Black Eagles Subdue Paşa To Leapfrog Lame, Lethargic Lions

A day after Trabzonspor humiliated Galatasaray in week 10 of the Spor Toto Super League in İstanbul, Beşiktaş shut out Kasımpaşa 2-0 on Sunday to maintain the status quo in topflight Turkish football and emphatically proved all pretenders wrong.

Two first half goals by Senegal superstar Demba Ba were all that the Black Eagles needed to grab three precious points. The victory catapulted Slaven Bilic's Black Eagles to the summit of the 18-strong league, at least for 24 hours, depending on the outcome of the Bursaspor-Fenerbahçe match that was still being played on Monday when Today's Zaman went to press.
The İstanbul “Big Three” still monopolize the Super League, no doubt about it, and this domination looks set to continue into the foreseeable future.
Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray have won the title 19 times each, Beşiktaş 13 times, Trabzonspor six and Bursaspor once. It is therefore an almost foregone conclusion every season that the championship will stay in İstanbul. Pretenders to the throne emerge now and again, but they usually evaporate into thin air long before the season comes to an end.
Galatasaray is the weakest link among İstanbul “Big Three” so far this season. Hence, after Cesare Prandelli's men were walloped by Trabzonspor, all eyes turned to the “mini” İstanbul derby between Beşiktaş and Kasımpaşa at Başakşehir Fatih Terim Stadium on Sunday.

Beşiktaş surges on

Beşiktaş was wary ahead of this match because the team had been reduced to bare bones due injury and suspension. Colombia center back Pedro Franco and left wingback İsmail Köybaşı were serving red card suspensions, while Czech defender Tomas Sivok, Dutch-born Turkey midfielder Oğuzhan Özyakup and German-born Turkey forward Cenk Tosun were on the walking wounded list.

But after referee Özgür Yankaya blew the whistle for kickoff at exactly 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, the gulf between Beşiktaş and Paşa, as Kasımpaşa is popularly known, became clearly evident. In fact, it appeared as if the two teams belonged to different galaxies in the universe of football, as the Eagles dominated play from the word go.
Bilic's men were rewarded for their effort in the 28th minute when Ba converted a penalty after Australia-born center back Ersan Adem Gülüm was fouled in the Paşa box following a Gökhan Töre corner kick.
Ba tucked the spot kick neatly into the corner of the net, sending Kasımpaşa's veteran Sweden keeper Andreas Isaksson diving in the opposite direction. And more was to come on the stroke of halftime (45th), when Ba headed home a Necip Uysal cross from the right flank for his second goal and the second for his team. There were no other goals in the match.

And Bilic seemed a happy and relieved man after his Eagles went to the top again. “It was indeed a very important victory and earned three important points,” he said.

“We knew it was going to be tough because we were up against a lively, energetic and very good team with very high technical capacity,” he noted. “We won and I am very happy with the overall performance of my players.”

Also on Sunday Eskişehirspor 2, Kayseri Erciyesspor 1; Gençlerbirliği 2, Kardemir Karabükspor 2; Konyaspor 2, Gaziantepspor 0.

OKAN UDO BASSEY (Cihan/Today's Zaman)