Monday, August 21, 2006

Football in summer?

It is only week three of the "your brand name" Turkish Super Lig and I'm already feeling downcast. Perhaps it is just that I'm forever a pessimist but, well, this weekend's results don't exactly inspire much hope.

First up, the better of the two results for Sunday's evening matches.

Bursaspor 0, Genclerbirligi 0

According to the Anatolia news agency report, in the first half Gencler pretty much controlled the game and Bursa had to rely on counterattacking moves. That, however makes it sound much more exciting than the minute-by-minute report with Bursaspor seemingly having most of the chances but our keeper Gokhan only having to make one save.

Second half though and the man who never performs whenever I'm watching, yes, Mr. Isaac Promise, uses his speed after getting the ball from a midfield position, gets it onto Erhan who has a go, ball rebounds from the keeper, Erhan has another go and this time the keeper stops it.

A couple of more attacks from Bursa and then they hit the uprights, no goal.

Gokhan makes a brilliant save in the 71st minute and then right before the death Mehmet Cakir has a go but their keeper saves again.

Final result: a boring 0-0 draw

Now onto the other Ankara team and considering the result Zagreb Kanka must be happy that Srebrenko Posavec didn't play.

Kayserispor 2, Ankaragucu 1

A few shots from both sides, but not much, until the 35th minute when Ceyhun's pass found Tita who sent it around opposition keeper and into an empty net. Ankaragucu one-nil up.

Not long after the break Kayseri got one back and, back to normal, nothing much eventuated until the 88th minute when Sir Eski Kanka was shot between the eyes. Ankaragucu go down 1-2.

EDIT: Just looking at the small clips of the match on NTV on Monday morning and I see that nkaragucu had a player sent off in the first half for a second yellow card. I have no idea if the first card was deserved but the second one was.

So three weeks in and Genclerbirligi have four points and Ankaragucu two. Fenerbahce are racing away with nine points, Besiktas and Kayseri have six, Galatasaray (and others) have five.

Position wise, Genclerbirligi are in ninth position and Ankaragucu are in their recently usual position of 13th.

Is it only me who might suggest that we shouldn't play football until the temperatures drop just a bit. I have to admit though, it is nice having a pre-match Efes in summer rather than the wilds of winter.

Leaving all that to one side. Next week we have two home matches: Genclerbirligi versus Ankaraspor on Saturday (8pm kick-off) and then on the Sunday Ankaragucu versus "We sold our souls to a manufacturer of rubbish TVs" Manissaspor (also 8pm).

Meeting time as usual for the summer matches, both days, 5 p.m. at the Chopin bar.

2 comments:

  1. A NOTE OF OPTIMISM ....

    Well, at least the New Lone Ranger (Bebbe) now has Tonto for a new partner !!!

    Tita has joined him up front, and if I am not mistaken he was Jaba's partner at Ankaraspor last season. A strong and useful player who will add some `bite` and firepower up front.

    Roll on next weekend and let's see him and the team firing !!

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  2. Concerning Srebrenko of ANKARAGUCU, obviously the coach reads our Blog and has taken note of my comments in a previous blog about his fitness level !

    He therefore didn't go to Kayseri and stayed behind in Ankara for extra training in readiness for the `big one` against Manisa next Sunday !!!

    All the best from ANKARAGUCU's assistant coach Eski Kanka Jim

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