The UEFA Cup, the second biggest european club competition will have its last Final played in Istanbul. No, it wouldn’t actually end, it’s gonna be re-branded as Europa League next year but still the idea of something being the last time sounds interesting.

And in the mean time, hearing that the aforementioned cup is 600m away from you is even more extra ordinary-like. So me and Ardi HAD to walk that 600m to take some of our own pictures of that old, old cup. And perhaps handle it if they let us (They didn’t, damn). Another interesting fact was that they had two guards, each more than six foot tall guarding the cup, rather than proper protection. It’s not like somebody’s gonna grab the cup and run, or is it? I mean who’s gonna be able to sell the UEFA Cup and get away with it? (actually, they probably can).  but then again the winners will probably do that in the football field anyway.

This might look like a river or something else from this angle that I took it from, but it’s nothing more than rain on improperly used pavement.

Those kids were almost having a seizure – if not a panic attack – after Ardi started his pretty much ‘regular standup’. It all started calm and they were waiting for the punchline. but after the first punchline, they were laughing. Like laughing too much. I almost dialled 911 (before realising that number doesn’t even work here).

Fatih Yayla (the team I train with, but can’t play for due to licensing issues) played a friendly game with local nearby club, Koca Mustafa Pasa. But of course these two have a lot of differences too, such as Yayla not even having a rented ground for 2 hours a week and K.M. Pasa having a real sized ground (Namik Sevik) 24/7. Or Yayla struggling for a 3rd place in their group in youth league’s second division and K.M Pasa being the unbeaten team in their group out of 6 games.

The game kicked off with three new possible signings also trying out for Yayla, one of them starting as left striker. In which position he was terrible at. Yayla went on to get 5-1 behind in the 78th minute, in which time the coach decided to do a substitute: Me going in, Oguzcan coming out. after 3 minutes I did an assist for Alican and he scored, 5-2. After the goal the game went on to be without action up until the very last seconds. Ramazan passed to Alican and he shot, the goalkeeper calmly took it in his arms.

And just as it looked there was no way ANYONE can score from such a position before the game ends, I did: The goal keeper was going to shoot the ball out of their field and after that the referee was going to end the game. Just as he was throwing it on his foot to shoot it I put my leg in the way of his shot (without committing any foul) and managed to get it, then the empty goal was mine to pass to! 5-3. Got to say I loved that game.