Sunday, December 09, 2007

Mid-winter blues


Just to give you a feeling for the atmosphere at the match... A couple of photos taken by Gencler fan Onur Aydogan which were posted on the Alkaralar website.

After last week's brilliant victory over Trabzonspor this week we had a clear opportunity to get out of the relegation zone but instead let our chances go by.

Istanbul BBS 0 - 0 Genclerbirligi

I listened to part of the match on the radio but with the scores at 0-0 near the end of the half I decided to head off with the rest of the family to some Christmas carols. It is some measure of how depressed I am with Genclerbirligi this season that I didn't urge the taxi driver to turn on the radio and nor did I rush home to find out the result.

Not many other people could be bothered with this match either. The radio announcer said he could count six (yes, six) fans at the match being played in the 80,000 capacity Beyaz Fil Olympic Stadium. Although he did admit that he could hear singing and that anyway the lower stands can't actually be seen from the radio booth.

Still, what the hell is the point of Istanbul BBS playing their games at an enormous stadium a million miles away from the heart of Istanbul.

Football-wise... well, no exciting goals to describe, no red cards, no fans... hiç, zip, nothin'.

One thing though it looks like Aussie Nicky Carle is on his way out. He is apparently looking for a transfer and hasn't played in the last two matches.

All is not looking good at Genclerbirligi. So it is lucky that we have an easy match next week at home... Versus Fenerbahce.

5 comments:

  1. Having sobbed my way through Oz Kanka's `match report` I think I have a remedy to clear those mid-winter blues ......

    I suggest a trip down-under to go and watch the silky smooth skills of FC Sydney and then..... come back refreshed to Ankara to watch Gencler's miracluous climb back up the table to the UEFA Cup dog fight alongside ANKARAGUCU !!!!

    Comments ?

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  2. There were definitely more than six fans in the stands, around 15 of them being us supporting Gençlerbirliği right next to Belediye fans.

    The team was not promising though, there wasn't much to say except a lucky ball that hit the post in 90+.

    We will have a tough battle against relegation if they keep playing this way...

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  3. A message for Sedge....

    Oz Kanka and I were trying to figure out who you are. Please give us some information about yourself.

    Also, if you are in Ankara, please join us for the matches.

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  4. I work as the sports editor in the Turkish Daily News and used to be in Ankara until TDN moved to Istanbul last year .

    If you wonder what do I look like, you can see me in the pictures from last game in Alkaralar Web site.

    I'm the mildly bold guy holding the Gençlerbirliği scarf from the left side, right next to smiling Danish guy Anders.

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  5. Thanks for clearing that up Sedge and I'm sure you will be receiving some sort of contact soon from our Editor in Chief, Oz Kanka Chris.

    He's Down-Under at the moment !

    In the meantime, we welcome your comments on this Blog.

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