ANKARAGUCU and THE BATTLE OF SAKARYA

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Footie result first and then the exciting story of The Battle of Sakarya - a battle to equal, if not better, last season's Battle of Kayseri (reported on in another blog).

Galata....spit....saray 1 ANKARAGUCU 1

First up, we met in our usual meeting venue, The Chopin on Sakarya Caddesi. Yours truly, Oz Kanka, Flying Dutchman Kanka, Maniac Kanka (and his entourage), No Name Kanka Gokhan, Battle Hardened Kanka, and last but by no means least, the beautiful No Match Kankie Suzan who was paying her first visit to the Chopin.

This was to prove to be a night to remember and not only for the great footie served up by a fighting `never say die` ANKARAGUCU team still looking for their first league win ! The Battle of Sakarya was to enliven proceedings in the 2nd half of the match !

ANKARAGUCU came out of their starting blocks like an express train (not a TCDD train I may add !!!) and almost snatched the lead in the 2nd minute when Tita lobbed the ball over the stranded Mondy. The ball was heading over the line until the `on song` Song cleared off the line.

Not surprisingly, the pace slowed a little as Galatasaray took control of the 1st half. ANKARAGUCU were clearly not overawed and were trying to play the ball out of defence rather than hoofing it out as in the past !!

However, ANKARAGUCU paid the price for some poor marking on the half hour mark when Umit picked up a through ball and gave Serkan no chance.

The Chopin was stunned into silence ! but..... 5 minutes later came the unexpected equaliser when Tita picked up a back header from Mustafa, and with everyone expecting a cut-back from the goal line, he lashed the ball past Mondy from a very tight angle. Surely a strong contender for goal of the month ?!

In Hikmet Bey's pre-match interview on TV he said, `we have come to Istanbul to collect THREE points` ! Brave words, and the team were obviously responding to his tactics of .... attack..... attack !!

Into the 2nd half and ANKARAGUCU were stepping up their efforts and coming more into the match, and also looking like the team most likely to score the winner.

However, half way through the 2nd half and all hell broke loose suddenly in The Chopin ! Apparently a lone CimBom supporter made an insulting comment to Maniac Kanka and his friends and fists started flying and glasses went crashing to the floor. We now understood why Kirkcaldy Kanka named him Maniac Kanka !!!

It took a few of us to subdue Maniac Kanka until the perpretrators of the fracas left the pub ! After hostilities had ceased (temporarily !!) we resumed our attentions back to the footie and Ceyhan went close with a few long range efforts. By the way, I am sure that Ceyhun will concentrate on a `passing game` when (or if) ANKARAGUCU ever find a striker to replace Umut Bulut !!

Men of the match were undoubtedly the two goalkeepers who played way above themselves in keeping the scoreline at 1-1.

So, an encouraging performance from an ANKARAGUCU viewpoint and with more performances like this they will be climbing out of the danger zone soon.

The excitement wasn't over though !! Just as we were leaving The Chopin to go to The Cappadokia Bar for a `nightcap`, all hell broke out again outside the pub on Sakarya Caddesi.

I still don't know exactly what happened, but, yes, Maniac Kanka was in the thick of it again slugging it out with some poor unfortunates !! When will they ever learn about Maniac Kanka's reputation ??!!

Well, we managed to subdue Maniac Kanka again and off we trudged to the Cappadokia Bar for some `cooling-off` liquid !!

Here endeth the story of The Battle of Sakarya !

Next matches up are -

Gencler V Trabzon - Friday 20 October - KO 8.30pm
ANKARAGUCU v Konya - Sunday 22 October - KO 3pm

More details of these during the week.

All the best from Bruised and Scarred Eski Kanka Jim

EDIT: For Gulay's very terse report of the match click here
EDIT 2: And Aussie Joe from Mersin has put up a report as well (he actually went to the match)