The Run of Play is a blog about
the wonder and terror of soccer.

We left the window open during a match in October 2007 and a strange wind blew into the room.

Now we walk the forgotten byways of football with a lonely tread, searching for the beautiful, the bewildering, the haunting, and the absurd.

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The Non-Obscure Truth of Fenerbahçe

It’s surprising, I guess, that Fenerbahçe held Arsenal to a 0-0 draw at the Emirates tonight. But it’s not as shocking as it’s being made out to be in some quarters.

Fenerbahçe are lurching in the Süper Lig this year under the presumably homesick and starving Luis Aragonés. But they were in the quarterfinals of the Champions League last season, and beat Chelsea 2-1 in the home leg. More to the point, you might remember a number of their players—Semih Şentürk, Uğur Boral, Volkan Demirel, etc.—from last summer. Back then they were called Turkey, and if memory serves they were just about up to the task of playing Aaron Ramsey.

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The Non-Obscure Truth of Fenerbahçe

by Brian Phillips · November 5, 2008

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