r/Soccer Condensed by Sean Flaherty

/r/Soccer Condensed: Week 1 Layendecker killing you softly frozen-creek Torres22 BenderTime Eispeis Timelines September 16, 2011

Contents 1 English Premier League Condensed

2 English Lowe Leagues Condensed

3 German Bundesliga 1 Condensed

4 French Ligue 1 Condensed

5 Danish Superliga Condensed

6 Turkish Super Lig Condensed

7 Norwegian League Quick Summery

English Premier League Condensed

Prepared By Layendecker Is the EPL a 2 horse race for the title? Seeing the results from the past few weeks you would be forgiven for thinking so; scholars of the game however will point to last season where Chelsea were early season ’locks’; winning their first 5 games, scoring 21 and only conceding 1. We all know what happened there.These results I alluded to this season are coming from the 2 Manchester Teams: Bolton 0-5 Man Utd A second hat-trick in two from Rooney, and 2 from Hernandez on his first outing of the season. This brings into serious question the future of Dimitar Berbatov, with Chicharito firing on all cylinders and Welbeck performing well we may see the Bulgarian being forced to find another club at Xmas just to get a game. Contrary to some pre match reports David De Gea started in goal and silenced some of his critics by making several good saves. Injury news from this game is that Man Utd defender Tom Cleverly looks to be out for a month after a hard tackle from Kevin Davis. Man City 3-0 Wolves Man City played a hard working Wigan off the pitch with Sergio Aguero netting 3. The downside of the performance was a penalty missed by the troubled Carlos Tevez, despite this he got stuck into the game and was a apparent in a lot of City’s movement up the pitch. To their credit Wigan pressured City and came close on several occasions, they were just unfortunate enough to run into a team on top form. Sunderland 1-2 Chelsea The result does not do justice to Chelsea’s dominance, or at least Sunderland’s lack of. Mata starting his first game in the EPL was very impressive, it is also interesting to note Daniel Sturridge started ahead of Torres and rewarded his manager with a brilliant backheel finish to make it 2-0. Based on early season form I would be slightly concerned if I was a Sunderland fan as they are looking lacklustre, despite finishing the game strongly. Stoke 1-0 Liverpool 3

Having scored a penalty Stoke went on to defend superbly with Showcross in particular starring. Despite this when Liverpool did get in front of goal mistakes were made, in particular from Suarez. Liverpool fans may feel hard done by after several genuine penalty claims were turned down. Arsenal 1-0 Swansea Late window signing Arteta was a driving force in a first half that the Gunners dominated. To score though Arsenal required a freak mistake from Swansea’s goalkeeper which allowed Arshavin to hit the ball into an open net. Arsenals defending looked better with Mertsacker, but this is against a team who are yet to score this season, sterner tests are to follow. Based on this performance, Swansea will not be going down without a fight. Everton 2-2 Aston Villa Gabby Agbonlahor continued his good start to the season by netting a late equaliser for Aston Villa against Everton. Despite not having a striker on the pitch (Cahill playing up front) Everton’s performance would have brightened the day of the fans protesting before the match (due lack of investment). Villa will be glad to take home a point against the run of play, especially after Everton looked certain to score late on. Wolves 0-2 Tottenham Adebayor picked up a goal on his Tottenham debut helping his side to their first win of the season. Having only just stayed up last year Wolves started the season well and could have easily gone into the break ahead but not for Friedel’s fine work in goal. In he second half Tottenham showed their dominance and relented to the Londoners superior strength and quality 67 minutes in. Scott Parker also made a debut for Tottenham and played well. In Sundays fixtures WBA earned their first win against Norwich 1-0 after Odemwingie’s early strike and Blackburn drew 1-1 with Fulham. Blackburn dispelled doubters by defending well and putting a good amount of early pressure on.

English Lowe Leagues Condensed

Prepared By Timelines OK, for the Football League one I guess it’s best to be as concise as possible and only really add those games that really shook things up, otherwise people would just be looking through a list of results. And just try and get a feeling of what clubs are under-achieving and over-achieving etc. The Championship haven’t played for a while, but Leagues 1 and 2 have just played Tuesday night so I can put a few of them up for you if that’s okay. I’ll try and limit myself to about 3 or 4 depending on what’s going on. Maybe just a couple if there’s quite a straight forward one. With an overview section later in the season when it matters more if I have less space. League One Leyton Orient 1 - 3 Bournemouth The O’s lost again this season, making this officially their worst start to a season since 3 points for a win came in to effect. And equalling their last low after 8 games which was set in 1925. Looking for a culprit for their display Orient midfielder Dean Cox was more than ready to blame the referee, however this isn’t the overall view of many of the fans. They are looking at the manager, Russell Slade, and questioning his competency. And for Bournemouth this was an important win too, cutting short their 5 match losing streak in the league and pointing them in the right direction again. Sheffield United 0 - 3 Huddersfield A surprising result, but a good Huddersfield team left Sheffield United scratching their heads. Sheffield United had their chances, but were unable to score. This will be the sort of result that will give a few wide eyed Terriers fans hopes of big things for this season to come. Blades fans will hope to take this one on the chin. The sane ones will realise that this was a good side they came up against, and that the goals when they came were not from periods of total domination by the visitors. They’ll still be hopeful that their side can bounce back and continue their early season good form. Stevenage 5 - 1 Sheffield Wednesday 5

This is a classic case of Wednesday realising what division they’re back in once more. It can’t be fun going away midweek anywhere and losing 5-1, but for this to happen to them against recently non-league Stevenage will hurt. I think Wednesday will want to deny this match happened and get on with the rest of their season. League Two Crawley Town 0 - 3 Swindon Town Crawley were looking so promising for the double promotion right at the start of the season, they have the squad and the money to go there, but their results aren’t matching this ambition over the past few matches. As for Swindon it’s almost the exact opposite. After coming down from League One last season they’ll be happy to see their new manager, Paolo Di Canio, and his team starting to pick up results. Barnet 2 - 0 Plymouth Argyle Yet another disappointing result for the Green Army. Their money problems (putting it mildly) are coming to a head as they sit bottom of the Football League with 1 point from 8. Rumblings that manager Peter Reid must go, will be tempered by the fact that their players haven’t been paid in about 3 months. And as a Southend fan I know for a fact that this totally craps up the on field displays. For Barnet though this is another result to place in the bank for their bid to survive and stay a league club for another season. Burton Albion 1 - 0 Crewe Alexandria A local derby that proves Crewe have a long way to go before they can even think about making up for last season’s relegation. As for Burton they’ve got an exciting striker in Calvin Zola and will be hoping for play-offs this season. Paul Peschisolido said of his side that they were, ”Absolutely magnificent.” He’s obviously playing it cool then for now.

German Bundesliga 1 Condensed

Prepared By BenderTime Augsburg 1-4 Leverkusen The game started with a surprising Augsburg goal with Hajime Hosogai putting the ball into the back of Leverkusen’s net after 5 minutes. Leverkusen were quick to respond with a Sidney Sam goal not a minute after. Leverkusen didn’t look back after that, as Stefan Kiessling slotted one home at the 23rd minute mark. Sam added to his tally with another goal late in the second half, while Eren Derdiyok to finish off the scoring in a deserved 4:1 victory for Leverkusen. An entertaining game with both teams having chances on goals, with Leverkusen being the more clinical team. . Mainz 0-4 Hoffenheim Hoffenheim were able to beat a sloppy looking Mainz team :0:4. Hoffenheim looked dangerous in the first 10 minutes, but had two chances parried away by Mainz’s keeper Heinz Mller. An error by Mainz’s centerback Niko Bungert allowed Roberto Firmino to put Hoffenheim ahead in the 16th minute. Hoffenheim were rewarded what turned out to be an iffy penalty kick, but it didn’t matter as Ryan Babel cooly put Hoffenheim ahead 0:2 right before the end of the half. Babel doubled his scoring tally with a driving run past Mainz defenders and a clinical finished. An own-goal from defender Nikolce Noveski, summed up Mainz’s rather lackluster and underwhelming performance. . Borrusia Monchengladbach 1-0 FC Kaiserslautern Relegation-candidates Kaiserslautern came to Monchengladbach looking for a result after their loss against Bayern Munich. Gladbach would have none of it and were able to keep their spot near the top of the table with a 1:0 home win. Kaiserslautern were allowed few chances, including a bicycle kick that forced Marc-Andre ter Stegen to pull of a world-class save, as they were outshot 22:6. Gladbach were able to gain the lead through a volley from Juan Arango in the 58th minute. The team from northern Germany had a few clear chances to go up 2:0, but in the end were held to a deserved win at the Borussia-Park. FC Bayern Munich 1-0. SC Freiburg 7

FC Bayern took on SC Freiburg at the Allianz Arena in scintillating form and didn’t leave any doubts about their quality, winning 7:0. Bayern kicked off the goal-fest in on the 8th minute mark with a tap-in by Mario Gomez. It continued not two minutes later when Frank Ribery used his heel to put Bayern up 2:0. Ribery would show off his class by leaving a defender in the dust to give Bayern the 3:0 lead. The Frenchman continued his work by laying the ball off to Gomez to slot in the 4:0. Gomez got his hat-trick from a deflected ball that sailed over the Freiburg keeper. The scoring didn’t stop for last year’s top Bundesliga goal-scorer, as a Thomas Mller-induced penalty kick put the Bavarians up 6:0. Summer-transfer Nils Peterson scored his first Bundesliga goal and finished off the scoring in the 90th minute to end the Schutzenfest in Munich. With the win, Bayern remained at the top of the table with a +15 gold difference. Borussia Dortmund 1-2 Hertha Berlin The German champions were trying to keep pace with Bayern after dropping points against Leverkusen. But two points wasn’t the only thing they lost as Mario Gotze was suspended for two games, due to a red card received against Leverkusen. The new comers Hertha Berlin took advantage of the absence of Dortmund’s spark plug and eventually took the lead in the 49th minute in a very defensive minded game from the team from Berlin. The second goal for Hertha came in the 81st minute, seemingly putting the game out of reach for the Dortmunders. A concession goal in the 88th minute from striker Robert Lewandowski wouldn’t be enough as Dortmund dropped to 11th in the table. Werder Bremen 2-0. Hamburger SV Two teams going in opposite directions met Saturday evening in this NordDerby. The two teams stayed in their respective directions as Bremen won the derby 2:0. Hamburg looked better than in previous games, but could only hold Bremen scoreless until the second half. Claudio Pizzaro scored both in the second half, with the second one a stunning shot from the top of VfB Stuttgart 3-0. Hannover 96 Hannover tried to stay near the top of the table, but those hopes were dashed as Stuttgart won at home, 3:0. Shinki Okazaki put Stuttgart up early in the 9th minute. Both teams traded shots, with Stuttgart looking the more dominant team. Stuttgart had a nervous time protecting their lead until the 79th minute when Zdravko Kuzmanovic gave the Schwaben a comfortable 8

2:0 lead. Serdar Tasci capped off a MOTM performance with goal in the 86th min to lock up with win and the three points to along with it. 1. FC Koln 1-2. FC. Nurnberg Koln was looking for their first win of the season, but came up short against the Franconians. All the scoring came in a ten minute span in the first half. Koln gave up a penalty in the 31st min that was put in by Timmy Simons. It was deja vu five minutes later as Simons slotted the second penalty kick home. Koln managed to get one back in the 39th min. but it was not enough as Nrnberg protected its lead, even after having a man sent off in the second half. The win pulled Nrnberg to 7th at the table, while Koln remained 15th. Vfl Wolfsburg 2-1 Schalke 04 Wolfsburgâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trainer Felix Magath saw his authoritarian threats pay off in a 2:1 win against Schalke 04. Raul gave Schalke the early lead, but Wolfsburg was able to equalize 20 minutes later. Wolfsburg didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get the lead until a free kick deflected off of Mario Madzukic to give him his second goal of the evening. It was a merited win for the hosts, while Schalke was careless with their chances and also missed a chance to keep pace with Bayern.

French Ligue 1 Condensed

Prepared By Frozen-Creek AS Nancy Lorraine 0-0 AJ Auxerre AS Nancy is still looking for a win in Ligue 1 this season as they played a goalless draw with AJ Auxerre. A match rich in quality chances was left goalless by poor finishing and great defense by the woodwork. AJ Auxerres Cisse almost scored a great goal off a corner in first-half injury time that was denied by the crossbar. Bakar had the best chance of the game in the 72 where he blew a 1 on 1 with the keeper after controlling a ball over the top of the defense. Montpellier 1-0 Nice Montpellier rose to the top of the French table with a 1-0 home win. Souleymane Camara finally tucked in a left footed shot from the edge of the box 9

with 15 minutes to go. Nice was unlucky not to equalize minutes later when Nice sent a header into the bar with the follow up also striking the bar Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 Brest A home goal by the 39.8 million midfielder Javier Pastore (68) led PSG to a third straight victory against a Brest side that barely avoided relegation last year. The win puts PSG into an early 4th position in the table after a slow start to the campaign. AC Ajaccio 3-1 Valenciennes In a match dominated by the home side after the break, Valenciennes went up first. Danic scored a goal in the 36 to put Valenciennes ahead. Despite their edge in possession, AC Ajaccio still pulled ahead with three second half goals in 11 minutes. Sammartano scored a brace seven minutes apart before Dalllgna sent the last ball home in the 58. Bordeaux 0-0 Evian TG Bordeauxs start to the campaign has been pretty good. They were expecting a win against the newly promoted Evian TG. In a match where both team had chances, it looked like Evian should and could have won it most of the match. Bordeaux had two of the best chances though, one header hitting the crossbar and a shot in the 72 that went just wide. Caen 0-1 Toulouse After a poor first half where Caen had the majority of the chances, Toulouse turned it around in the second half. Caen couldnt get anything on target during the match, but they had many near chances in the first half. Toulouses first chance in the opening half came right before the break. This was carried over to the second half where they dominated play, but still unable to score. The winner came in stoppage time off of a flicked pass to Capoue who had his first shot saved, but his second tap wasnt denied. Dijon FCO 1-2 Lyon In a match mostly controlled by Lyon, Dijon played a wonderful game of catch up, almost catching equalizers at the end of each half. The scoring started out early with an own goal by Bamba giving Lyon an early lead. Dijon created their first threat out of nowhere with Hugo Lloris being caught off guard by Corgnet right before the break. Gomis slotted home shortly 10

after the break giving Lyon their 2-1 lead. If it wasnt for a Lloris save in the final seconds, the home side could have drawn even again. Sochaux 1-1 Lorient Lorient substitute Emeghara scored a late equalizer off a swift counter attack in a match they deserved nothing from. Sochaux dominated the chances in front of goal with an early shot off the post with a terrible follow-up. The goal by Butin was ruled onside but video evidence showing it couldve easily been ruled the opposite way. Sochaux were denied by the woodwork two times in the second half and also a miscontrolled a header. St. Etienne 1-3 Lille What started out as a terrible start for the league champs turned into a great victory with Eden Hazard scoring a brace. A low cross into the box in the 7th minute turned into disaster for Rozenhal as he turned the ball into his own net. Lilles fortunes changed when Nery got his marching orders after an ugly tackle. It only went up from there. Eden Hazard, the Belgian wonderkid and Ligue 1 superstar, scored a brace (55, 73). Joe Cole then did the unthinkable and completed a wonderful dribble that turned into a cross to Obraniak who finished the goal scoring at 86. Lille dominated the match having 72% possession. Marseille 0-1 Stade Rennes In a match controlled mostly by Marseille (22(8) to 7(3) on shots), Rennes stunned Marseille with a 76 goal by the substitute Ekoko from outside the area. Marseilles poor finishing left them goalless and winless in a year theyre playing in the Champions League. The top three finisher last year is in the relegation zone at the moment after a poor start.

Danish Superliga Condensed

Prepared By Torres22 Round 8 of the Danish superliga was colored by all the new transfer signings that have been made before the window closed, lots of goals, and pacey plays and top class finishes. 11

Lyngby 0-1 FC Copenhagen The reigning champions were winning on paper against a much weaker Lyngby team, who havent been on a stroll lately, with big losses in the last two games. Fck dominated without the normal midfielders Thomas Kristensen and Claudemir, but the real talk of this game, was Mathias Zanka Jorgensens injury blow mid game. The captain will be out for around 9 months. Silkeborg 1-3 OB OB have always had difficulties when facing Silkeborg away, and this time proved that it would be a hard day at the office for Odense. With a late stunner, Kaimar saag led the way against the newly Europa league contenders. But OB proved their class by working their way to victory in the second half, but if they want hope in the EL, they have to be more consistent in the league. Aab 1-2 Nordsjaelland Aab was streaking until today, with results that have brought them in top 2, it wasnt confidence they lacked going to face the young and fast Nordsjaelland team. Nordsjaelland domniated the game with their pace and passing, and Wichmann scored a lucky goal for Aab, that wasnt following up the good form from the last games. Sonderjyske 1-3 AC Horsens Sonderjydske looked forward to face the much better Horsens team on home ground. Sonderjydske is known for their home field fight, so they were eager to prove to their fans that they could beat the Horsens players. But Gilberto Macene thought otherwise. The quick and agile brazilian netted 2 times for the away team. But the talk of the day have to be Niels Lodbergs penalty kick. Brondby 5-0 HB Koge Dennis Rommedahl is back in Denmark, and Brondby, who aquirred the pacey wing from Olympiakos, where he was no longer wanted. Brondby now have a very solid midfield, with 3 buys this window; Mikkel Thygesen, Ajilore and Rommedahl, together with the national team playmaker Michael Krohn Dehli. Rommedahl and Brondby absolutely smashed an uninspirering HB Koge team,who looked stunned by the big names on Brondbys midfield. AGF 4-2 FC Midtjylland 12

AGF needed a win to get completely away from the bottom half of the Superliga. The newly bought, and former national player, Soren Larsen was playing a full game for the first time this year. And he delivered. With 3 goals, he got de hviee on course again, and proved he was worth the risk, that AGF took with the signing. But Superliga topscorer Sren Berg stole the Larsen show with this beauty.

Turkish Super Lig Condensed

Prepared By killing you softly Praise the lords of football; the Turkish Super League is finally back! After a lengthy delay cause by an investigation into a wide-spread match fixing scandal, the first games of the new season were played this past weekend. So, why should you care about the Turkish Super League? Well, there are quite a few reasons first of all; many well-known players have been in this league at some point in their careers. Anelka, Roberto Carlos, Hagi, Geremi, Ariel Ortega, Kevin Campbell, Quaresma, Guti, Shota Arveladze and many others played in Turkey, either before they became big in Europe, or in their twilight years. The Turkish Super League is a fairly high-scoring league; teams generally play attacking football, or are terrible defensively. The Turkish Super League has some extremely intense rivalries. Bursaspor and Besiktas hate each other, Ankaragucu and Genclerbirligi hate each other, Fenerbahce and Galatasaray hate each other, Trabzonspor and Fenerbahce hate each other; however, we can all unite behind our common hatred of Fenerbahce. Finally, the Turkish Super League used to be a four horse race only Fenerbahce, Galatasaray, Besiktas and Trabzonspor really challenged for the title (Trabzonspor have not been able to win it since 1984); however, this trend has recently changed. Bursaspor became champions for the first time only two seasons ago, and now there are teams like Kayserispor, Gaziantep and Busraspor who are genuine contenders for the title. Essentially, shits pretty exciting. At this point, I should mention that I am an avid Trabzonspor far. I was born in Trabzon and have been following this team for as long as I can 13

remember. Even though I will try to write these reviews objectively, I cant make any promises especially when it comes to games involving Trabzonspor and, for completely different reasons, games involving Fenerbahce. With all that said, I think its time for a brief rundown of the first weeks action. Eskisehirspor 2-1 Besiktas The first game of the week was an exciting fixture. Eskisehirspor were a very competitive team back in the mid-70s. After spending some time in the lower leagues, they were promoted a few seasons ago and have been relentless ever since. I respect them tremendously because of their extremely devoted fans (they actually have a team band composed of a brass section that plays along with the chants during the games). Young playmaker Alper Potuk is someone to watch carefully on this team. Besiktas are Besiktas. They are one of the Big 4 and they are also one of the big three Istanbul teams. After the heir of the wealthy Demiroren family became chairman of the club, they were able to bring on the likes of Hugo Almeida, Guti, Quaresma, Bebe and Simao. Unfortunately, their talent never gelled properly, so they had a very underwhelming season. Besiktas suffered from the same problems that plagued them last season: a group of extremely talented individuals who cant play together as a team, the lack of a talented goal keeper and an under-performing Quaresma. While the game was neck-to-neck for the first half, Eskisehir dominated during the second half and got a well-deserved victory with a fantastic shot from young striker Batuhan Karadeniz. Samsunspor 3-2 Genclerbirligi Newly promoted Samsunspor faced off against Genclerbirligi, who barely escaped relegation last season. Despite being new to the league, Samsunspor have a lot of top-tier football experience. They also have a squad that was able to lock up the promotion spot well before the end of the season. Add on to all of this the fact that Samsun is a formidable place for any team to visit, and youll see that its no surprise that Samsun was able to walk past Genclerbirligi. Manisaspor 1-1Trabzonspor We lost some of our key players at the end of last season. Experienced Turkish-international CB, Egemen Korkmaz went to Besiktas on a free transfer, and Turkish-international playmaker, Selcuk Inan (the guy known in 14

Turkey as the Turkish Fabregas) went to Galatasaray on a free transfer. This loss, combined with the added responsibility of playing in the UEFA CL, meant that we had to fortify our ranks with some new blood. Manisaspor have always been a tough team to play. Their key players have been playing together for quite a few seasons and their new manager is very offensive minded (hewas the assistant to Ersun Yanal, who is my favorite manager ever). We started off the game well and scored an absolutely beautiful goal towards the end of the first half. A bad challenge from behind left Manisaspor a man down at the end of the first 45 minutes. Unfortunately, we were not able to put the game away with a few more goals we missed some pretty ridiculous chances and Manisaspor eventually wrestled the control of the game away for us. They were able to score an equalizer in the 88th minute of the game. Ankaragucu 1-2 Mersin I.Y. Ankaragucu has always been a solid mid-table team; however, they had some financial troubles during the off season. They werent able to pay all of their players, so they had to let some of the key members of their squad go. Newly promoted Mersin strengthened their squad by transferring some players with loads of top tier football experience (most notably, Marcio Nobre of Besiktas and Fenerbahce fame). Two beautiful goals by Nobre gave Mersin a very precious three points in the first week of the new season. Bursaspor 3-0 Kayserispor This match put two of the stronger teams in the Super League against each other. After losing some key players, Bursaspor were able to beef up their squad with some valuable additions. Kayserispor lost their key playmaker, Cangele, to an injury during the first few minutes of the game. Without, Cangeles creative abilities to help Kayserispor, they sort of rolled over to Bursaspor. The second and third goals by Bursaspor were absolutely beautiful. Karabukspor 2-1 Sivasspor Sivasspor were a force in the league only a few seasons ago, they had lost the title to Besiktas in the last week of the season. Everyone expected them to be a contender from that point on; however, they sold some of their key players, didnt bring in any noteworthy talent, so theyve been barely avoiding 15

relegation for the past few seasons. Despite being promoted last season, Karabukspor were able to finish in the upper-half of the table due to some attractive attacking football and the talents of Emmanuel Emenike (who now plays for CSKA). Karabuk started strong at home with a comfortable three points against Sivas. I.B.B. 2-0 Galatasaray On paper Galatasaray have the strongest squad in the Turkish league. They have Muslera in goal, Ujfalusi and a pair of Turkish national defenders in the back, the have Felipe Melo, Eboue and Selcuk Inan (the Turkish Fabregas, remember?) playing in the middle, and they have Milan Baros and Elmander up top. They have Emperor Fatih Terim at the helm. They also have the most modern, newest stadium in Turkey. What can go wrong? I.B.B. are an interesting team. They are the fourth team from Istanbul; however they are the team of the Istanbul municipality. So, they literally have no fans no exaggeration. They have the largest stadium in Turkey (able to seat 80,000) but it is mostly empty for all home games. Since this team has no fans, a website (which can best be described as a Turkish version of Reddit) decided to adopt I.B.B. as their team. These guys have formed a fan group (called the Grey Owls) and they go to each match now home or away. They usually have funny signs that they like to display during the games. The score line doesnt really reflect the pace of the game. Galatasaray did not deserve to win I think this game should have ended in a tie. Eboue was really good in his Turkish league debut, as was Felipe Melo (despite the fact that he should have received a red card for an elbow that was missed by the ref). Muslera dropped a pretty shitty ball to give I.B.B. a one goal lead Galatasaray were unable to control the game after that point. Antalyaspor 1-0 Gaziantepspor This was a pretty even game between two evenly matched teams. Antalya was able to grab all three points in the 79th minute of the game through a nice cross to the far post that was followed up by a header from tireless midfield dynamo Ugur Inceman. Fenerbahce 1-0 Orduspor Fenerbahce was the team hit hardest by the match fixing scandal (rightfully so). The club president, Aziz Yildirim, is currently in jail. They lost their Champions League spot. Their stock lost quite a bit of value on the Turkish 16

Stock Exchange and they ended up selling their best players to make up for the financial troubles that the club were experiencing (Lugano, Niang and Dos Santos). Fenerbahce barely scrapped by against newly promoted Orduspor and got the win in this game. It would have been a completely different story if Fatih Tekke had not missed two incredible chances for Orduspor at the beginning of the game.

Norwegian League Quick Summery

Prepared By Eispeis The Norwegian season runs from March to November so there are only between 8-9 games left So far: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Molde are topping the league and are looking like the strongest contenders for their first league title in Solskjaer’s first season in charge. Troms in second are 6 points adrift with a game in hand and have proved to be a serious challenger in the last 5 years without actually succeeding. Their leading goal scorer is on loan from Valerenga which deemed him surplus to requirments. He is the top scorer in the league and the little brother of Hannover 96 striker Moa (Mohamed) Abdellaoue, his name is Mos (Mustafa) Abdellaoue. Meanwhile Valerenga are struggling for goals in a very disappointing 8th place. Brann are finding themselves in a very surprising 3rd place having sold last season’s star player Erik Huseklepp to Bari (now in Pompey). They’ve strenghtened with players from the second tier and people thought they were a shoe-in for relegation this season. Not so (Yay!) The mighty Rosenborg has had a shitty season, but are starting to build up steam. Winning their two last games 7-0 and 6-0 respectively and with two games in hand they’re in 4th 12 points off the top. Anything less than a 17

medal would be a huge disappointment for the team that has won 16 of the last 19 titles. They only lost 1 game during 2009 and 0 during 2010. So far theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve lost 5 of 20 games this season. Former Man Utd and Blackburn great Henning Berg has led Lillestrm to a somewhat disappointing 9th so far. In the relegation zone newly promoted Sarpsborg 08 and expected midtable team Start are finding themselves hopelessly adrift with 8 and 7 points up to a safe spot respectively. The Norwegian league consists of 16 teams with the bottom two relegated.