Kasimpasa 1 - 2 Fenerbahce: 15 Minutes > 75 Minutes

Kasimpasa 1 - 2 Fenerbahce: 15 Minutes > 75 Minutes
By Ozgur R. Nazilli

Another top quality performance of less than a quarter of the game ensured a victory against Kasimpasa at Ataturk Olimpiyat Stadi for Fenerbahce. The goals of the game for Fener came from a magnificent free-kick by Tumer, and a header by Deivid to a very fine pass by Semih. Tehoue responded with a fierce drive to a ball that he latched on from an awful back pass by Vederson.

Fenerbahce started the game strongly, so strongly that the scoreline was 0-2 just at 15 minutes into the game. The performance was promising to the extent that the fans watching it expected a historic game from Fenerbahce, but what they got instead was a less-than-average match in the remaining 75 minutes.

It is true that Fenerbahce did not knock the socks of Kasimpasa with their performance, however, the question is: Is it right to criticize them for it? Let us take a look at the situation:
Konyaspor, PSV (away), Kasimpasa (away), Gaziantep (Fortis Turkey Cup), Besiktas... These are the games Fenerbahce have played (and will play) in a time span of only 2 weeks. For the Kasimpasa match, Fener had just come back from Eindhoven, in which they played a very stressful match. They had to deal with the young and vigorous Kasimpasa players, the exhaustion from Konya and PSV games, and they had Gaziantep and Besiktas games on their minds.

In short, were we as the fans jubilant with Fener's performance in this game? Absolutely not. But were we content with this performance, and more than happy with the way things have been for the past 3 games in one week? You bet your bottom dollar that we were. Our thanks go to Zico and his students for making this possible.

(Photo courtesy of Hurriyet.com)