Another long season for Genclerbirligi?

Genclerbirligi 1 - 2 Genclerbirligi Oftaş

A victory to Genclerbirligi Oftaş this evening has me slightly depressed. After Genclerbirligi went one-nil up thanks to a freaky goal Oftaş managed to score two very well taken goals later in the first half, and then defended brilliantly in the second, to run out deserved winners 1-2.

What a surreal situation, and one which definitely should not be allowed, but tonight we got to watch two Genclerbirligi teams. The supposedly senior team were all over the place. The so-called junior team out to prove that last week's victory in the Ankara (not all) Sportswriters Cup was not a fluke.

As usual we were down at the Chopin nice and early. Well, I was down at the Chopin nice and early, but soon I was surrounded by various Turkish mates from the Alkaralar forum.

The Alkaralar crowd, being serious gluttons for punishment, went off to watch the warm up. I, of course, ordered another beer and not long later our crowd arrived, Spine and his mate Gulcu (or is it Gucu?), Smart Arse Yankee Kanka Dave and Mrs. Smart Arse Yankee Kanka Suzanne, and a few newcomers whom we hope to turn into true Gencler supporters... Davide, a wonderful Italian bloke who doesn't mind being reminded of the dive that cost Australia a place in the World Cup quarterfinals!!!! arrgghhh when the bloody hell will I get over it? Chad, a Canadian who has been here for only a week or so and truely reckons that he can find some valuable minerals in this country even though the company he works for hasn't found anything for the last 20 years, and Chad's lovely Bulgarian girlfriend/slash wife who regaled us with great tales of the drunken goings on at Bulgarian football games but who will no doubt kill me because in my drunken state I cannot remember her name, nor her marital status.

Also managed to meet Ertank and Oguz, amongst others at the match itself.


I stuffed up pretty badly on the timings. We left for the match at about 8:05 and really we could have stayed at the pub for one or two more beers. But at least it gave us some time to explain to our Gencler virgins the whole surreal situation of watching two Genclerbirligi teams playing in a top flight match.

I certainly don't want to get into that discussion again now but let me say it was great when the teams came out and the crowd in Maraton called them both over with the call "Gencler hand-in-hand"

National anthems over and it was time for some serious shouting. "Gokcek take us to the hamam" was one of the first songs to go up. As was the section-by-section rendition of "Gokcek... su, su, su". Su, being the Turkish for water.*

Having taken on Gokcek it was time to take on Ilhan Cavcav, the chairman of Genclerbirligi. I'm not going to go into the reasons yet again as to why we don't like the bloke... just take it for granted.

"Cavcav, Maraton kombine istiyoruz", (Cavcav, we want season tickets for the stand opposite where you sit) I think we shouted. "Gercek taraftarlar Maratonde" (the real fans are in Maraton).

They do sound rubbish in English but Cavcav would certainly have heard them and I really wonder for how long he is going to continue to punish us Genclerbirligi fans. The man must resign!!!!

The singing continued as the match kicked off and it was fairly good start for Genclerbirligi. In the fifth minute our new Aussie signing Nick Carle took a freekick that Traore managed to send onto the post and out.

Then we went 1-0 up thanks to something weird. Erhan (No. 44) had the ball on the right he tried to cross it in but it was a sort of limp-lettuce sort of kick. Somehow the defence failed to stop it, perhaps the cross was so bad that they had no chance, and Mehmet Cakir got onto it and from an angle had a shot that was even limper than the original cross... the ball went on to hit the post and then in. 1-0.

It didn't take long for Oftaş to not just get one back but to take the lead. The first goal from Serkan Atak (who did play contrary to Sir Eski Kanka's earlier report) was class. Sedat sent a lovely ball behind our defence from where Atak took a lovely shot. 1-1.

The second goal just a few minutes was rather similar but possibly even better. This time though it was Olgay who sent it on for Yildirim to score.

Three goals in the first half, but as Smart Arse Yanky Kanka said later on: "Even though there were three goals, I've never seen such a boring half of football"

The second half was more fun as Genclerbirligi sent everything up front looking for an equaliser, including towards the end of the match playing Zoric, a defender, in a position that Isaac Promise normally plays, but was all to no avail.

The match over and we, of course, called the Genclerbirligi Oftaş players over to offer our congratulations. They knew that we didn't want them to win and so when we called out the cry "siyah, kırmızı, en buyuk ..." they replied with not what we were expecting ie "Gencler" but instead "Oftaş". They were taking the piss. But tonight they had every right to. They were the "juniors", we were the "seniors" and they beat us up. One man in particular has to be mentioned and that is the Brazillian Tozo who had a great match for Oftaş, revenge for being given to Oftaş by us?

An indulgence please. As a fellow Australian I was very interested in how Nick Carle went tonight. First up we have to put his game in perspective because Genclerbirligi were rubbish. We haven't signed a forward this season and Okan Ozturk is not a fast player.

Carle showed signs of brilliance. He got past some players with some lovely moves and he threaded his passes with style. If we get Isaac Promise back in shape up front (or if we buy a half-decent forward) he could be very dangerous. He has clearly got the skill to get passes through to players running forward... we just need a running forward!!!

He also had a couple of shots on goal which were all blocked by defenders. If any of them had got through the defender they would have been screamers. Me.... I'm looking forward to screaming soon.

* For you non-Turkish fans reading this Gokcek is a w.... who happens to be the mayor of Ankara, as well as the honourary chairman of our hated rivals Ankaraspor, but who more than anything has been responsible for major water cuts in Ankara in the last week or so. For example, my area was without any water this week for about five days... for others it has been longer.




Photos from Smart Arse Yankee Kanka.