Roker Park

I read a few weeks ago that on the site where Sunderland's old ground Roker Park once stood. Like so many old grounds a housing estate replaced it. Unlike so many other ex-grounds someone actually had the good idea of naming the streets in a lovely way.

SLAVIA PRAGUE

Interesting story coming out of Prague this week concerning Slavia's new stadium.

NEW SLAVIA STADIUM TO OPEN IN MAY
The official opening of Slavia Praha's new stadium in Prague
10-Vrsovice is due to take place at the beginning of May.

Alexandr Kliment of E Side Property, the company overseeing
construction, told reporters today that work on the ground is almost
complete, with nearly a third of the new Eden's 21,000 seats already
installed.

According to iDnes.cz and SportovniNoviny.cz, Kliment also revealed
that Slavia's opening game in the new stadium is likely to be a
friendly against fifth-tier English side Oxford United.

[Slavia's first game against British opposition was against an Oxford
University team in 1899.]

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Interesting in that reading Oxford United messageboards they don't seem to know anything about it! Anyway, searching around there are a few good pictures of Slavia stadia old and new at this link:
Slavia Stadia

Cardiff City ease into FA Cup Semi Finals

It's very, very, very strange. I never, ever, ever, ever thought I would see the day when my club made the FA Cup Semi Final.

Cardiff City beat Middlesbrough last Sunday. It is now Thursday and the magnitude and utter nonsenscial nature of the event still hasn't sunk in. I'm not even sure it will have sunk in when I'm walking down Wembley way watching the famous blue and white of the Cardiff City support bob up and down alongside the red of Barnsley.


Incredible.

Turkish Names

I read the following piece on an internet forum, but I've lost the name of the person who wrote it, a quite interesting read concerning naming of Turkish players....

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There's not a single standard but a more general one. we usually refer to them by first names.. (tuncay sanli as tuncay, semih senturk as semih, ugur boral as ugur, selcuk sahin as selcuk, etc..). in almost all occasions, fans, match commentators and the press/media will refer to them this way as well, other than sometimes referring with full name.

one exception is when there are other significant players with the same first name.. such as mehmet topal (gs), mehmet topuz (kayseri), mehmet yozgatli (besiktas) and so forth who are all significant players in turkey one way or another.. or 3 players first named ibrahim in besiktas (ibrahim toraman, ibrahim uzulmez, ibrahim kas)..in this case, they are usually called either mostly by full names or sometimes just by last names. (in the past, they used to be tagged with "buyuk" or "kucuk" before their names meaning big or little, kind of similar to the way brazilians add "inho" to their names as in ronaldo vs. ronaldinho.. not very common anymore). hakan sukur is also one of these players, as there were in the past and again currently are two hakans in galatasaray.

another exception is some high profile players, like hakan sukur, tuncay sanli, mehmet topuz being referred by full names.. that's more the case in players like hakan sukur and mehmet topuz whose first names are common among players, and less the case with tuncay who's mostly referred as tuncay. hasan sas was one of those players also, who is more often referred by full name than just by his first name.

as for current turkish players in fenerbahce, we usually refer to all of them by first name except kazim richards, who is usually referred as colin kazim, kazim richards, colin kazim richards, and sometimes kazim. (his name seems to create a lot of confusion everywhere, as he's also listed as kazim kazim in european games after he got his turkish passport under that name, which is hilarious).

good thing brazilians also use first names, middle names or nicknames as there is a "de souza mafia" in fenerbahce squad. (deivid de souza, alex de souza, eduardo de souza).