't commit (but whom the viewers at the same time were very happy that he was effectively written out of the soap).
how the bloody hell this referee gets another game in the top flight i don't have a bloody clue.
it was a rugby tackle, well, a pretty shit rugby tackle but still it was a bloody penalty!
referee says no, play goes on... we go on the attack, seconds left in the 1st half and we are on... the attack goes down the left and a goalscoring opportunity is on... and the fer blows his whistle for half time! wtf. this may happen in europe but in turkey the referee never blows up for half time when a real attack is on.
second half and the rain is coming down, by the way i agree with gulay that the pitch was an absolute disaster, but the rain did make it difficult to play. genclerbirligi were all over galatasaray, but once again we showed that it is impossible to win without a decent forward. scouser kanka steve (who was sitting with us kankas for the first time) mentioned at one stage that promise was a waste of space... well, anyone who has read this blog over the past two years would have the same idea.
hakan aslatas had a few shots, one which which was so wide that it went for a throw-in, not a corner, but really we never threatened the actual goal, not much anyway. we would get into position for a shot... and then fluff it.
as the rain fell and lightening filled the sky genclerbirligi played out of their socks... we were truly going for it (unlike two weeks ago) but the goal just couldn't be found.
then came the sucker punch as lincoln fired off a shot that found the back of the net.
devastated. things aren't looking good. relegation is a possibility.
we then hooked up with sir eski kanka, maniac kanka and battle-hardened kanka damon at the cappadokia bar to drown our sorrows. oktay, the owner of the bar and a genclerbirligi club member, pulled out his saz and played a number of wonderful songs... the misket was my favourite.
) 
