Although Turkish Women’s League globally draws much more attention than the Men’s League, the latter promises far more competitive games and surprising upsets. While the “star†quota of the Men’s League is not even close to the Women’s League, still we have seen some shocking transfers at the beginning of the season.
One of the teams that kicked off the season with promises of trophies on all the fronts they compete, even including the Champions League, where Turkish Men’s club teams have not really succeeded so far, was Fenerbahce. Fenerbahce Men’s team does not have a name sponsor like Fenerbahce Acibadem does but they brought in sensational players like the Serbian giants Ivan Miljkovic and Andrija Geric, and the Cuban outside hitter Leonel Marshall. The media including the fans were really keen on declaring the team in yellow-blue jerseys as the pre-favorites before the season began. Yet, the team “somehow†did not click. They started the season with a defeat in Super Cup by Ziraat Bankasi and the season continued in that fashion. Fenerbahce currently ranks 6th in the Turkish League with 5 wins and 4 losses below all of their main competitors in the league having lost all of their target games in a surrendered fashion. The main problem at Fenerbahce is that the team does not look coordinated at all during the games. The Turkish National team setter Arslan Eksi is still yet to come to terms with his hitters in terms of the timing and accuracy of the sets after 3 months. All of the players look in discomfort and disbelief during the games and in discontent with the Hungarian coach György Demeter about his sufficiency for such a high-calibre team. On top of all, an ongoing and looks-to-be incurable reception crisis with Marshall, the Croatian spiker Tomislav Coskovic and the libero Serkan Kilic and there is almost no one to substitute at the bench in such cases. Before transferring 4 foreign players and sending Geric to the stands at every league match due to the foreign player quota, Fenerbahce should have thought to strengthen their bench and anticipated Marshall and Coskovic’s reception problems. The Final Four dreams in Champions League currently look to be in vain as Fenerbahce ranks the last in their pool with only a single win and three losses. Lots of rumors are in place right now among Fenerbahce lobbies all the way from Demeter’s dismissal to new transfers in mid-season. Yet, none can cure the wounds if the setter Eksi keeps distant from the whole team and unable to coordinate with his hitters and if Marshall and Coskovic learn to make a proper pass to their setter twice in a row.
Currently the most promising Turkish team looks to be Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediyesi with two amazing Finnish talents Oli Kunnari and Mikko Oivanen and the Bulgarian outside hitter Todor Aleksiev. They have topped the Turkish League after 9 games with only 1 suffered upset recently to a young and modest team, Torul Genclik in a tight five-setter. The loss of a top Turkish Women’s team to one of the lowest ranked teams is really an uncommon experience but these types of games are what make the Turkish Men’s League far more competitive and far more exciting. The team of Istanbul is also in full contention in the GM Capital Challenge Cup having advanced to the 8th finals without a dropping a set. The only hurdle for the team can be their deficiency in the middle blocking area where 80-90% of the scored points mostly come from the three foreign hitters, which may hurt them in tougher games in the Final Four or tougher Turkish League games.
The Turkish Men’s League is more of a battle of the many compared to the Women’s League where it is a battle of the few. Whereas the women’s league is highly monetized with the recent unforeseen amounts of money paid to the volleyball players, the men’s league finds itself at a relatively more modest place with more rivalry and stakes involved, and still a high degree of success rate in the European Cups except for Fenerbahce.
Next week’s article will feature the recent games at Women’s Turkish League as Fenerbahce Acibadem makes its debut on the worldwide stage and a blockbuster Vakifbank vs. Fenerbahce Acibadem comes close…
Yours,
Murat N. Colakoglu
