ANKARAGUCU RIDE THEIR LUCK AGAINST THE 10 MEN !!

 

 

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

 

Ankaragucu can count themselves rather fortunate to return from Kocaeli with all 3 points.

 

Although reduced to 10 men after only 30 minutes, Kocaeli made Ankaragucu fight till the end and at times it would have been difficult to guess which team was playing with the 10 men  !!!

 

Notwithstanding, the bottom line is that Ankaragucu dug deep and finally found the winning goal to stay on equal points with Umraniye at the top of the league.

 

Kocaelispor            1                      ANKARAGUCU               2

 

Team – Akin, Erdem, Yusuf, Sinan, Yasin, Ishak, Sahverdi, Zahid, Aatif, Murat and Eren

 

Substitutes – Abdullah, Ali Kaan, Ariyibi, Geraldo and Cem

 

Ankaragucu was lucky not to be 2 goals down after 15 minutes of play.       After 10 minutes, Kocaeli had a free kick on the right which hit the left post and the ball rebounded into the grateful arms of Akin.

 

A few minutes later Ankaragucu had another let-off when Akin parried a goal bound shot and the ball was cleared to safety.

 

Then, against the run of play, Ankaragucu went ahead on the half hour mark with a fortunate deflected goal from a Sahverdi shot.    The shot, from outside the box looked covered by the goalkeeper, but a cruel deflection off a defender sent the ball away from his outstretched arms and inside the right post.    Lady Luck was smiling on Ankaragucu last night  !!!

 

2 minutes later and she was still smiling for Ankaragucu   !!!

 

Cisse received a straight RED card for a seemingly innocuous challenge on Aatif.    In all fairness to the referee, he was close to the action and perhaps he saw something in Cisse’s eyes which we couldn’t see   !?    

 

So, was this the spark that Ankaragucu needed to go into all out attack    ?         Errrrrmmmm......no !!!        Ankaragucu continued with their annoying tactic of spraying the ball around in their own half and midfield area, but not creating any serious goal scoring opportunities   !

 

This tactic was punished just before the half time whistle when Kocaeli found the equaliser.     It was Yusuf the Bombscare who gifted it   !!     His attempted clearance inside the box rebounded off him and an attacker into the air.    His subsequent back header went straight to Pereira who probably couldn’t believe his luck as he blasted the ball into the net.

 

Into the 2^nd half and it took a while for the penny to drop for Mustafa Bey   !!!       At last he brought on Ali Kaan and Ariyibi to try and find the winner.

 

Aatif, Erdem and Zahid all had good chances to find the winner.     Aatif’s shot went narrowly past the post, Erdem’s free kick hit the bar and was cleared and Zahid’s shot was past the post.

 

Into the last 5 minutes and it took a piece of  individual skill from Murat to find the winner after the attacking onslaught.    He made a surging run on the right, drove into the box and sent his fierce shot through the outstretched arms of the goalkeeper.

 

I suppose it was no more than Ankaragucu deserved after they decided to ‘wake up’ and attack Kocaeli in the 2^nd half.      However, surely Mustafa Bey must drill this concept of attack into the players for 90 plus minutes and not for just certain stages of a match   ??!!

 

Ankaragucu will be in action again at home against 2^nd bottom of the league Denizlispor next Saturday 22^nd January.

 

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim