Barış Alper Yılmaz’s Marathon: 70 Matches in 388 Days

Barış Alper Yılmaz started his season in July 2023 and finished it in July 2024, seamlessly transitioning into the new Süper Lig season.

We’ve completed the first 10 matches of the new Süper Lig season. Honestly, the new season hasn’t started with many goals or much excitement. One of the most notable details is the decrease in ball-in-play time. The average for the first 10 matches is just over 49 minutes. Last season, this average was 53:42. Of course, factors like high temperatures and early-season jitters could be cited as counterarguments. However, the extra slowness in throw-ins is also noticeable this year. It’s disappointing that only 47 minutes of actual football were played in the Galatasaray-Hatayspor match, and 51 minutes each in Fenerbahçe-Adana Demir and Samsunspor-Beşiktaş. Unfortunately, the first half of last night’s Konyaspor-Galatasaray match was also more like football with throw-ins in between.

33 Long Balls, 16 Crosses in the First Half

Yesterday’s home team, Konyaspor, is one of the sides that has improved compared to the previous year. Umut Nayir, Aleksic, Yusuf Erdoğan, Pedrinho, and Jevtovic are all solid additions. They’ve also improved their play compared to last season; they’re no longer waiting helplessly with 9 men behind the ball. Yesterday, in the first half, they pressed Galatasaray and forced the reigning champions to resort to long balls many times. In fact, Galatasaray played 33 long balls and 16 crosses in the first half alone, which is quite a lot for just one half.

Konya’s high pressing also limited Galatasaray’s full-backs from joining the attack. I expected Jelert to start at left-back after Köhn’s last-minute issue, as he was quite effective in that position in Galatasaray’s second match against Copenhagen last season. I believe the young Danish player will have opportunities both at right-back and left-back throughout the remainder of the season.

Seamless Transition Into the New Season

However, yesterday’s hero was another winger, Barış Alper Yılmaz. Barış opened his season in July 2023 in the Zalgiris-Galatasaray match and closed it in July 2024 in the Netherlands-Turkey game. Yet, without showing any signs of fatigue, he transitioned seamlessly into the new season! If my calculations are correct, last night, Barış played his 70th official match in the last 388 days. And the national player directly impacted the outcome of his 70th match in 388 days.