LOL! Suarez and Messi tried everything under the sun to get Neymar on the scoresheet and it finally happened in the 91st minute. It was getting funnier by the minute. The whole game was about getting Neymar a goal in the last 15 minutes 
It's good to see these 3 super players working well together. Something we may never see in football again.
It's good to see these 3 super players working well together. Something we may never see in football again.
It goes back to when I was a teen. I had a Greek girlfriend and I used to go to Greece a lot. All the family were fanatic PAO fans and I used to go to matches with them. I am talking about the mid 80s. They had a good team and actually reached the European Cup semis. After that it kind of stuck and even after I stopped seeing the girl I followed them. In the 90s I went to Athens to watch them in the Champions League too and again they reached the semis in 96. Now they are in a terrible state, the fans kicked out the billionaire owners who were not investing. Olympiakos control the league mafia style and no one else stands a chance. But I still follow them for my pains!
Anyway, Panathinaikos have had a lot of success in basketball recently which has made up for the misery in football.
Greeks hate Turkish teams but I tell you, Oly and Pana fans hate each other more so when the other side plays a Turkish team is the only time they want the Turks to win
Anyway, Panathinaikos have had a lot of success in basketball recently which has made up for the misery in football.
Greeks hate Turkish teams but I tell you, Oly and Pana fans hate each other more so when the other side plays a Turkish team is the only time they want the Turks to win
It goes back to when I was a teen. I had a Greek girlfriend and I used to go to Greece a lot. All the family were fanatic PAO fans and I used to go to matches with them. I am talking about the mid 80s. They had a good team and actually reached the European Cup semis. After that it kind of stuck and even after I stopped seeing the girl I followed them. In the 90s I went to Athens to watch them in the Champions League too and again they reached the semis in 96. Now they are in a terrible state, the fans kicked out the billionaire owners who were not investing. Olympiakos control the league mafia style and no one else stands a chance. But I still follow them for my pains!
Anyway, Panathinaikos have had a lot of success in basketball recently which has made up for the misery in football.
Greeks hate Turkish teams but I tell you, Oly and Pana fans hate each other more so when the other side plays a Turkish team is the only time they want the Turks to win
Anyway, Panathinaikos have had a lot of success in basketball recently which has made up for the misery in football.
Greeks hate Turkish teams but I tell you, Oly and Pana fans hate each other more so when the other side plays a Turkish team is the only time they want the Turks to win
Its even more impressive when you consider where they all are coming from. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. All rival countries were sometimes hate is even injected into people. Argentine dont like the Brazilians and specially not on the football ground. Uruguyans dont like the Argentine because they feel like the Argentine have stolen part of their culture, rebranded and sold it to the world as their own. Uruguayans until today say the real and first Tango is the Uruguayan Tango and not Tango Argentino, ..it goes down to cuisine and many other things in daily life were the Uruguayans feel like they are robbed of their culture by the argentinians. All these things can be very well felt specially on the football field.
How these three found a way to function in such a brilliant way is really nice to see
How these three found a way to function in such a brilliant way is really nice to see
Tehol Beddict,
Thanks for sharing yours. You have had an adventurous life. I dare say they were anxious times for you but when you look back you can smile. But I am sure it was no zange tafrih at the time.
I have two Turkish friends who are also Besiktas fans. They tell me that eventhough they are the smaller of the 3 Istanbul clubs, they are very welcoming and there is always a great friendly atmosphere where even fans who don't know anybody can get together before a game have a drink and go to the games in groups.
I have been to Istanbul a few times and what impresses me most is the huge flags that are hung in narrow streets to show support for the teams. If this happened in Athens they would be burnt down in seconds.
Thanks for sharing yours. You have had an adventurous life. I dare say they were anxious times for you but when you look back you can smile. But I am sure it was no zange tafrih at the time.
I have two Turkish friends who are also Besiktas fans. They tell me that eventhough they are the smaller of the 3 Istanbul clubs, they are very welcoming and there is always a great friendly atmosphere where even fans who don't know anybody can get together before a game have a drink and go to the games in groups.
I have been to Istanbul a few times and what impresses me most is the huge flags that are hung in narrow streets to show support for the teams. If this happened in Athens they would be burnt down in seconds.
Great story Behrooz jan, i knew it only could be an extra ordinary story because otherwise iranians usually dont become fans of teams like Panathinaikos or Besiktas. My stroy has been a bit different, i left Iran in the mid 80s to turkey because i had an interview invitation from the US consulate in Jugoslavia for a US visa but i couldnt leave the country legally because i was still a member of army in war times so i had to leave illegally through turkey. To cut a long story short: I never reached Jugoslavia, the trafficker zad ziresh, he only brought me to turkey and hard times of hiding and running from turkish police started. However i landed in Aksaray a not very good neighborhood of Istanbul but at those times it was the best place for Iranians because it was crowded by all kinds of iranian refugees and characters, most of them werent to trust though. From Jaakesh to trafficker, student, to chaaghookesh o adam foroosh...even iranian agents who worked for turkish police were among them. They all lived in cheap and dirty hotels in Aksaray. I went there too because it was the only place you could hide and be one of many and in a lot of hotels you heard more persian than turkish. I had a lot of money so you never slept well because those guys would kill for 100 dollars let alone for thousends of dollars. At those times, even the Iranian toman was still very welcome in Turkey so you could bribe close to anybody with iranian money. Specially our 1000 tomani for whatever reason was very well known and accepted. Nearly every night you could hear of people either beating up each other badly or even stabbing each other to death. Me and another poor iranian student decided to leave, we took the bus to north and came across real wonderful areas and neighborhoods which we then found out was part of Besiktas district. We then started to work in little fish restaurants, in a backery, sometimes we took a little hotel room and worked there aswell and sometimes we did simply nothing, lived from our own money, slepts in parks or in old little yachts and boots whenever we felt like we could be targeted by police. In those times we started to go to Besiktas home games. Besiktas to me was a wonderful club. We found out it was the club with the most secular background and they had a well respected firm (i dont recall the name) led by a group of young armenians and turks who always helped the needy and people who for whatever reason were socially in disadvantage. At those times it was not a normal sight to see armenians and turks cooperate and be such good friends. Only in Besiktas you could find such an atmosphere among turks and the historically despised armenians. That firm could become very violent against Fenerbahce and also against Galatasaray but the remarkable sign of them was this softness towards needy Besiktas fans. They always said something like : We are against everyone except of Ataturk. In district of Besiktas most people were and are still against parties with islamist tendencies. In Besiktas kemalist candidates always led the elections...all in all we spent 4 months in Istanbul before i found another opportunity to reach north europe where i had relatives. Thanks for sharing your story though, it called up all these old memories of mine
Besiktas has some of the best supporters in Europe! Favorite team by a mile to watch live. The old (and new) stadium was also set at a great location.
I do not follow the Turkish league but I know that they have some crazy fans be it Galatasary Bestikas or Fenerbache. @Pooya jan good call and CR7 is just as talented as Messi but Messi does a better job at getting his teammates involved. CR7 is a great individual goal scorer but Messi is an overall player. Also, Messi at least made it to a World Cup final. CR7 had a dream team with Portugal and in 2006, they got bounced out by Spain. That team was more than just Ronaldo they had Figo, Deco and other good players as well. That is why I give the nod to Messi. I am not a Messi or CR7 fan because I am not a Real or Barcelona fan but I tip my hat to him. BTW Iran did a masterful job of containing Messi and Argentina in the WC. He scored on a BS free kick because that Serbian ref was bought and paid for. Outside of what Germany did to Messi, it was the greatest display of team defense I have ever seen, especially coming from Iran.
Oh yes yes yes! It was Carsi (charshi spoken). Those guys even did some real Robin Hood like stuff on regular basis like bringing eggs, honey, cheese and bred at the door of needy people or social organizations at nights without ever telling people about the source of that aid. People however always knew where it was coming from.
Regarding fanhood and the atmosphere, you are absolutely right. I have read somewhere that they are record holders of the highest noise level being reached in a football stadium with something around 135 decibel. I guess i cant describe the level of noise, you have to go there and experience it yourself. Its crazy loud and the most impressive thing is, those guys sing and jump up and down for minutes without any drop of noise level. Crazy
Regarding fanhood and the atmosphere, you are absolutely right. I have read somewhere that they are record holders of the highest noise level being reached in a football stadium with something around 135 decibel. I guess i cant describe the level of noise, you have to go there and experience it yourself. Its crazy loud and the most impressive thing is, those guys sing and jump up and down for minutes without any drop of noise level. Crazy
I lived in turkey for year and half and their football tradition is pretty amazing. majorities are Fener and Gala fans but many people of smaller cities are in love with Trabzonspor mainly because is not from Istanbul and always(not maybe in recent years) was giving big two or three hard time for title.