ANKARAGUCU – OPPORTUNITIES FOR MANOEUVRE DIMINISHING !!!

 

 

Greetings Kankas and Kankiues.

 

Ankaragucu took a giant step backwards last night when they succumbed to a team below them in the league, and in the process found themselves only 2 points above the relegation zone.

 

With only 2 matches left, Ankaragucu is leaving it late to salvage their season and optimism is in short supply right now   !!

 

Ankaragucu travel to 3^rd top of the league Trabzon for their final match, but next Sunday is, realistically, their last chance to take all 3 points when they host Pendik who are in the relegation zone.   Nothing less than 3 points will suffice to take to Trabzon   !!!

 

Last night Ankaragucu fought back to equalise with 5 minutes of the match remaining, but then, instead of shutting-up-shop and seeing the match out, they conceded the winning goal in time-added-on.      Aaaaaaargh    !!!     That goal may come back to haunt them in 2 weeks time   !!

 

Hatay           2                     ANKARAGUCU               1

 

Team – Ertac, Kitsiou, Mujakic, Radakovic, Atakan, Pedrinho, Tasos, Efkan, Alexis, Bassogog and Ali Sowe

 

Substitutes – Bajic, Rodrigues, Riccardo, Ali Kaan and Macheda

 

The 1^st half was a non-event.      However, the match exploded into life in the 70^th minute when Saglam put Hatay ahead.

 

With the match drifting towards the final whistle, Macheda equalised with 5 minutes to go.

 

Then the inevitable happened.     Into time-added-on and a cross came in from the right to the back post.     Who else but Atakan allowed Dadashov to ghost in and his header hit the back of the net   !!

 

So, to next weekend and Ankaragucu is staring into the abyss, unless they can contrive to put Pendik to the sword.

 

Istanbulspor is already relegated, and there is a scrap to determine who joins them.    With only 6 points separating the bottom 7 clubs, it goes without saying that Ankaragucu MUST win next Sunday.

 

Do they have the wherewithal and ‘bottle’ to deliver   ???!!!

 

As always, watch this space for the answer.

 

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

GENCLERBIRLIGI FALL AT THE LAST HURDLE !!

 

 

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

 

Gencler paid the price of failure yesterday due to their early season poor form, especially the massive 12 drawn matches, and in so doing, failed to make the play-off positions.

 

The Championship League concluded yesterday with Eyupspor and Goztepe taking the automatic places.   The play-off places were taken by Sakarya, Bodrum, Corum, Kocaeli and Bolu.

 

All 7 matches yesterday kicked-off at the same time so the TV channel kept switching from one to the other.

 

Tuzlaspor              1                      GENCLERBIRLIGI                1

 

Team – Ertugrul, Yasin, Babacan, Nzaba, Oguzhan, Akabueze, Bugra, Ensar, Amilton M. Yatabare and Melih

 

Substitutes – M. Cagiran, Ozgur and Oltan

 

In a day of high drama, the first action of the day was in Adana where Bandirma, pre-match favourites for the play-offs, were reduced to 10 men after only 10 minutes.   Djitte was the culprit when he blatantly kicked a defender in the back of his leg as the goalkeeper was clearing the ball up-field.   The VAR referee alerted the referee to the incident and he stopped play to check the VAR screen.   Unsurprisingly, he returned to the field and produced the RED card to Djitte   !!     It is fair to say that Djitte’s stupidity contributed to Bandirma’s failure to make the play-offs.

 

Gencler took the lead on the half hour mark with a scrappy goal and a slice of luck when Awuku scored an own goal following Bugra’s shot on goal which had been saved.    The ball rebounded into his path and he could do little except watch the ball dribble over the line.

 

Tuzla was unlucky half way through the 2^nd half when a fierce shot from just outside the box hit the post with Ertugrul beaten.

 

That was it, with the match heading into time-added-on and Gencler heading for the play-offs.    However, not quite   !!

 

With the final whistle approaching, Bas prodded the ball in after Ertugrul had spilled a right wing cross.     However, the referee signalled a foul on Ertugrul, but the VAR referee consulted with the referee before the free kick could be taken.    It took forever for a decision (easily 5 minutes) and then the referee changed his decision and awarded the goal to Tuzla.

 

A little too late for Tuzla to escape relegation after Bolu had scored a late goal to leapfrog Gencler for the play-off position.

 

So, another season in the Championship beckons for Gencler.   It was a close call, and it goes without saying that the team will need to re-group and strengthen in certain areas before the new season kicks off. 

 

In the meantime, thanks to all my regular readers this season   !

 

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

ANKARAGUCU – TURKISH CUP DREAM PUT TO BED UNTIL NEXT SEASON !!

 

 

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

 

It was a long and enjoyable journey but Ankaragucu was eliminated from the Turkish Cup last night at the semi-final stage on a 1-0 aggregate.

 

Ankaragucu was unable to reach the final of The Turkish Cup last night despite some heroics by their goalkeeper, Ertac, and a defensive blunder by a defender half way through the 2^nd half, as the match looked destined to be heading for extra time.

 

This match now falls into the category of ............history   !!       More important matters are at hand in the here-and-now in the shape of retaining their position in The Super League for next season.   There are 3 matches left to achieve this, starting this coming Sunday   !

 

Besiktas            1                     ANKARAGUCU             0

 

Team – Ertac, Kitsiou, Radakovic, Mert, Mujakic, Tolga, Alexis, Efkan, Bassogog, Tasos and Bajic

 

Substitutes – Ali Sowe, Atakan, Pedrinho, Rodrigues and Macheda

 

There is not much to say about the 1^st half except the crucial save by Ertac and the follow-up goal-line clearance by Radakovic approaching the half time whistle.

 

At the other end, Bassogog and Tasos were creating space and chances, but Bajic and Efkan were unable to capitalise on them.    The closest Ankaragucu came was created by Bassogog on the right when he sent an inch perfect pass to Alexis, but his first time shot went narrowly past the post.

 

10 minutes into the 2^nd half and Ankaragucu almost found the opening goal when, from a sweeping move, Bassogog’s final goal bound shot was well saved by the goalkeeper.

 

Both teams were committed to attack but with 20 minutes to go, and with my thoughts on extra time looming, the match was turned on its head.   Ertac sent an innocuous pass to Radokovic to instigate a move out of defence, but the normally reliable and consistent Radokovic slipped as he was about to receive the ball.     Muci pounced on the ball and sent his shot in via the underside of the bar to give the exposed Ertac no chance.

 

The goal seemed to inspire Besiktas as they searched for the 2^nd goal. And it almost came 10 minutes later when Cenk’s goal bound shot was acrobatically saved by Ertac.

 

5 minutes later, Atakan was lucky to only receive a yellow card and not RED for sticking his head into Chamberlain’s face in a ‘handbag throwing moment’ between the two of them.

 

6 minutes into time added on and Man of the Match, Ertac, made another acrobatic save from a shot heading for the top right.

 

Ankaragucu must put this disappointment behind them now and focus on Sunday’s crucial ‘6 pointer’, in Hatay.

 

It is to be hoped that Trabzon see off Fatih Karagumruk tonight in the other semi final and keep the Cup out of Istanbul   !!!

 

As always, keep watching this space for the outcome of Sunday’s  MUST WIN match  !

 

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

GENCLERBIRLIGI GRAB A LIFELINE !!

 

 

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

 

Gencler made hard work of scraping past already relegated Giresun yesterday, but in the process, they gave themselves one last chance to grab the one remaining play-off place.

 

However, even if Gencler win their last match next weekend they must rely on Bandirma to lose or draw their match against Adanaspor.   With Bandirma having a superior goal difference they must be regarded as favourites.   However, as we all know, football is unpredictable and the standard of football in this league is high.

 

There is also another team on the same points as Bandirma and Gencler and that is Bolu (with an inferior goal difference to Bandirma and Gencler), but as I said, Bandirma is surely favourites to grab the remaining play-off place.

 

Gencler only have themselves to blame for leaving it late after all the drawn matches they have had in the course of the season, ie, an incredible 11.

 

So, next weekend Gencler will travel to much improved Tuzla who have moved out of the relegation zone on the back of some excellent recent form.   They are only one point above the relegation zone so it goes without saying that they will be fired-up to take points from Gencler   !!

 

GENCLERBIRLIGI            1                     Giresun             0

 

Team – Ertugrul, Oguzhan, Nzaba, Babacan, Yasin, Ozgur, Amilton, Bugra, Ensar, M.  Yatabare and Melih

 

Substitutes – Elias Durmaz, Jimmy Durmaz, Baran and Akabueze

 

Due to the play-offs and relegation issues not being finalised, all 8 matches yesterday kicked-off at the same time, so the TV Channel was jumping from match-to-match.    Therefore, it was impossible to give a balanced report of the Gencler match.

 

However, the 1^st half statistics probably show that I didn’t miss much   !!        Gencler had 9 shots on goal, but only 1 on target.      Giresun had 6 shots with zero on target.

 

The 2^nd half didn’t seem much better until Gencler finally made the breakthrough with 20 minutes to go.

 

From a corner on the right, the ball was sent to the far post where it was met by Yatabare who sent his powerful header just inside the far post.

 

So, all focus turns to next Sunday now and the ‘all or nothing’ match against Tuzla.

 

As always, watch this space for the outcome.

 

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

ANKARAGUCU – LEAGUE SAFETY POSTPONED !!

 

 

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

 

Ankaragucu can consider themselves unfortunate last night when they were unable to collect all 3 points, when in the dying minutes of the match, they conceded a penalty.   Consequently, they still find themselves involved in the relegation struggle, but with 3 matches left to play, there is still all to play for.

 

Having looked the better team for most of the match, it must have been a bitter pill to swallow for the players, especially having survived a late surge by Alanya to find the equaliser.   Therefore, credit must go to Bahadir and the defence for resisting the onslaught in the final 10 minutes of the match.   The penalty decision therefore was a body blow, however, on the upside, at least one point was secured   !

 

With Istanbulspor already relegated, there are now realistically 7 teams in the mix to join them, so the point gained last night might be significant as the struggle nears conclusion.

 

ANKARAGUCU            1                     Alanyaspor             1

 

Team – Bahadir, Atakan, Radakovic, Mujakic, Kitsiou, Alexis, Pedrinho, Bassogog, Efkan, Tasos and Ali Sowe

 

Substitutes – Bajic, Ali Kaan, Rodrigues, Renaldo and Tolga

 

Apart from an early scare after only 5 minutes when Bahadir saved a goal bound shot at the near post, it was Ankaragucu who looked the likelier of the two teams when they pinned Alanya back with their free flowing attacks.

 

Therefore, it came as no surprise when the opening goal arrived 5 minutes later after a fast break out of defence.   The ball was swept out to Tasos on the left from the centre circle and he took off, cut into the box, and sent his curling shot around the goalkeeper and inside the far post for an exquisite goal   !

 

Buoyed by their goal, Ankaragucu took control of the match at this stage with Alanya’s defence having to work overtime.

 

Ankaragucu almost found the 2^nd goal just before the break with good work by Ali Sowe on the right.      He spotted Bassogog in the centre and sent a perfect pass to him.    Bassogog delayed his shot to wrong foot the goalkeeper, but his goal bound shot was athletically headed over the bar by a defender on the goal line.

 

15 minutes into the 2^nd half and Ankaragucu had another chance to put the match beyond Alanya when Tasos made a telling pass to Alexis, but his goal bound shot was tipped over the bar by the goalkeeper.

 

Approaching the final 10 minutes of the match and Alanya laid siege to the Ankaragucu goal searching frantically for the equaliser.    However, all credit to the defence for dealing with their attacks.

 

Then in the 5^th minute of time added on, the unthinkable happened when Ankaragucu conceded a penalty   !

 

Mujakic failed to win the ball on the right and the attacker had time to send the ball into the box, and as the attacker was about to shoot, Ali Kaan tackled him from behind and sent the ball out for a corner.   However, in the process he brought the attacker down and the referee pointed immediately to the spot.    It was interesting to note that he didn’t feel inclined to check the VAR   !!!

 

Ozgur sent his fierce shot straight down the centre with Bahadir diving to his left.

 

So, still searching for points, Ankaragucu travel to Hatay (4^th bottom of the league at the moment) next Sunday 12 May in what will obviously be classed as a ..........6 pointer   !!

 

However, prior to that important match, there is another important match on Tuesday when Ankaragucu travel to play Besiktas in the 2^nd leg of The Turkish Cup Semi-Final with the Aggregate score at 0-0.

 

As always, watch this space for the outcome of both matches.

 

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim