Going into the Turkish national team match against Belgium this past Friday, much of the speculation was on how the Turks would do against Belgium. Turkey needed maximum points against the Belgians in order to consolidate second position in Group A of the Euro 2012 qualifiers. With Belgium to play three matches after their match against Turkey, and with Turkey having four matches left after the match against Belgium, the Turks needed maximum points.

With Galatasaray having their worst season in Turkish top flight football, it seems that it can't seem to get any worse for them. Perhaps they haven't gone low enough yet in their season of futility. Galatasaray has now had to deal with some recent fights between teammates, with both fights involving Milan Baros.

When one thinks of Galatasaray, one thinks of success. Galatasaray are one of the most successful clubs in Turkish football. Even if one knows nothing else about the sport in Turkey, people will most likely have heard of Galatasaray. With their success domestically and in Europe, it's hard to imagine Galatasaray having a bad season.

It wasn't supposed to be like this for Beşiktaş.

After stealing the transfer headlines in Turkey last summer and this past winter, Beşiktaş looked to have a team that would not only contend for the Turkish Super League title, but perhaps win the title by a very comfortable margin. After the transfers of Hugo Almeida, Simao Sabrosa, and the loan of Manuel Fernandes right before the second half of the season started, there was talk of Beşiktaş possibly winning every match in the second half of the season.

With the transfer window closing, many transfers and loans have been made to strengthen teams. In Turkey, teams have scrambled to strengthen their rosters in the four weeks of the winter transfer window. Two loan moves have particularly piqued the interest of American soccer fans. Before these loan moves, Brad Freidel was the only American soccer player that had played in Turkey, playing for Galatasaray for the 1995-96 season.

This past week, Scottish player Kenny Miller recently joined with defending champions of the Turkish Super League, Bursaspor. With Miller set to receive about 50,000 quid per week, this has to rank as one of the priciest transfers in Bursaspor's history. Bursaspor have had to take out sponsorships in order to afford Miller's salary.

With the second half of the Turkish Super League season on the horizon, there are many questions to ask. After a first half of the season featuring Anatolian teams leading the way for much of the season, it seems likely that the league title will stay outside of Istanbul for a second consecutive season.

It was supposed to be another match between Beşiktaş and Bursaspor. With Beşiktaş needing a win to climb to contention for the Turkish Super League title, and Bursaspor needing a win to keep pace with Trabzonspor at the top of the standings, this match was important for both clubs. Beşiktaş won the match 1-0.

The Turkish Super League has played a third of its season. Go ahead and take a look at the standings. You can find them at this link. For the first time in Turkish top flight football, going back to the establishment of top flight professional football in 1959, none of the Istanbul big 3 clubs are in the top 3 spots this far into a season.

With many storylines coming into this Sunday, this was one of the most interesting matches between eternal rivals Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray in quite some time. How would Gheorghe Hagi do in his first match back in charge of Galatasaray? Could Fenerbahçe be peaking at the right time in the season?

Galatasaray has reached an agreement with Gheorghe Hagi to become their new manager, replacing Frank Rijkaard. Hagi, who previously played for Galatasaray from 1996 to 2001, signed a contract for 1.5 years. This will be Hagi's second stint as manager of Galatasaray, as he previously was in charge in the 2004-05 season, coming over from Bursaspor.

Frank Rijkaard has been let go as the manager of Galatasaray by what the club claims as a contract termination by "mutual consent".

Rijkaard was signed to a two year contract in June of 2009, succeeding interim manager Bulent Korkmaz. His first year at the Istanbul club saw Galatasaray place third in the 2009-10 season.

After a disappointing weekend involving the Turkish national team, fans were looking forward to Spor Toto Super League action. With the always anticipated Fenerbahçe-Galatasaray derby coming next week, both of those teams would look to get wins to gain momentum towards the showdown next week. This week would see upsets for two of the big three Istanbul clubs, and the leaders starting to stumble.

The roster for the Turkish national team was announced for the Euro 2012 qualifiers against Germany and Azerbaijan. The roster is as follows:

Goalkeepers: Volkan Demirel (Fenerbahçe), Hakan Arıkan, Cenk Gönen (Beşiktaş), Onur Recep Kıvrak (Trabzonspor)
Defenders: Gökhan Gönül (Fenerbahçe), Sabri Sarıoğlu, Servet Çetin, Hakan Kadir Balta (Galatasaray), Ömer Erdoğan (Bursaspor), İbrahim Toraman, İsmail Köybaşı (Beşiktaş), Ceyhun Gülselam (Trabzonspor)
Midfielders: Hamit Altıntop (Bayern Münih), Mehmet Aurelio, Necip Uysal (Beşiktaş), Selçuk Şahin, Emre Belözoğlu, Özer Hurmacı (Fenerbahçe), Nuri Şahin (Borussia Dortmund), Selçuk İnan (Trabzonspor),
Arda Turan (Galatasaray)
Forwards: Tuncay Şanlı (Stoke City), Halil Altıntop (Eintracht Frankfurt), Semih Şentürk (Fenerbahçe), Mevlüt Erdinç (Paris Saint Germain), Nihat Kahveci (Beşiktaş), Sercan Yıldırım (Bursaspor)

There are a couple of interesting call-ups for Turkey with this roster.

The week after a derby match gets people to catch their breath, and back to normal business when it comes to Turkish soccer. Week 6 of the Spor Toto Super League was more of a "carry on" when it came to play and the results. One team needed to get a win to placate their fans, one team has come roaring back four weeks after panic was setting in, and the leaders continued their fast start.