Sunday, April 26, 2009

ANKARAGUCU SHOW THEIR METTLE AT LAST


Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

When was the last time Ankaragucu returned from Kadikoy with a 3 points ? Mmmmm ….. that’s a difficult one to answer off the top of my head, but probably in the good old days of Ersun Yanal in 2000/2001. I vaguely recall writing a post on statistics a few years ago when I mentioned that Ankaragucu beat The Big Four in the same season around that time.

Fenerbahce 1 ANKARAGUCU 2

However, in all honesty I would have settled for a point pre-match, notwithstanding Hikmet Bey’s quote in The Hurriyet on Friday that he was going to Istanbul for 3 points !

I often ponder what might have been this season if Ankaragucu had started the season with Boozy and Santos alongside El Yasa and Ilkem. I live in hope that they will stay at the Club next season so that Hikmet Bey can build a team with those four and Serkan as the foundation of the side.

Back to last night, and I arrived at The Chopin Bar followed soon after by Yankee Kanka, Rip Off Kanka Erman and Kaleci Kanka Tansu. There were a few Ankaragucu present but next door in the Beer Bus it was full-on with Ankaragucu fanatics.

We had fun with them during the match singing Ankaragucu songs back and forward to each other. In fact, just like being in the Stadium !

Ankaragucu came out of the starting blocks like an Olympic sprinter. They had Fener on the back foot with some great attacking moves, and the first goal was a stunner after only 4 minutes of play.

A great through ball to Iglesias who showed great anticipation with a well timed run to leave his marker in his wake. The pass from Semavi was perfect and Iglesias stroked the ball under the despairing dive of Babacan.

Cue ….. leap to our feet and high fives all round ! What a start.

It was still all Ankaragucu after 10 minutes when a great goal bound header from Mehmet was cleared off the line by Roberto Carlos.

Fener had weathered the storm for 10 minutes and started to come into the match more and Serkan saved our blushes with a great save when he was one-on-one with Guisa.

Still it was Ankaragucu who looked the more likely to score as half time beckoned. However, Boozy, Santos and El Yasa were being kept busy at the other end and dealing comfortably with all that Fener threw at them.

Half time and Connect Kanka Steve joined us having just arrived back from Istanbul at ASTI in time to make the 2nd half. Also, appearing at half time was Rebecca and her friend Gemma. Incidentally, Gemma’s husband is a Fener supporter and I wonder if he knows that his wife is now an Ankaragucu fanatic ??!!

The 2nd half was no different with Ankaragucu still on attacking mode and chasing every ball. I’ve got to praise Hikmet Bey again for doubling their workrate and motivation – this was the Ankaragucu of old !

Half way through the 2nd half it was Jaba who did the damage. Having replaced the injured De Negris at half time he was causing all sorts of problems for Fener’s back line.

Jaba latched on to a ball on the left wing and brought it into the penalty box. A defender came in for the tackle which Jaba avoided and was through on goal but was then unceremoniously hauled down from behind. Penalty ! No question about it.

Jaba took it (Iglesias was hiding after last week’s abomination !!) . Whack ! Babacan had no chance and …………. 2-0 ! Cue …… up the volume and more high fives yessssss !

Still the tempo didn’t let up and Ankaragucu continued to go forward. However, the defence was caught out for the one and only time in the match when Deivid scored with 10 minutes remaining. A goal against the run of play, but a warning call, as if one was needed.

Ankaragucu easily played out the match and were still attacking when the final whistle brought the match to an end.

What a glorious sight to see our ‘old boy’ Gokhan with his head in his hands. I wonder if he was contemplating a return to Ankaragucu ??!!

So, with Istanbul BBS losing to Hacettepe yesterday, it means that Ankaragucu climbed out of the bottom three for the first time in a good few weeks.

A great team performance with every player involved. A great attacking display and hopefully it will be repeated next weekend at home to Ankaraspor.

All the best from an upbeat Eski Kanka Jim

10 comments:

  1. Love the headline of one of the Hürriyet articles:
    Ankaragücü became the most recent team to laugh in, victory amnesic, Fenerbahçe's face (ok, a little embellishment on my part, but not much)

    Now if we can only take Ankaraspor down this coming wknd. We beat them in their house in the first half of the season, we should be able to beat them in our own. And we may have Ceyhun back--which could only help.

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  2. mountaineering kanka7:44 am

    I was in Istanbul for the match. But... due to wifey pressure, I couldn't attend but merely watched in the North Shield Pub. It felt surreal to watch that first goal go in during the third minute. Judy's cousin Mary, who is now Flappy Half Squat Kanka, proved to be outstanding luck as Fener's only goal went in while she was in the loo. SHe is similar in size to Jabba, and is now in love with him. All praise Serkan, who was great. Defense looked good throughout, offense looked good throughout. What an effort! I love watching rich Istanbulu fairweather fans hang their heads and leave the stadium early. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Let's stick it to AnkaraSpor next week (anyone know what day the match is on?) Gururumuz AnkaraGucu!!!

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  3. Ankaragucu's official homepage has it listed as a Sunday match--KO yet to be posted.

    OZZY has a more reliable source somewhere on the TFF site, but I haven't been able to find it. Chris, you wanna paste that URL for us?

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  4. http://www.tff.org/Default.aspx?pageID=449

    The link is on the left hand side.

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  5. Ankaraspor match is on Sunday. KO 15:00.

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  6. Connect Kanka3:49 am

    Here are some more pictures that I took during the post-match celebration in Kızılay:

    http://www.getdropbox.com/gallery/136302/1/A.Gucu?h=0a9cdc

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  7. Great photos Steve. More on Sunday when we celebrate another victoreeeeeee yesssssss !!!

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  8. I was just told by my grocer that Ankaraspor will throw the game to Gucu this Sunday. He even went so far as to call Ankaraspor and Ankaragucu brother teams. I blanched but didn't take him to task on it. Has anyone else heard similar rumors? Gokcek could make that decision I'm sure.

    So if we lose, we will know he was wrong, but if we win, it may be less than obvious why.

    Eski, Oz any thoughts on this?

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  9. A couple of things to look out for. Watch the Ankaraspor keeper, in particular his positioning. And if Ankaragucu score early, the fix is on.

    But I doubt there is anything in this. Ankaraspor are safe and have nothing to play for. My prediction 2-0 to Ankaragucu.

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  10. I don't want to sound naive, but when talk comes round to match fixing between the Ankara teams I remain sceptical.

    Remember Bursa ? If we thought that they were going to lie down then we had 2 good reasons to think otherwise !!

    However, I agree with Oz Kanka's score prediction, before taking match fixing into account !!

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