Oftaş take out the Cup

Genclerbirligi 2 - 3 Genclerbirligi Oftaş

There were probably more Kankas at the Capadokia Bar last night than there were spectators in wasteland that is the Yenikent Stadium which is so far out of town that it has gendarmes, military police responsible for security in rural areas, instead of police.

Why on earth we played the Ankara Sportswriters Cup out there I have no idea. It certainly doesn't make great TV to see just a few dozen people in the stands.

So saving the 30 TL in would have cost us in petrol to actually go to the game , myself, Flying Dutchman Kanka, Maniac Kanka, Yankee Kanka, Battle-hardened Kanka and Sir Eski Kanka headed off to the pub instead.

It was difficult to get excited over a match involving two Genclerbirligi teams and for a while I think the players had the same problem.

But it was the senior team that went ahead in the 5th minute with Okan Ozturk scoring a nice header. The Gencler seniors dominated for most of the first half and went into the break 1-0 up.
The second half was a completely different affair. The seniors went to sleep and juniors decided to stick one to their elder team.

The aptly named Serkan Atak scored a hat-trick for Oftaş and Tozo, the former Gencler player whom we discarded, sorry, loaned to Oftaş was clearly in the mood for revenge. All up a good performance for Oftaş.

We also finally got to see a bit of Nick Carle in action. Unfortunately he was brought on for the second half when Oftaş took the game over but he had one very good shot on goal that rebounded off the keeper to Isaac Promise who lived up to reputation by blasting the ball over the posts.

Next week we start the league proper:

Saturday August 11
Gokcekspor v. Ankaragucu
K.O. 9 pm at Yenikent

Sunday August 12
Genclerbirligi v. Genclerbirligi Oftaş
K.O. 9 p.m. at 19 Mayis stadium

I'll post more details of season tickets etc later on.