The Secret To Underdog Success

By: chris | March 27th, 2009

The city of Sivas is modest and the Sivasspor’s history even more so. They don’t have the allure of Istanbul and their Turkish Super Lig adventure only begun in 2005. They staked a claim to middle ground in their inaugural top flight season, finishing 8th, and have built on their performance each year, finishing seventh in 06-07 and third last year. This year, they surprisingly sit top of a league which has been won by an Istanbul-based team for 24 straight years, and when asked why, coach Bulent Uygun declared it’s precisely because they’re not Istanbul. In the quiet city of Sivas, they have no nightlife.

“There is no nightlife in Sivas. There are only a few shops where my players can buy drinks but I’m in contact with the shop owners, so I am informed as soon as one of my players buy drinks and I warn him.”

Such a simple and intriguing concept, one which is steeped in logic and reason. At the elite levels of athletics, genetics reign supreme. Lionel Messi can pound mojitos til the early morning and still spend the next evening making grown men cry and Ray Hudson swoon. That’s simply his gift. His every performance may not be optimal, but he’s still head and shoulders above the rest. But in most cases, the controllable aspects of athletics – training, diet and mental preparedness – enable players and teams to take that next step.

So for a team like Sivasspor this makes the difference. Not quite all the difference – they still must have some good players – but enough in the world of Turkish football to gain then that little edge. They’re fresh for training in the morning, they’re fresher for games and their bodies are in tip-top shape, something which doesn’t exactly run parallel with a life of hard-partying (Adriano – lookin’ at you).

And how best to accomplish this? Live in a city, a small city, where the nightlife is nonexistent. Beat the big city teams by not acting like one.