State of the Defense and how to prepare for -20 degrees football on an icy pitch

By: Musab | January 21st, 2009

As we stand right now, we only have one central defender that is able to play against leaders Sivasspor this weekend, 35 year old Emre Asik. Meira and Emre Gungor are banned after accumulating yellow cards and a one match red card ban respectively. Servet Cetin has a dislocated shoulder that the physios are working hard to alleviate by Saturday. That means we got 2 days for Servet.

But I expect Servet to be ready for this match. So far he hasn’t missed a single match this season, playing in every one of our league, European, and cup (minus Malatyaspor last week) matches. That’s all because Servet’s an absolute beast. His sheer strength coupled with that 6′3 body makes a mountain in our defense. While you can argue that he’s a bit lacking in agility and speed, Meira usually makes up for that. In addition I have never seen Servet lose an aeiral challange. The man is that good.

And so the Galatasaray board have rewarded Servet by extending his contract through the 2012-2013 season, that makes Servet ours until hes 31. In exchange his salary will be increased but it most likely will not be at the same level of Meira.

Another defender that deserves mention is Emre Asik. He’s one of the only players that managed to play for the four Istanbul teams, Istanbulspor, Fenerbahce, Besiktas, and Galatasaray. However hes been with us since 2000, though he was loaned out to Besiktas for three seasons. It seems that at the age of 35, Emre has decided to retire with us and be remembered as a CimBomlu. As I’ve always said, there is always room on this team for those who show love to the Yellow-Red jersey. Something that greedy lying little dog over at Aziz Baba’s lap can learn. Look at that other bastard Fatih Akyel. Now he’s rotting away at the second league with Kasimpasa.

Now all eyes are turned to Saturday’s match against Sivasspor. Let’s take a look at what awaits us:

1. -20 degree weather
2. Broken radiator in the visiting team locker room
3. Frozen solid pitch that still has snow on it
4. Extra long and sharp studs that were distributed to the Sivasspor players
5. A very vicious fan base that wants revenge for last years 5-3 thrashing

Hmm… well we’ve seen worse so I’d say it’ll be a fair fight. Bring it on. As the Turks say, “Biz zoru Severiz!” “We like it the hard way!”

As Skibbe said, this match is gonna be a hard one that will depend on luck. Victory will do wonders for us. Since the loss at Fener, we have 6 victories and a draw in 7 matches. Let’s not forget that the deluded folks at Trabzon will be taking a trip to the mob at Kadikoy. A draw there or a victory to the birds (I don’t like writing Fener more than once in a paragraph) coupled with our victory at Sivas will catapult us to the top of the league. These are the kinds of weeks that make champions.