Fener put us to the flame

The first home game of the new season and while we didn't turn out in the 50-person force that certain Turkish newspaper writers think we do, we did have Viking Kanka Jens, Viking Kanka Jens' wife's nephew (I think), myself, and Mr. and Mrs. Smart Arse Yankee Kanka. In fact we also had Clueless Kanka Vicki, her daughter and a friend of their's as well but they just came to the Chopin for the beers and not the match itself.

But I should go back a step and urge Viking Kanka to get a bloody alarm clock as we couldn't be bothered to wait for him in Gaziosmanpasa and instead jumped in a taxi to go to the bar.

So onto the Chopin Bar and who else do we find there but about 30 Gencler supporters. They were all wearing the red and black and to our joy they almost all spoke English.

There were a few calls of "siyah, kirmizi, en buyuk, Gencler"and then they made their way off to the stadium.

The die-hard supporters had gone but we decided to have another beer and I was starting to get worried if we would actually be able to get Mr. and Mrs. Smart Arse Kanka into the match (the rest of us had season tickets).

It was at this stage that I rang one of our new-found friends to ask what the situation at the stadium was and whether or not Mr. and Mrs. Smart Arse Kanka could get tickets.

The answer I received was that all of our new friends had actually joined a left-wing protest against the U.S.A. and Israel over Lebanon. My friend told me that they didn't want to say anything when we met them at the bar because of our Yankee friends... very sweet of them but little do they know.

Finally off to the stadium, no worries getting tickets, and we took our seats in Maraton, right on the half-way line. The atmosphere was great, the crowd in that part of the stadium was also great and there were significant numbers of good-looking girls (not that I noticed of course).

The match: Genclerbirligi started off strongly. In fact they started bloody well. There were some excelent midfield passages and the fans were in full voice in support. We had control, it seemed, and then came the first disaster.

35th minute: Our defence buggered up allowing Tuncay almost a free header on goal, he got it in. 1-0.

40th minute: Not really sure what happened but I do remember Tumer playing a ball to Alex who whacked it in. 2-0

Just one minute later and we could have got one back but for what has to be described as one almighty save from Rustu. Mehmet Cakir had a shot on and Rustu dived to his right, the ball had pretty much passed him but he still managed to save it. Top class goalkeeping.

Half-time. Moral was at rock-bottom but I'd say that Gencler actually had the better of the first half, except in some very, very important areas.

No.1 Gokhan in goal was a bloody joke.
No.2 Has anyone in Gencler learnt how to cross a ball in?
No.3 Ayman is not a new version of Skoko.
N0.4 We were bloody lucky not to have a penalty against us according to Smart Arse Yankee Kanka, Viking Kanka and dozens of others standing around us. Personally, I reckon the Fener player dived.

At this stage Smart Arse Yankee Kanka Dave bought us all some water (nice counting) and we were ready for the second half.

Well, this is a half of football I'd rather not remember. Fenerbahce, knowing they were 2-0 up, were prepared to play it safe. Gencler, on the other hand, pretty much forgot how to play. There were some nice tackles, a few nice passes but practically nothing to worry the Fener goalkeeper (who by this stage was Volkan).

Fenerbahce were controlling play and no matter how much we might have stolen the ball in midfield we couldn't get good shots on goal.

That is of course excepting an open goal which this blog's favourite striker, yep Mr. Isaac Promise, managed to send wide to the left of the post when the right of the goalkeeper was free.

Looking at the last sentence Mr. Promise's chance does not actually count as a "shot on goal", he missed after all but we did have another almighty chance not long after by (I'm not sure who) but Volkan pulled off a great save.

And so it was that the Ankara-living yalakalar who support Fenerbahce were the last ones singing tonight. A bad result? Yes. But I'm not depressed yet.

Two weeks until the next home match, but only a few hours until Ankaragucu versus Ankaraspor. See you all there at 5pm at the Chopin.

PS: Viking Kanka Jens took some nice photos at the match and I have put some of them up on my flickr site. Check them out here