As Spine confirmed earlier today, Mesut Bakkal has been confirmed as Ankaragucu manager until the end of the season.
Bakkal may be a familiar face in Ankara as he was a member of Ankaragucu coaching staff between 2001-2003. He also had two spells as manager with Genclerbirligi. His last job was with Sivasspor.
I can't say I'm too impressed with this appointment, but we have to give him a chance and get behind him. Umit Ozat, although a popular man amongst the team and management, allowed the team to lose all discipline and consistency on the park. Bakkal took charge of his first training session today and the players all looked very happy like they were enjoying it.
You can see pictures of todays training session here
Robert Vittek and Jarioslav Cerny took part in training and are available for the weekend's trip to Konyaspor. I have a good feeling Mesut will surprise us. Lets hope so !
As Bellshill Kanka Nadeem put it in the comments section of the previous post ..... what a shite defence. Spot on. Statistics don't lie, and with the 2nd worst defence in the League, it is clear to see where Ankaragucu's major weakness is.
Maniac Kanka Harun (and his friend Muco), Battle Damaged Kanka Damon and I met up at the Stadium, and as usual the Ankaragucu tribunes around the Stadium were full. We counted 36 Gencler supporters in the away end, which should have been the normal 39 had it not been for the absence of Oz, Spine and The Flying Dutchman partying in Istan....spit.....bul !!!
The Gencler supporters (God bless them !!) were trying to sing pre-match but the Ankaragucu refused to allow it and drowned them out !!
ANKARAGUCU 2 Genclerbirligi 4
Maniac was full of pessimism pre-match, but when Battle Damaged and I saw the team line up with 3 recognised strikers on, we were upbeat about our chances of recording a rare victory against Gencler.
Ozden Zewlakow, Aydin, Rajnoch, Murat Adem, Kagan, Sapara Sestak, Fatih and Serdar
Substitutes used - Metin, Gabric and Dogan
The match started at a hectic pace and Ankaragucu almost scored in the 1st minute when Fatih fired in a shot which was well saved by Serdar.
However, as the half progressed, it was Gencler who was looking the more dangerous. Their defence was winning everything in the air from the diminutive Fatih, Sestak and Serdar. They were also looking a lot livelier with their tackles and passing, and Ankaragucu was being restricted to the odd foray into the Gencler half.
Then on 19 minutes Serdar had to go off - looked like he pulled something in his left leg - which was a blow in view of the fact that he was looking dangerous down the left side. Metin came on to replace him and had a reasonable match, but it was obvious Ankaragucu missed Serdar's aggressive running and creative passing.
Ankaragucu did have a few chances before half time. Metin saw his long-range screamer whiz past the post with Serdar beaten and Rajnoch headed over from a Sapara cross.
However, it was Gencler who finished the half the stronger team. The ball was in the net on 40 minutes, but the referee blew for a 'feet up' challenge on Ozden. Then just before the half time whistle, Gencler hit the post from a free kick.
I for one was pleased to hear the half time whistle to give the team a chance to re-group and catch their breath. The pace didn't let up all through the half.
Gencler started the 2nd half as they had finished the 1st half, ie, on the attack, and 2 minutes in Oktay waltzed through the Ankaragucu defence to score an excellent solo goal.
The Ankaragucu defence persisted in giving away free kicks around the penalty area which is like shooting yourself in the foot. However, Ozden saved Ankaragucu's blushed on numerous occasions throughout the match with some great saves.
He made a great save on 57 minutes which was a goal all the way, but the ball wasn't cleared by the Ankaragucu defence and was crossed back into the box where Mustafa was well positioned to head in to make it two.
Ankaragucu wasn't quite ready to capitulate at this point and were still trying to attack the Gencler goal. Fatih sent a header just past. Then on the 66th minute Metin showed what he is capable of when given a run on goal. He received a great pass, controlled the ball on the run, and fired in a great shot to put Ankaragucu back in the match.
The Ankaragucu tribunes upped the volume and 10 minutes later the equaliser came. It was a dangerous looking free kick which was floated into the box. Lots of players went up for it, but the ball came off Orhan's head to score a great own-goal.
Ankaragucu looked up for it now and expectation was in the air.
However, that bloody defence again screwed up at a corner on the 77th minute when they didn't deal with covering the Gencler attackers. Orhan made amends for his own-goal and forced the loose ball in.
Stunned silence before the singing started again. Could Ankaragucu force another equaliser ?!
Then on 84 minutes a great sweeping move from Gencler had the Ankaragucu defence chasing shadows and Serkan had the easiest of tasks to put the 'nail in the coffin'.
Ankaragucu capitulated and Gencler played 'pass the ball around' for the remaining few minutes.
Great all round performance by Gencler which bodes well for the remainder of the season.
However, where does Ankaragucu go from here ? That's too difficult a question to answer at the moment. The new coach has his work cut out before he takes over. His remit is quite simple .......... avoid the drop !!!
Ankaragucu will be away in Konya next Saturday 5 March. Gencler will be at home to Fener on Monday 7 March, and if they put in another performance like they did yesterday, we could be looking at another 3 points. Please do it says Trabzon and Bursa !!
Gencler winning the Ankara Derby ? Yeah, so what ? Errrrrmmmm .... just a question ...... but a stupid question !!
If you want to know the score of the Ankara Derby, just say ...... how many ??? .... and you will reply .... FOUR. That obviously means that Gencler won by 4 goals. Gottit ????
ANKARAGUCU 2 Genclerbirligi 4
Full report tomorra, which will be music in Gencler ears !!
Ankaragucu ? Mmmmmm .... we are talking mountains to climb !!!
All the best from Eski Kanka Jim
btw, Hibs made it FOUR wins in a row ..... so, perhaps FOUR is not a bad number after all ??!!
I mentioned to Jim the other night that every week a couple of days before our game i would do a match preview. What better way to start with the Ankara Derby ?? Its a massive games for both clubs who find themselves in a relegation fight.
Last Season the Ankara debry finished 1-1 with both teams winning in there away games. Gencler won the oppening game 2-1 with goals from Mustafa Pektemek and Kahe, with Barbaros Barut scoring Ankaragucus only goal. In the second game a 1-0 win for Ankaragucu thanks to Darius Vassell scoring the games only goal.
This season Gencler won in the Ankara Cup on penalties after a boring 0-0 draw. They won the first league game 1-0 and we drew 1-1 in the cup. So its fair to say Gencler have had the upper hand on the derby matches.
After last weeks performance, Ankaragucu will want to win this game and give the fans something to cheer about again. The news coming from Ankaragucu tonight as we heard from Damon, is that Robert Vittek will make a return to the team. No doubt this would be a huge boost for us. It has also been confirmed this will be Umit Ozats last game in charge. Names been mentioned to take over are Jurgen Rober and Mesut Bakkal. Ankaragucu are also set to welcome back Stefan Senecky and Michael Kulkowski to the team as well.
As for Genclerbirligi, they have been boosted by Mustafa Pektemeks return to the team, one of Turkeys best young players. Like Ankaragucu they havennt had a good season but are capable of winning on there day. Its a tough one to call but im going for Ankaragucu 3-2 Genclerbirligi with a good attacking game.
The Ankarakara Derby will take place at 19 Mayis Stadium on Saturday KO 2pm.
Ankaragucu is the home team, so Gencler Boys will be confined to the away section.
With Oz and Spine in Istanbul partying at a wedding, and using Maniac Kanka's mathematics, that means there will only be 37 Gencler supporters. However, if the Flying Dutchman attends that could push the 'crowd' up to 38 !!!
Meeting at the Beer Bus Bar as normal and going to the stadium at about 1pm.
See you there for what is an important match for both teams, bearing in mind their precarious league positions !
A pretty miserable day on Saturday for Ankara in general. The weather was cold and wet and our two teams both went down. From the reports below it sounds like Ankaragucu deserved it... Gencler did not.
Genclerbirligi 2 - 3 Karabukspor
There were long faces in the Beer Bus when Little Oz Kanka showed up right at the end of Ankaragucu's match. I don't think I've ever seen Sir Eski so depressed. A couple of drinks and it was time to go. For an idea of just how crap the weather was Spine decided he was going to stay in the pub. Oh well, Little Oz and myself went off to find a taxi.
Just about to drive off and Spine jumped in the front seat. Apparently he had received a lecture from Sir Eski. Good stuff Sir!
Raining away when the match started off and it took the players from both sides quite a while to get used to the ball either stopping dead or skidding off. The wet ground did mean we got to see some good slides though.
The footy wasn't great but then Zec somehow got clear. For some reason he didn't have a shot when he seemed to have plenty of time. Instead he passed to Mununga who did have a shot, saw it rebound back and then had another go. This time it was in the back of the net. 1-0 up and Mununga got a big shout out from the crowd following his first goal for the club.
Time for Little Oz Kanka to go to the loo and so I missed the penalty call against us. Going by the fact that none of our lot said much I'm guessing it was only fair. 1-1 and it stayed that way till half time.
Hopes were still high. Gencler appeared to have been playing the better football but we were leaving some gaps at the back... and there were some wayward passes with Jedinak in particular not seeming to be in form.
And then 50 minutes in they scored from a corner. Arggh. Plenty of time though and Gencler went on the attack.
This was good stuff. We were all over them and at times we played some very attractive football. At times our finishing was rubbish, other times we just weren't getting lucky, especially when the referee refused to give us a penalty.
Still hopes were high and it finally came in the last minute. We had a corner and our keeper Serdar came up in an attempt to be a hero. The ball didn't go anywhere near him but a scramble in the box ended up with the ball in net. I had no idea who scored and only later learnt it was actually an own goal.
The crowd was going wild, the Gencler players were estatic and then... I have no idea what happened. Karabuk scored in the 93rd minute. Punch in the guts... evil, evil stuff.
Ankara derby this weekend. Unfortunately Spine and myself will be visiting the Bizanslar but I'm sure the rest of the Kankas will be up for it.
Obviously The Hurriyet reads our Blog because that was their headline this morning. And why not ? Isn't our site the foremost authority on Ankara footie ??!!
Kasimpasa 2 ANKARAGUCU 1
Team -
Bayram Zewlakow, Aydin, Rajnoch, Murat Adem, Kagan, Sapara, Gabric Serdar and Sestak
Substitutes used - Tekke, Ozgur and Metin
Nothing to say about the first half, except that neither goalkeeper was called upon to make a save of any note.
The Kanka Group is dwindling ! Only 2 of us turned up at The Beer Bus Bar and as I said to Battle Damaged Kanka Damon at half time ..... 'pretty boring stuff'. He disagreed. He said, 'extremely boring stuff' !!
Into the 2nd half and Kasimpasa must have sensed that Ankaragucu was there for the taking. They certainly looked the more likely to make the break-through.
It was still a scrappy match with both teams guilty of giving the ball away in the final quarter and passes going astray on a regular basis.
Then on the 65th minute mark Kasimpasa was awarded a free kick about 30-40 metres out. A rocket of a shot came in over 'the wall', hit the right hand post, bounced across and hit the left hand post, and then bounced out back into play. Robledo was quickest to react and stooped down to nod the ball into the net with a bewildered Bayram helpless.
10 minutes later it was two. A fast breakaway (which I thought was offside), Bayram came rushing out to narrow the angle, but the ball cannoned off him to Ibrahim who shot into the goal from a tight angle.
Kasimpasa was in control now and Ankaragucu looked a beaten team without Sapara to pull the strings (he had been replaced on the 60th minute).
However, the consolation goal came near the end courtesay of the referee (he obviously felt sorry for Ankaragucu !!) when he deemed that Fatih Tekke had been brought down in the box on a rare Ankaragucu attack. Fatih took the penalty and despatched it with ease.
There was little likelihood of Ankaragucu snatching the equaliser with Kasimpasa playing some possession footie for the last 5 or so minutes.
There can be no doubt that Kasimpasa deserved their win, but what about Ankaragucu's lack of organisation and attacking ideas ? This is a major worry.
The training ground will not be a very happy place this week and Umit Bey has to come up with a plan of attack before next Saturday's derby against Gencler. As we all know, Gencler always manage to raise their game for the derby. Isn't it about time we took a leaf out of their book ??!!
You fight and you fight and you fight... you finally get one back on about the 90th minute mark and then... bang, sucker punch. Karabuk get the winner two or three minutes into stoppage time. Devastating stuff.
Genclerbirligi 2 - 3 Karabukspor
Report coming up tomorrow after I have mopped up the tears.
Some of you may not know much about Mustafa. He is one of our young players who was on loan at Mersin in the First Division. Sadly he was involved in a near fatal car crash in which he nearly lost his life. He was in a coma for a while but thankfully he is on the road to recovery.
Most of the reports ive seen has been in Turkish, and from what i gather he wont play football again, he has suffred brain damage and is still in hospital at the moment. He has had visits from Anti X and Gecekondu at his hospital bed.
I would just like to wish him all the best in his recovery, he was photoed with a smile on his face and although his life will never be the same, he is still with us and can still have a good life. From all at the Round ball in Ankara we send our best wishes to Mustafa Aydin who is part of the Ankaragucu family.
THE world's newest nation celebrated its birth last night with a 4-1 victory over Scotland.
The match was staged just hours after referendum results confirmed South Sudan's status as the latest country to be able take apart the Scottish back four with a series of textbook passing moves.
The new nation's provisional government staged the event insisting a football match against Scotland would give the fledgling state a vital confidence boost.
Ankaragucu welcomed Eski Kanka back to Buyuk Baskent last night in the best possible way, ie, with a victoreeeeeeeeee.
ANKARAGUCU 1 Besiktas 0
Team -
Bora Rajnoch, Zewlakow, Adem and Murat Adem, Aydin, Gabric and Sapara Sestak and Serdar
Substitutes - Ozgur, Orhan and Dogan
Maniac Kanka, Battle Damaged Kanka Damon and I met up in the Beer Bus Bar and were joined by Gencler Orcan and BJK Serkan. The Beer Bus Bar was full of Ankargucu supporters so we didn't really miss the Stadium too much and we were soon up singing, dancing and hi-fiving !
Only one minute into the match and Ankaragucu broke down the right. Gabric took a pass, carried the ball down to near the goal line, looked up, and crossed a perfect ball in to the unmarked Serdar lurking at the far post. He took it on the volley, swivelled and sent the ball high into the net with Hakan helpless.
What a start ! Can we make it 3 out of 3 agtainst that Istanbul lot I was thinking ?
7 minutes in and it was almost two. Hakan blocked the first effort by Sestak and Serdar fumbled the rebound.
Ankaragucu was looking good at this point and spreading the ball around with panache as they normally do when playing the Istanbul lot.
20 minutes in and Sapara sent in a swerving shot which Hakan did well to save.
At this point in the match, Besiktas was beginning to look dangerous on the break but the Ankaragucu defence was holding firm and looking fairly comfortable.
Gabric almost scored before the half time whistle but was a second too late in connecting with a great pass from Sapara.
A fast and furious first half with both teams on full-out attack. Could they maintain this pace I wondered ?
Into the 2nd half then and the pace didn't slacken. Besiktas was stepping up the pressure but Bora was in fine form denying Besiktas in the opening 10 minutes with two great saves.
60 minutes in and it was all Besiktas now with the Ankaragucu defence under increasing pressure, but dealing with all that was thrown at them.
However, Ankaragucu was making occasional forays into the Besiktas half and Serdar almost scored on 61 minutes but fired into the side netting with Hakan struggling to cover it.
10 minutes later Sapara tried a speculative lob which just went over.
With 15 minutes remaining it was becoming tense in the Ankaragucu defence with Besiktas searching in vain for the equaliser.
In the final 10 minutes Bora proved the saviour making 3 further outstanding saves.
Besiktas appealed for a penalty near the end, but the replay showed that the referee was correct in waving the appeals away.
Maniac's Man of the Match was Adem. However, Battle Damaged and I gave it to Bora for his outstanding second half performance. We should also mention Serdar, who played his best match of the season for Ankaragucu.
So, a great win for Ankaragucu to complete 'the treble', but the question has to be asked .... why can't Ankaragucu play like this EVERY week ?!
It's not the first time I've asked this question on the blog and probably won't be the last ! Consistency is the key, but how to get that message across to the team ???!!!
Let's see if Ankaragucu can confound the critics (and me) next Saturday when they visit bottom club Kasimpasa !!
Probably watching that match in the Beer Bus Bar. I'll give the KO time when known.
I have no idea what happened. All I know is that Pektemek came on after missing the first half of the season and managed to get the winner. I'm off skiing tomorrow so no further report on this match.
"There is nothing better than to play like shit and still get the three points," Orcan told me over a beer after last night's match. Pretty much sums it up really.
Genclerbirligi 1 - 0 Bucaspor
Just me at the Beer Bus Sunday afternoon. No worries though as I had my newspaper, kofte and refreshments. In the end I had to pull myself away from the warmth of the bar and into the cold. There was still some snow on the ground at the 19 Mayis but it wasn't deadly cold. Pretty good weather for footy really.
As for the football itself. Urgh. I truly wonder why I support Gencler sometimes. Two matches in a row now, against the same opposition, where we dominate the first half and have nothing to show for it. Harbuzi in particular couldn't do a single thing right. His passing was atrocious and it was no surprise when he was subbed off in the second half. The surprise was that it wasn't earlier.
A few good shots from us but it was still 0 - 0 at half-time and that was thanks to some good saves by Serdar. Second half and after a couple of changes we started to put stuff together. The winner came in the 64th when Mununga sent in a ball from the sidelines that their keeper seemed to have well covered. He dropped it though and Oktay found himself with the ball at his feet and about a metre in front of the open goal. Cue celebrations.
We had a few more chances, one off the post by Murat but the best being when Yasin was put through just inside their half with only the goalkeeper in front of him. Unluckily he managed to toe poke it just a touch too much and the keeper got to the ball without a shot having been made.
And then everything fell apart. Buca should probably have scored three or four in the last 20 minutes. I'm not sure what the hell happened but we fell apart and only thanks to some desperate last tackles, shots smacked into our players, some good keeping and also some crap shots. All the cards fell the right way though and they couldn't score but bloody hell th's was horrible stuff for us to watch.
It wasn't a great match. In fact most of the time we played like absolute crap. But still we came away with a 1-0 win and I'm happy. Report coming up tomorrow.
So, where did we leave off last week? Oh, yes, I believe, Bellshill Kanka Nadeem left us with the these prophetic words:
"If Umit is still manager by Monday morning then we are in big trouble."
Well, Umit is still with us, and we do indeed seem to be in big trouble.Whether Umit is aware that we are in big trouble or not is, of course, another matter. He looked as if he were feeling postively cozy inside his glass booth in the stands where he has been banished for the next six weeks, I believe, as "punishment" for literally turning 19th of May Stadium into his stomping grounds last week. He even posed for photos during half-time and had visitors including Guven Varol who is currently out do to injury. Is Umit's banishment for punishment or protection, I wonder. He certainly didn't look to be suffering.
For this match Umit put the following players on the pitch:
Glaring in his continued absence was Cerny. Still a huge question mark as to whether Cerny will even be able to play this season or not. Last we heard he was still without his license due to some bad blood between him and his former team Slavia Prag--or something like that anyway.
Bora was back in goals tonight. Even Umit was smart enough to realize Ozden should sit this one out after his performance against Manisa. And though the newspaper Hurriyet only gave Bora one out of three stars for this match, he certainly didn't make any blunders on the scale of what Ozden made last week. Otherwise the biggest difference in the line up was the inclusion of Ozkan who played his heart out but also only managed to pull one star. Probably on account of his continual whinging to the referee.
Speaking of whinging, I do believe I'll be able to hear Eski Kanka Jim's plaintive voice all the way from Scotland the moment he reads Duruer's name in the paragraph above. Hold your horses, Jim. Murat actually did us proud during the first half.
As the match began, it seemed as if Kayseri were taking Ankaragucu pretty lightly. Kayseri has a much better record and they are a bigger (about 4 cm taller on avg. if you don't include Bednar who wasn't on at this point), more powerful team than Ankaragucu. The Gucu players were getting pushed around quite a bit and it was clear that it was starting to irk them.
After a feeble attempt by Duruer, Kayseri went on the attack. Former Juventus and Napoli striker Zalayeta took a shot from within the penalty area, but Bora was able to deflect it. Zalayeta looked like he was about to put the deflection away but Uğur got to it before Zalayeta did saving us from an early goal.
This was one example of pretty strong defense on our part that unfortunately gave out at the end of the match.
Murat Duruer was struggling at this point. He had lost control of the ball in the 12th minute, and now he was knocked to the ground by the man defending him. Words were exchanged while Murat was still sitting on the grass. He got up and shoved the Kayseri player in the face straight away. The Kayseri player's response was only a split second behind, and it was at that point that the ref stepped in and separated them, but by this time there was a crowd of players from both squads pushing each other around and running their mouths.
The most vocal was clearly Serdar Ozkan who at 1.67 had been getting manhandled for the entire match. Somehow the ref Koray Gencerler managed to calm things down without giving out any cards, but from this point on the Kayseri fans would boo Ozkan everytime he got possession of the ball. Duruer did not receive a yellow for this altercation but somehow managed to earn a yellow a couple of minutes later for something done off camera.
From about the twentieth minute on it was a lot of back and forth until when in the 38th minute Ziani crossed the ball from the left into the box where Santana rose to meet it with a strong header which flew towards the Gucu goal only to hit the crossbar and come flying back.
Ankara quickly took advantage of the situation and got the ball to Sestak who took it down the right, got it to Ozkan in the center at the top of the box. Ozkan saw Murat coming down the left, passed ahead of him. Murat picked it up, took his time, and then slid it neatly between the keeper and a defender into the lower right hand corner of the goal. Beautiful.
Kayseri spent the rest of the half trying to equalize, but rather ineffectively thanks to the Ankaragucu defense. Klukowski in particular was giving Kayseri hell. By the end of the half he had picked up a yellow, but had done a magnificent job. We went into halftime up by one.
The second half saw some important changes in the Kayseri line up with Moritz coming on for Omer and Kujovic coming on for Ziani. Kayseri attacked and attacked, but the Gucu defense held until the 77th or 78th minute when Moritz set up a goal which Kujovic a Swedish football player of Montenegrin descent put away much as Duruer had done against Kayseri in the first half(watch the video below and compare).
By this time Ozkan had been replaced with the much slower Mehmet and Gabric by Metin. They had both come on around the 55th minute and Mehmet in particular seemed to hinder Gucu rather than help them.
In any case, with the score 1-1, it was obvious that Kayseri could smell the three points that they had been craving to go into next week's Fenerbahce match with. They lifted their game to another level and for the final fifteen minutes or so Ankaragucu were struggling to survive. They managed to make it to the 9oth minute at which point it was announced that there would three minutes injury time.
Shortly after, a strange thing happened. As Kayersi were preparing to to take a corner kick just before the three minutes elapsed, Koray Gencerler, the head ref, kept demanding that players behave, but he obviously wasn't satisfied with their response because this went on for at least a minute. Then he called Ugur out and gave him a yellow card. As Ugur had already picked up one of these in the first half, the ref then proceeded to take out the red. Ugur was gone.
Whether Ugur's absence was a determining factor or not is hard to say, but following the corner there was a huge smash up in front of the goal with the final result being a seemingly forgotten Zalayeta playing the ball off his chest and pivoting beautifully to put the ball past Bora into the corner of the net. Game over.
Kayseri's manager Shota Arveladze, who is apparently also the record holder for most goals scored by a member of the Georgian national team, was ecstatic and let the crowd see it as Kadir Has Stadium erupted in a chant of The White Stripes' anthem Seven Nation Army.
The Gucu players were not so happy and approched the refs to voice their objections. Most persistent was, yes, you guessed it, Serdar Ozkan who talked his way into a post match yellow card. Bravo.
As much as I am not a fan of Kayseri, after all it was there that I earned my Kanka moniker, I will be supporting them in their bid next week to overtake Fenerbahçe in the league. Ankaragucu will be playing a mercurial Besiktas at home but in a closed stadium without Ugur Ucar. Won't be easy.
Umit in Turkish can be translated as "hope," and as Umit Ozat has really let himself go physically since his playing days, we can say that Ankaragucu has a quite a lot of hope. But hope will not be enough to get us out of the mess we now find ourselves in. It is time for change.
Too depressed to get into the nitty gritty of it right now, but I'll be back to tell you the sordid tale of how we got raped in Kayseri in the last minutes of the match, after I drown my sorrows in an Efes.
First of all to start with the good news. We have completed the loan signing of Roman Bednar from West Brom. For those of you who dont know anything about him, he is a Czech International striker whose main asset is his power and strength. Me and Jim know of Bednar from his time in Scotland with Hearts. He was part of the Hearts team who finished second in the League a few years back. He isnt an out and out striker, but will cause problems for defences due to his size, and will create goals aswell.
Bednar's arrival comes with the expected departure of Robert Vittek who is still awaiting Fifas decision on weather he can move to Salzburg in a £3.7 Million Euro deal. Theo Weeks has joined Caykur Rizespor on loan until the end of the season.
The bad news, follows Battle Damaged Kanka Damons report on the Manisaspor match, with the incident between Umit Ozat and Irsad Kharaman. The TFF have banned Umit Ozat for 6 games and also fined him, but the big news is that Ankaragucu have been handed a 1 match stadium ban. This will be the game against Besiktas next week. How the TFF came to this decision due to one fan and our Manager is beyond me.
Some of our overseas Kankas may not know just how well the Turkish press covers sport in Turkey. We live in a football mad country and so it is only right that the sports pages of a newspaper are many, with football dominating them.
Just to give one example. Today's Haber Turk newspaper had a 12-page broadsheet sports section. A page is approximately 48x34 centimetres, giving the sports section a total area of 19,584 square centimetres.
The paper obviously decided to lead with last night's Turkish Cup quarter-final matches (two were played).
For the Gaziantepspor - Galatasaray match the paper published 13 photos, 13 articles and two long analysis pieces. All up it devoted 3,912 square centimetres to the match.
A pretty good effort considering that the match finished pretty close to the publishing deadline.
For the Genclerbirligi - Bucaspor match which finished two hours before the other quarter-final, the paper devoted a generous 80 (eighty) square centimetres. Even then this was merely a list of the players; no photos, analysis, not even a single sentence on what happened.
In temperatures below zero and snow on the ground a crowd of some 200 people showed up to watch Genclerbirligi - Bucaspor. Obviously, I was watching at the Red Lion Club.
Turkish Cup Quarter-final (first leg)
Genclerbirligi 2 - 0 Bucaspor
A strange starting line-up with no Pektemek, no Jedinak and Cem Can and Ermin Zec on the substitute bench. Bad selection? Or perhaps resting up players for Sunday's league match? Who knows.
Talk about domination. Genclerbirligi had some 74 percent of first half possession but bugger all chances. Hursut had a couple of shots, some good, some bad, but playing with a single man up front (Mununga) and failing to use the wings much at all meant that us fans got to watch some finely tuned athletes, and Mununga, running around in the cold seemingly without reason.
All rather frustrating especially as Buca were pretty average. Half time and it is amazing what a simple change makes, with Zec coming on for Harbuzi. We started to look a lot better and then Hursut was taken off for Cem Can. I love Hursut but last night he was pretty crap.
Finally we started to use the wings well and it was from there that Yasin sent a lovely ball across the ground curling away from the goal to an outstretched Zec who sent it in. Some 73 minutes in and we finally had a goal.
A couple of minutes later and we went two up thanks to a terrible mistake by a Buca defender who attempted to send out a ball that was going to miss the goal by a mile but instead sent it in the back of the net.
It would have been a great goal if it had have been one of our guys on the end of it.
So, a 2 - 0 victory should be enough to see us through to the semi-final. I say it should be enough but with Gencler you never know. We play Buca in the League on Sunday, and then Buca for the second-leg of the quarter-final on Thursday. Three victories in a row would certainly do good for team morale - even if the opposition are crap.
I think we all hoped it would go differently (although many of us knew it wouldn't). Many fans dreamed of the Gokceks and Umit lifting the team to the top of the league from where the team would then go on to make a name for themselves in Europe.
Well, we have made a name for ourselves in Europe (the video has apparently broken viewing records in Spain) but not by playing quality football. Instead, Umit has smeared his own name, the name of Ankaragucu, and the name of Turkish football in Europe by acting like a world class maganda (hard word to translate, but let's just say someone with no class whatsoever). It is not just his stomping on the fan, who was clearly out of line by jumping onto the field and coming at Umit, but it was Umit's incessant provocation of the fans and his failure to win matches that brought us to this point.
Photos nicked from Vatan Gazetesi
It is no surprise then that Ankaragucu and Umit will now be parting ways. At some point during a nearly 5 hour meeting with Melih Gokcek, Umit received the news that his services were no longer desired.
One thing is certain. Should Umit ever receive another coaching position for a Superlig team, he will not receive the warm welcome that Hikmet Karaman and Murat Erdoğan of Manisaspor received upon their recent return appearance in Ankara.
