The journey of yellow & red scarf

It is the break time but no game is there.

I got bored at home.

We gathered the signed jerseys according to the year and as signed or not, and from the most important to the least important.

Scarves as memoirs and GS scarves were distributed and folded neatly. 

All the game date books were tidied and distributed according to their dates.

The game tickets were distributed according to their being foreign or domestic.

Old newspapers were tidied and the newspaper articles of the important dates and events were folded.

The books about sports and GS were distributed according to their colors and sizes.

When there were nothing 3D more to do, I started with the pictures in PC. The d.mned (!) digital technology had erased many of my pictures; however, I put the remaining ones in order. I chose the ones with flags amongst thousands of photos. Although I wasn’t ready to share some ugly photos, I shared them anyway, thinking that no one should be hidden if the god knows them well.

Be my guest please…

December 5, 2006, Champions league, Liverpool game where Ümit Karan was about to write history, and Sabri played a football which is still talked about, the famous 3-2 score game. The second picture shows me in Liverpool scarf, but what can I do? I liked the colors… you could find any colors in Liverpool store although red is the color of the team itself. It is fascinating that those people have developed in football industry, especially when you consider that your designs of orange-purple is criticized.

This photo shows us before the Sion game at UEFA 1. Stage with the excuse of the football pitch being small. Again, we lost 3-2 and this time Servet wrote history (!)

This is from Lisbon, the distinctive city of Europe. We beat Benfica by 2-0 on December 7, 2008 with an excellent game.

This is from Benfica game. I like photos that are taken with a professional camera and are taken nearby the football pitch. Look at the beauty of the colors!... not at me, look at the colors!... ;-)) 

From our constant temple Ali Sami Yen. Do I have to explain what game it is? If details are necessary, UEFA – October 22, 2009 GS: 4 - Dinamo Bucharest: 1

As you may understand from the colors on me, we were wearing purple that season. :)

This is from the second leg on November 6, 2009. We beat them by a net score of 3-0. Don’t ask me about the cold we felt there.

Bordeux on February 18, 2009. The game ended 0-0, but a 1 point without having a goal in your goal-post is always valuable.

“What is blue man?” In my opinion it is the same: What is blue?..

Another European city as cold as ice: Hamburg. I would be wasted if the flowers did not heat me up ;)

Although we left the game on March 12, 2009 by an advantageous score like 1-1, we lost the game by 3-2 with the last-minute goals although we had been paying well with a score 2-0, and we said farewell to Europe in a melancholy. The above picture is from those happy days…

Galatasaray means love, Galatasaray means passion, but at the same time international football is another pleasure. In İstanbul on May 20, 2009, the UEFA final, we became a little proud of the game in which Lucescu won in Şükrü Saraçoğlu.

In 2005 the famous Liverpool-Milan game was played in Istanbul and I was there. However, the photos were deleted by the d.mned computer. :(

These crazy photos are from Israel, a country which I probably went for the first and last time, from the Maccabi Netanya game in UEFA. Although the game was in Tel Aviv, we went to Jerusalem and visited all the religious centers. The only place where you can make use of the Turkish Passport is most probably Al-Aqsa Mosque. They put only one condition, and guess what it was… I do not step on the scene without my scarf, man!...

Meanwhile, we won the game by 4-1, and in İstanbul 6-0, and we succeded in getting to the next stage…

I don’t know the reason why, but one of the most interesting away games among men is the Estonia game. We went to Talinn with the comfort of having beaten Estonia by 5-0, and on August 27, 2009 we had a score of 1-1 in Levadia game and hardly were able to get to the next stage.

As I recall our dear neighbor Greece. When I see Athens I want to ask how they left that country in such a terrible situation but however, politics is forbidden here. We met with Panathinaikos on September 17, 2009 at UEFA groups and beat 3-1. We won the game in İstanbul by 1-0 and proved that we were strong enough to beat this powerful team of Greece.

Atletico Madrid was a boring team in those times without Arda Turan. Therefore, we left the game by a score of 1-1 on February 19, 2010 at UEFA groups.  

Another interesting place is Lvib, Ukraine. However, this time Turkish men have right for this interest. 85% of the population of this country is formed by women and a visit to such a city can be highly regarded as public service, can’t it?

In Karpaty Lviv game on August 26, 2010, we lost our donkey, and then found it, and the lost it again! On August 19, we went to Lviv with a disadvantageous score of 2-2 in İstanbul. We kept the game as scoreless till the last minute and scored a goal at the last minute and became very happy. However, after one minute they had a goal scored against us and we lost the game and the stage, too. Like Prekazi says, “Round is the ball!” :(

Another international game; but this time, we have accompany. On May 9, 2012, our beloved Arda played with the Atletico Madrid colored uniform in UEFA final. We would not be pleased if we didn’t take our places in the stadium with our yellow-red scarves.

As we were all sure, Arda lifted the UEFA Cup in his early age, and made us very happy by giving us his jersey and medal. (I talked about sharing etc. but I was ugly in that photo; so, please make do with this one!)

We have always respected Galatasaray, so we have the right to hold the Cup sometimes… we got the Super Cup on August 12, 2012 in Erzurum and beat our ancient rival by 3-2, and this pleasure is a unique one! Moreover, the Cup was in my hands on plane!..

In this picture we are at Old Trafford. That year we met Manchester in Champions League on September 19, 2012; and although we played well, we lost that game by 1-0. We made history in the past in this same stadium. As you may remember we beat this English giant by 1-0 at our home.

The streets were colorful, and as it is common before every European game, our Galatasaray fans in Europe cheered madly.

This photo is from Braga game. Those who have read my thoughts about this game may remember my ideas. On December 5, 2012, our beloved Galatasaray performs another miracle and leaves its group by winning the last 3 games, although it got 1 point in its previous 3 games, and makes us happy again this year.

With best wishes for us to be happy and smile always and our beloved scarves to travel many more places… 

Braga, Portugal

The final and the most important match of Champions League would be with Braga, a weak team from Portugal. Because of the importance of the match, Fatih Terim, the coach, decided to take the team to Portugal as earl as on Monday. (No need to say that he is authorized to give decision on such issues). Therefore, we also took the roads to Porto in company with the team two days before the match. The activity was to travel in company with team but I could not find the team at the airport since I got on the plane at the last minute. I did not see them in the plane either. Since we were flying in  a large airbus, the team was taken into the business room and guarded by a bodyguard. What a pity! The poor fellow was standing to prevent anyone to enter the business room while we were sleeping, eating, watching serials or films. Therefore, the ones who would like to have the jersey signed or take photo have to return pensively. As I said in my previous article, the players are the persons like you and me. They also would like to take off their shoes and comfortably lay down. They may also pick their noses and they line up. Please look at this:

The plane took off about 16.00 p.m. and landed at 19.00 according to the time of Portugal. However we could exit from the airport after one hour because of passport and luggage proceeds. We went to our hotels while the team went to Braga where the match would be played.

We were planning to take down our luggage and go for dinner….  After İstanbul, everywhere is smaller… Porto is also small but it is not such small that everyone has to gather in one restaurant. Since everyone sweep into the restaurant named 5 Oceans 

http://www.5oceanos.pt/ it was out of fish and we could not go there though we had reservation. Instead, we went to Oslusiadas http://oslusiadas.com.pt/pt/ a modest but beautiful place in the region of Matosinhos. If I don’t show you some of what we ate how I can provide the impression we were in Portugal…:)

After eating such much and being exhausted of the travel, everyone went to his hotel. On the other day, I woke up earlier and follow my office works. At noon, I finished my works and could leave the hotel and took a walk. The historical center of Porto is very nice but I could not say the same thing for the outskirts. The outskirts seem like a modest European city.

By the way, it is a must to see the buildings with lion figure in the city, of course :)

For the ones who do not know, the lion figure has been used as a symbol for the power, might and crown since the ancient times. As in many places in Europe, it can be seen on the stones, marbles, wood, carpet, rugs, miniatures in Anatolia. It is used for the same purpose today as well and our traveler Sibel Akın continues to take photo wherever she sees lion figures.
The final of the photographs below shows Lisbon. It is very much like Porto, even the clouds are the same, isn’t it?...

Since there are no places, cities and even will be no squares similar to each other in our countries, it was interesting for me to see historical places like each other.  

During afternoon, I took a walk around the Douro, a river having the best landscape of Porto, I ate heartily the sea food at a fish restaurant without knowing what would come over me.

We went to Dolce Vita, the unique shopping center of Porto, nearby the Porto stadium, after eating. http://www.dolcevita.pt/homepage.aspx?param=6xaQnimFh6ShIR4NKdOwDLXlTbEvr/5IcDbWAt+pXxrLmTGd8ZP6Bg4XAlMx8eyB There were many medium-segment stores. The prices were very cheap. On the contrary to many European countries, the tax free product prices begin with 65 Eur. The higher the price the more drawbacks you get. In order to receive the drawback, you should take tax-free form and fill it and have it approved by the the customs at the airport.

We ate dinner at a very nice place named Dom Tonho http://www.dtonho.com/ at the riverside of Douro. The stories of the former presidents of the Galatasaray Club, who were taking rest in company with the dinner, were entertaining. However, like so much talk, this also cannot be written in this page, which is written by millions of people.

I had decided to see the touristic places, take more photos, to buy Porto wine and buy shot glasses for my collection as a souvenir on the next day, meanly on the match day. I had to stay in my hotel room up to the time of the match, since all the sea food I had eaten decided not to stay in me. On the other hand, like a child who is punished by her mother and prevented from playing games and view children from the window, I took the photos of the children who were cheerfully playing.

Therefore, I could not do anything I had planned to do but the gift we received in the evening was actually worth anything.

We left the hotel at about 18.00 p.m for Braga. Braga is a smaller city, 45 minutes away from Porto. In fact, with having a population of 170,000, it is the third biggest city of Portugal. That is bigger than Çekmeköy and smaller than Beşiktaş. The Braga stadium is the famous ‘Axa Stadium’ with an interesting architectural structure.

The stadium was carved into a valley. There are no tribunes behind the football goals. The other tribunes were attached to the valley and each other through the ropes. Despite of considering such technology, we were chilled to the marrow since they did not consider how to heat the stadium. 

If not the struggle of the team during the second period and the miracle at the end of the match even the warmth of the guest worker fans, that may be the coldest and charmless away game.

It was planned that if the team won the match, they would return to İstanbul with us but they stayed in Braga to directly fly to Sivas. Only Muslera who was injured and Melo, the suspended player, returned with us. Since I had my ticket signed by Melo after the final match and it would not be if I have my ticket signed by Muslera who did not save or shoot any penalty in that match. My ticket remained orphan.

Ah yes. You see, well done. My nail polish has washed out. Do you trip over my nail polish while I thank god for returning back safe and sound? That beats all…

I am cross with you; I am ending up the article here. Otherwise, I would write more and more… 

Cluj, Romania

Again a Romanian team, and I am again trying to get a visa for Romania although we are also in the European Union. The thing is that when I used to live just next to the consulate I did not need to take visas so frequently and after I moved from there I  constantly have to visit my old street now. Fortunately, the officers of the Romanian consulate know me and I can easily obtain a visa and this time they gave me a visa of  10 days, May God bless them.

Turkish people for some reason feel great interest to sports if the matches are in Romania, Ukraine and Estonia... Folks stop working and hit the road for the sake of their team. Additionally, they do not go to Romania on the day of the match which is only 1 hour by plane but they go a few days earlier with an eye to concentrate better and get in the mood for the match.

This time inasmuch as the match was in Cluj but not in Bucharest and there were no direct flights to Cluj I went with these teammates of mine to Cluj one day earlier. Actually, team and we were going to Cluj on separate planes but because there was not much demand (I am still in a shock how this happened anyway), two flights were combined and we learned at the airport that we would fly with the team in the same plane. Of course, when the passengers of two flights were combined the plane was jam-packed. I was mad with the idea that those who did not come were the ones who did not believe in the victory of our team however the Romanian girls' anger, crying and losing their self-control when they learned that Turkish men would not come, of course was incomparable.

What I can say about our journey is that, the fortunate ones often are the ones working in sponsor companies in foreign flights. I used the word “ones” instead of “fans” because most of the people who were on the plane were not even Galatasaray fans, and sometimes even those who have nothing to do with football.  The Companies choose these persons for this overseas trip and same may even come to the plane shamelessly by wearing the opposing team’s scarf. I suppose that you have guessed what happens to them. Yes, you guessed that all the man in the aircraft swooped down on the man and said “take that scarf off or you will have to eat it, here is not a bear garden, this is the Galatasaray plane, you rude guy!!!. 

You are wrong. No one said anything while the guy was wandering around. I was the only one to say “Gentleman, please take that scarf off, what you do is a disgrace as if to spite”.  And the rest of our conversation was routine within the boundaries of civility (!).

Oh, I must admit that my words made me the hero of a myth. For months, people called me she's the hero in the plane and even Mr. Erman Toroğlu talked about me in his TV program. Then why do I still criticize this situation? Because in matches played in foreign countries I may accept all kinds of the flags or football jerseys but it is nothing but provocation to come to the fans’ airplane wearing the scarf of our long-standing rival. It is just like the event when a woman recently went to Galatasaray Island and laid the towel of our archrival and began to cry after being expelled... Even though I am one of the most ardent defenders of the idea that sport is the purpose of amusement I, unfortunately have no and will ever have no tolerance for such actions tease and annoy others. On the contrary I believe that these kind of actions turn competition to hate and destroy tolerance.

Anyway, let's talk about Cluj now. Cluj, with a population of about 700.000, has still the traces of communism evidently; it is a very green but just an ordinary European city.

The weather is not as cold as Manchester but still it has brass monkey weather! I went out planning to take some photos but I can easily say that I could not find anything interesting. The following photos, maybe you will not believe, but belong to Cluj’s city center. I took the photos from both sides so that I see could see something, but no hope...

Inasmuch as there was nothing else to do in the evening and we wanted to see the team before the match, the match we went to the training in Dr. Constantin Radulescu stadium where the match would be played. If the team is in a good mood during the training the next day the match always will end with the best result. Proven by experience.

The first 15 minutes of the training is open to the press, then the journalists have to leave stadium. The journalists think that after they leave the stadium, very secret and awesome occurrences take place and write about exclusive tactics are given and etc. However the team usually make short passes in confined space or a light workout in their last pre-match training.

Only the players in the first 11 receive more attention however this time the first 11 is not very secret. Especially Ujfaluji, the backbone of defense is permanently injured, as well as the most experienced striker Elmander in addition, to Engin Baytar the most surprising player of Galatasaray who has headbutted the referee and received 11 matches penalty and who is in a bad condition; there are no alternatives  who can be elected by tossing a coin. The players who can play are known by everyone ... Fernando Muslera, Emanule Eboue, Cris, Dany, Albert Riera, Hamit Altıntop, Yekta Kurtuluş, Selçuk İnan, Emre Çolak, Burak Yılmaz, Umut Bulut

After training, we went to the Italian restaurant named Baracca. http://www.baracca.ro/ We had not actually expect so good quality food in Cluj and we really liked the place. The only downside was smoking inside the restaurant. Smoking is allowed everywhere in Cluj since they have not yet passed to “Smokeless Air Field” application. The only good place I can tell about Cluj is this restaurant. There may be some other beautiful memories to be told by our friends or other places to go there but I do not know the details incident thereto inasmuch as I cannot see these friends until the match time.

Let's talk about the game now: Cluj, albeit it seems like the weakest link in the Champions League Group H, has beaten Braga in away game, and drawed with us in terrible rainy weather so it was not a low hanging fruit at all. This game would be literally a "make or break " match for us. I was comfortable because the team's coach is Fatih Terim and I was sure that we shall not cry uncle in such a short period of time. I even sent twitter messages on the day of the match saying “we can definitely win". However the match was still very exciting.

They generally make us sit among the supporters of the home team in the grandstand instead of Galatasaray fans in away matches. Normally, I cannot even find a sandwich to eat in these matches but this time there was a private lounge that I saw for the first time in the Champions League where you could find a perfect menu. I did not take photos to avoid vulgarity, but there was an open buffet, pinball, sweepstakes, etc... Now then you've accepted the fact that I cannot write a match and travel writing where food is not mentioned I can go on explaining the match.

When we scored the first goal the Turks living in Romania were also very happy and cheered with us but I did not understand why the girls who had nothing to do with the match and smoking like a chimney were delighted. No problem, what is important is that they cheered with us ... When Romanians scored a goal in 52th minute one of these girls also was very happy and cheered crazily. And they looked back and made strange gestures... I was waiting for the second goal and making plans on pulling her nasty hair out at the same time. Anyway, she must pray God that Burak Yılmaz scored two more goals, and I did not have to pull her nasty hair out. In the meantime, Burak Yılmaz, became the first Turkish player to make hat-trick in the Champions League which was a record that will not easily be broken by anyone. This match ticket adorned with his signature was more valuable to me after that.

Remind me some time later to write an article about the football expressions we are accustomed to hear frequently in comments in football  programs (such as hat trick, bee that does not make honey, to outclass in the match, attack from the sides,  the stopper was assigned to play in the center, to create a very suitable position, wall pass, etc ...)

Speaking of chatting, there was another reason why we beat Cluj so heartily which I did not know. You will understand what I mean when you look at the photo below taken in the foundation year of the team. :))

After the match, we came back home via a terminal which was actually closed but opened specially for us at the airport. They wanted to do this for convenience but we could enter in one hour because only two officers made passport control and body search at the same time. Remember that teams also have priority just like the flight crew at airports. Otherwise our trainer Fatih Terim will smile you sweetly (!) as he did to me because I passed before them.

It was 4 o’clock in the morning when we arrived Istanbul. Because of shouting in the match and due to lack of sleep we were walking quietly to the passport point. One of the woman said "How many goals did they score to your team?" to our group.  I thought ”my great God, do you always choose me to teach manners to these people?"  It took solely a total of  2 seconds for me to put my hands on my waist and say "what being beaten: we beat them 3-1”.

This time do not expect any jerseys from me to no avail. I hope next time to return from the Braga match, both in victory and with jerseys...