Turkish Football And The Dawn of a New Era
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Ziraat Türkiye Küpasi Group C
1461 Trabzon – Beşiktaş JK
Location: Hüseyin Avni Aker
Referee: Halil Umut Meler
Date: Thursday, January 10th
Time: 18:30 (GMT+2)
Channel: ATV
Matchday 3
Beşiktaş have wrapped up their January training camp in Antalya and have travelled to Trabzon for their cup match against 1461 Trabzon on Sunday.
The Black Eagles currently have 6 points after two wins, against Karabükspor and Sivas Belediyespor respectively, and are on level points with 1461 Trabzon who also got two victores against these two opponents. 1461 are currently the leaders in the group based on goal difference after they had trashed Sivas Belediye at the Avni Aker stadium a few weeks ago: 7-1.
Ali Kuçik will surely be extra motivated on Sunday when he faces the club where it all started for him.
1461 Trabzon are currently in 17th position in the PTT 1. division (Turkish second division) with only 16 points from 17 matches, but have thus far done well in the Turkish cup. 1461 Trabzon are Trabzonspor’s feeder club and have a lot of talented youngsters who are being groomed for Trabzonspor, several of Trabzonspor’s current roster have all played at 1461 Trabzon in the past. A few seasons ago they even achieved promotion to the Süper Lig but due to their affiliation to Trabzonspor they were not allowed to go up.
There’s also a familiar face who plays for them, Beşiktaş academy product Ali Kuçik. After leaving Beşiktaş, Ali spent several seasons at Göztepe and Linyitspor before joining Fatih Karagümrükspor last season where he scored 11 goals in 33 appearances, which earned him a move to 1461 Trabzon. So far this season Ali has managed to score 3 goals in 15 league appearances and has also scored an impressive 5 goals in only 4 cup appearances. This will surely be a special match for the now 24 year old forward.
With Ramon Motta having departed to Antalyaspor, Beşiktaş have one less player who has been usually starting in their cup campaign and with Alexander Milosevic being suspended for Sunday’s match we will either see Ismail starting at leftback and Tosic in the center or we may see Luiz Rhodolfo make his cup debut.
A victory on Sunday will pretty much ensure the Black Eagles of qualificaiotn to the next round, but winning the group should also be a priority as it guarantees an easier opponent in the next round.
Günay Güvenç; Serdar Kurtuluş – Pedro Franco – Dusko Tosic – Ismail Köybaşi; Necip Uysal – Veli Kavlak – Kerim Frei – Gökhan Töre; Mustafa Pektemek – Cenk Tosun.