Wednesday, September 25, 2013

8 Things You Need to Know: Turkish Soccer Riot, the Durham Bulls and Billy Bragg on Tour in America

Here are 8 Things You Need to Know Today:

1) The 11th Annual Washington D.C. Turkish Festival gets underway this weekend. The event will take place between 12th and 14th Street, two blocks from the White House, of course, Turkish food will be served!

2) In a nationally-televised game on ESPN-U tonight at 8:00 p.m. (eastern time) the undefeated University of North Carolina Tarheels take on the North Carolina State Wolfpack (Mr. Wuf, one of the Wolfpack mascots is pictured bottom) in women's volleyball. UNC has two international players in Ece Taner, a junior from Turkey, and Jovana Bjelica, a gradate student from Serbia. The Wolfpack's lineup includes stand-out Tamm Aljoe.

3) Ivy League women's volleyball gets underway this weekend. Among the games is a match between visiting Columbia University and Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY, at 2:00 p.m. Kelly Marble of Davie, Fla., is among the seniors for Cornell.

4) A major soccer riot broke out in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday, in extra time, no less! The game featured two Istanbul powerhouse rivals, Galatasaray and Besiktas. The game had 76,000 spectators in Ataturk Stadium. The Eagles of Besiktas had a 1-0 lead going into half-time. But, Ivory Coast stand-out Didier Drogba scored two goals within minutes for the Lions of Galatasaray. Felipe Melo, (pictured top),got a red card in the 92nd minute, and shortly thereafter hooligans came down on the field. There is still no official winner of the game. Various sources blame far right wing activists disguised as Besiktas fans for the incident, but there appears to no conclusive resolve as to who is to blame. For more on this situation, and Turkish soccer, we highly recommend the blog of our friend Ahmet Bob Turgut: http://turkeyfootball.blogspot.com/

5) Kudos to the Durham Bulls of Durham, NC, (pictured middle) as the Triple-A affiliate of the Tamps Rays won its fourth International League title by besting the Pawtucket (Rhode Island) Red Sox. The team went on to the Minor League World Series, which was won by the Omaha (Nebraska) Storm Chasers. Vince Belnome of the Bulls was named as the MVP of the Rays' organization.

6) Legendary progressive singer Billy Bragg, who hails from England, takes the stage at the State Theatre in State College, Pa., which is home to Penn State University, on Oct. 2nd. The venue is located at 1300 W. College Avenue.

7) Insert Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joke here........

8) Teasers: We are hoping to post entries about tweets regarding Washington, DC, and quips from some of our favorite novels on this blog later in the week.

http://www.milb.com/index.jsp?sid=t234 (Durham Bulls)

http://www.turkish-football.com/

http://www.billybragg.co.uk/

http://www.turkishfestival.org


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