Tale of Two Halves: Fenerbahce Blitzes Bursa 4-0

After opening the season's second half with little offense, Fenerbahce opened the floodgates again over the weekend, disposing of Bursaspor 4-0 in Bursa. The game marked Fener's second consecutive league game with three or more goals after struggling offensively for many weeks.

The game was a tale of two halves, as the first half saw more uninspiring play from the Yellow Canaries, who seemed apathetic about keeping their lead and claiming a 17th Turkish league championship. However, whatever Zico said at halftime must have worked, as Fener picked up three goals in the first 17 minutes of the second half. Three minutes after the break, Mateja Kezman sent a perfectly-timed cross that Alex headed in for the game's first goal. Mateja Kezman got in on the scoring act less than two minutes later, as Onder Turaci sent a cross from the right that Kezman sent into the back of the net to put the game at 2-0. The second goal seemed to take the life out of Bursaspor, and twelve minutes later Deniz Baris put the game out of reach on a through ball from Kezman and put Fenerbahce up 3-0. Tuncay Sanli's pass to Alex de Souza at the 78-minute mark produced the game's fourth goal before the end of time.

The win put Fenerbahce in a good position with 51 points in the Super Lig. The Canaries were also helped by draws from Galatasaray and Kayserispor earlier on the schedule. Second-place Besiktas managed to squeeze out a 1-0 win late to pick up three points and keep them six points behind Fener. Galatasaray dropped nine points behind Fenerbahce with 42 points in third place. Kayserispor sits two behind them with 40, and Ankara's Genclerbirligi sits in fifth place with 38 points.

The Turkcell Super Lig takes a week off this weekend, as the Turkish national team plays Greece in Greece in a Euro 2008 qualifying game.