Futbol Notebook: Two Guys Get Red Cards in Dutch Soccer

Tow Dutch futbolers Ard von Peppen (pictured bottom) for Roda and Ingo van Weert for Waalwijk got red cards in domestic play over the weekend. But, the week was a much happier for Siem de Jong (pictured top), a Dutch player who is the captain of Ajax Amsterdam, as he scored two goals as did Aron Johannsson, a American national of Icelandic heritage who plays for AZ Alkmaar, a team that tied this weekend.

A third soccer player Jarchinio Antonia, a Dutch international for Go Ahead Eagles (yes, that is the name of a Dutch soccer team), kicked in two goals within a two-minute (in the 9th and 10th minutes of play).

But, the player of the week had to be Alfredo Finnbogason, an Icelandic player, as he landed a hat trick with three goals for his team Heerenveen.

Here are the complete results of Dutch weekend soccer play:

Feyenoord 2 AZ Alkmaar 2 (tie)

Nimegen 0 Ajax Amsterdam 3

Breda 2 PSV Eindhoven 1

Roda 1 Go Ahead Eagles 4

Heerenveen 5 Waalwijk 2

Zwolle 1 Twente 1 (tie)

Den Haag 3 Cambur 0

Heracles 0 Groningen 3

Vitese 3 Utrecht 1


Vites tops the league, with AZ Alkmaar in second place, followed by Ajax Amsterdam in 3rd.

There was a huge soccer game between two Istanbul powerhouses Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, for the week in Turkish soccer, visit our sister blog "The Daily Vampire": http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Futbol Notebook: Trabzonspor Wins at Home

Marc Janko, an Austrian player, and his Trabzonspor teammate Olcan Adin (Turkish player, pictured) each scored a goal as Trabzonspor, which plays in Trabzon, Turkey, a large city in the eastern Black Sea, which is a good 20-hour bus ride from Istanbul, defeated Legia Warsaw from Poland at home by a 2-0 margin.

Here is our fourth and final list of Europa League play (see "The Daily Vampire" for more scores):

Trabzonspor (Turkey) 2 Legia Warsaw (Poland) 0

D. Zagred (Croatia) 0 PSV Eindhoven (Neth.) 0 (tie)

E. Frankfurt (Germany) 2 M. Tel Aviv (Israel) 0

Ferreira (Portugal) 0 Dnipro (Ukraine) 2

Elfsborg (Sweden) 1 Esberg (Denmark) 2

Florentina (Italy) 3 Pandurii (Romania) 0

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

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

Soccer Week (4 of 8): Soccer Players with Very Very Long Lastnames

Who is this player from Georgia, a former Soviet republic, who is the captain of the Turkish team Kayserispor, which plays its home games in the central Turkish city of Kayseri? Well, you will have to find out as we don't want to spell or misspell his name more than once.

Here is the list:

1. Tarik Elyonoussi (Norwegian player or Moroccan heritage who plays for 1899 Hoffenheim in Germany)

2. Manuel Schmiedebach (German player who plays for Hannover '96 in Germany)

3. Angelis Charalambous (Cypriot player who plays for Appolon Limassol in Cyprus)

4. Zurab Khizanishvili (Georgian player who plays for Kayserispor in Turkey; he is the player pictured above...........his name is not actually the longest one we have)

5. Kamo Houhannisyan (Armenian player with Pyunik Yerevan in Armenia)

6. Javid Imamverdiyev (Azeri player with Neftci Baky in Azerbaijan)

7. Sergei Khizhinichenko (Kazak player with Shakhtar Karagandy in Kazakhstan)

8. Dinya Bilyaletdinov (Russian player with Spartak Moscow in Russia)

9. Ruslan Mukametshin (Russian player with Rubin Kazan in Russia)

10. Dzhamaldin Khozhaniyazov (Russian player with Zenit St. Petersburg in Russia)

11. Roman Pavlyuchenko (Russian player with Lokomotiv Moscow in Russia)

http://www.turkish-futbol.com

Soccer Week (3 of 8) International Players in Turkish Super Lig

There are no American players in the Turkish Premiere League as Maurice Edu of Bursaspor headed to play in the English Premiere League, but there is one Canadian. He is Atiba Hutchinson (pictured) who left PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands to play for Istanbul powerhouse Besiktash.

Here are 11 international players in Turkey:

1. Pablo Batalla (Argentina) plays for Bursspor (his name is not spelled right on the tags)
 
2. Ufuk Budak (Azerbaijan) plays for Eskisehirspor

3. Mervan Celik (Sweden) plays for Ankara Genclerbirligi

4. Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast) plays for GalataSaray

5. Anton Fernidand (England) plays for Antalyaspor

6. Atiba Hutchinson (Canada) plays for Besiktash

7. Marc Janko (Austria) plays for Trabzonspor

8. Dirk Kuyt (Netherlands) plays for Fenerbahce

9. Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands) plays for GalataSaray

10. Rodrigo Tello (Chile) plays for Eskisehirspor)

11. Abdou Traone (Burkina Faso) plays for Gaziantepspor 


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

http://turkeyfootball.blogspot.com/

Saturday Night Tweets: Political Futbol

With images of Cong. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), the Aston Villa soccer team and a map of where Kansas is in the United States, we present this entry that we're calling 'Political Futbol' since all the entries pertain to soccer or politics/political figures.

There were two major upsets in European soccer play today (the first weekend of the season) as Aston Villa shocked Arsenal 3-1, and in Turkey, Konyaspor surprised Istanbul powerhouse Fenerbahce 3-2 after being down by two goals.

The soccer team for the nation's capital here in America, D.C. United was also in action today, but they lost to their  Major League Soccer rivals from Canada, Montreal Impact.

Here are the tweets:

1. DC United @dcunited: "Final #DCU 1 Montreal Impact 2. Conor Doyle (a young player for DCU) nets his second, but it's not enough for the Black and Red."

2. Cong. Morgan Griffith (R-Va) @RepGriffith: "Rep. Griffith hit 333,333 miles on his car outside the Jonesville courthouse yesterday!" (Jonesville is in remote southwestern Virginia, far away from Griffith's hometown of Salem, Va., and even father away from Washington DC, we believe Nashville is actually closer to DC, and perhaps even Salem!).

3. Turkishsoccer.com @turkishsoccer/Ahmet Bob Turgut: First game of the season: Antalya 0 Kayseri Erciyes 0! Boring....

4. Cong. Ami Bera (@RepBera): "To everyone celbrating in India and, at home in the US, and around the world_ Happy #IndianIndependenceDay"

5. Stephen Olson (@Silent_Fusion, a soccer fan in Buffalo, NY): "Premiership is back baby! Glory Glory Man United!!!" (Manchester United won their home opener today)

6. Tom Perriello (@tomperriello, a former Democratic Congressman from Virginia): "Good to see @TerryMcAuliffe w/Bishop Campbell and Rev Avon Keene remembering Bloody Monday in Danville (Va)." (Terry McAuliffe is the Democratic candidate for governor in Virginia; Danville is a city in south central Virginia, which is 50 miles north of Greensboro, NC).

7. Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl, a Sports Illustrated writer): "Dig 3-1 win for Brad Guzan and Aston Villa at Arsenal, where the boos rain down." (Guzan is an American international playing for Aston Villa who is a goal-keeper).

8. Cong. Tim Huelskamp @CongHuelskamp: "I guess violating the 4th amendment 2776 times is ok now." (Like Griffith, Huelskamp was elected in November, 2010. He is an arch conservative representative from Kansas, one of America's most Republican states. His first district includes 63 counties, which is most of the Jayhawk state).


http://screaming-eagles.com/

http://www.americanprogress.org/about/staff/perriello-tom/bio/

http://morgangriffith.house.gov/

http://turkeyfootball.blogspot.com/

http://www.7500toholte.com/

http://www.ksdp.org/ (Kansas Democratic Party)

http://ksgop.org/ (Kansas Republican Party)

Things We Learned on Bing Today_ Sports Edition

Two Turkish soccer powerhouses GalataSaray and Trabzonspor met in weekend play with GS pulling off a 2-0 victory; a week earlier GS lost to their main Istanbul rival Fenerbahce 2-1, but GS still won the Turkish Premiere League.

And, this leads us to today's Things We Learned on Bing Today entry, all of which deal with the whole wide word of sports:

1) Selcuk Inan, 28, a Turkish national, is the current captain of GalataSaray; he wears #8 and the teams' other star players on the team include Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast) and Burak Yilmaz (Turkey), who scored a goal versus Trabzonspor. Selcuk previously played for Trabzonspor.

2) Tolga Zengin, 29, (pictured) a Turkish national, is the captain of Trabzonspor and the team's goal-tender. The team is based in Trabzon, which is located in Turkey's eastern Black Sea coast.

3) Martin Gerber, 38, a Swiss National, was the goal-tender for the Carolina Hurricanes when the team won its first and only Stanley Cup in the NHL (the world's main hockey league); Gerber now plays pro hockey in Sweden.

4) Bill Russell, 79, is the NBA basketball player who has won the most titles, all 11 came with the Boston Celtics.

5) Leanza Cornett, 41, won the Miss America beauty pageant in 1993, 20 years ago. Cornett represented Florida, but she was born in the smal town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia; in 1994, the pageant actually made news as swimsuit contestants started going barefoot as opposed to wearing cumbersome high heel shoes.


http://www.turkish-football.com

http://www.bing.com

http://www.missamerica.org

Top Ten Even More Things To Do List

1. Catch up on "Bates Motel"

2. Send out Thank You cards

3. Follow the weekend GalataSaray-Fenerbahce Turkish soccer game on Twitter

4. Return library books

5. Buy new pair of slippers

6. Make some Seattle's Best Coffee

7. See what the weather in Ankara, Turkey, is like

8. See what the weather in Portland, Maine, is like

9. Avoid Chapel Hill, NC, at all costs (UNC is having commencement this weekend)

10. Pick up the Xanax (not actually a medication we're taking!)

Kudos to the University of Maryland for Winning the ACC Lacrosse Title

The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC, is perhaps a good six-hour drive from College Park, Md., where the University of Maryland is located but the Terps came through in women's lacrosse with a 12-8 over the Tar Heels on road soil.

Abby Friend scored three goals for the home team, but it wasn't enough to hold off three goals each from Katie Schwarzmann (pictured center), Brooke Grffin, Beth Glaros and Taylor Cummings. Schwarzmann was named the tourney's most outstanding player.

The Terps (19-0) remain undefeated and the loss was one of the very few for the 'Heels (12-3); the title is the fifth straight ACC title for Maryland. 

Incidentally, in case any of you are wondering, Testudo is the mascot of Maryland, a school that is (editorial comment: foolishly) going to the Big Ten in the fall.

SIDEBAR ONE: We want to thank Jack in Truth or Consequences, N.Mex., the only town in America named after a game show. Jack was one of the supporters who called in a pledge to the non-profit progressive tv channel Link-TV today; we sense if Link-TV had given his last name, he might find himself on Gov. Susana Martinez's 'enemies list.' She is, after all, a Republican.

SIDEBAR TWO: We also want to thank today's day sponsor (yes, we are making this up, no one sponsors us!) the Cafe Evolution, a vegetarian cafe in Florence, Mass. We are curious to know if they serve shish kebab without any meat!

SIDEBAR THREE: One sport that the Terps might have trouble with in the Big Ten, particularly since they don't have a team in the sport, is women's hockey. But, we sense that if the Terps had a team on the ice, they would probably lose quite often to the Minnesota Golden Gophers, a team that went a very impressive 41-0-0. The Gophers won a NCAA title in women's hockey on their home ice with a 6-3 win over Boston University several weeks ago.

Amanda Kessel of the Gophers was named the most outstanding player in college women's hockey.

There is now a petition to have the Gophers visit the White House, and a joint letter from Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Al Franken (D-Minn.) was written on their behalf.

SIDEBAR FOUR: Starting tomorrow, we will start Soccer Week. It was a good week for Istanbul powerhouse Fenerbahce, the arch rival of our beloved GalataSaray. The Canaries won a home UEFA game over Benefica of Portugal 1-0 on a goal from veteran Turkish player Egemen Korkmaz.

In domestic play, Fenerbahce won over Kayserispor 2-1 thanks to goals from two of the team's star players Dirk Kuyt of the Netherlands and Cristian Baroni of Brazil.

http://www.umterps.com

http://www.gopherssports.com

http://www.cafe-evolution.com

http://www.linktv.org

French Soccer Results (from weekend of March 15-17)

In French futbol, Paris St. Germain is the hot team right now as they get ready for the daunting task of facing Spanish soccer power Barcelona FC in the next round of the UEFA Champions League. But, domestically, the team hit a bit of a snag during the weekend of March 15-17 when they tied Saint-Etienne 2-2. PSG had an early goal Argentinian national Javier Pastore (9th min.)

In other league games, Djamel Bakar (pictured here) helped his team Nancy-Lorraine to a 1-0 win over OGC Nice with a goal in the 23rd minute.

A lone goal from Mohamed Fofana (32nd min.) also gave Stad de Reins a 1-0 victory over Stade Bertois 29.

In the process of putting this entry together, we found that PSG has a Brazilian named Alex, but he is not the same Brazilian soccer player Alex who up until this season was with Fenerbahce in the Turkish Premiere League.

In case, you are wondering, the below image is of French comic book icon Asterix.

Here are the results in the French League, which include two lop-sided scores:


Olympique de Marseille 0 AC Ajaccio 0, tie

FC Lorent 4 Stade Berstois 0

SC Bastia 4 Olympique Lyonnais 1

Evian 2 LOSC Lille 1

Montpellier Herault 1 ESTAC Troyes 1, tie

Sochaux-Montbeliard 1 Valenciennes 1, tie

Stad de Reims 1 Stade Rennais 0

Nancy-Lorraine 1 OGC Nice 0

Toulouse 0 Girandis de Bordeaux 0, tie

PSG 2 Saint-Etienne 2, tie
http://www.ligue1.com

Quote of the Day/Week- Drew Brees

When I was a kid in 1979, I recall seeing a newspaper photograph of New Orleans Saints fans wearing bags over their heads as the team was playing dismal football.

But, thanks to current Saints quarterback Drew Brees, 33, who ironically helped the team win the Super Bowl in 2010 by defeating the Indianapolis Colts, whose quarterback is Peyton Manning_ the son of the legendary Saints quarterback Archie Manning, no one wears bags over their heads at the Superdome any more.

Brees played college football for Purdue University in Indiana, and he is originally from Austin, Texas. Here is his quip:

"We found something was working....and, we stuck with it."

SIDEBAR: Since there are sitting members of the U.S. Congress, including Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC), a conservative Democrat who stated he was stepping down at the end of his term this year, who were once pro athletes, it may seem like the odd mixture of sports and politics is a uniquely American team.

But, in Turkey, my late father's country, that is definitely not the case.

In fact, Turkey's current prime minister, the politically conservative Recep Tayyip Erdogan (whom I oppose politically) was once a soccer player for the Istanbul team Kasimpasa, now playing in the second division. The team actually now plays its games in what is now Recep Tayyip Erdogan Stadium.

Two of Turkey's soccer legends Tanju Colak and Hakan Sukur, who both played for Istanbul powerhouse GalataSaray (Tanju also played for that team's main rival Fenerbahce), both members of Erdogan's AK-Party, have made efforts to enter the Turkish parliament.

SIDEBAR TWO: As Al Pacino, whose films seem to always perform well at the Turkish box office, said in "The Godfather, Part III," regarding the mafia: "I wanted to get out, but they kept dragging me back in."

The same could be said for Turkish soccer, which has not generated as many blog hits from Turkey as I would like (but, we are popular in Slovenia?!).

But, there have been some interesting developments in the Turkish Premiere League, both domestically and in European play.

Yesterday, Istanbul powerhouse Besiktas beat the Portuguese team Braga in Portugal 2-0 with a goal coming from the Portuguese player Simao Sabrosa (who plays for the Turkish team). Over the weekend, Besiktas tied SivasSpor 1-1 in domestic play.

GalataSaray, which did not qualify for European play, beat KayseriSpor 1-0 over the weekend on a goal from Brazilian player Felipe Melo in the 32nd minute.

Our favorite team BursaSpor was also victorious as they beat MainsaSpor 3-1 in part from a goal from Gokcek Vederson, a Brazilian national who not only obtained Turkish citizenship, but also changed his named (Gokcek is a Turkish name).

SIDEBAR 3: Cross-cultural players have actually become the norm in European soccer, especially in Turkey. PM Erdogan's former team Kasimpasa beat second league-rival Karsiyaka (Izmir) 1-0 on a last-minute goal from Halil Colak, a Turkish player born in Holland who is classified as a Turkish national.

Kasimpasa also features Azar Karadas, a Norwegian-born player of Turkish heritage. He is a Norwegian national.

Lastly, this team which is in second place in their league, features Ali Bilgin, a German-born player of Turkish heritage who plays for........Germany.

Sports Desk- Updates on Turkish, Greek and English Futbol

Since we congratulated the UCLA Bruins for winning the NCAA women's volleyball title last night, we are putting together all the soccer info we've gathered from weekend action here in this one entry.

Let's start in the Turkish Premier League where two of the three Istanbul powerhouses sitting on top of the league standings once again Galatasaray and Fenerbahce won their matches. The third powerhouse team Besiktas drew a 1-1 tie.

For Galatasaray, in the team's 2-0 victory over Orduspor, the goals came from Milan Baros (22nd minute) and Kazim Kazim (67th min.).

In Fenerbahce's 1-0 win over Trabzonspor, the lone goal in the match came from Mehmet Topuz (pictured). He scored in the 24th minute of play, and it was yet another shut-out for Volkan Demirel, the star goalie for Fenerbahce who plays the same position for the Turkish national team.

In Sunday action in England, Russian player Roman Palychenko, who should make our next long and difficult names list, scored the lone in the 61st minute to lead Tottenham past Sunderland 1-0. The Russian came into the match as a substitute in the 22nd minute of the game.

Additionally, EPL-leading Manchester City scored a 1-0 win over Arsenal thanks to goal from Spanish superstar David Silva in the 53rd minute of play.

In the UEFA Champions League, two English teams will be in the knock-out round of
16, including Chelsea as they face Napoli. Arsenal, the other English team in that particular group, will play an Italian team as well in AC Milan.

Ironically, neither Turkey nor Greece has a team in the Champions League round of
16, but there will be two teams each from both countries in the UEFA Europa League, but Cyprus, a tiny island country that lead Turkey and Greece to fight a brief, but ugly war in 1974, has a team in the Champions round as APOEL will face the French power Lyon.

While researching this piece, we were also stunned to learn that there is a Turkish player named Erol Bulut (born in Germany) who plays for the Greek team OFI Crete.

Here are the results of weekend play;

Turkey:

Galatasaray 2 Orduspor 0
Ankaragucu 0 Gaziantepspor 0, tie
Idman Yurdu (Mersin) 5 Karabukspor 3
Eskisehir 1 Kayseri 0
Bursaspor 0 Antalyaspor 0, tie
Istanbul BB 1 Sivasspor 1, tie
Ankara GB 1 Manisa 0
Besiktas 1 Samsunspor 1, tie
Fenerbahce 1 Trabzonspor 0

Greece (partial list):

Panathinaikos (Athens) 3 Asteras 1
PAOK Salonika 2 Doxa Dramas 0
Atromitos 1 AEK Athens 0
Olympiacos 2 PAS Giannia 0
OFI Crete 0 Kerkyra 0, tie

England (Sunday games only):

Manchester United 2 Queens Park 0
Liverpool 2 Aston Villa 0
Tottenham 1 Sunderland 0
Manchester City 1 Arsenal 0

Turkish, Greek and English teams in the Europa League and their match-ups, with games starting in mid-February:

FC Porto (Portugal) vs. Manchester City

Machester United vs. Ajax Amsterdam (Holland)

Rubin Kazan (Russia) vs. Olympiacos

PAOK vs. Udinese (Italy)

Besiktas vs. Braga (Portugal)

Trabzonspor vs. PSV Eindhoven (Holland)

Sports Desk- Women's NCAA Volleyball Tourney Begins

The University of Hawaii Rainbow (picture; 29-1) will be among the 64 teams seeking the NCAA Women's national championship in volleyball. The team will start play in Honolulu against the University of Northern Colorado Bears. Among the standouts for Hawaii are Kanani Danielson, Emily Maeda and Jane Croson. The Rainbow have won 24 games in a row; the Bears have not played in Hawaii since 2003.

Eight teams from the Big 10 made the field as did five teams from the PAC 12, including Oregon, which will play against Colorado State in Honolulu.

The more familiar UNC, the school in Chapel Hill, NC, will head all the way out to Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., to face the University of California. Last week, the Cal Bears upset sixth-ranked Stanford thanks to Tarah Murray, who was named Pac 12 Player of the Week. But, the Bears will face a solid challenge from the Tarheels as the team features Cameron Von Noy, the ACC Freshman of the year. And, three All ACC players in Kaylie Gibson, Emily McGee and Chaniel Nelson. The two teams play at 5:00 p.m. (esatern time) on Dec. 1.

Two of the other three ACC schools in the field of 64 include both Florida State and Miami (Fl).

The Seminoles actually get to host their first round game against the University of Albany. The 'Noles have perhaps the most internationally diverse squad in the field as their roster includes the likes of Duygu Duzceler and Fatma Yildirim (both from Turkey), Rachael Morgan (New Zealand), Patricia Fiqueriedo (Brazil) as well as two players from Serbia and one from Latvia. Their opponents, the Great Danes, lead by senior Brooke Stanley also have a player from Croatia. That game will take place on Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m.

Their conference and in-state rivals Miami (Fl) travel to Ames, Iowa (Iowa State University), to face Northern Illinois. The Hurricanes team includes ACC Player of the Year Lane Carico.

The top four teams in the field are Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa State and Texas. The national championship game will be played on Dec. 17th in San Antonio, Texas.

In the whoops department, we misinformed the public by saying that my alma mater Radford University had won the Big South Tournament in Charleston, SC, several days ago. It was in fact our arch rivals, the Liberty Flames, that won the tournament. But, the team from Lynchburg, Va., now has the challenge of facing defending four-time NCAA champion Penn State on the Nittany Lions' home floor.

SIDEBAR: Since we have many blog readers in Turkey, at least as of late (I am a Turkish-American), I thought it would be good to run a list of scores from this weekend's soccer action. In what was arguably the game of the week, Istanbul powerhouse Besiktas beat Trabzonspor 1-0. A feat that is made more impressive because Trabzonspor is playing Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League at the moment.

Here is a partial list of other scores from the Turkish Premiere League:

Samsunspor 1 Antalyaspor 0
GalataSaray 2 Sivasspor 1
Ankara GB 0 Fenerbahce (Istanbul) 0
Karabukspor 2 Bursaspor 0

Quote of the Week- Steffi Graf

Today, we are quoting two German tennis legends on our two blogs (Boris Becker is the other). Here, we are quoting women's tennis great Steffi Graf, now 42 and married to famed American tennis player Andre Agassi, who is a year younger than his wife (Agassi and I are the same age).

Graf, a 22 grand slam event winner, literally made a splash when she sported a bathing suit for the swimsuit issue of "Sports Illustrated," which put her alongside the likes of swimsuit models, such as Vendela and Elle MacPherson.

Those lines for female athletes between sporting talent and sexual appeal has been even more blurred in recent years as partial nude photographs of gymnast Alicia Sacramone and women's soccer goalie Hope Solo were featured an recent issue of "ESPN" magazine.

Here is Graff's quote:

"It's so difficult to find times besides the tennis."

SIDEBAR: One of the downsides of having two blogs is that I often don't get to read the blogs of my own friends, so I heartily recommend my friend Chris Knight's blog "The Knight Shift," which is www.theknightshift.blogspot.com, which has well over a million hits!

SIDEBAR 2: Since we had an entry about Turkish soccer yesterday, we wanted to mention that Trabzonspor scored a 1-1 tie with Italian powerhouse Inter Milan at home in Trabzon, Turkey, today. The home team's goal came from Halil Altintop.

Halil's twin brother Hamit Altintop as his team Real Madrid decked the Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb 6-2 with goals from Karim Benzema, Gonzalo Higuain, Jose Callejon and Mesut Ozil, who like the Altintop twins is a Turkish player who grew up in Germany (Ozil plays for Germany; the Altintop twins play for Turkey).

In other games, Bayern Munich beat the Spanish team Villarreal 3-1, and the Swiss team FC Basel triumphed over the Romanian team Otelul Galati in a high-scoring 3-2 affair.

Sports Desk- Disappointing Big Game in Turkish Soccer

The major Turkish soccer game of the week was yesterday's clash between two Istanbul powerhouse rivals, Galatasaray and Besiktas, but in spite of all the hype, the game ended in 0-0 tie.

But, some teams in the league scored major victories. This included Bursaspor (pictured here) which scored a 1-0 home win in Bursa over Samsunspor today with a goal from Moroccan national player Michael Chretien, who previously played for the French team Nancy, in the 72nd minute.

In other games, Liberian national Tonia Tisdell scored the game-winner in the 74th minute for Ankara Gucu in the team's 2-1 win over Karabukspor.

For traditional soccer power Fenerbahce (Istanbul) Cameroonian national player Henri Bienvenu scored the game-winner early in the 14th minute over Eskisehirspor in the team's 1-0 win.

And, second place Trabzonspor, which is also competing in the UEFA Cup, tied the port city of Mersin's Idmanyurdu team 1-1. Turkish national player Giray Kacar scored for Trabzonspor and Brazilian Andre Moritz scored for Idmanyurdu.

Here are the complete results:

Trabzonspor 1 Idman Yurdu (Mersin) 1

Bursaspor 1 Samsunspor 0

Galatasaray 0 Besiktas 0

Fenerbahce 1 Eskisehirspor 0

Ankara Gucu 2 Karabukspor 1

Kayserispor 1 Orduspor 0

Gaziantepspor 1 Manisaspor 1

Antalyaspor 2 Istanbul BB 1

Sivasspor 1 Ankara Genclerbirligi 1

Things We Learned on Google Today- Ajax Amsterdam Has Won It All

Today, we continue our look at soccer teams around the world (most entries have been for European teams), which has been on both of my blogs. And, we move to the Netherlands/Holland, where we asked the might Google: How many domestic titles has Ajaz Amsterdam won?

The answer is an astonishing 30 Dutch Premiere League titles dating back to the 1917-18 season (the team was founded in 1900). The latest title was won by last year's team.

This seaon Ajax Amsterdam is participating in the UEFA Champions League where they are currently in third place in Group D, behind Real Madrid (Spain) and Lyon (France), but they are ahead of last place Dynamo Zagreb (Croatia).

Over the weekend, in domestic play, Ajax Amsterdam tied AZ Alkmaar 2-2. Their next Dutch game will against rival Feyenoord Rotterdam in a game that will be played on Oct. 23 at 6:30 a.m., New York time (yikes!).

The team captain for Ajax Amsterdam is Belgian defender Jan Vertonghen, 24, (pictured) and the co-captain is Dutch mid-fielder Theo Janssen, 30. The team also consists of many star players, including Uruguayan Nicolas Lodeiro.

On an interesting note, while researching this piece, we saw that Aras Ozbilis, 20, was on the team's roster. We don't know all the details of his personal history. But, Ozbilis is a person of Armenian heritage who was born in the Bakirkoy suburbs of Istanbul, not far from where my late Turkish aunt resided. He apparently moved to the Netherlands with his family. And, earlier in the week, he was rewarded with Armenian citizenship which will make him eligible to play for the Armenian national team.

On a personal note, I want to wish the Turkish soccer team Trabzonspor from Trabzon, Turkey, a city in the eastern Black Sea region, well. The team is currently on top of Group B in UEFA play. Domestically, Trabzonspor beat Ankara Gucu 3-2 over the weekend. Goalie and team captain Tolga Zengin has been helping his team in their early successes so far.

We also learned that my two favorite teams BursaSpor and GalataSaray met this weekend, with GalataSaray prevailing 2-1. On Youtube, there is apparently a video of Kobe Bryant trying to kick a penalty kick against GalataSary goalie Ufik Ceylan while on a visit to Istanbul.

SIDEBAR: We forgot to mention in our last entry that Barry Manilow is playing a regular gig at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas from now until at least the end of the time.

SPORTS SIDEBAR: Since we mention the University of North Carolina Tarheels' succesful week of play in women's volleyball, we thought it was only fair to give equal time no not to the Duke BlueDevils, but the 'other UNC.' That would be the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo. Ironically, I saw a bumper sticker for that school during a visit to Chapel Hill a few years ago.

The UNC in Greeley, Colo., call themselves the Bears and their volleyball won a home match in straight sets thanks 15 kills from Amanda Arterburn.

My alma mater Radford University in Radford, Va., also had a solid week in women's volleyball action as they won home games over both Charleston Southern (in straight sets) and Coastal Carolina (a five-set nail-bitter).

Carly Fleming lead the Highlanders with 15 kills against Coastal Carolina for the major Big Conference win.

PSA- I Need a Job

About six weeks ago, my mom got me "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare," which she found at a very resonable price at a yard sale. The book does indeed contain all 35 of William Shakespeare's plays. And, since I have alas lost my teaching job because of funding cuts, I actually might have time to read "The Merchant of Venice" and "Taming of the Shrew."

But, of course, I am hoping to find employment and put off reading Shakespeare, the great artist that he is, for some other time.

So, I am asking anyone who comes across this entry irregardless if they are in Los Angeles, Cleveland or perhaps even Dubai, if they know of employment opportunities in education, journalism or translation work (I am 90 percent fluent in Turkish).

The three states where I would prefer to work are North Carolina, Virginia or Maryland, but if the job of my dreams is in a far-away place like Logan, Utah, I will have to simply 'jump on the bus,' or perhaps even become a bus driver!

For those of you with jobs and within traveling distance of Staunton, Va., which is halfway between Washington, DC, and Roanoke, I highly recommend going to the American Shakespeare Center.

The troupe is currently performing "Henry V," "The Tempest" and "Hamlet." All productions are 'curtain up' until late November.

SIDEBAR: Alas, my beloved BursaSpor in Bursa, Turkey, lost a home game to traditional Istanbul powerhouse Besiktas (pronounced Beshiktash in English) by a 2-1 score. But, we wish the crocodiles well this season. Yes, that is actually BursaSpor's nickname even though there are no crocodiles that we know of in Turkey, though there could be some at the Ankara Zoo.

Finally, I thought soccer rivalries were pretty intense in Turkey, where in one game just a few days ago involving another Istanbul powerhouse Fenerbahce was played 'in front of women and children spectators only.' That game with Manisaspor ended in a
1-1 tie.

But, perhaps the ugliest soccer rivalry in Europe is in Glasgow, Scotland, where Rangers and Celtic fans go at each other's throats, literally! The two teams, which are divided along ethnic and religious lines (Rangers fans are Protestants, Celtic fans are Catholic), played each other in the first of five meetings (?!) over the weekend.

According to the BBC, there were some nasty clashes after the game that Rangers won by a 4-2 score on two goals from Steven John Naismith, Nikica Jealvic and Kyle Rafferty. Perhaps, their next game should be played 'in front of women and children spectators only.'

Turkish Soccer Results....

It has been a busy hectic week, and it's only Monday?!

Anyway, it is for this very reason, that we are putting off some other blog entry projects until a day when life is as slow as it on a Sunday afternoon in War, West Virginia, in the far southwestern part of the state which is perhaps a good place to go (aside from an asylum or a prison) if you want to read all 1,225 pages of Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace" in its entirety!

So, with that in mind, let's turn to sport as they say on the BBC, and here are the results from weekend action in the Turkish Premiere League. I should note that my late father came from Turkey, and since his favorite team was GalataSaray, I know he would want me to jeer those who root for their arch rival Fenerbahce, but alas those fill-in-the-blank Yellow Canaries** won as well!:


Kayseri 1 Eskisehir 1

Istanbul BB 1 Antalya 1

Gaziantep 1 Manisa 0

Ankara Genclerbrligi 2 Konya 1

Trabzon 2 Bucaspor 1

GalataSaray 3 Kasimpasha 1

Fenerbahce 1 Karabukspor 0

Sivas 1 Ankaragucu 1

It should be noted that the game between the BursaSpor Crocodiles* (yes, we don't think there are any crocs in Turkey, not even at the Ankara Zoo!) and the Besiktash Black Eagles was cancelled. We presume, given the fervent passion of the fans on both sides, it was for security reasons. Elif Batuman, a fellow Turkish-American I've never met, wrote an excellent, haunting piece about Besiktash fans for "The New Yorker" several issues ago. Amazingly enough, Che Guevara is one of the fans' icons! Since many of the most fervent soccer fans in Turkey are a bit right-wing, this came as quite a surprise to me!

And, as a gesture of ethnic political goodwill, which will of course do absolutely nothing to ease tensions between us Turks and our Armenian friends, I will mention that the three teams atop the Armenian Premiere League are Ulisses, Gandzasar and Pyunik.

As I jokingly tell my friends who have neither ethnic background, if a Turk and an Armenian happen to come across each other at a Buddhist temple during a mutual tourist visit to Bhutan, yes they would probably go at it!

But, as far as the dispute we have with our Greek comrades over who has the better yogurt and feta cheese, well, of course, it is us Turks! Of course, I'm overlooking the fact that an Egyptian friend of mine said that Bulgarians were actually better at making these products than either of us.


*-There is actually a notorious man-eating crocodile named Gustave in the central African country of Burundi; I wonder how that country's tourism department gets around that!

**- Yes, Turkish soccer teams have nickanmes which are almost as strange as some minor league baseball teams--my favorite nickname is the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers who are based in Appleton, Wisc., where there might be six people of Turkish and Armenian heritage combined!

Sunday Sports Desk

All the talk in this part of the country, well between Maryland and South Carolina, has been on the Duke-UNC game in Chapel Hill last night in which the UNC Tarheels defeated the Duke Bluedevils 81-67.

But, we wanted to congratulate the UNC-Asheville Bulldogs for winning the Big South championship over Coastal Carolina University by a 60-47 score in Conway, SC (Myrtle Beach) yesterday.

My alma mater Radford University and my mom's alma mater Winthrop University are also Big South teams, so I always hope they do well in the NCAA tourney, as Winthrop did a few years back. Of course, it would be nice if Radford could win the tourney every year!

We also like to keep tabs on Turkish soccer (my late father was from Turkey) even though I haven't watched a game in two years. This weekend, the scores were as follows: Manisa 2 Kayseri 1; Ankaragucu 2 Konya 0; Gaziantep 3 Sivas 1; Eskisehir 1 Bucaspor 0; Bursaspor 1 Istanbul BB 1 (tie); GalataSaray (Istanbul) 0 KDCK 0 (tie); Trabzonspor 2 Besiktash (Istanbul) 1.

For more info, on the games, you can check out Ahmet Bob Turgut's Twitter feed at (twitter.com/turkish soccer).

Lastly, our very favorite sport is women's collegiate gymnastics and there were many meets of interest this weekend.

Due to space and time constraints, we will focus on just two of them.

For starters, Florida (#1) edged Utah (#5) in Salt Lake City thanks to stand-out performances from Gator gymnasts Alaina Johnson, Marissa King and Mackenzie Caquatta.

But, for the home team Utes, Fumina Kobayashi and Cortni Beers finished in a three-way tie for first place on the balance beam with Ashanne Dickerson of Florida, who also scored a 9.9 on vault.


And, our home state North Carolina State Wolfpack gymnastics team won a key road meet over Pittsburgh today thanks to a stand-out performance from Jess Panza, who scored a 9.925 on the balance beam. Panza's score was the highest single event score for a Wolfpack gymnast this season.

The image above, by the way, is of the late, great Howard Cosell (1918-1995) who would have perhaps been horrified to find out that in 2011, due to modern technology, there are many more things to do on a Monday night than watch NFL football on tv. In fact, if one desires, they can play World of the Witchcraft with their 'friends' in Australia for 48 hours in a row.

Yeah, I think that's a bad idea too, but those guys (well, I suppose women can get addicted to WOTWC too) do make us bloggers appear to be people who have real lives.

Special Quote of the Week- Debi Thomas

Today, in our special edition of quotes from active and retired African-American athletes, we are focusing on two athletes who have become succesful in traditionally white, sub-urban sports. On our other blog, we have a quip from Freddy Adu, an American soccer play now playing for Rizespor in Turkey.

But, here we focus on Olympic and World Champion ice skater Debi Thomas who won a bronze medal at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Thomas also won gold at the 1986 world championships.

Nowadays, Thomas continues to be active in another arena as a physician.

In 2010, Thomas was one of a select number of American doctors who travelled to Nepal to assist poor local women suffering from arthritis who were in need of joint replacement surgery.

Here is the quote from Thomas:

"I just thought it was magical having to glide across the ice."

SIDEBAR: Tonight on most PBS stations here in the United States, one can watch a special edition of the documentary show "Frontline" which focuses on the recent revolutionary changes which brought an end to Hosni Mubarak's 30-year reign in Egypt. The special focuses on the young people who brought about the change, including Gigi Ibrahim, 24, who has become an Internet sensation with an unholy amount of followers of Twitter. Ibrahim is also among the activists who are going to be on the cover of an upcoming "Time" magazine issue that also looks at the events in Egypt.