By Michael Severn
Ankara (Turkish Daily News) A goal and an assist from Sergen Yalcin carried Besiktas to a 2-1 victory in Malatya on Saturday which was in the end rather more comfortable than the scoreline suggests. Sergen found the net himself with a free kick special on 23 minutes and set up Kaan Dobra for the second five minutes before half time. Malatyaspor's consolation came from Mert Korkmaz deep in injury time.
Besiktas coach Mircea Lucescu left his assistant Feyyaz Ucar to handle the post-match press conference and Ucar's words tell the story of the game: "Malatyaspor is one of the best teams in the League.
Its play is well organized. From time to time it had us in trouble but over the game as a whole I believe we did everything necessary to earn the 3 points." That is an accurate assessment. Even when Malatya managed to put sustained pressure on the Black Eagles it failed to create much in the way of clearcut chances against a defense again superbly marshaled by Ronaldo Guairo.
At his own press conference Malatya boss Ziya Dogan was more concerned with the way his team played than with the result. There had been rumors before the match that Malatya would throw it deliberately because Dogan is a former Besiktas player and assistant coach.
He lashed out savagely at those who have been spreading such gossip, saying, "I can't even call them people any more. They're creatures which resemble people." Dogan correctly pointed out that lack of effort was not the reason his team lost and pointed to Mert's late strike as the proof that it kept going right to the end.
The Besiktas victory was all the more praiseworthy because Ilhan Mansiz was ruled out by a training injury. In his absence, Lucescu paired Ahmet Dursun and Pascal Nouma up front, holding Daniel Pancu, whose knee is still troubling him, for a second half substitute appearance. Now Lucescu has another problem. Saturday hero Sergen put himself over the yellow card limit and is banned for one match, Besiktas's postponed fixture against Diyarbakirspor.
Arif hits 100
The win took Besiktas back into the Super League lead which it had lost the previous day when Galatasaray punished Altay 5-0. Altay has been on form lately and produced some sprightly attacking play early in the game but folded after Volkan Arslan opened the scoring at Galatasaray's Ali Sami Yen Stadium on 26 minutes. The second came from Ali Lukunku, his first strike in an official match for Galatasaray since he joined up in January.
His relief at getting off the mark at last was plain for all to see. That was a first for Lukunku but Arif Erdem has a rather longer scoring record. There were big celebrations on and off the pitch when Arif completed the rout 12 minutes from the end because the strike made him a member of the exclusive club of players who have scored 100 goals in Turkish first division matches.
In a game which was all about goalscorers, Umit Karan and Elvir Balic struck before Arif put the final touch of icing on the cake. Umit now has 13 goals for the season, well in sight of Bursaspor's Super League leading scorer Okan Yilmaz's 15. Balic's goal was of personal importance too. He has been playing well for Bosnia this season but rather less so for Galatasaray and is hoping to persuade coach Fatih Terim to give him an extended run in the team.
The reduction of Besiktas's goal difference over Galatasaray might once have been very important indeed. Nowadays it is secondary. If the teams finish level on points at the end of the season, now a very real possibility, head-to-head results between them constitute the tiebreak. If they are still locked, the team which has scored more goals head-to-head comes out on top.
Overall goal difference only comes into play as a third resort. It is looking even more likely than ever that the Istanbul derby between Besiktas and Galatasaray at the former's Inonu Stadium in the season's penultimate week is going to prove the decisive showdown.
Tufekci wins opener
In Izmir on Saturday, Goztepe beat Diyarbakirspor 3-0 with 2 goals from Goksel Akinci in the first half and the other after the interval from Cumhur Bokabogaz. This was Ilyas Tufekci's first game in charge of Goztepe since taking over as coach from Mustafa Fedai in midweek. Tufekci was happy to get off to a winning start but stressed that much is still to be done by saying, "The victory was like medicine. If Goztepe stays up it will be through a great effort and with the help of Allah."
Depending on Sunday results not in as we went to press, Goztepe could still find itself in the bottom three despite the victory. The result brings Diyarabakir right back into the relegation picture and its coach Umit Kayihan was in no doubt that the defeat was merited.
"We didn't do anything at all," was Kayihan's laconic comment.
Sliding Roosters
The Roosters of Denizlispor have been crowing little since their elimination from the UEFA Cup and the slide in form continued with a 1-0 home defeat against Samsunspor thanks to Brazilian Junior's goal on 28 minutes.
Denizli's chances of returning to Europe next season are left looking very faint indeed while Samsun's worries about the drop are much eased.