Moving back into second!

31.01.2016: Ankaragücü 2 - 1 Keçiörengücü

The chilly winter weather continued this week but did not deter Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Cider Kanka John, Fellaini Kanka Ahmet, Everton Kanka Marcus, Maniac Kanka Harun and Gençler Kanka Alex from turning up to freeze -- in Harun's case literally, as he had to be shipped out of the stadium early in a block of ice.

However, those who survived gave a thought to our brave fellow kankas up in the frozen wastelands of Scotland.

The first half was some of the most exciting football we've seen since the Super Lig. "End to end" was how Gençler Kanka Alex described it, and I'll continue to plagiarise heavily from his analysis for the rest of this piece.

In the tenth minute, Keçiörengücü took a beautiful curving corner that - as far as I could see - went straight into the net practically unaided. The defense, needless to say, were not expecting such a perfectly placed shot in this league... 0-1

Ankaragücü reacted by really getting into gear, and five minutes and several chances later, Enes Kubat chipped the keeper to even the score... 1-1

Both teams played - by the standards of the league - flowing, exciting football. Ankaragücü were caught closely offside a few times on the break, and made some beautiful play up the left-hand side. At the same time, the AG keeper never looked quite comfortable, fumbling and almost being caught out.

The tension peaked after the 43rd minute. Ankaragücü broke away and beat the keeper to score a glorious goal, which was ruled offside. Two minutes later, Keçiörengücü had launched an excellent counterattack and crossed the ball past the keeper onto the striker's head - only for him to somehow miss an open goal from directly in front of it. Ankaragücü immediately leapt back into action, dribbling past the out of position defence and feeding Kubat a little chip that he placed straight home... 2-1.

The second half was extremely disappointing football, however. Ankaragücü kept all their players back and timewasted, while Keçiörengücü, frustrated, also ended up looking like a significantly worse team than they had been in the second half. Aside from a few scares in the last 10 minutes (and especially in comparison to the bombastic first half) there was nothing much to report.

The score meant that Ankaragücü climbed back up into second place, with 35 points (three fewer than we should be on, thanks to the TFF). With a bit of luck for us and bad luck for Manisa we are still in the race for the automatic promotion that comes with first place.