Sports Desk- Updates on Turkish, Greek and English Futbol

Since we congratulated the UCLA Bruins for winning the NCAA women's volleyball title last night, we are putting together all the soccer info we've gathered from weekend action here in this one entry.

Let's start in the Turkish Premier League where two of the three Istanbul powerhouses sitting on top of the league standings once again Galatasaray and Fenerbahce won their matches. The third powerhouse team Besiktas drew a 1-1 tie.

For Galatasaray, in the team's 2-0 victory over Orduspor, the goals came from Milan Baros (22nd minute) and Kazim Kazim (67th min.).

In Fenerbahce's 1-0 win over Trabzonspor, the lone goal in the match came from Mehmet Topuz (pictured). He scored in the 24th minute of play, and it was yet another shut-out for Volkan Demirel, the star goalie for Fenerbahce who plays the same position for the Turkish national team.

In Sunday action in England, Russian player Roman Palychenko, who should make our next long and difficult names list, scored the lone in the 61st minute to lead Tottenham past Sunderland 1-0. The Russian came into the match as a substitute in the 22nd minute of the game.

Additionally, EPL-leading Manchester City scored a 1-0 win over Arsenal thanks to goal from Spanish superstar David Silva in the 53rd minute of play.

In the UEFA Champions League, two English teams will be in the knock-out round of
16, including Chelsea as they face Napoli. Arsenal, the other English team in that particular group, will play an Italian team as well in AC Milan.

Ironically, neither Turkey nor Greece has a team in the Champions League round of
16, but there will be two teams each from both countries in the UEFA Europa League, but Cyprus, a tiny island country that lead Turkey and Greece to fight a brief, but ugly war in 1974, has a team in the Champions round as APOEL will face the French power Lyon.

While researching this piece, we were also stunned to learn that there is a Turkish player named Erol Bulut (born in Germany) who plays for the Greek team OFI Crete.

Here are the results of weekend play;

Turkey:

Galatasaray 2 Orduspor 0
Ankaragucu 0 Gaziantepspor 0, tie
Idman Yurdu (Mersin) 5 Karabukspor 3
Eskisehir 1 Kayseri 0
Bursaspor 0 Antalyaspor 0, tie
Istanbul BB 1 Sivasspor 1, tie
Ankara GB 1 Manisa 0
Besiktas 1 Samsunspor 1, tie
Fenerbahce 1 Trabzonspor 0

Greece (partial list):

Panathinaikos (Athens) 3 Asteras 1
PAOK Salonika 2 Doxa Dramas 0
Atromitos 1 AEK Athens 0
Olympiacos 2 PAS Giannia 0
OFI Crete 0 Kerkyra 0, tie

England (Sunday games only):

Manchester United 2 Queens Park 0
Liverpool 2 Aston Villa 0
Tottenham 1 Sunderland 0
Manchester City 1 Arsenal 0

Turkish, Greek and English teams in the Europa League and their match-ups, with games starting in mid-February:

FC Porto (Portugal) vs. Manchester City

Machester United vs. Ajax Amsterdam (Holland)

Rubin Kazan (Russia) vs. Olympiacos

PAOK vs. Udinese (Italy)

Besiktas vs. Braga (Portugal)

Trabzonspor vs. PSV Eindhoven (Holland)