Young v. Old

GB Oftas 2- 1 Teamen Rize
Genclerbirligi 2 - 1 Ankaraspor

(I think these scores are right - I saw both matches on the telly but I was drunk by half time of the first match)

Genclerbirlgi Oftas and Genclerbirligi have both made it to the final of the "prestigious" Ankara Sports Writers Cup tournament. I'll write a bit more about the matches tomorrow when I'm sober. In the mean time though... Why doesn't this blog get a say in the way the tournament is run? Surely we are the only true "sports writers" in this whole country who give a shit about Ankara teams.

Having said that, let me just say that I'm not biased in any way but I would love to raise a glass of water to the fact that Gokcekspor will not be in the final. Shame there is no water left in Ankara. Thanks again Gokcek. First you destroyed our pub and now we face five months without water. I have to admit though, your advice today for us Ankara people on how to get over the water problems was brilliant. "Go on holiday", you said. I'll be sending you my bill from Antalya soon.

UPDATE: So... I've recovered and so can give a little info on the match.

We have to realise that this was a pre-season match and therefore can't be taken as an indication of how we will be playing later on. For a start we had six substitutions.

Having said that I was fairly impressed with Nicola Petkovic who was playing as a sort of left back but came forward quite often. In fact it was him coming forward that resulted in the first goal when he sent in a cross for Ferhat Kiraz to slot in past the keeper.

Mehmet Cakir also had a pretty good game in midfield and found himself once or twice with clear goal-scoring opportunities. He stuffed those up but made amends later on when he headed the ball onto the post and into the net.

This was about the 55th minute mark and I decided to head off and play some darts. In the background I saw that Ankaraspor got a consolation goal late in the game. Who cares though, we beat them.

I'm not sure why but we didn't get to see our new Aussie signing Nick Carle. Let's see if they play him in the final.

The final is on Saturday night, 8 p.m.. I was originally thinking of heading out but the Yenikent stadium is half-way to Istanbul so instead why don't we head off to the Capadokia?