Saturday, September 26, 2009

Gencler outclass Trabzon but still only manage a draw

Genclerbirligi 2 - 2 Trabzonspor

What a lovely evening. The cold weather that hit us during the bayram has dissapeared and it was a good turnout at the Chopin for Friday night's 2-2 draw with Trabzon.

As for that turnout, German was the second most popular language at the table with Lanky Kanka Jorg, Alpine Kanka Wolgang, his son Christoph and Robbie all babbling away with Ilker, Eskisehir Onur (who was in town for the weekend) and your good correspondent not having a clue what was being said. Strangely enough Flying Dutchman Kanka understood everything, even though he can't speak German... I credit the Efes.

Off to the match and I had to hang around to give Oguz a ticket and so got in five minutes late. Just about to sit down and the first touch of the ball I saw was the final kick that saw Trabzon go one up.

A depressing start and it wasn't long later that Gencler lazily lost the ball and Trabzon launched a great attack to go two ahead. The Trabzon fans were taunting us and quite frankly I could have curled up and fallen asleep. Our play was atrocious. Hardly a single pass was sticking. Balls were being kicked straight at Trabzon players and in defence we were too slow at closing down their forwards. Dreadful really.

Then something happened... we started playing... and playing well. Harbuzi got the first goal at about 30 minutes in thanks to a great pass from Mustafa Pektemek. Us Gencler fans finally had something to sing about (as you can see in the video posted below).

The rest of the half was pretty much all Gencler. A couple of near misses but at half time the general mood amongst the Gencler smokers huddled near the toilets was that we could grab this game.

Second half and both Harbuzi and Pektemek were taken off, with Hursit and Bilal coming on. It was the same replacement strategy that Thomas Doll used in the game against Ankaragucu last week. I have a feeling that Doll isn't happy with the fitness of either of them.

Hursit came on to great applause. The man is fast becoming my favourite player. Not due to any particular genius on his part but because he provides great entertainment. If I had to sum him up I'd say he is absolutely bursting with the confidence of a Maradona and the ability of an Eski Kanka Jim going for the double 20 after 23 beers.

Hursit set up the second goal against Ankaragucu last week and at times last night it looked like he could easily set up one for us once again. Instead we got some laughs out of the man. One nice one was when a ball was played to him in the air, he turned around - probably hoping to make a run - and instead the ball whacked him in the back of the head. Another time was a great header to stop the ball from going out of play. Only hassle was he was over the touch line at the time.

Still it was his confidence that got us the freekick that resulted in our second goal. Anyone else just outside the box would have been looking for someone to pass to... not our Hursit! He decided to go through his markers and was tripped up.

Bilal stood to take the free kick and for a long time Hursit was free at the edge of the box. Luckily someone from Trabzon twigged and ran in to mark him. Otherwise Bilal would have passed to Hursit and then God only knows what laughs may have ensued. Instead Bilal had a shot himself and we drew level.

The last 10 minutes or so was all Gencler but the winning goal just wouldn't come. The biggest chance lost was when Sandro sent a ball wide that really should have been in the back of the net.

Match over and back to Kizilay for more beers with the Alkaralar fans. The general mood... very, very upbeat. In Thomas Doll we might finally have a coach who can do something with the team.

8 comments:

  1. Great report. Pretty much everything Oz kanka says is on the money. But the title is a bit misleading.

    It is true that GB outclassed Trabzon during the last part of the first half and pretty much the entire second half, but...they were digging themselves out of the hole that they allowed Trabzon to dig for them in the first half hour or so of the match during which Trabzon outclassed Gencler to the point that I was thinking that this was going to be a replay of the Turkey/France womens volleyball match that took place earlier in the day. France never turned things around, Gençler did.

    It is probably also not fair to say that Gencler just started playing better. Trabzon started screwing things up. Why is not so clear. At least it wasn't so clear to me. My friends from Trabzon who were kind enough to invite me to the match seem to have had plenty of opinions about it however.

    Here are some statistics:

    Goals: Trabzonspor: 2 – Gençlerbirliği: 2

    Shots on goal: Trabzonspor: 10 - Gençlerbirliği: 11

    On target: Trabzonspor: 4 - Gençlerbirliği: 5


    Foul: Trabzonspor: 17 - Gençlerbirliği: 12

    corner kicks: Trabzonspor: 1 - Gençlerbirliği: 6

    Off side: Trabzonspor: 0 - Gençlerbirliği: 4

    Possession : Trabzonspor:% 42 - Gençlerbirliği:% 58

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  2. I have to say the best thing about hursit was the way it was said......horseshit....how can you possibly fail to feel positive about this guy..he was also a bundle of energy and Genc took a point of the black sea bandits.....excellent

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  3. we are always happy when gençler is on fire.they will go kadiköy as a unbeaten and we are all together with them,we are eternal brothers of this city.

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  4. Thanks for the vid clip Oz Kanka.

    Three well constructed goals, but what a howler for the fourth. I'm sure the Trabzon coach will be having 'words' with his goalkeeper and defenders about that one !!

    Oh yes, and perhaps the plug about my ability to hit double 20 was a wee bit off. I can usually get it after 3 beers (not 23) and, of course, Double 1 without any beers or with 33 beers !!!

    Anyway, great fight back yesterday by Gencler and the important statistic ....... still unbeaten !

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  5. Connect Kanka Steve2:18 pm

    That second goal was quite the beauty, a great way to tie it up.

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  6. I'm with Costacurta: best wishes to Gencler for their next match against the little, yellow birdies from byzantium. We'll all be rooting for you.

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  7. Anonymous9:11 pm

    Hey my dear friends,.., how are you?
    Just dropped to say hello to all of you there in far away Turkey.

    Thinking of you,
    Your Zagreb Kanka :-)

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  8. Well well well ...... what a pleasant surprise from a long lost kankie in far away Zagreb.

    We miss all your lovely funny comments and look forward to hearing from you more regularly dear sweet Zagreb Kankie.

    Kisses from Oz and Eski Kankas xxxx - the other kankas are not allowed to send kisses to someone very special to us TWO !!

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