And another one down...

Genclerbirligi was the team plagued by injuries in the first half of the season. Now it looks like it is our turn. After losing Sestak to a minor injury, we lose our field general: Marek Sapara. Apparently he got injured while training with the Slovak national team prior to their match with Andora. The injury is also apparently much more serious than the one sustained by Sestak, and the predictions all count him out for the rest of the season.

Whether he will receive treatment for the injury in Turkey or in Slovakia has yet to be determined. His grit, talent, and technique will definitely be missed on the pitch.

This is a huge test for Mesut Bakkal. Hopefully he can find a creative solution to this crisis.

Ankaragucu vs Eskisehirspor Match Preview

Image above taken from Socccer fresh

After the International Week its back to Domestic football this weekend where Ankaragucu host rivals Eskisehirspor. The last game between the two clubs ended in a bore 0-0 draw with Eskisehir having the better chances to win the game.

A lot has changed since then for both clubs. Eskisehir have pushed on towards a UEFA cup place and have played some good football under Bulent Uygun. They have some good players capable of winning games in Burhan Eser, Rodrigo Tello, Sezer Ozturk and Batuhan Karedeniz.

Eskesehir are undefeated in there last three games having won at Istanbul BBS, and at home to Bucaspor and Karabukspor. They have to be respected but Ankaragucu are on a good run ourselves.

This will be Mesut the Massiah's fourth game in charge. One thing that Mesut has brought to the team is confidence and a team who look hard to break down. We have defended well as of late and have good foundations to build on. Roman Bednar, Robet Vittek and Stanislav Sestak will all be fit for the game so we have options in attack. Guven Varol, Ugur Ucar, Ozgur Cek, Ishak Dogan, Metin Akan and Stefan Senecky are all on the Injury table and most of them are doubtful for Saturdays game.

There is no doubting it is going to be a difficult game, but with the Tribunes in full voice and home advantage i am predicting a 2-1 home win for Ankaragucu.

Nadeem

STALEMATE IN BURSA

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Only Maniac Kanka Harun and I turned up to watch the match last night. However, in fairness to Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, he was tied up with work until late, but managed to watch most of the match at home.

We had to meet in Sedir last night due to the fact that The Beer Bus Bar was closed. We believe that the reason was a death in the family of one of the staff.

Bursaspor 0 ANKARAGUCU 0

Team -

Ozden
Mehmet, Rajnoch, Zewlakow and Klukowski
Adem and Kagan
Sapara, Ozgur and Gabric
Bednar

Substitutes used - Vittek, Dogan and Murat

The 1st half was pretty even with both teams having spells of dominance.

Bursa was first to threaten on 10 minutes when Miller almost got on the end of a free kick in a dangerous position.

Volkan had a fierce shot which was well covered and saved by Ozden.

Gabric had a great run into the Bursa defence and his shot was just past with Ivankov beaten.

Ankaragucu has some good chances from free kicks in dangerous positions, but unusually for him, Sapara was over-hitting them.

The best chance of the half fell to Bednar just before the break when he curved a shot into the far corner only for Ivankov to pull off a great save and turn it round the post with his fingertips.

So, an even 1st half with defences on top. However, Ankaragucu's defence showed the old signs of panic in the last few minutes as Bursa pressed to score before half time. Some words of praise for Rajnoch and Klukowski who both played well throughout in defence.

More of the same in the 2nd half.

Gabric had a good header well saved and then a few minutes later should have done better when put through, but he shot straight at Ivankov.

Miller had an angled shot which went just past and then he tried an audacious over-head kick which flew just over.

All end-to-end stuff !

Altidore had a great chance but shot over.

A few minutes left on the clock and Vittek had a great chance but dithered too long on the ball to get his shot in with defenders having time to challenge him. However, he did manage to cross it into the box, but .......... surprise surprise .......... nobody there to score the winner !

OK, so, as I said, a fair result, but .......... here's my first piece of criticism coming up for Mesut the Messiah !! We are seeing The Lone Ranger Syndrome again. Bednar up front and nobody to play off him on breakaways or high balls up from Ozden. We need TWO strikers - how many times have I repeated this ??!!

Also, it was a poor decision to take Bednar off and replace him with Vittek just into the 2nd half. Bursa was there for the taking and with two strikers it might have been a done deal !

Bednar had a good match and put himself about a bit. However, Vittek was way off the pace and looks like he will need another match or two to get up to speed.

To end on a positive note ....... it was heartening to see Ankaragucu still attacking as the final whistle approached. Good sign.

Next up .........

Saturday 2 April - Ankaragucu v Eskisehir
Sunday 3 April - Manisa v Gencler

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

WET AND DEPRESSED AS GENCLER FAIL TO PROTECT A LEAD ..... AGAIN !

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

The following is a report from Oz Kanka Chris who is experiencing problems accessing the Blog.

QUOTE

I wasn't expecting a win but the way Genclerbirligi lost it last night was depressing. After a great start we sat back and let Trabzonspor attack, attack and attack some more. We also got some more crap refereeing with the papers today saying Trabzon's first goal was offside. Oh yes, Mustafa Pektemek had to be taken to hospital. Nothing went right in the end.

Genclerbirligi 1 - 2 Trabzonspor

Oguz and son, Flying Dutchman Kanka and myself (Oz Kanka reporting here - I still can't get into the blog and so have sent this to Sir Eski) showed up at the Beer Bus as the rain sheeted down in Kizilay. It wasn't cold but conditions weren't great and the groundsman at the 19 Mayis were trying to clear water off the pitch. They were largely unsuccessful.

A minute's silence was called for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. A worthy mark of respect only to be sullied by Trabzon fans (and a few Gecekondu Gencler fans as well I might add) who started shouting out that "the country will never be divided". Disgusting.

The conditions seemed to bring about a change in Gencler tactics. For the first half it seemed to work. Short balls were the order of the day and we seemed to be getting it right.

Serkan had our first shot, off the post in the first few minutes. It wasn't much later when Cem Can had a shot from 30 metres which the Trabzon keeper didn't have a chance of saving.

We kept up the attacks and I have no idea how we didn't get a second, especially one chance when Pektemek headed it towards goal but it was somehow kept out.

Serdar saved our skin a couple of times and only 20 minutes in and it already seemed like we were sitting back waiting for the final whistle. Still, it was a fun first half and hopes were high we could take it.

Second half and ... er... oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. We seemed to be way too deep in defence allowing the Trabzon attackers plenty of time. As the clock clicked down Trabzon were hitting their stride and if it wasn't for a fair bit of luck they could have scored quite a few.

It was no real surprise when they equalised from a free kick. I didn't notice it but the papers today are saying it was scored from an offside position. Speaking of dodgy decisions, there were all sorts of weird decisions on offsides, corners, throw-ins, was the ball in or out etc. with the referee overturning his linesmen a number of times (always to Trabzon's advantage). I am getting a bit sick of having to report this match after match.

Getting towards the end and Pektemek went up for a header and ended up clahing heads with the Trabzon keeper. The theatrics of it were quite funny. They go up, bang, Pektemek doesn't get back up. Ball still in play and the Trabzon keeper is on his feet watching play carefully. About 30 seconds later the ball goes out. Pektemek is still on the floor and with the ball out the Trabzon keeper falls to the ground, rolling around and clutching his head.

As the Trabzon fans booed and whistled us for wasting time, Pektemek was put in the back of an ambulance. We also lost defender Burak to injury and our keeper Serdar was also replaced through injury. For each of the these substitutions the Trabzon fans booed and whistled and swore. So sporting of them.

With so many injuries it was no surprise that six minutes stoppage time was added and it was in the first these that a Trabzon player was given acres of room. He had a shot and Ramazan didn't have a chance.

A depressing end to what was actually a pretty good match. Full of drama and annoying opposition fans. All up though I have to admit that the result was probably morally correct. Trabzon played the better football, especially in the second half.

UNQUOTE

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

THE TURKISH CUP - DIARY DATES

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Details of The Turkish Cup Semi Final fixtures have been announced.

Wednesday 6 April KO 8pm - Besiktas v Gaziantep (1st Leg)
Thursday 7 April KO 8pm - Istanbul BBS v Genclerbirligi (1st Leg)

The return legs will be played on 20 April.

The final will be held in Kayseri on 11 May.

C'mon Gencler ........ let's bring some silverware back to Ankara !!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Ankaragucu vs Bursaspor Match Preview !

One of footballls most fascinating games is upon us when Ankaragucu travel to brother club Bursaspor on monday night. I have been to many football matches but never seen to sets of fans love and respect each other the way these two teams do. Lets hope the love stays in the stands and not the park, as Ankaragucu have won only 1 of the last ten meetings.

The last time we met, Ankaragucu took the lead after 6 minutes through Stanislav Sestak, but ended up loosing 5-1 in Ankara. Bursaspor who need to win to keep there title challange up, as Fenerbahce and Trabzonspor look like they will go head to head. Bursa havent had the greatest of form since the winter break finished. Kenny Miller will be a threat, with his pace and hes settled in well scoring goals what he does best.

Ankaragucu under new manager Mesut Bakkal have been playing well, with good wins over Konyaspor and Galatasaray. This is his biggest test though, a win over Bursa would all but kill off there title hopes, but would also give us an outside chance of been still in with a shout of a UEFA Cup place.

Key players in this game, for Bursaspor will be Kenny Miller, his pace against the Ankaragucu backline can cause problems. For Ankaragucu it will be Marek Sapara, he has the ability to create chances for the likes of Stanislav Sestak and Robert Vittek.

My prediction is a 1-1 draw which i would be happy with.

ANKARAGUCU SHOW THEIR 'NEVER SAY DIE' SPIRIT

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

What a fantastic come-back from Ankaragucu. 1-2 down with 5 minutes to go and then .....

ANKARAGUCU 3 Galatasaray 2

We met up in the Beer Bus Bar - Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Maniac Kanka Harun and I. We were also joined by Flying Dutchman Kanka Carlo and Oz Kanka Chris who were there to watch the Antalya v Gencler match.

Off to the Stadium we went on a pleasant sunny day where we met up with Rip Off Kanka Erman.

The Stadium was almost full with just a few spaces in Gecekondu and the noise factor was high.

Team -

Ozden
Ugur, Rajnoch, Zewlakow, Klukowski
Gabric, Adem, Sapara, Serdar
Sestak and Fatih

Substitutes - Ozgur, Bednar and Dogan (no place for Vittek who was ill)

The match got underway and for the first 10 minutes or so it was a cat and mouse match with both teams feeling each other out.

Ankaragucu had their chances. Fatih and Sestak slipped at the vital moments when in good positions. Gabric, Sestak and Sapara had shots on goal but Zapata was equal to them.

It was end to end footie, but then Galatasaray drew first blood. A great move on 33 minutes which carved open the Ankaragucu defence and Aydin had the simplest of tasks to slot it in. We didn't have the correct angle in Marton but it looked offside to me.

Galatasaray was now looking the more dangerous as half time approached but the Ankaragucu defence held firm with Zewlakow in particular having a calming influence and making some great clearing tackles.

Mesut Bakkal's half time team talk obviously did the trick when Ankaragucu came out looking more determined and hungrier than before the break.

Sapara fired in a rocket of a free kick on 50 minutes which went just past. Then, 2 minutes later the well deserved equaliser came. A corner was slung over by Sapara to the near post, which was flicked over to the far post where Sestak, in a great position, was able to head in.

It was all Ankaragucu now and we were sensing another goal.

However, it came at the other end against the run of play.

It has to be said though ..... a great goal. A shot came in and hit the bar which rebounded to Pino and he fired in a great shot to the top right hand corner with Ozden well beaten.

70 minutes in and it was still all Ankaragucu searching for the equaliser. Sapara blasted over when a tap-in was all that was needed, and Sestak shot just past the post.

Then, with only 5 minutes left, a great cross ball and Sestak headed in to send the tribunes into raptures.

I have to confess that I was happy to settle for a point at this stage, but Sestak wasn't !!

3 minutes later he squeezed a shot inside the right post with Zapata unable to reach it.

We all went loopy dancing like lunatics. The noise factor was deafening, and ..... the Galatasary tribune was ....... SILENT !!!

Final whistle and what a great team performance from Ankaragucu with Sestak obviously taking Man of the Match award for his predatory skills. Captain Sapara also played his part as usual, and for the short time he was on (25 minutes) Bednar showed some promise for the future.

A word of praise also for the referee, Halis Ozkahya, who showed the good face of refereeing in Turkey.

Looking forward to next weekend ....

Sunday evening 20th - Gencler v Trabzon
Monday evening 21st - Bursa v Ankaragucu

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

ANKARAGUCU .... F*** ISTAN....SPIT....BUL .... AGAIN !!!

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

To be there and be a part of this is to be a REAL Ankaragucu fanatik !

ANKARAGUCU 3 Galatasaray 2

Ankaragucu never gave up hope .... and neither did we (the kankas).

A truly fantastik performance, not only from Sestak (the hat-trick hero) but from the whole team ..... we say ............. all together now .........

Aaaaankaaarrrrraaaagooojooo ...... the Power of Ankara yesssssssssss.

Full report tomorra when I'm sober .................. mmmm ... efes is ... yummmmy !!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

FIXTURE CHANGE

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Just noticed in the Hurriyet (double checked on TRT) that the Ankaragucu v Galatasaray match has been moved from Monday night to Sunday.

13 March - KO 3pm. So, meeting at The Beer Bus on Sunday at 1pm and going to the Stadium soon after.

The Antalya v Gencler match is the same day -KO 1.30pm.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

ROBBIE AND JUDY – THE RETURN OF THE GLOBETROTTERS

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Robbie and Judy, The Mountaineering and 'Underwater' Kankas, are making a brief return visit to Buyuk Baskent and would like to meet up with all the kankas on Saturday 26^th March.

Battle Damaged Kanka Damon has been in touch with them and together we have formulated a programme.

We will meet-up in The Beer Bus Bar at 5pm and then go to Goksu Restaurant on the next street (Bayindir) at 6.30pm for food.

After that, we will walk (or stagger) across the street to '3D' for post-dinner refreshments.

I will contact you all by email soon to ask if you will attend because we must make a reservation for Goksu on Saturdays.

Let's have a good turn-out for the adventurers.

One thing is for sure ….. we will never see the likes of them in Ankara again !

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

PS ….. a warning for Robbie …... the management of all the above establishments have categorically stated that popcorn fights are forbidden !!!

Genclerbirligi down and out in snowy Ankara

A variety of reasons meant I couldn't go to the 19 Mayis for Monday night's Genclerbirligi - Fenerbahce match. Listening to it at first on the radio and then on a pirated stream (which Digiturk, wasn't on a blogspot blog!) at times I was very glad to be at home and then I wanted to be there, then it was back to being happy at home. It was that sort of match.

And Flying Dutchman Kanka makes 37. Photo via Dan the Man.

Genclerbirligi 2 - 4 Fenerbahce

Why can't radio commentators count? Sure, Sir Eski and Maniac Kanka can only count to 37 but why did the TRT radio commentator say "as usual there are very few Gencler fans". I half believed him. It was a snowy cold Monday night, but then when I killed the radio and started watching a stream of the match I saw that Maraton was full. Surely more than 37.

It all started out badly for Gencler. Fener scored in the 14th, replays showed it was a clear offside, and then in the 20th or so a very dodgy penalty was given to Fenerbahce.

Depression setting in at the Oz Kanka household.

I was still listening to the radio at this point, waiting for @ironturk to twitter me a secret link to the match when Gencler went into all out attack mode. Shot after shot and the match was on. Orhan Sam opened the scoring for us with a nice kick across the face of the goal that snuck in.

Fener seemed out of sorts but then had the ball in the back of the net, luckily the ref had blown for a foul. The "very few" Gencler fans were in good voice at this stage with the game pretty much Gencler's, including one nice chant of "sahtekar Emre" as the little cheat rolled around on the ground.

Then came the equaliser. Azofeifa took a corner which bounced out of the box where Hursut volleyed it into the net. 2-2 at half time and this was looking like a hell of a match.

The snow started tumbling down and it was almost impossible to see what was going on. At various times stadium officials had to clear the lines in order for us to have any idea and at some stage they changed to an orange ball.

In fact I could hardly tell what was happening. All I know is that our midfield seemed to lose it completely and Fener were hitting their groove.

The two goals that Fener then scored were both legitimate and heart breaking.

We didn't really show much at all in the second half. A few shots, a some good keeping from Fener, but the second half was definitely Fener's.

All up it was fun match but still disappointing we couldn't get a point.

WELCOME BACK TO ANKARAGUCU …... MESUT THE MESSIAH !!

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Headline suggested by Bellshill Kanka Nadeem.

Only Battle Damaged Kanka Damon and I were in The Beer Bus Bar yesterday to see Ankaragucu get back on the rails again with a convincing win in Konya.

Konyaspor 0 ANKARAGUCU 2

Team -
Ozden
Ugur, Rajnoch, Klukowsi and Murat
Gabric, Sapara, Aydin and Adem
Vittek and Sestak

Substitutes used – Kagan, Ozgur and Bednar

We were both happy little kankas when we saw Vittek back in the line-up and the optimism pills were discarded !

Ankaragucu started the match like an express train and was one up in just over one minute. Great work from Vittek on the left to beat two men. He still had time to look up and spot Gabric unmarked in the centre. He sent over a perfect cross for Gabric to half-volley into the net with Pawelek helpless.

What a start, similar to the Besiktas match a few weeks ago !

Konya was still in there fighting and had two good chances with free kicks in dangerous positions on 7 and 19 minutes, but both were blasted over.

Sapara sent in a rocket of a free kick on 25 minutes which brought out a fantastic save from Pawelek.

Vittek was really up for this match and impressed me with his running off the ball and chasing back into defence when he was dispossessed.

The 2nd goal came on the half hour mark and was a howler between Pawelek and one of his defender's. They both came for the same ball with Gabric challenging them. The defender touched it passed Pawelek and Gabric ran on to the loose ball and walked it into the goal. Thank you very much says Gabric doing a little jig along the goal line in celebration !

There was a brief flurry of Konya pressure before the half time whistle but the defence held firm. I should also mention that it was good to see Ugur back again and he had a solid match.

Into the 2nd half and Gabric was causing all sorts of problems for the Konya defence down the right and was being subjected to some heavy tackling. He received our Man of the Match award with Vittek a close 2nd.

Bednar replaced Vittek on 66 minutes and showed enough to suggest that he could be a regular. It would be interesting to see Vittek and Bednar playing together from the start sometime in the future.

Sapara went off injured on 70 minutes and it is to be hoped that it isn't serious.

Konya was still attacking and Ozden pulled off a great save on 72 minutes. At the other end, Rajnoch and Ozgur both missed good chances as the clock ticked down to the closing minutes.

In the last few minutes Bedner had two good efforts well saved before the referee blew for full time.

So, a welcome 3 points for Ankaragucu and a good all round team performance.

When Guven returns from injury the defence will be in a better state, but with the return of Ugur yesterday it was looking in better shape than last week !

Looking forward to next weekend …..
Gencler will be playing away in Antalya on Sunday. Ankaragucu will host Galatasaray on the Monday night match ….. probably 8pm KO.

PS ….. I'm sure Bellshill Kanka Nadeem will have been particularly pleased yesterday to see a team in green and white hoops beaten !!!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

WELCOME BACK ROBERT VITTEK

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Vittek has been sorely missed these past months and he showed today by his sheer presence what we have been missing.

Gabric scored the goals, but right from the start until he was substituted, Vittek was the ingredient in the team that we all knew what was needed, ie, a quality striker !

Konyaspor 0 ANKARAGUCU 2

Full report tomorrow.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

THE DECLARATION

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

With apologies to historians of Scottish history I make the following declaration .....

For, as long as but a handful of us kankas remain alive, never will we on any condition be brought under Digiturk rule.

It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honour that we are fighting against the powers of censorship that we are fighting, but for freedom of expression, for that alone, which no honest kanka gives up but with a fight ............ or life itself !!

Digiturk ......... rot in hell !

We kankas will never be restricted in our aim of promoting football in Ankara and showing Ankaragucu and Genclerbirligi to the world.

With our webmaster, Oz Kanka, and his devious ways of overcoming anything that you can try to stop us, there is no way that you can supress us !!

We challenge you to stop us !!!

All the best from 'sword wielding' Eski Kanka Jim

This is football

After the Ankaragucu - Genclerbirligi match last weekend the Gencler fans were made to stay in the stadium, as is usual for the away team, so a couple of kids ran on to the field and decided to have a go. As the security forces escort them off, the Gencler fans start shouting "Let the kids play on the field".

Thanks to Mehmet Ali Cetinkaya at Futbol... Hayat... for this.

Genclerbirligi through to the semi-finals

I missed the first 15 minutes or so of Wednesday night's Bucaspor - Genclerbirligi quarter-final second leg thanks to a friend of Little Oz Kanka refusing to change the telly from the Disney Channel. When I finally got on Buca were 1-0 up and things looked a little frightening. All was well at the end though.

Bucaspor 1 - 2 Genclerbirligi (over two legs 1-4)

It was a pretty big crowd for the Izmir home side and at 1-0 up they were singing there hearts out dreaming that they could overcome the 2-0 deficit they went into the match with.

For us Gencler fans it was scary stuff as a free kick was only just kept out by Serdar diving low to his left. We could have sealed it not long later when Jedinak had a shot that was cleared off the line.

Then Serdar stupidly got a yellow card for wearing a necklace. WTF! Doesn't someone check these things?

Buca decided to start playing rough and were committing fouls all over the place. Their coach Samat Aybaba then got sent to the stands for arguing a bit too much on the sidelines.

Gencler were stepping up their attacks and were looking the better team when the incident of the match happened.

Azofeifa took a corner which their keeper got a hand to but didn't manage to clear. Jedinak poked it to Serkan whose shot on goal was saved by the arm of a Buca defender. Ref pointed to the spot and the Buca defender was red carded. It was unlucky but those are the Laws of football. Aussie fans will remember the same thing happening to Harry Kewell in the World Cup.

Azofeifa stepped up... and missed!

Still, they were now a man down and it was clear that this was going to be Gencler's night. Just a minute or two later in stoppage time for the first half the ball was bobbling around in the box, someone poked it to Zec who kicked it into the open goal just a couple of yards from where he was standing.

Match over really, Buca now needed three goals to go through, and they were a man down.

Second half and we were clearly on top and it was no surprise when we scored again after Azofeifa sent a lovely ball through to Jedinak who had made a break. One-on-one with the keeper and the ball went through. Buca 1 - 2 Gencler.

It was all a bit of a waste of time from then on and even more stupidly was when Mustafa Pektemek, who came on after Jedinak's goal, decided to argue with the ref and got a yellow for his troubles. Silly fellow.

In the 85th things got even more stupid when another Buca player was sent off having received a second yellow.

With everyone bored to death the referee decided their was precisely two seconds of stoppage time as he put us all out of our misery.

All up a good performance by Genclerbirligi. In the sem-finals we will be up against either Istanbul BBS or Kasimpasa who play their quarter-final match Thursday night.