After becoming the biggest loser to the champion, Bashkashir is on a fast-track crash • The historic appearance in the Champions League has been replaced by a perforated defense and a battle for survival in the league, and now the "gray owls" seem to be hoping for a miracle.
Ashkelon players in a moment of disappointment.
The Turkish champion has lost direction
Photography:
IPI
The dismissal of coaches is a matter of routine, even in the Turkish league - but in the case of the Turkish champions, in Ashkelon, it is a real crash.
From a historic championship and participation in the home stage of the Champions League - to a bottom team that fights against relegation, within a few months.
In 2019 Okan Burok got his first chance to coach a big team.
It was a situation in which both sides aspired to grow together.
Burok, who as a player took part in the three record achievements of Turkish football - winning the UEFA Cup and European Cup with Glatsray and third place in the 2002 World Cup with the team - received, for the first time, a significant stage behind the lines. Turkish Cup, with a semi-final victory over Glatsray and a final against Fenerbahce.
On his shoulders was the responsibility to take out of Bashkashir the loser image, after in the 2016/17 season she finished as the runner-up of Besiktas, by a gap of four points;
In the 2017/18 season she finished in third place, three points from champion Glatsray;
And in the 2018/19 season, the most painful of all, she finished as Glatsray's runner-up by only two points - after leading the table for 22 rounds, until the 31st round (out of 34).
Farthest from Europe and
here last season, the Corona season, the fact that this is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's team helped - and not just on the economic side.
The team from a western suburb of Istanbul, whose rivals like to laugh at it, hate it and tease it about being a team with a negligible audience - enjoyed the empty stands sponsored by the virus that drove the world crazy.
In Ashkenazi, which plays with uniform colors similar to those of the Justice and Development Party (AK), headed by Erdogan, whose portrait is placed in the entrance hall of its training complex, managed to win the championship and become the first team from Istanbul to win the title and not one of the big three - Glatsray, Fenerbahce.
Erdogan fan.
In Ashkashir raise your hands?
// Photo: AFP
This championship was worth to Bashkashir the historic direct ticket to the home stage of the Champions League.
This happened, in fact, during a nightmare season for Turkish football: Besiktas was eliminated in the Champions League qualifiers by the Greek PAOK Thessaloniki and dropped out of the Europa League qualifiers, where she was embarrassed by the Portuguese Rio Aba and parted ways with Europe;
AlanyaSpor was also eliminated from the Europa League qualifiers by Norwegian Rosenburg;
And only Sibaspur managed to reach the home stage of the Europa League, thanks to a direct ticket.
It did not help her when she met Maccabi Tel Aviv - Israel champion won it twice and end up in a factory.
And if Baskshir, its inaugural season in the group stage of the Champions League, although managed to surprise and beat Manchester United, contribute to unseat the English team and finish with Three points - however, her weak defense averaged no less than three goals per game (18 in total), including one five and two fours.
A savior with experience to the
chagrin of Burok, Erdogan and Health Minister Fahrtin Koja, who founded the "Medipol" network - the main sponsor of Bashkashir - the team's biggest slump was actually in the league.
After 22 rounds, the team is in 15th place, only four points from the red line.
The team has already suffered ten league losses this season, after in the past two seasons - together - suffered ten losses.
Therefore, last Friday Borok was fired.
Whoever was called to replace him is a coach with a proven track record, Aikot Kojman, who marched Fenerbahce to the semi-finals of the Europa League (2013), and also won a sensational cup with Konihaspor (2017), after a penalty shootout in the final against Bashkashir.
His mission to save Bashkashir's season will be put to the test as early as Tuesday, when he will face table leader and ex Fenerbahce in the quarterfinals of the cup.
He will have to face the Yellow Canaries without one of the senior Gray Owls players, midfielder Irpen Kahabji, who passed on Sunday with none other than Fenner.
Kojman will hope to surprise the ex, who with the exception of Kahabji has been strengthened by Mesut Ozil, with a very clear goal ahead of her for this season - a double.