Monday, March 08, 2010

ANKARAGUCU EMERGE FROM THE RELEGATION ZONE .... SLOW, BUT SURE

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Further to last night's brief post ....

There were only TWO kankas brave enough to tackle the journey to Hell and back yesterday for the 'non-match'.

ANKARAGUCU 0 Gaziantepspor 0

'The Terrific Two', (Phillie Kanka Jamie and yours truly) met up in the Beer Bus and then took off to 19 Mayis to board our 'Great Chairman's' buses to Hell.

It was an unusually warm sunny day for March so I had to buy yet another Ankaragucu hat to protect my delicate skin from the UVs !

We entered the Stadium over an hour before KO and passed the time, among other things, of counting all the security guards in the Stadium. We gave up counting at 200, but there were certainly more than that !

As a matter of interest, we were wondering what their function is ? Apart from telling supporters (me included ...tut tut tut) not to smoke cigarettes in the Stadium, they did little else. Phillie posed the question ...... why did they not allow smoking in the outdoor part of the Stadium, but they allow it in the staircase which is an enclosed area ?! Answers not required !!!

There was a large crowd with all the Tribunes represented. We found ourselves surrounded by the Sokak Group and the least said about their behaviour the better ! A serious fight broke out in the 2nd half near us which took some considerable time for the Police to react to, with the 'security guards' standing in their appointed positions like statues oblivious to the chaos going on around them !

As for the match, the less said about that too the better !

The Ankaragucu line-up was -

Serkan
Geremi, Rajnoch, Muhammet and El-Yasa
Kagan, Hurriyet, Sapara and Murat
Vassel and Vitek

Substitutes used - Weeks, Bilal and Koray

Both teams huffed and puffed in the 1st half with Ankaragucu scorning a few reasonable chances. As for Serkan, he was a spectator for most of the half. The half time whistle came as a relief to the boredom.

The 2nd half was a different story. Five minutes in, and an Antep breakaway with a one-on-one situation developing and Serkan looking like the loser. However, Rajnoch chasing back hauled the attacker down as he was about to shoot.

Says I to Phillie .... 'it's a red card', and so it proved. It was about the only correct decision made by a poor referee, Abdullah Yilmaz, who lost the plot on numerous occasions with some strange decisions and his failure on a few occasions to play the 'advantage rule' when it quite obviously was on.

From this point in the match, Antep gradually took control and but for some great defending by the Back Three (minus Rajnoch), and heroics from Serkan, it would have been zero points !

Videk had a poor match up front and Vassell spent most of his time chasing lost causes. Murat Duruer was his usual self, ie, creating nothing and achieving nothing ! He was eventually moved back to defence because he was a waste of space up front !

When Weeks came on for Vitek halfway through the 2nd half there was at least some urgency in Ankaragucu's play, but with 10 men defending one point, he had no support up front when he broke away. The Antep defence had an easy task sweeping up the few breakaways by Ankaragucu.

The final whistle was a relief, and Ankaragucu continue their slow, but sure, climb out of the relegation zone. However, on this poor performance I am not very optimistic about next week's visit to Galatasaray.

Philly mentioned that he and Connect Kanka Steve would try to attend this match while they are in Istanbul on other business. It will be on Sunday KO 7pm. As for the rest of us, we will watch it in The Beer Bus.

Well, one thing is for sure ............. Ankaragucu can't possibly play any worse than the did against a very average Antep team. Galatasaray will certainly be asking more questions than Antep !!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:23 pm

    the more i hear about trouble the more im worried abour rebecca coming over for the fenerbahce game lol.

    these are the kind of games we should be winning, its good we are doing well at the back but we need to find the net. thats 7 games undefeated but only one win in those games

    nadeem

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  2. Id just like to congratulate Jim on the display he put on to the Chopin people.

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  3. Tell us more Jamie!

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  4. So they have removed the awnings from the bars in kizilay. This meant that there was as very clear line of sight from beer bus to chopin. So Ismael spotted Jim and inquired as to why we were at the neighboring establishment. Jim explained to him that it had to do with Ali Bey and the situation with the Fener match. So Ismael left and 5 minutes later Ali Bey appeared and tried to get Jim to come back to Chopin. Jim refused and just started making funny gestures at a confused Ali Bey. Ali Bey stood dumbfounded for about 2 3 minutes before realizing that jim wasnt coming over. So he left and went back inside. This then led to what can only be described as a comedy skit as Ismael started to temp jim with different bribes to cross over the line back to chopin. Offers included cigs, and then up to 4 beers. Jim though did not relent.

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  5. Anonymous12:53 pm

    Sounds like the Jim show was more entertaining than the match.

    --The ghost of Jamie's class

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  6. Jamie1:12 pm

    Damon you have no idea how many classes you haunt

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  7. Put quite simply ......

    The Turkish idiom which we all know is - when you make a friend of a Turk he is your friend for life.

    However, perhaps you didn't know this idiom - when you make an enemy of an aggresive Jock then you are ..... dead and buried !!!

    RIP Ali Bey !!!

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  8. Nadeem, please do not worry about Rebecca's safety. When you have hunky heavies like Oz Kanka and Eski Kanka around then she is as safe as Hibs winning the Scottish Cup 2010 !!!

    Seriously though, if the match is in 19 Mayis Stadium then we will be a big group and there will be no probs.

    However, if it is an evening KO in Hell, then we might decide to watch it in the Beer Bus. That decision will be taken nearer the time.

    As they say in North Berwick, dinny fass yirsell lauddie !!!

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  9. Anonymous7:24 pm

    Ankaragücü has not played with the leading top 5 yet and I am sure that with the existing performance there is no way to get any point.
    And today after Lemerre's meeting with the press members when I read his thoughts about the team and the player and the team performance I completely lost all my hope for our team.

    We have to pray god 24 hours without any break to save our team from this technical team.
    Volkan

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  10. He hasnt lost a game yet as coach. How can you lose all hope?

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  11. Oh Volkan ...... oh yea of little faith !

    If Es-Es can do it ...... then so can we. Who can forget the 3-0 destruction of CimBom in 19 Mayis not so long ago ?

    Ankaragucu is a unique team in many ways. Just when you think they are down and out they bounce back and confound the critics. That's what will happen on Sunday. If you are still in doubt then see me in The Beer Bus on Sunday night when I'll have extra optimism pills for you !!!

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  12. Just curious, anyone know anything about Santos' status?

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  13. Anonymous4:37 pm

    Battled Damaged Kanka - Henrique was released back in January

    Jim - I guess your right, im going to go the game wherever it is. It will be at the stadium from Hell as we are playing all our games are now been played there.

    Good Luck to Hibs lol

    nadeem

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  14. That's so sad. He was favorite player after Serkan.

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  15. Battle Damaged Kanka Damon could never be accused of being a man of few words. On the contrary, we he makes an utterance, all ears are bent in attention !

    Therefore, his latest comment must be a world record for him, and I am going to memorise it for future use at a later date !!

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