This year, we’re going through a very different period due to the pandemic. First, soccer games were postponed in March and resumed on 12 June. In this rushed league, Başakşehir won the championship for the first time in Turkish history.
Amidst all this, on 21 June, I wrote an article titled “Our Soccer Super League has started, is it a good thing?”: https://www.serhansuzer.com/tr/futbol-super-ligimiz-basladi-hayirli-olsun-mu
Galatasaray: From the best to the worst in the league…
In this article, I briefly criticized the league’s restart in the COVID-19 environment and hoped for Galatasaray or Trabzonspor to win the championship. Of course, my favorite team, Galatasaray, was a strong contender for the title before the league was postponed, but after the league resumed, it plummeted to a record low, finishing in 6th place. It’s worth questioning how we went from being the league’s best-playing team before the pandemic to the league’s worst after the league break. This situation hurt me, as did all Galatasaray fans. I hope the necessary lessons were learned, but the signals coming from the team, the decisions made, and the pre-league transfers weren’t encouraging. I’ll write more about this later. Galatasaray isn’t the focus of this article.
Another strong contender for the championship, Trabzonspor also failed to win.
The other major contender for the championship, my mother’s hometown, Trabzonspor, in my opinion, had the strongest squad in the league. We should congratulate President Ahmet Ağaoğlu and the entire Trabzonspor management for their success in building such a team with such a small budget. After many years, they exemplified good governance at Trabzonspor. However, they too failed to achieve the desired result. In a head-to-head race with Başakşehir, Başakşehir won the race. I believe the difference in managerial style was evident here. Had Trabzonspor continued with Ünal Karaman, I don’t think they would have achieved their second-place finish.
For some reason, I can’t sympathize with Başakşehir, which is affiliated with Bahçeşehir, a club my father designed and built from scratch. The fact that their stadium bears the name of Fatih Terim, a Galatasaray fan, doesn’t make me sympathetic either. I think the artificial team atmosphere plays a big part in this. The one thing that shines at Başakşehir, in my opinion, and that garners our sympathy, is that their manager, Okan Buruk.
I know Okan personally, a good Galatasaray fan. We’ve had dinner together. Beyond being a good manager, he’s also a good person. His status as one of Turkish soccer’s rare talents, and his rise to become one of Turkey’s best managers, gives him a rare status. Şenol Güneş, Ertuğrul Sağlam, Aykut Kocaman, and Hamza Hamzaoğlu were the only four players in the history of the Super League to have won championships both as players and as managers. Okan Buruk joins them as the fifth player.
Okan Buruk’s soccer achievements
Those too young to remember. Okan was like Turkey’s Maradona. He made an incredible debut, especially during the Feldkamp era. He had a remarkable ability to decimate players with his incredible dribbles, and his finishing was also exceptional. Beyond being an incredibly talented midfielder, he also scored some truly beautiful goals. Despite all these brilliant qualities, he always maintained his modesty, playing solid defense and showing everyone that he was a part of his team. Okan’s shine was extinguished by Trabzonspor’s Soner Tolungüç, aka “Soner the Butcher,” who broke his leg. Here’s the moment Okan’s leg was broken:
Okan Buruk returned to the field and played another excellent performance, always striving to do his best and contributing greatly to his team, but his dribbles with the ball at his feet faded. This experience led to a change in his soccer style, driven by a desire to always have a firmer footing. Of course, with his career achievements such as 6 league championships, 1 UEFA Cup, 1 UEFA Super Cup, 3 Turkish Cups, and a 3rd-place finish in the 2002 World Cup, he has earned his place among the players with the greatest careers in Turkish soccer.
You can find the details of Okan’s playing career at this link: https://www.mackolik.com/futbolcu/okan-buruk/kupalar/4vbdhm78ppd5zkw3zix6vffth
I’d also like to share Okan’s national team goals to better understand the kind of player he is:
Okan’s Coaching Career
Okan Buruk started his managerial career well. Despite performing well with Elazığspor in the 2013-2014 season, he failed to keep his team relegated. After a series of unsuccessful roles, Okan managed Gaziantepspor, Sivasspor, and Göztepe, but never quite achieved the breakthrough he desired. Okan achieved his first major success in the 2017-2018 season, winning the Turkish Cup with Akhisar. Despite this success, he bid farewell to the club at the end of the season.
When I was the manager of Akhisar, I told my close circle that Okan was a very good manager with room for improvement, and that he had significantly improved both the quality of his play and the winning performance of every team he managed. I even questioned why Fatih Terim hadn’t noticed Okan and why he hadn’t considered developing him as his assistant.
He then took over Çaykur Rizespor in the seventh week of the league and began his tenure with the Fenerbahçe game. Having only three points when he took over and having finished the first half of the season in last place, Çaykur Rizespor recorded 11 wins, 12 draws, and 9 losses in 32 games, finishing the season in 11th place with 41 points. In other words, Çaykur Rizespor, which was considered a relegation-prone team when he took over, secured a consecutive point haul in the second half of the season, securing a mid-table finish.
Following this success, he transferred to Başakşehir. Başakşehir, which was expected to collapse after Abdullah Avcı, was on the verge of collapse. On the contrary, he brought it to its first championship. After Okan Buruk’s transfer, I kept telling everyone around me, “Watch Başakşehir closely; they’ll challenge for the championship.” They won the championship.
Surprising standings in the last eight games
Following a break in Week 26 in March this year, games resumed on 12 June, completing the remaining eight-week series. This series has created a very interesting picture. Following the pandemic break, we see the following standings in the games played:
1- Başakşehir – 13 points
2- Kasımpaşa – 13 points
3- Beşiktaş – 12 points
4- Antalyaspor – 11 points
5- Kayserispor – 10 points
6- Gaziantep FK – 10 points
7- Fenerbahçe – 10 points
8- Trabzonspor – 9 points
9- Alanyaspor – 8 points
10- Sivasspor – 8 points
11- Gençlerbirliği – 8 points
12- Yeni Malatya – 7 points
13- Rizespor – 7 points
14- Konyaspor – 7 points
15- Ankaragücü – 6 points
16- Denizlispor – 4 points
17- Göztepe – 2 points
18- Galatasaray – 2 points
At the end of the season, Başakşehir led the league with 69 points. Trabzonspor followed with 65 points. Galatasaray, who hadn’t won a single game in a 24-point streak and earned only 2 points, completely exhausted their previous loan and finished 6th in the league with 56 points. For detailed standings, please click https://www.eurosport.com.tr/futbol/super-lig/2019-2020/standing.shtml . Furthermore, for some reason, relegation was abolished due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We witnessed such a dramatic season.
2020-21 Season with Its Firsts
Play began this week in the 2020-21 season. The previous season concluded with the Kasımpaşa-Başakşehir game on 2July 26, followed by a 47-day break, and the 2020-2021 season began on 11 September. The 248-day season, featuring 21 teams from 14 provinces across Turkey and a total of 420 games, will conclude on Sunday, 16 May 2021. The first half will conclude with the 21st week of games on 24 January 2021. The second half of the league will begin with the 22nd week of games on 29 January 2021 and conclude on 16 May.
Since relegation was abolished last season, the league will be played with 21 teams this season, and four teams will be relegated. In other words, MKE Ankaragücü, Hes Kablo Kayserispor, and Yeni Malatyaspor, all of whom finished in the relegation zone last season, will also be in the league in the new season. Joining last season’s teams are Hatayspor, Büyükşehir Belediye Erzurumspor, and Fatih Karagümrük, who all achieved promotion from the 1st League to the Super League. Of the past 62 seasons in the Super League, 31 were played with 18 teams, 20 with 16 teams, 4 with 20 teams, 3 each with 17 and 19 teams, and one with 22 teams. Because there are 21 teams in the league, one team will go through each week without playing. Games for the first nine weeks will be played during the week.
Due to the pandemic, games in the first half of the Super League season will be played behind closed doors.
The first clue is from the Çaykur Rizespor-Fenerbahçe game.
I haven’t watched games since last year because they’re not enjoyable. I only follow the results and goals on https://www.flashscore.com.tr/ . I recommend it. The other day, I looked at the score of the first game of the 2020-21 season. Çaykur Rizespor was leading 1-0. I thought Fenerbahçe would win this game 2-1 (my predictions usually come true). I looked at the score again at the end of the evening. Bingo. Fenerbahçe scored two goals and won the game. Looking at the goals made me laugh. A header that missed the net (it wasn’t clear from the video I watched whether it was a goal or not; it probably was, but it was clearly a forced goal) and one of the most fake penalties I’ve ever seen summed up the state of our soccer. You can watch the game highlights at https://tr.beinsports.com/haber/caykur-rizespor-fenerbahce-5 . You can also see the moment the fake penalty was awarded towards the end of the video.
Despite Galatasaray winning competitive games fairly, Çaykur Rizespor President Hasan Kartal, who has been the cause of serious injuries to three of Galatasaray’s most valuable players in two home games (Emre Akbaba and Fernando Muslera suffered broken legs, and Florin Andone tore his right anterior cruciate ligament), was notable for his remarks, even after the clearly flawed penalty decision against him in the Fenerbahçe game. To help you visualize the soccer terror that has been created, I’m sharing these injury moments one by one:
It’s clear. This year, the focus will once again be on referees and numerous off-field factors rather than soccer. It’s a shame.
We’re all experiencing serious difficulties due to the pandemic, and the future of popular team sports like soccer is uncertain. Let’s at least avoid attributing meaning to soccer beyond its mere sporting competition and turning it into forced, cancerous events that could have significant benefits for society.
As you may know, American show wrestling is played according to a script. In other words, which fighter will win, even the moves they will make during the fight, and the drama they will inflict are all predetermined and scripted from the outset. Frankly, I fear Turkish soccer will become more like American wrestling. I hope it doesn’t go that far.
Bad signals at the start of the season
We keep saying these things, but to no avail. We received all sorts of bad signals at the start of the season:
– Soccer clubs’ debts continue to rise. Struggling to maintain financial sustainability, soccer clubs are not only failing to comply with the limits set to manage this situation but instead are making incessant transfers out of a desire to compete. We will soon witness soccer clubs facing bankruptcy. They will beg the government for help, but this latest effort won’t prevent the inevitable. This situation, brought on by past mismanagement, will be a blow to the current management. I believe that clubs’ significant debts (some in the billions of Turkish Lira) should be divided among former board members, with those on the boards assuming the debt. This would be a good lesson for former executives who spent years showcasing their clubs and deriving various benefits from them. Since financial revenues have significantly decreased during the pandemic, ensuring sustainability has become much more difficult. Clubs need to be extra creative to increase their financial revenues during this period. They also need to plug all the holes that are causing financial losses for the clubs and maintain a strong grasp on everything.
– Emre Belözoğlu’s excessive ambition, leading to attacks left and right about transfers, fueled by the pro-government press, fueled Fenerbahçe fans and angered fans of other teams. For example, we witnessed him seducing a player signed by Galatasaray, the team that made him Emre. The notorious reputation he inherited from his playing career continues unabated in his new career. This is the ethical approach of those like Emre, who operate with the mindset that “anything goes to succeed,” and they are causing serious harm to Turkish soccer in every sense. However, in the current era, people like Emre are in demand. An ethics committee should be established in the future, and those who prioritize competition over human values should be eliminated from Turkish soccer.
– The referees’ joke-like management continues. They used to act discreetly, but now they can blatantly sabotage games in favor of certain teams. We need to increase the importance of artificial intelligence and take the necessary steps to minimize human-centered errors. In other words, the way to minimize refereeing errors, which have existed since the Turkish leagues began and have become increasingly chronic in our current era, is through technology. We need to make the use of technology more effective.
– Hungary gave our national team a hard time. You can watch the Turkey-Hungary game at https://www.sabah.com.tr/video/spor/turkiye-0-1-macaristan-mac-ozeti-tartismali-pozisyonlar-izle-video . Our national team, which had taken off during Şenol Güneş’s tenure, has inexplicably entered a period of decline. I believe the pandemic played a role in this. There’s much to be done here. I’ve written extensively on this subject in the past. For national success, we must first focus on the youth academy. For a brighter future, we must prioritize the life and technical training of our players from an early age.
Recovery will not be a piece of cake
In conclusion, I would like to state that the decline in our soccer has accelerated during the COVID-19 period, and I currently see no light. Of course, as I’ve never been pessimistic in my life, I know this period is temporary. The only difference is this: Those who will transform the growing darkness into light will have to work even harder than before and endure significant stress. Of course, it’s also a mystery when those with the character, courage, and skills to handle what needs to be done will take over soccer’s management. People like Okan Buruk must be encouraged to be more effective in Turkish soccer.
Some things will take years to recover. That’s for sure. That’s why I’ve personally minimized my expectations for our country’s soccer during this period. To avoid disappointment, I advise you to do the same.
Despite everything, a brighter era for Turkish soccer will come. Don’t worry.
References:
https://www.fanatik.com.tr/basaksehirde-okan-buruk-tarihi-basariya-bir-adim-uzakta-2158529
https://www.sporx.com/okan-burukun-teknik-adam-referansi-saglam-SXHBQ862314SXQ#:~:text=Kariyerinde%206%20lig%20%C5%9Fampiyonlu%C4%9Fu%2C%201,.%27l%C3%BC%C4%9F%C3%BC%20gibi%20ba%C5%9Far%C4%B1lar%20yakalad%C4%B1.
https://www.haberturk.com/super-lig-de-koronavirus-arasinin-ardindan-puan-durumu-2743143-spor
https://www.haberturk.com/son-dakika-haberi-super-lig-de-kume-dusme-kaldirildi-2759006-spor
https://www.mackolik.com/futbol/haber/sueper-ligde-2020-21-sezonu-basliyor/qfwagxzfccj417ouloxhvforr
Tag: education
