van Hooijdonk

Great sense of humor man

legend

What a lucky team Chelsea is! Scoring the away goals in x-finals with the own goals from rival players.

I selected Joey Cole. He covered 11000 metres when the average was 9000 metres. And he was the man to keep Chelsea up front.

Thank you for your kind words MY FRIENDS. You eliminated us but I'm happy to see that you accept our modest play and appreciate our spirit instead of just celebrating your qualification without considering the dangers we created against you. As Fenerbahce, Liverpool showed today that they never gave up and they'll make you feel much more nervous than we made you and I think you must do better than what you did against us. That was enough to eliminate us but may not be (and possibly won't be) enough to eliminate Liverpool and make your way to the final. I started to work for a sports web site in the previous week ( http://www.ajansspor.com )alongside my school that's why I couldn't find time to write to the forum in the previous week, and luckily my exam went well thanks to my ability of cheating . We have created a photo gallery of Chelsea's old legends and Stamford Bridge Stadium. You can look at them using the following URLs respectively. http://www.ajansspor.com/futbol/sampiyo ... 283/1.html http://www.ajansspor.com/futbol/sampiyo ... 284/1.html I'm planning to be here until the end of CL's end. I hope that we can be successful at the final remaining target we have on our hands, Turkish Super League and get the title.

I believe we brought a new taste to CL and impressed Europe with our brave team play. It is not easy for a team to capture Chelsea in their own half nearly all the second half. An own goal, a set piece goal and a goal that was scored by the help of the empty space we gave you to push the game forward in order to get the equalizing goal. We are climbing these steps for the first time and still have got a lot to learn. The joy Chelsea community felt when drawing with us has turned into nervousness until the goal from Lampard and the expressions on the faces of fans and Grant told everything. I'm sure we'll improve next year with a transfer bomb summer signing striker. Was a friendly clash and watched both games with excitement till the end of the last minute. We had the chance to eliminate Chelsea till the end of the last minute in the second leg. This shows that we are on the right way. Hope you'll get the cup in the homeland of your rich president, Abramovich.

The difference between Chelsea's 435 M. $ squad and our 90 M. $squad is just a fluke own goal that has been scored by Deivid. Anyway, congratulations but we dominated the second half. And the second goal would not happen if this game was a first leg. Hope you break your dead luck against Liverpool and progress to the final for the first time.

The thing I want most in the world now is to talk about the game with Chelsea fans here but as I said before I have an important exam tomorrow and if I start writing, I know that I'll not stop till the morning. Again we showed our CL spirit and refused to lose. It was again the Saracoglu magic that lead us to a fantastic victory coming from behind against a team like Chelsea, maybe the team with the best defence in the world. We won by an impressive style but however, we have a very little score advantage and must do maybe more at Stamford Bridge than what we did here. It is very important that the side who must do something in order to qualify is not us, it is Chelsea. If we can stay focused in defence and our bolstered squad with our right back Gokhan and left back Roberto Carlos, we may have the chance. I'm proud of my heroes by the performance they displayed today and a week later in England whatever the score is. We are the only home team that won the first leg in Quarter Finals. We haven't even drawn with any teams in Kadikoy including Inter, Chelsea and Sevilla and scored the number of goals to Chelsea that they have conceded in 8 previous CL games.

I'm back here guys. Wanna read your thoughts about our play.

I cannot resist this excite. I can not stop myself thinking about the game. I look at the watch once two minutes. Time stopped. My hands shake. How will our heros play with this excite. May Allah help our players and angels of luck be with us. I hope that will be a friendly game. I hope none of the players jump to the floor to feint the referee like the young bas_tard of Sevilla, Diego Capel. I expect a battle of two brave and honoured teams and let the one who deserves wins it. I wish a successful game to both teams but hope we win.

Does that mean you won't be going to the match, with your exam the next day? Of course NO. I have doubts about that exam and if I decide not go to the match and study at home, I can sell my ticket to 6 times of the normal price. But I'll go to the match. I haven't missed any of Fenerbahce games for 3 years in times that I'm in Istanbul (My family lives in Izmir and I sometimes go to Izmir to visit them so I missed a few games, but I try to go to Izmir when we play away)

Abramovich's huge investments paid off in EPL and Chelsea won 2 titles but Chelsea still hasn't a CL Cup, even couldn't make it to the finals. Now they've drawn with the second weakest club of the last 8 and everybody expects them to qualify. The final will be played in Moscow and he must be wanting to raise the cup in his homeland. These two factors (not having a CL success and drawing a weaker side than others) will surely create a pressure on not only Grant, but also the players. In the other hand, we passed the group stage the first time in our history and defeated a really strong team, that won the last 2 UEFA Cups. Even if we're eliminated, we'll not be counted as unsuccessful and we'll have achieved our goals. Nobody will criticize us if we are eliminated by Chelsea. And this is a factor to relieve our guys. Chelsea will play with the fear "I have to make no mistakes" and we'll play with the mentality "It won't be a problem even if we make mistakes." Chelsea played games of this difficulty lots of times and they have the experience but stress usually causes you to make mistakes and prevents you from performing with your 100%. Apart from our fan support and Kadikoy atmosphere, these psychological factors are in our favor and increase our hopes of qualification.

Fenerbahce played 11 times with English teams. We won 3 times, drawn two times and lost 6 times. We haven't beaten any team apart from Manchester teams. (2 times Manchester United and 1 time City) I hope you'll be the first one. :)

Now there is an interview with Peter Kenyon. He told that this was his second visit to Turkey, the first one was with Manchester Utd and he told that we had a fantastic stadium. He also said that since the draw they were looking forward to the game and the quarter final was an honour for every team involved. He said that they didn't get any information from Anelka and watched our games from cassettes and did their homework well. He was asked about the rumours that there are problems between players, Grant and the management especially after Jose's resignment. He said all of the players were professionals and they are all ambitious and trying to maximize their performance. Their progress in CL continues and they are second in PL. They've won 6 throphies in 3 years and there aren't any problems. He was finally asked what kind of game he expected tomorrow. He said that Zico created a very attacking team and we score lots of goals, we have talented Brazilian stars but he expects his team to score more than Fenerbahce. The last question was which players could have been effective on the result of the game and he answered that Didier is very dangerous when he's on form and Terry will also be a key player. In Fenerbahce, he didn't anoounce a name but he said that we have a very strong midfield and an attacking team that may cause problems to them. Kenyon is a warm person and he gives positive energy to his environment with his smiling face. Now Chelsea started training with two groups of players, the first group defensive giants and the second one is attacking stars.

Grant started by thanking the warm greeting to him yesterday but he was told that those were GalatAsaraY fans :) Everybody laughed. He said that any team that came this far in CL is a good team and Fenerbahce is also good. He told that he watched lots of our games andwe scored lots of goals and we (Fenerbahce) are a dangerous team. He played in Kadikoy with Hapoel 11 years ago and Jay Jay Okocha scored the goal to eliminate his team. The atmosphere was fantastic in that game and he expected a similar one tomorrow but they'll try to do their best to get a good result for the second game.

I watched Anelka's press conference now. He said he loves Fenerbahce he leaved because he wanted to return to England. He mentioned the atmosphere that will be generated by the fans but they should play as if they do not hear them. He felt happy to draw with us to see Istanbul again and to see his former teammates. He said that Zico was a great manager and it is not surprise for him to see Fenerbahce at this level of CL. He was asked how he would feel if he scores tomorrow and he said he'll be happy for his new team because he is a Chelsea player any more. He said the game will be a tough one and they will try to get a draw with an away goal or a win. He gave information about us to his team mates. He told that the unforgettable memory he had with Fenerbahce was the trip to the centre of Kadikoy with a doucle decker bus after we were champions which lasted 4 hours to go 500m. because of the fans all over the road. Now, I'm watching Grant's press conference. I'll write about it soon.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I know that Sheva hsa not travelled to Istanbul, where he scored 4 times with AC Milan uniform against us

Please look at the 10th page and be careful with our last 3 games. See how has the score changed after Semih comes in play.

I was just starting to get worried about this game, the usual pre match butterflies. Then i read your team line up, and now i feel much better knowing you have ^ leading your line. Thanks The only reason Zico selects Kezman instead of Semih is to show Kezman to the world and try to get rid of him, his huge transfer budget, and create an open space in the foreign player quota. He gets 3.5 Million $ a year and scored 9 goals last season 2 of which were scored in the last game after we guaranteed our championship 2 games before the season ends. He cannot perform well, he can not play as a single striker, he is slow, he can not pass defenders, he is not strong in air and has a poor finishing. The only things he does well are pressing and making correct runs. And he earns greater than players who clearly perform better than him. If we prison him to the bench, the world will forget that there was a man like Kezman and he will continue to stay in Istanbul next year. Who wants to replace his 3.5 Million contract with a lower one despite playing bad? We have a very talented striker, Semih, who is very close to being a top scorer from the bench. He changes the flow of the game everytime he enters. Konyaspor, Kasimpasaspor, Besiktas he all scored or assisted in these games. nearly all of the journalists in Turkey are criticising Zico about his selection of Kezman instead of Semih but the reason is that I've written above. Semih is the leading scorer but I would still pick Semih instead of Kezman although he scored less goals, or less than Kezman. Because Semih is a player tat makes our one forward system work, but Kezman is not. Everything I've written about Anelka's performance as the only striker in the previous post is also true for Kezman, in addition Kezman isn't as talented as Anelka. I don't misjudge him by the goal he scored against Sevilla, becuase Sevilla is a very open team. They score and concede lots of goals. None of the teams in this stage gives that much space to a player who is weak in air (like Kezman). However he says that he'll prove his abilities to his former team, I'm not hopeful from Kezman but hopeful from Deivid, Alex and the times we play with Semih.

I guess we'll see pretty soon, but how fast are your central defenders? I mean, do you think they can handle it if the ball is being played on the ground instead of trying to beat them in the air? I honestly don't know as I've seen just a few glimpses of Fenerbahce this season. To be honest, our central defenders are both not fast. Anelka passes any of them in 1 on 1 in open space. But in a settled defence, Anelka is lost. He can not use his talents against a settled defence. Because he is weak in physical contacts and in the air. He can not earn time for the rest of the team to come near to him, and make his teammates play. Lots of times we tried to use him as the only striker but he couldn't play well neither could the rest of the team. But when we used him as an attacking winger, he used all his talents of dribbling and passed the defenders like he was taunting with them. He is very well in one-on-ones and when he beats the defender on the wing he can dribble through the penalty area or cut it for the striker. If I were Grant, I would play him as Jose played Robben or Joe Cole. It will be very hard for him to turn his face to our central defenders and try to beat them. He's very talented but he cannot pass both of our defenders. If Chelsea scores and we move our backs to increase pressure on them, this is the optimal time to play Anelka. He is just a counter attack forward. I mean Anelka is not the man that will make the score 0-1, but if you're up 0-1 Anelka IS the man that will increase the lead to 0-2. Most of the goals he scored at Fenerbahce was the goals that increased our leads, not the goals that put us in front from draw. The only games he played well and moved Fenerbahce to victory were Besiktas (away) and PSV Eindhoven (home). We beat them 1-2 and 3-0 respectively and whichever Fenerbahce fan you ask about Anelka's good play, he'll tell you only these two games. Everybody says that he is very talented but he was no more than an ordinary forward in Turkish league although he used to say Turkish League was not of good quality. So if Turkish League was not of good quality and Anelka was a very talented player, why couldn't he play well. He went to swimming pools instead of training and never forced his limits when we need the leading goal. I prefer a player with limited talents but contribute to his team with all of his talents, than a very talented player but not able to contribute to his team, as Anelka. He was a spiritless player and never helped his former teams to achieve something. He only got the transfer fee and played how he wanted. If he wants, I believe he can be the best player in the world but he doesn't want. He has a mental problem. Everybody says he has a great career but I think, Alex de Souza, who only played 6 months in a European team (Parma) before coming to Fenerbahce is 100000000000000000 times greater player than Anelka. Because Alex lead us to countless victories, not only single games but also whole tournaments, and is now leading the top asissters in Champions League. Alex scored more goals than Anelka although he was playing behind the Frenchman and none of them, except for one goal to PSV Eindhoven, was created by the efforts of Anelka. Anelka couldn't even score a CL goal and I cannot remember when was the last time he scored a CL goal or against which team was it.

------------------------- Volkan Demirel ------------------------ Onder Turaci --- Diego Lugano --- Edu Dracena --- Roberto Carlos ---------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- Claudio Maldonado --- Mehmet Aurelio ------------ Deivid de Souza ---------------------------------------Ugur Boral --------------------------- Alex de Souza ----------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ Mateja Kezman (Semih Senturk) --------------- We'll be trying to keep our form in Sukru Saracoglu this season. We've defeated 4 champions and the winner of last two UEFA Cups this year and conceded only once apart from Edu's two own goals. Everyone expects to get a clean sheet victory as Chelsea has had difficulties in creating scoring opportunities in recent games. Playing Anelka instead of Drogba will make him disappear between our two towering defenders but playing him on the wing may cause problems to us. Let the side who really deserves win the game and I hope it will be a friendly clash. I'll repeat, my hopes of qualification depend %90 on a clean sheet victory. If we keep Chelsea at the Boro performance, I'm sure we'll succeed.

Quarter finals of the CL and you sound suprised your stadium will be full ? Or is that a bit of your dry Turkish quip ? No that's not a surprise but as I've written tickets are being sold to 10times than normal fans without tickets don't mind this. People, who'll watch the game live, count themselves lucky. I've an exam on Thursday and I know that I'll find at least 10 people if I say I'm hiring my season ticket for only Chelsea game for 300YTL (6 times than normal)

Tickets, which cost 50YTL (New Turkish Liras) normally, are being sold to 300 - 500 YTL in the black market. There will even not be one empty seat in our stands.

Cech's absence is an advantage for us but Cudicini is in top of his form I think. He played in recent matches and will not suffer from lack of match experience. In the other hand, our right back Gokhan Gonul is suspended for the first leg but Onder Turaci, who'll replace him on Wednesday, played his last game four weeks ago. I'm really anxious and I have doubts about his performance.

I wonder when the forum community will start writing to this thread.