Galatasaray vs Istanbul BB
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Today’s Istanbul offering is the derby that…well, isn’t a derby. Istanbul has three major players; Galatasaray, Fenerbahce, and Besiktas JK. Anyone other than that (in the same city) are not clubs with many fans, if indeed any, because football is a religion in Turkey, and there are only three religions in Istanbul!
Having said that though, I do think that there’ll be a bit of a feisty nature to this game. It’s mostly borne out of hatred for Istanbul BB’s backdoor route to success. I mean, the Turks are pretty insane when it comes to football, but they are respectful, you know? They can curse their bitter rivals all day long but they respect that they’ve earned the right to be a big club in Turkey. With Istanbul BB though, there’s no progressive path, or prestigious history. No, they’re bankrolled by an important political figure, and that’s the start and end of it. Without that input, Istanbul BB would be the same nothingness they always were before, just like Kasimpasa or any other Istanbul ‘minor’ clubs you can think of. The bigger Istanbul clubs detest them for it though, much like the way the German clubs despise RB Leipzig.
From a footballing perspective though, the only logical thing to do is back Galatasaray heavily tonight. They’re starting to click into gear, today’s home team, and the return of talismanic goalkeeper Muslera has only encouraged the team to continue progressing. I’m not even concerned that they’ve let Diagne join West Bromwich Albion. He was a decent forward but forwards like him are pretty common in the Super Lig; an offer for him – just like it was when he went to Club Brugge – should not be declined by Galatasaray, even with Falcao out.
They’ve got a good, settled squad, Galatasaray, plus the best manager they’ve ever had. I know they’ve had some dark moments in recent years but this is still a team that is never far away from silverware. They’ve got a great history, plenty of financial backing, and lots of good players to call upon. It never takes much to make them into a winning machine basically. Given the highly competitive nature of the Super Lig nowadays, I am not at all surprised to see Galatasaray now taking the title race even more seriously than normal, and nor am I surprised to see them adopting this serious approach earlier on.
Yes, they’ve lost Diagne, and mentally speaking, Falcao was gone ages ago. However, they’ve not been lazy – they’ve brought in Egypt’s next big talent up front, Mostafa Mohamed from Zamalek. They’ve also got promising young Turkish forward Dervisoglu from Brentford, who is a bit rough around the edges, but does have speed and skill. They’ve also got Onyekuru back after his last spell at the club was cut short for medical reasons. On his return, he bagged twice, and I don’t think anyone can really doubt his quality. Given that Belhanda, Akbaba, Turan, Kilinc, and Feghouli are still there as creators, and Babel in attack, I have no issue trusting Galatasaray to win games in the post-Diagne period. Who knows – Mohamed may hit the ground running too; there’s no reason to believe otherwise. Bluntly put, a lot is going Galatasaray’s way right now, and I believe this game will too.
Of course, a substantial amount of my confidence stems from the shocking situation at the reigning champions right now. The Istanbul BB players are mercenaries – let’s be quite clear on that front. I can’t criticise them on that front; we all do stuff for money in life, and football is no different. However, the club seems to be surprised when the mercenaries stop giving a shit. They’re not at Istanbul BB for the glory, because there is no glory. There aren’t any fans, there’s no prestige – nothing. It’s just a random club that won the title once. The players were psyched up to play in the UEFA Champions League for obvious reasons, but since crashing out of it, they don’t look like they care – and again, why would they? There’s nothing about this club to fall in love with, and no fans to encourage them to give a shit.
Subsequently, since December Istanbul BB have been pretty damn awful. They aren’t athletic enough to play games like most Super Lig teams do; they need to control them. They’ve not been controlling them though, which is why they’ve shipped so many goals, and scored so few. Although I agree that something needed to be done, sacking Buruk Okan was not the right call. He’s done a lot of good for this club under impossible circumstances (taking over from Avci at that point was not a job anybody could have realistically hoped to achieve – but he managed it!) and the club seems to forget that it was him that won the title for them. It was him that took the fall for the players not giving a shit though, and do you know what their reaction was? To lose 5-1 at home against newly-promoted Hatayspor. It sure doesn’t sound like the manager was the problem to me.
Anyway, they’ve got a new manager now – Kocaman. He’s done some good work over the years at Fenerbahce, so he’s sure to be a popular figure today(!). I don’t know if he can turn things around at this club, and save them from what looks increasingly like an almost unthinkable relegation battle, but I do know that he’ll need a miracle to turn anything around ahead of the trip to Galatasaray as he’s been in charge for mere hours, not days, nor weeks! This is an extremely demoralised and disinterested group with little energy and not enough athleticism. Their only avenue to beating teams is, as always, to outsmart them. They’re not outsmarting anyone right now though, and they’re taking on one of Turkey’s best teams away from home. Ouch.
The above, plus the number of absentees for Istanbul BB (both in terms of injuries and on-the-field players that aren’t with it mentally) makes me think that anything but a convincing home win here would be a real surprise.
Galatasaray to beat the -1 Asian Handicap at 6/5.
Tuesday’s Thoughts
As ever, if there are any explanations required then please feel free to post a comment! For the remainder of my thoughts on today’s games, see below, although I feel compelled to write that the below are not necessarily my tips but merely my thoughts. For confidence ratings, you’ll need to go to the members section here.
Belgian Cup:
Antwerp vs RAAL La Louviere
Union Saint-Gilloise vs Royal Excel Mouscron
Lommel vs Kortrijk
Brazilian Serie A:
Palmeiras vs Botafogo
Croatian Prva Liga:
NK Osijek vs Slaven Koprivnica
Dinamo Zagreb vs Lokomotiva Zagreb
Danish Superligaen:
Randers vs AC Horsens
Vejle vs AGF
English Premier League:
Sheffield United vs West Bromwich Albion
Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Arsenal
Manchester United vs Southampton
Newcastle United vs Crystal Palace
German DFB Pokal:
Rot-Weiss Essen vs Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Holstein Kiel vs Darmstadt 98
Bv09 Borussia Dortmund vs Paderborn 07
Werder Bremen vs Greuther Furth
Hungarian Liga 1:
Varda SE vs MTK Budapest
Fehervar vs Mezokovesd-Zsory
Italian Coppa Italia:
Internazionale vs Juventus
Italian Serie B:
Pisa vs Frosinone
Portuguese Liga 1:
Gil Vicente vs Pacos de Ferreira
Portuguese Liga 2:
Mafra vs Cova de Piedade
Arouca vs Estoril
Spanish Copa del Rey:
Almeria vs Sevilla CF
Swiss Challenge League:
Aarau vs FC Schaffhausen
Chiasso vs Stade Lausanne-Ouchy
FC Thun vs SC Kriens
FC Wil vs Neuchatel Xamax
Winterthur vs Grasshopper Zurich
Turkish Super Lig:
Hatayspor vs Fenerbahce
Galatasaray vs Istanbul BB
Rizespor vs Kasimpasa
Enjoy your free betting tips!