By MICHAEL SEVERN
TDN- The recent sequence of Besiktas victories came to an abrupt end on Sunday against 10-man Konyaspor. The Black Eagles took an early lead at the Konya Ataturk Stadium and then saw an opponent sent off but still could not beat the 10 men remaining as two handball decisions against them by referee Cem Deda turned the game. It could have been worse.
The Eagles were within seconds of losing when a late penalty of their own tied the score at 2-2. The start could hardly have been better for Besiktas. There were only four minutes on the clock when Tayfun Korkut turned in an Ahmet Yildirim cross.
The many Besiktas fans in the stadium relaxed and waited for more. Their appetite was further whetted on 24 minutes when Brazilian Ernani Pereira departed after receiving a second yellow card for a foul on Daniel Pancu.
But the lethargic Eagles looked as though they thought the job was already done and obstinate Konya hung on in, creating scoring chances of its own. The equalizer came 5 minutes into the second half when wing back Juanfran handled inside the area and Zafer Biryol put away the spot kick.
There was an action replay 5 minutes later but this time it was the hand of Mustafa Dogan which enabled Zafer, against all the odds, to put his team ahead.
The prospect of losing concentrated minds wonderfully and Besiktas tried to put the pressure on but could find no way through the Konya rearguard until the very last minute of the match when Erhan Albayrak was adjudged to have brought down Ahmed Hassan Kamel and Deda pointed to the spot for the third time. John Carew converted and the Eagles breathed a sigh of relief.
A referee who awards two penalties against Besiktas can normally expect a verbal trashing from the club's officials but Cem Deda received support from an unlikely source as press spokesman Reha Muhtar expressed his opinion that both decisions were fully justified.
If only all club spokesmen would show such honesty! Coach Vicente Del Bosque declined to comment on the refereeing at his press conference. Instead he blamed his own players for not showing the required concentration.
"We gained a point," he said, "but it was not apoint we can take pleasure from. After we went ahead my players thought the match was in the bag. We did not take proper advantage of the early goal and our opponent's reduction to 10 men."
Del Bosque's Konya opposite number Saffet Susic insisted that his team deserved to win and went on to attack Cem Deda. Prefacing his remarks with the all too frequently heard "I don't talk about referees but... " he claimed that one of his players had been fouled in the move which led to the Besiktas penalty.
Trabzon goes second
Saturday winner Fenerbahce stays top of the Super League but Galatasaray's defeat on Friday enabled Trabzonspor to move back into second place with a 2-0 victory on the road against slumping Ankaragucu. This was a somewhat strange affair.
The Black Sea Storm got off to an even faster start than Besiktas when the old firm of Fatih Tekke and Gokdeniz Karadeniz combined for Gokdeniz to open the scoring after just 2 minutes.
For the remainder of the first half Ankaragucu, despite lacking suspended midfielders Ozgur Yildirim and Yilmaz Ozlem, made a full contribution to the game and could have equalized with a little more luck and steadiness in front of goal.
When Trabzon defender Tayfun Cora received his second yellow card from ref Erol Ersoy 3 minutes after the interval for fouling Guel Tchiressoua, a home comeback looked more than likely. It was not to be. Ankaragucu went off the boil and Trabzonspor actually played better with 10 men than it had been doing with 11.
On a day which will be remembered for its penalties, the Storm scored its second from the spot 8 minutes from time. Gokdeniz, inevitably sent in by Fatih, was brought down by Xavier Zengue.
Fatih put an end to his recent goal drought by making no mistake with his kick. Storm coach Ziya Dogan was understandably lukewarm afterwards about his team's performance but he emphasized that the win would improve morale ahead of the next game.
That next game happens to be at home to Fener and with only 2 points separating the two teams at the top the scene is set for a real spine tingler. As for Ankaragucu, if results do not improve it will very soon be in serious relegation trouble.
Sakarya sunk again
In Sunday's other games, two teams which already have relegation headaches failed to manage a point between them. The misery of rock bottom Sakaryaspor continued as it predictably lost 2-0 on the road against Caykur Rizespor.
Rize found a goal in each half from Kursat Duymus and Fahri Tatan. Kayserispor, the other struggler in action, went down 2-1 at home to Genclerbirligi. Ali Tandogan had Gencler in front after 19 minutes but Kayseri restored parity when Abdelzaher El Saka put through his own goal just past the half hour. Gencler's winner came from yet another penalty, converted by Filip Daems 14 minutes from the end.