The round ball in Ankara

Gencler lose at home for the second time this season

2012-02-13T23:13:00.000+02:00

World football needs to be run by an Australian! Someone from the Antipodean Aussie Football Downunder Association who knows what it is like having to compete in an uber-male society for advertising revenue and TV rights money against hard sports like Rugby Union, Rugby League and Australian Aerial Ping Pong Rules! There's no messing about in those games, no namby-pamby diving and pretending to be injured bullshit. What the Mersin goalkeeper pulled off on Saturday night was a disgrace. His time-wasting antics were the epitome of all that is wrong with the game that we love.

Having said that, Gencler were crap.

Genclerbirligi 1 - 2 Mersin

Just Little Oz kanka and me on Saturday with Spine pulling out at the last minute. Apparently he had to pack his bags at the last minute for a trip to Dubai where his work are putting him through a defensive security skills programme. No doubt they have heard about the Ankaragucu board's plans to nobble him to prevent any more in depth reporting on their debt situation.

A big crowd for Gencler, the biggest of the season so far and hopes were high. The team seemed up for it but I'm not sure that some of the players had even woken up by the time of the kick-off.

Both sides played attacking football and the first half was fairly enjoyable. Shots were made, but either easily saved or sent out, by both teams and it was probably Herve Tum who went closest with a good shot late in the half that went out for a corner off a defender.

Almost forgot that we probably should have been given a penalty in the first few minutes when Oktay was brought down in the box. Ref didn't give it though.

So we had been playing okay but I was extremely disappointed with Soner. At times he had no idea where the ball was ("It's behind you"), other times he just blasted it to no one at all. Dismal stuff.

Second half and... oh... Mersin score. I can't remember much but it seemed a fairly good goal... I think.

Then the Mersin keeper Hakan started to play the cynical game. You know what I mean, taking forever to take a goal kick. Collecting the ball, immediately kicking it out and then pretending to have been injured whilst collecting the ball. It was annoying, but having watched so much Turkish football it was clear the referee wasn't going to penalise him. Parts of the Gencler crowd started swearing at him, which prompted the older fans to tell them to shut up. We are a gentlemanly club and we don't don't swear, at least not in unison.

Then Nobhead scored for Mersin, after what seemed a foul on Aykut (but I could be wrong on that), and we were down 0-2 with injury time to be played.

It was pretty much all over and then two minutes into injury time we got a penalty which Azofeifa slotted home. Our players rushed into the goal only for the Mersin keeper Hakan to pick up the ball and refuse to let go. He walked out of the goal and off the pitch, still refusing to let go of the ball. The referee eventually came in and one of our lot got a yellow card, as did Hakan.

This ungentlemanly act thus released us Gencler fans from our own gentlemanly code and for the first time in the 10 years or so that I've been watching Gencler the entire Maraton were swearing in unison. This was a display of pure petty cynicism that brings the game into disrepute. If football really wants to be a man's game and not some school playground kick around then cheats like Hakan need to be penalised.

But as I said, Gencler didn't deserve to win.

ANKARAGUGU - OUT OF THEIR DEPTH

2012-02-12T19:48:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

It's not that we have become blase about Ankaragucu losing, because the Youth Team is doing its best to live in the fast lane of the Super League. The fact is that they can't cope with playing against the 'senior' teams and they are out of their depth .... and so it proved today.

Istanbul BBS 3 Ankaragucu 0

The boys did their best and played some nice footie at times, but they were overwhelmed by an efficient Istanbul BBS team who dominated throughout.

There was only one threat on the Istanbul BBS goal in the 1st half when Serkan shot inside the box, and even though he lost his footing when shooting, his shot came off the post with the goalkeeper well beaten.

Back to the beginning, and it was only Battle Damaged Kanka Damon and I who turned up in The Chopin ............ the leaves are not only falling from the Team !!!

It didn't take long for Istanbul to open the scoring. It was a header from Webo (wish we had him in our team !!) who headed in what looked like an offside position. However, after the replay, the linesman was probably correct. The Ankaragucu defender moved forward instead of staying with Webo and that was the wrong tactical decision to take on his part !

Going in at 0-1 down at half time and things were not looking too bad. A half time talk .... some Caykur Rize Cay and who knows what miracles might happen ?! Our half time talk was all about ........ would we be able to cheer Ankaragucu's first league goal since the 4th of January ??!! .... and the answer ........... ???

Into the 2nd half and Istanbul continued to dominate. It only took 10 minutes for the 2nd goal when Serol was at the wrong side of an in-swinging corner kick in a crowded penalty box and headed in for a super own goal.

Then came the talking point of the match when Battle Damaged Kanka raised the first and only laugh of the match when the Istanbul fans (more than Gencler's I may add !!!) did a Mexican Wave on only ONE row of the seats in their area !!! Laugh ? Oh, yes ..... it was so funny that he spilled his luvvlie yummy Efes all over his Italian sweater !!! What a waste of the world's greatest beer me says !!!

Counting down the minutes now and hoping to keep the scoreline respectable and then the 3rd inevitable goal. With 8 minutes remaining, Bayram (who had a great match) made another great save to deny Istanbul. From the resulting corner, an attacking header hit the post, but from the rebound Webo was well place (and unmarked) to head in with Bayram helpless.

So, another nail in the coffin.

The only sensible question now is ............ can Ankaragucu score a goal against 2nd bottom Samsun next Saturday to end the goal drought ??

It is probably going to be the 1pm KO. If so, we will go direct to the Stadium and meet in the usual area of Maraton. I'll confirm this during the week as a comment to this post.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Ankaragucu vs Istanbul BBS Match Preview !

2012-02-09T22:23:00.001+02:00

Ankaragucu travel to Istanbul Buyuksehir on Sunday hoping to just get back on the score sheet.

Ankaragucu haven't scored in there last Seven League games and will be hoping they can stop that run on Sunday. They will go into the match without Captain Aydin Toscali who has picked up an ankle injury and will miss the next 2 games.

The Ankaragucu team are suffering from a lack of confidence at the moment, but the young players have shown great commitment and determination to stop this poor run. A tough game in Turkeys Second City awaits them against an inconsistent Istanbul BBS.

Abdullah Avci left Istanbul BBS for the Turkish national team and was replaced by Erdem Arif. The former Galatasaray has had a difficult time in his new job, and star striker Pierre Webo hasn't scored the goals he did at the start of the season.

Istanbul BBS won 3-2 at home to Fenerbahce a couple of weeks ago, but followed that up with a 3-2 defeat against Eskisehirspor and a 2-2 draw at home to Karabukspor. Key players will be Samuel Holmen in midfield and the excellent Doka. Funnily enough it was both players who scored for Istanbul BBS in 2-1 win in Ankara the last time the two sides won. Hurriyet Gucer scored the only goal for Ankaragucu.

A lot has changed since then, Of the team that started that game for Ankaragucu only Umut Kurt will play on Sunday. The financial crisis at Ankaragucu has meant all first team players except Aydin Toscali, Muhammet Turkmen and Mehmet Cogum have left the club. Mehmet Cogum is also struggling with injury and could also miss out.

Key players for Ankaragucu will be Bayram Olgun who had an excellent game against Manisaspor mid week and Atilla Aybars Garhan who will be hoping to get back on the score sheet again.

A tough game for Ankaragucu, lets hope we can get that goal to cheer about.

Dig, dig, dig

2012-02-07T22:03:00.009+02:00

You have to start worrying about the capacity of a top flight club to organise its finances properly when the club's debts at an Annual General Meeting are given in a currency that went out of circulation more than six years ago. Yeah sure, it is a cheap shot, but at "The round ball in Ankara" we are renowned for not pulling our punches, especially the cheap ones.

Not only that, the report at the AGM starts with: "Well I don't know what the debt is approximately. But I know the figures."

If I was giving a report on the millions of lira in debt my club was in I think I might actually take in a piece of paper which actually had the names and the figures written on it.

If Ankaragucu really owe trillions of lira not even an Arab oil sheik could save them.

I had to listen bloody carefully but I think I understood the following.

The figures given below are in real Turkish lira. ~~The fellow, I don't know who he is,~~ Mehmet Ural said that these debts were approximate.

The club owes:
Mustafa Akan (owner of an asphalt company that works with the Ankara Buyuksehir Beledeyesi, a former Ankaragucu director and a current director of Ankaraspor whose honorary chairman is Melih Gokcek) - 10 million

Levent Camur (former General Secretary at Ankaragucu) - 2.45 million

Ender Yurtguven (former general manager of both Ankaraspor and Ankaragucu and now back to Ankaraspor FUN FACT: Ender had a beer and a joke with Oz Kanka many years ago) - 1.7 million

Faruk Kalyoncu (former director at Ankaragucu, FUN FACT: Recep Tayyip Erdogan was a witness at his wedding in 2004. Other people to attend included then TBMM Speaker Arınç, then Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül as well as Abdülkadir Aksu, Kürşad Tüzmen Güldal Akşit, Recep Akdağ, Hüseyin Çelik, Cemil Çiçek, Hilmi Güler, Zeki Ergezen, Sami Güçlü and Osman Pepe. I wasn't invited) - 11 million

(inaudible) - 4.5 million

Gordion Insaat (FUN FACT: Oz Kanka has no idea what this company is) - 4.25 million

It doesn't add up, but ~~our unknown figure~~ Mehmet Ural in the video above said that the debts to members of the former Ankaragucu board under Ahmet Gokcek are owed about 41 million lira.

~~If you know who this fellow is then please comment below this post.~~

So, on the surface we have a number of former directors (and other unknown people/companies) of Ankaragucu suing to get their money back after the club was taken away from former Chairman Ahmet Gokcek. An Ankara court had found that the AGM at which he took over was not legal due to voting irregularities.

In many ways, except that the figures are so much bigger now, this is very similar to how directors under Cemil Aydin's honorary reign sued to get their own loans back when the Gokceks took over.

So far so petty. In fact it is sort of understandable. If I became a director of the club I'd want it to succeed and if I had a couple of million to spare I may well lend it to the club in pursuit of glory and a league championship in its centenary year. Then, when the courts take the club away from me and my mates I may well head off to the courts to get my money back.

Except that these guys, or at least some of them, had actually launched their court case against the club more than a year ago.

This is a list of the names of people, and what they claimed at the time, who had sued the club back in ~~January last year~~ December 2010. Remember, most of the names below were still working for the club as directors or employees when they sued and most continued to work with the club right up until Ahmet Gokcek was kicked out.

Nuri Elibol 7.902.574,00 TL

Seçkin Odabaşı 1.483.791,00 TL

Ömer F. Kalyoncu 638.711,00 TL

Yavuz Bulut 631. 254,00 TL

Necdet Kuzu 488.488,00 TL

Nadir Koç 2.598.347,00 TL

Mustafa Akan 9.790.670,00 TL

Mehmet Nükte 2.244.582,00 TL

Levent Çamur 3.059.114,00 TL

Ender Yurtgüven 1.753.628,00 TL

Ayhan Atalay 3.115.574,00 TL

Toplam: 33.706.733,00 TL

Why would you sue the club you are working for? Not just working for but for whom you yourself owe so much?

My theory? Quite simple really. It was a doomsday device. The courts had just decided that the AGM that had elected Ahmet Gokcek as chairman would have to be re-held. So, lets loan Ankaragucu millions, anyone who tries to takeover the club will have to pay us.

None of the names listed above really moved to get their loans back until after the club was taken away from the Gokceks.

And so the debts are there. The doomsday device has exploded. And as reported on the blog before, this is only around half of Ankaragucu's debts.

By the way, none of this explains why the club had money hassles before the court decision. Why was the club bus re-possessed? Why was Darius Vasell kicked out of his hotel?

In the meantime, we still don't have a clue as to the background of the new chairman or his plans to sort out this almighty mess. Hopefully we will learn soon.

With special thanks to Spine for lots of hard spade work on this piece. Any inaccuracies above are solely his fault.

And thanks to www.klasspor.com as well.

Who is the new chairman of Ankaragucu?

2012-02-07T12:41:00.001+02:00

Spine posted this in a comment. I think it deserves it's own post.

To follow up on Oz Kanka's post a few days ago on how little we know:

I spent a few minutes of my day today trying to answer the question "who is Haluk Ilican?" This service to this blog's loyal readers meant searching google and my company's database of turkish media reports. Total result: He's a bloke, probably from Kirikkale, who may be a "businessman".

The lack of curiosity and seriousness is incredible really. Admittedly Ilican only appeared as a candidate a couple of days before the congress, but no media organization has seen fit to ask even the most basic questions about him: His age, what business he's in, his marital status, his plans, his personal wealth, his criminal record, his pets. There's nothing.

What there is, is an awful lot of cutting and pasting of whatever Anatolia news agency says. Which in this case was very little.

rant over (and I may just be bad at googling)

Spine

Too little, too late.

2012-02-07T09:01:00.001+02:00

Ankaragucu 0 - Manisaspor 1

Froze my tuchus off last night watching a gradually improving Ankaragucu squad get beat yet again. Contrary to what Hakan Kutlu said we really did not deserve a draw, but the team did look a bit stronger. I'll be back later today with some more details.

Gencler keep climbing the table

2012-02-06T22:38:00.000+02:00

This was a great match with twists and turns all the way through. With other results going our way Genclerbirligi now find themselves in fourth place and in a great position to get into the play-offs. There is still a long way to go but my confidence is high.

Kayserispor 2 - 3 Genclerbirligi

I may have been the only Kanka at the Beer Bus on Sunday afternoon but I was joined by about 30 Gencler fans, all of whom were just a little bit scared. Gencler has been playing okay footy since the half-way mark, but not brilliant football. Kayseri on the other hand have been doing pretty well recently.

On to the match and it was good to see we were pretty much back to our regular line-up. Cem Can was back from his red card-forced sidelining. The attack looked good, with Herve Tum up front supported on the wings by Hursut and Yasin. Oktay and Azofeifa in midfield. Aykut back for good at the back and the rest all names we are now familiar with.

Kick-off and er... er... it was all Kayserispor. They looked more dangerous and controlled the vast majority of the ball. It was only a bit of luck that saved us on a few occasions with former Gencler player James Troisi looking especially dangerous.

But football is football and it was pretty much against the run of play when we took the lead. A free-kick from a fair distance. Azofeifa takes it, straight to Aykut's head and in.

Much cheering at the Beer Bus but it wasn't long before Troisi equalised. He had an excellent match for Kayseri. "Your countryman just scored against us" one of the Alkaralar honchos told me as I tried to hide under the table. It wasn't so long ago when they used to clap me on the back as if I had personally scored whenever one of the Gencler Aussies found the back of the net. Not any more obviously.

Half-time and most reckoned we could win the match. We had a few shots well saved, some shots which should have been goals and at least one off the post. We could get this.

Then something we don't see very often. Yasin sent the ball along the ground to Tum just outside the box and he kicked it with a great left footer into the goal. Let me repeat that, he actually kicked, as opposed to headed, a goal. 2-1 up and there was nothing but joy.

Not long later though Kayseri equalised again thanks to some bad man marking at the back. Come'on boys. We can still do it.

And we did. Five minutes of injury time were announced and with one of them gone, Ergun sent a ball through to former Ankaragucu player Murat Dururer on the left. He ran with it and passed perfectly to Ermin Zec who made no mistake. Final result. 2 - 3.

All up a great match. Lots of goals, lots of attacking football from both sides and, most importantly, the right result.

It certainly is fun to be supporting Gencler this season.

Gencler go higher and higher

2012-02-05T21:59:00.000+02:00

No time to give a full report at the moment. Genclerbirligi have managed to win away with a last minute goal. It was nerve-wracking stuff. More tomorrow.

Kayserispor 2 - 3 Genclerbirligi

Ankaragucu vs Manisaspor match preview 1

2012-02-03T19:23:00.002+02:00

Ankaragucu host Manisaspor this Monday night at home in the Turkcell Super Lig.

Ankaragucu lost at home to Orduspor midweek while Manisaspor lost 3-2 at home to Eskisehirspor. Both sides are on a poor run of form at the moment. Ankaragucu have lost 17 players since the season started, while Manisaspor have failed to win in there last 13 matches.

The last time the two sides met Manisaspor won 2-0 thanks to goals from Erdogan and Gokoglan. At that point Manisa were sitting pretty in the top 5 while Ankaragucu were struggling at the bottom of the table. Since then Ankargucu have lost many players due to unpaid wages and have only won 2 games all season.

Manisaspor hired former Ankargucu manager Umut Ozat who will return to the 19 Mayis stadium for the first time since he resigned. Ozat didn't have the best of times at Ankaragucu and even found himself been attacked by an Ankaragucu fan during a league game.

Both sides are struggling at the bottom of the table, Manisaspor are been dragged into a relegation battle, while Ankaragucu are rooted to the bottom of the league. Manisa have some good players in Isaac Promise, Labinot Harbuzi and Yigit Incedemir. They also have ex Ankaragucu duo Murat Erdogan and Michael Klukowski in the team.

Ankaragucu lost both Ergin Keles and Bora Kork last week and now only have Aydin Toscali, Muhammet Turkmen and Mehmet Cogum from the team that started the season. Young players like Ishak Dogan, Bilal Gulden and Atilla Aybars will be key to the future at Ankargucu and the more games they play the better they will become.

Its going to be another tough game for Ankaragucu, lets just hope the fans get to see Ankaragucu score some goals.

At least it wasn't four this time

2012-02-01T23:50:00.002+02:00

Not much to write about Ankaragucu's 2-0 loss to Ordu tonight. It's all the same ol' story. Maybe I'll write something about the match tomorrow, but given how uninspired I am, I probably won't.

We love you Oktay, we do!

2012-02-01T21:12:00.001+02:00

It had a scoresless draw written all over it. Frustration, frustration, but then Oktay pulled off one of our best goals this season. We needed the three points if we are to keep up our challenge for a European spot. In the end we got them.

Genclerbirligi 1 - 0 Gaziantepspor

It is bloody freezing in Ankara at the moment and there was no way I was going to the stadium for tonight's match. A few mad people did, such as Ertank, Thijs and Charlie, but there is no way I was heading off to stand in minus 5 degrees on a Wednesday night.

So instead Little Oz Kanka and myself headed off to the Red Lion Club to watch the match on the telly. Spine joined us a bit after kick-off but there wasn't a lot to say of the Gencler team.

With Cem Can out thanks to a red card in our last match, new signing Ersin Martin was given a chance. It was good to see Aykut back in the starting eleven and despite his nine or 10 goals this season I was happy to see Herve Tum left off the squad.

It all started fairly well with Gencler seeming to be the better team but then Spine showed up at the 20th minute mark and we started playing complete rubbish. A million long balls to no where, and some desperate scrambling defence. Antep should probably have scored but for some great work in goal from Ramazan.

We had the odd chance but it didn't really look like either team was going to score. And so the first half ended 0 - 0.

With Cem Can out thanks to the red card, Hursut was given the captain's armband for tonight. Too much pressure?

"It's the same as when they gave Botham the captaincy," said Spine, referring to something that the Yanks amongst us will have no idea what he is talking about. "Or Flintoff for that matter," I replied.

Hursut was really out of sorts for most of the match.

At the same time though, he is a player who you cannot hold down and who tries his best at all times. He is still, by far, my favourite player in the side.

Both teams went for it in the second half and both were unlucky not to score. Gencler though seemed to really pick themselves up once Ermin Zec was brought on mid-way though the half.

Zec himself didn't seem to be doing that much but the team lifted with the attacking option. Then in the 78th minute Oktay on the left, just inside the box, jinked his man and sent the ball flying. The diving Gaziantep keeper almost got to it. What a goal! Bloody brilliant.

We had to defend a bit towards the end but in the end the three points were ours. We deserved it and our hunt for a European place continues.

How did Ankaragucu fall? We have no idea

2012-02-01T01:58:00.000+02:00

How is it that a club that has played for more than 30 years in the top flight of Turkish football suddenly find itself without a single player of note, whose players can't even swap jerseys at the end of a match because there is no money in the coffers?

How is it that a club with more than 100 years of history behind it find themselves on the brink of annihilation? Clubs in Turkey have disappeared before and will disappear again, but this is a club with thousands of supporters. Supporters who have in the last few weeks sent food to the team. A club who has had members of parliament, from both sides of the aile, pledge their support and cash to keep the club running.

No one will pretend that Ankaragucu was not being run in the best of fashions a few years ago. It was a common occurance during matches for the fans to sing their displeasure at the then chairman of club, Cemal Aydin. A number of times Aydin acknowledged this and promised to stand down. When it came to the annual general meetings however, he ran again and again.

Ankaragucu, like all clubs in Turkey, is a club that is run by a board that is elected by its members. Unlike some clubs abroad, you cannot simply buy a club in Turkey. Even those high flying clubs like Galatasaray or Besiktas which are listed on the stockmarket cannot be bought outright. The members still have a vote, and each member's vote is equal.

But just who are the members? How do you become a member? How does a committed Ankaragucu fan get involved in the club if there is almost no way of actually joining the club and therefore gaining a right to vote? At the last Extraordinary General Meeting in November last year, following a court decision to annual the AGM where the Gokceks took control, just 130 members voted - One-hundred-and-thirty -

A decent club will have membership details on its website. Just as an example I give the Balmain Rugby League club which I supported back in Australia, and which many members of my family have been members of for many, many years. Click on this link and you'll see how to become a member, what the latest accounts are, what were the results of the latest AGM. You can't find any of this on the Ankaragucu website (or on many other Turkish football clubs' websites for that matter). As I write this post, the Ankaragucu website hasn't been updated for almost two months.

When thinking about writing this post I realised just how little I know about how football clubs work in Turkey. With that in mind I want to talk about Ankaragucu and just how little we know about why the club has collapsed.

At "The round ball in Ankara" we have written before about the political problems the club has faced. The timeline is here.

The question I'd like to ask today is how is it that the club has become so bankrupt?

I've not seen any accounts for the club, and would love to see some if anyone wants to send them to me.

During the short time that the Gokceks were in control the club spent up big. Plenty of times the club seemed to have difficulty in paying its debts but then again, every now and then they paid off big sums owed to players, or hotels or bus leasing companies. Nary a month passed without an "Ankaragucu unable to pay debts" story not being printed.

There is the question though of where did the money come from to pay off some of these debts? It can't have come from the Ankara Municipality, that would be illegal. Could it possibly, maybe, certainly not being suggested by us, have come from companies that have benefitted from contracts awarded to them from the municipality?

So where did it come from? Some sort of fairy godmother?

And then when the courts took the club off the Gokceks, the club suddenly found that it was in debt to the tune of nearly 100 million lira and all of these fairy godmothers who had saved the club in the past had disappeared. How is it that a club could run with massive debts, but still somehow manage to pay some of them, and then suddenly collapse overnight, as soon as the Gokceks lost control?

Who pulled out? Who stopped giving cash to the club? Why were they giving cash to the club in the first place?

We don't know.

Where is the TFF inquiry into the matter? A bit of transparency would go a long way to solve the problems of Turkish football. Boy, and I haven't even mentioned match-fixing.

If you are reading this and find that it is a load of uninformed rubbish then I encourage you to write in and inform us, because as hard as I try, I have found it extremely difficult to figure out anything and that in itself is a disgrace.

Gencler need wins, not draws!

2012-01-31T15:48:00.000+02:00

A busy weekend and start to the week for me has led to this post being just a touch late.

Antalyaspor 2 - 2 Genclerbirligi

We had guests over the weekend and I couldn't think of a better place to take them after a session of tobogganing the slopes of Segmenler Park than the Red Lion Club.

Only problem was the kiddy guests weren't all that interested in the Antalya-Gencler match.

I could sort of see why as the football on show wasn't that great.

By the time we started watching Gencler were already 1-0 down but Antalya had had one of their players sent off.

We managed to claw back but then Cem Can was silly enough to earn a second yellow card. We had been controlling the play up until that point but Antalya smelt blood and it wasn't long before they went ahead again.

It was only near the end when Hursut sent in another one of trademark crosses onto the head of Herve Tum who scored his ninth headed goal of the season.

I'm afraid I can't remember much of the match, so I'll just wrap up by saying it was good to see Azofeifa back in the starting 11. I promise to be a bit more detailed after the next match.

Ergin Keles and Bora Kork Sign for Karabukspor

2012-01-31T15:05:00.002+02:00

So thats now Ugur Ucar, Kagan, Guven Varol, Bora Kork and Ergin Keles all signed for Karabukspor. Time to start preparing for life in Bank Aysa. So many things make me angry about all of this.

First of all, Cemal Aydin and The Gokceks have destroyed this 102 year old club. It is going to take a long long time to get back into the Super Lig if ever. But how can the Turkish FA and the Government just sit back and allow this to happen ? It is so clear there has been coruption and people have been filling there pockets. UEFA have also done nothing except hand out a transfer ban.

I am loosing my passion for Turkish Football, this corrupt FA will at the end of the season refuse to hand out a relegation to clcubs found guilty of match fixing, they even want to change the rules so this doesnt happen.

Disgraceful, shame on you all !!!

Four seems to be the magic number

2012-01-29T18:20:00.001+02:00

O-4...again!

Normally when there is a sinking ship, it is the women and children who are supposed to abandon ship first. In an interesting reversal, however, due to the vulgarity of the chants employed by Ankaragucu fans in recent weeks, the TFF banned the adult males from the stadium. So the men were forced to abandon the sinking ship that Ankaragucu has become this season, and only the women and children were allowed to "stay on board". They managed to fill the left most section of Gecekondu and their chants could be heard throughout the match, so we must all take our hats off to them.

We must also take our hats off to the squad that once more took on a team that was far superior. Though it didn't take Trabzon's Adin long to score. Gucu managed to play respectably well for most of the first half of the match, and occasionally in the second. Nonetheless, in the end, we once again found ourselves looking at a four-nil score.

I'll be back with more details after the Arsenal-Aston Villa match.

After watching the two Premier League clubs go at it, I have to admit that it is difficult to look back on the football we played this afternoon. Had we played either one of the two teams at Emirates Stadium this afternoon, I shudder to think what the score would have been.

Our starting eleven didn't look so different from last week's starting line up. There was one glaring difference however. As Bora left this past week to go to Antalyaspor, there was a new face in goals, a bearded face. This face belongs to one Bayram Olgun, who, it must be said was NOT the weak link in our squad this afternoon. He did rather well actually in his first appearance.

Our team:
Bayram
Mehmet Aydin Ishak Bilal
Ümit Muhammed Veli (79. O. Evci)
Serol (74. Atilla Aybars) Serkan (48. G. Erdoğan)
Ergin

Before the match even began, it was clear that the MKE Ankaragucu was facing hard times. The pitch looked like absolute crap, almost literally since large swathes were brown. Against this backdrop, Trabzonspor were trying to put their passing game together, and Ankaragucu were fighting hard to keep Trabzon from succeeding, and were doing a decent job of it until former Gencler player Serkan Balci managed to pull off a beautiful cross that bypassed the Gucu defense and allowed Adin to slot it in past Bayram.

So Trabzon were up, but we were not out of the match yet. However, the most worrisome indicator of where this match was going was the fact that even though we were able to strip the ball off the Trabzon players fairly regularly, they would almost always manage to get the ball back immediately after. We weren't able to capitalize on the advantage when we had it.

Ergin was a busy man. In the 25th minute he took a shot from well outside the penalty box but blasted over. About four minutes later some nice passing on the part of our boys nearly got the ball to Ergin in front of the Trabzon goal, but Trabzon keeper Tolga was able to pounce on it before Ergin could get to it. Despite all his running, though, Ergin could just not find an opportunity.

Late in the half Ankara had a free kick, but Tolga didn't even break a sweat in handling it.

Things were just starting to look dire towards the end of the first half when during the 41st minute there was a goal mouth melee in front of our goal, and our defense was completely incapable of clearing the ball. Five minutes later, in extra time, Burak acted like he got fouled just outside the penalty box and was awarded the kick. Fortunately he sent the ball straight into Bayram's arms, and the first half came to a merciful end with us still only down by one. We still had a chance.

However, when the second half came it was Trabzon that came out looking like the improved side. Paulo Henrique came on for Volkan Sen and his speed on the right wing seemed to give Trabzon the edge they needed.

And then it happened. In the 56th minute Trabzon's Mustafa Yumlu launched a wonderful long pass and Burak managed to race ahead past Umit Kurt to go one-on-one with Bayram. Just before Bayram could get to it, Burak chipped it over him and into the net.

Around the 64th minute Gucu's attacking prowess began to look a little better when İshak was nearly able to fire off a shot from close range. Before he could take it, though, Balcı broke up the opportunity. Two minutes later, Ergin took a shot from the top of the box only to see it go slightly wide. And then a few minutes later came our best attempt yet when Gökhan made a beautiful cut back to Serol who unfortunately was unable to get it past Tolga.

Not long after that, Adrian who had come in for Colman got deep into the box on the left and ripped a pass across to Enrique who was waiting by the far post. The pass never got to Enrique though. An unfortunate Ishak in an attempt to block the pass sent it into his own goal. Had he not, though, it wouldn't have mattered. Enrique would have done it himself. Trabzon was up by three. Two minutes later Alanzinho sent a brilliant through pass to Burak who didn't hesitate in putting the sword fully in.

The game might as well have ended there, but we sat through another painful thirteen minutes before the ref mercifully ended the match precisely at the ninety minute mark.

And that is when things got sadder still. The Trabzon players gave their jerseys to the Ankaragucu players, but the Gucu players had to keep theirs because (as we all remember from the Sivas match) they don't have enough to even change at halftime.

Another heart breaking day in Ankara. Next week sees us away to Ordu. This is a match we might stand a better chance of winning. Not getting my hopes up though.

BattleDamagedKanka

Ankaragucu vs Trabzonspor Match Preview

2012-01-27T22:17:00.001+02:00

Ankaragucu host Trabzonspor in the capital on Sunday and the game will be played behind closed doors.

Crowd trouble at the recent Ankaragucu vs Genclerbirligi match has saw Ankaragucu fined and also given a one match stadium ban. Ankaragucu go into the match coming off the back of a 4-0 defeat at Galatasaray.

The last time the two sides met, Ankaragucu twice went ahead through Turgut Dogan Sahin and Theo Weeks only for Trabzonspor to win 3-2 late on. A brave performance in Trabzon for Ankaragucu who were unlucky to come away from the game empty handed.

A lot has changed since then, Ankaragucu have lost there whole first team squad apart from Aydin Toscali, Ergin Keles and Muhammet Turkmen. Trabzonspor have been inconsistent but have started to show some form of late and won 4-1 at home to Eskisehirspor midweek. They have won 7 of there last 8 games with only Karabukspor beating them.

Trabzonspor added Olcan Adin to there squad in the January transfer window in a deal which saw Marek Sapara move to Gaziantepspor. Adin has been excellent and has formed a good partnership with the brilliant Burak Yilmaz. If Ankaragucu are to take anything from the game then Yilmaz, Adin and Andreij will need to be kept quiet.

Ankaragucu will again rely on there remaining experienced players in Aydin, Ergin and Muhammet. The young players will get more valuable experience and will hope to improve on the defensive horror show against Galatasaray midweek.

A huge ask again for this young team, and even more difficult without the backing of the fans.

Gencler claw back to win a point

2012-01-26T09:01:00.003+02:00

It wasn't until the very end but Gencler managed to pull off a draw against Bursa Wednesday afternoon. The draw saw us slip a place or two on the table but the hunt is still on.

Genclerbirligi 2 - 2 Bursaspor

With snow everywhere and a kicking off time of 3:30 pm Little Oz Kanka and myself decided to watch the match at the Red Lion Club. We were the only patrons there but we had 11 friends to watch on the telly.

Kick-off and Gencler played their usual possesion game. A couple of chances thanks to good runs down the wings from Hursut and Yasin but the goal just wouldn't come as the Bursaspor keeper kept everything out.

There was a bit of a disaster as Curri got stretchered off after 11 minutes or so after falling awkwardly and with both Ante Kulusich and Aykut Demir still injured (they should be back for the next match) we were down to our third-string defenders.

Bursa's only chances came from counter-attacks but each one of those looked dangerous and it was in the 40th something minute their first goal came. Former Ankaragucu player Sestek sent in a perfect cross from the right which was wonderfully headed by someone. The Red Lion went quiet but Gencler looked like they could get back into it... Oh.

Gencler were given a free-kick for some reason or another somewhere deep in our side of the field. Ergun then inexplicitly kicked it pretty much to a Bursa player who took a shot and ... goal. The Red Lion was so quiet this time as Little Oz Kanka started screaming at the telly. Dear oh dear Ergun, that was just stupid.

Second half seemed to be going along listlessly and I got a call from the missus ordering me to get home at once because we had been summoned by no less than the prime minister to attend dinner and soft drinks. So just as the Gencler coach replaced a defender with midfielder Azofeifa, his first run since being injured about four weeks ago, Little Oz and me trudged off.

As I was getting ready back home Little Oz screamed out "YES!" He had somehow got onto a football scores site and had discovered we had scored. Not long later came another louder scream as we scored again in the depths of injury time. And that's how it finished.

I have no idea how our goals were scored, all I know is that we had the draw. We should have had the win, but to come back from 2-0 down is a pretty good effort.

Off to dinner with the prime minister only to discover that 3,000 others had also been invited. Hmmph.

Dayan Ankaragucu

2012-01-25T22:22:00.005+02:00

Photo taken from Webaslan.com

I really have only two comments to make about this match.

1) The result could have been worse. Losing 4-0 to Galatasaray in this case was getting off easy. Our defense fought hard--bless their hearts (tip of the hat to Judy)--but Aydın in particular was struggling. From the lapses in defense came four goals, two of which occurred in the first ten minutes of the match.

2) The Galatasaray fans and players, and Fatih Terim demonstrated an admirable degree of sportsmanship. Even before the match started, the GS fans had hung a banner reading "Dayan Ankaragücü" (Hold on Ankaragucu), and when Ergin Keles came off towards the end of the match, he got applause from Terim and the GS fans. Even the Istanbul crowd shows our team more respect than the criminals in Ankara who have let our team sink to these levels.

Thanks to the team for keeping their heads up. Respect.

BattleDamagedKanka

The final Ankara derby?

2012-01-23T10:08:00.000+02:00

Could that have been the last Ankara derby? Quite possibly so as Ankaragucu need some sort of miracle to stay in the top flight next season. It was cold, the field was in places waterlogged and the football on show wasn't that great. In any case though it will be a great shame if we don't see another derby match and hopefully Ankaragucu will still be around next season.

Ankaragucu 0 - 1 Genclerbirligi

Sunday afternoon in the Beer Bus and various Kankas were looking the worse for wear after spending Saturday afternoon at the British Beer Festival at the Red Lion. Still nothing an Efes couldn't cure. Gencler kankas Spine, Oguz, Emre, Robin, the Flying Dutchman and your reporter for the day discussed everything from the first 120 years of AKP rule to how Ankaragucu need a Middle Eastern saviour.

One thing we couldn't discuss was how the Ankaragucu fans felt because none of them showed up. Normally the home side has to do the report but looks like I got saddled with it instead.

At the stadium we were surprised to see queues. Yes queues to get tickets for the Gencler end. Gencler don't have a big support base but it was good to see so many come out on such a cold day.

We missed the first five minutes or so and I doubt we missed much. As I said the place was cold and the pitch waterlogged in places, not the best conditions for good football. As Ankaragucu were forced to play their youth team it wasn't much of a surprise that Genclerbirligi controlled most of the play.

The only goal of the match came in the 19th minute when Yasin on the left did extremely well to get around his man and then with players streaming into the box he passed to Hursut who struck it well from just outside the box.

Of course we cheered, but then we just politely clapped. None of the Gencler fans want to see Ankaragucu go down but at the same time we need the three points to keep up our fight for a place in Europe next season.

Genclerbirligi continued to control the ball for the rest of the first half but with Azofeifa still injured we are really looking poor in the midfield. Once again there were a million horizontal passes and no real penetration. I'm not sure that we forced the Ankaragucu keeper to make more than a couple of saves for the whole match.

I had no idea at the time but one Ankaragucu kanka was at the match, namely Cider Kanka John and as he posted on the blog, the Ankaragucu fans were having fun throwing snowballs onto the pitch. It started pretty much as an attack on Hursut for having scored the goal but later on everyone was fair game. It seemed petty at first but later just seemed like fun, after all, snowballs are much better than chairs.

Also weird was the "we share your pain" display by the Ankaragucu fans as thousands of them took off their shirts and threw their atlets/singlets/vests on to the pitch. I might take part in a similar display myself some day, but certainly in January.

Minus 10 was still too warm for these Ankaragucu fans.

Second half and Gencler flaffed around, sent some balls over the top and generally played like they wanted to get off the field as soon as possible. Sensing this the young Ankaragucu players started having a go and they were very unlucky not to equalise late late in the second-half. If it wasn't for Ramazan in goal, the match would have finished one-a-piece.

Match over and very subdued applause from us. During the match the Ankaragucu stands started up various "Hukumet istifa" and "Gokcek istifa" chants, which the Gencler fans of course joined in and so it was slightly annoying that at the end a very small group of Ankaragucu fans sitting to the left us started shouting "you are all sons of disreputable women". We merely applauded them, which only got them more pissed off. Ultimately the police went in and pushed them out of the stadium, after which much larger groups of Ankaragucu fans shouted their appreciation for our support and we started singing Ankaragucu chants.

All very weird.

Thanks to Karabuk beating Trabzon on Saturday, Gencler now go into fourth spot on the ladder. Wow, you could have got very good odds for betting on that at the beginning of the season. Let's see if we can keep it up.

A drab Ankara derby but Gencler take the points

2012-01-22T21:35:00.000+02:00

A freezing evening in Ankara saw a football match played on a crap pitch with some pretty rubbish football. Gencler scored in the 19th minute after a nice move that left Hursut in front of the goal with no-one but the keeper to beat. The rest of the match... er... rubbish. Ankaragucu almost equalised towards the end but Ramazan in goal saved our blushes. For those of you who weren't there - count your blessings, as for those of you who were there - count your toes as you may have left a few frozen ones behind at the stadium.

More tomorrow.

I think we should be told

2012-01-19T11:31:00.000+02:00

Has anyone else noticed the similarity between Douglas Reynholm, son of a meglomaniac Denholm Reynhom who according to Wikipedia was "always ready with new and often ridiculous initiatives", and Ahmet Gokcek, former Ankaragucu chairman and son of I. Melih Gocek whose new and often brilliant initiatives have included recreating Hollywood in Ankara, a Disneyland for the city and the really radical idea that a metro system would be good for the capital. Are they in anyway related? I think we should be told.

Douglas Reynholm Ahmet Gokcek

(You can blame Spine for the idea behind this post)

You never know what file photos the papers have

2012-01-18T19:52:00.002+02:00

Hurriyet today were reporting on how Gencler fans have been voicing their dismay with the Ankaragucu management and expressing their sympathies with the Ankaragucu fans. An eagle-eyed Spine spotted this interesting little group of Gencler fans in the accompanying photo. Dan the Man in the M-Oil jersey next to Oz Kanka with the Gencler scarf, and who is that Gencler fan in front of them? None other than Sir Eski Kanka!

Click on the photo for a larger version.

The Ankara Derby Match Preview !

2012-01-18T19:21:00.001+02:00

Ankaragucu host Genclerbirligi in the Derby on Sunday at the 19 Mayis Stadium.

Genclerbirligi will go into the match as heavy favourites, and another tough game for Ankaragucu. Gencler are currently sitting in the Europa League places while Ankaragucu are rooted to the bottom with only two wins all season.

The last time the two sides met ended in a 1-1 draw. Sahin Aydogdu gave Gencler the lead before a late equaliser from Jan Rajnoch. The Ankaragucu side are unrecognisable from the last game where only Aydin Toscali and Ergin Keles are still with the club.

Faut Capa has done an excellent job at Gencler, they have only lost 1 in there last 7 games and the fans are already talking about European Football returning to Ankara. Last weekend Gencler defeated Euro Rivals Eskisehirspor 2-1 at home.

Key players for the away side will be Hursut Meric who is full of running, Yasin Oztekin who is capable of scoring some wonderful goals and the powerful Herve Tum. Gencler have a fantastic scouting system where year after year they loose top players, but still manage to fine players just as good to replace them. Its a credit to the club that they are run in profit.

Where Gencler have exceeded, Ankaragucu have failed miserably. To many players over the years on big wages who haven't earned the wages given to them, then the players who have given there all to the club but not been paid. The club are in a financial mess at the moment and couldn't even afford a change of strip at the weekend against Sivas. This week the Ankaragucu fans took Water and Food to the training ground due to the club not been able to pay there own chef.

The one thing the club can be proud of is there fans, through these tough times they have shown incredible loyalty and we can only hope for good times to return. Turgut Dogan Sahin has almost certainly played his last game for the club with reports tonight claiming he will sign for Gaziantepspor.

Ankaragucu will now look to there young A2 team to get them through this game. Players like Ishak Dogan, Umut Kurt, Bilal Gulden are now the future of the club and need to step up and show what they can do.

As Oz Kanka and Spine reported yesterday, the Genclerbirligi fans have shown there support to Ankaragucu in the last couple of days, we would like to take the opportunity to thank our Gencler brothers for there support.

Good luck to Ankaragucu on sunday but Gencler will need to have an off day if we are to take anything from them.

Gencler fans in two minds ahead of the derby

2012-01-17T01:22:00.002+02:00

I'm not one to do match previews, I'll leave that to Bellshill Kanka, but I have been surprised to see the comments and discussion threads on the Genclerbirligi fan forums and on facebook ahead of the Ankara derby on Sunday.

The normal talk on these sorts of forums is about stuff like "who would make up our best 11". Much lamenting would be had over the fact that Harbuzi and Aykut are out through injury.

But not for this match. The talk on the forums early in the week is all about how we should play our A2 takim, ie the youth team. Why? To help Ankaragucu.

I'm really amazed at how the Gencler fans are feeling the pain that Ankaragucu are going through at the moment.

I don't agree at all with the idea of sending out a second-rate team but I am quite touched that so many hard-core Gencler fans are prepared to possibly lose our place in Europe next season for the across town team.

I'm pretty sure Gencler won't send out their second team, but it is great to see that many of our fans are in real sympathy for the shit that Ankaragucu fans are in at the moment.

One Gencler fan noted, having said that he hoped Ankaragucu will win on Sunday: "I'm sure that if the situation was reversed the Ankaragucu fans wouldn't care at all, but that doesn't matter, we should do the right thing".

I don't agree with that idea, we could be up for massive fines, point reductions etc. if we play an understrength side, but I agree with the sentiment.

All I can do is to wish good luck to both sides.

My sympathies are with all Ankaragucu fans, but this weekend is the derby. Derbies are for the winning. And the winners will surely be Genclerbirligi. See you all at the Beer Bus before the match.

ANKARAGUCU - BLOWN AWAY IN A SIVAS BLIZZARD

2012-01-16T16:47:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

It was an unbelievable sight when the TV cameras showed up the 4 Eylul Stadium prior to KO. It was a total whiteout with the white stuff pissing down, one tractor trying to clear the lines and groundsmen putting some 'black stuff' down on the lines. My question ..... why was this left to the last minute ?! The referee did well to allow the match to proceed, or was it a Digiturk decision (Eski the Cynic !) ??!!

Battle Damaged Kanka Damon and I were joined by some of Eski's students and friends in The Chopin - Abby (from 'upstate' New York !), Gaia (from Michigan - it's in Canada ..... right ??!!), Cody (no relation to Buffalo Bill !) and Max (can't say what he is doing here .... it's very secretive !!).

Team -

Bora
Mehmet, Aydin, Bilal and Ishak
Kaan, Gokhan, Umit and Muhammed
Keles and Turgut

Substitutes - Serkan, Atilla and Mert

Sivasspor 3 Ankaragucu 0

Ankaragucu had their only serious chance of the match in the 10th minute when Atilla (Sivas goalkeeper) made a hash of clearing the ball in the slippery snowy goal area and Keles latched onto it and hit an angled goalbound shot which was cleared off the line by a covering defender.

From that point on it was all Sivas who mastered the atrocious conditions much better than Ankaragucu.

Ankaragucu was blown away in the space of 2 first half minutes. First, in the 14th minute from a Sivas corner, Eneramo was allowed a free header despite the fact that he was surrounded by FOUR Ankaragucu defenders ! 2 minutes later a classic goal. The break on the left, then the cut-back for the impressive Grosicki to score an easy goal.

Bora saved further blushes in the 37th minute when he got down bravely to smother the ball with Grosicki on a one-on-one with Bora.

Ankaragucu was a disorganised rabble with passes going astray, pumping high balls out of defence anywhere and no cohesion in their play. On the other hand, Sivas players were first into the tackle and spreading the ball around - usually down the left wing where most of the damage was done.

Half time came as a relief !

The blizzard relented and after the groundstaff had worked on the pitch, we were able to see green grass for the first time.

I think Digiturk summed-up the way the match was going in the 55th minute ................ 209 passes made by Sivas and ........... 58 by Ankaragucu !

10 minutes later it was all over when from a right wing attack came the inevitable cut-back for Cihan to shoot under Bora's diving body to put the match beyond Ankaragucu.

I don't think Ankaragucu can play as badly as this again, but if they do next Sunday, it will be a punishing afternoon against high flying Gencler.

The bottom 3 Clubs are gradually losing touch with the pack and nothing less than a winning streak will help Ankaragucu's cause now.

I'll be watching Hibs climb up the table next weekend in Edinburgh, so your reporter for the Ankaragucu v Gencler match will be Battle Damaged Kanka Damon.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Yeah! A win for Gencler Whooo Hoooooo*

2012-01-14T19:58:00.002+02:00

Civil disobedience Spine-style

Going into this one I wasn't all that confident. Since the half-season break We had drawn against Samsun. Samsunspor! Then we lost away to Karabuk. Karabukspor! Then earlier this week we were knocked out of the Turkish Cup by Boluspor. Boluspor! What chance did we have against a half decent team such as Eskisehirspor who have been sitting in the top five or so for most of the season? I assumed bugger all.

Genclerbirligi 2 - 1 Eskisehirspor

I didn't realise but I put in the wrong bar for our meeting point and so today the Chopin got our custom. Admittedly it wasn't much custom as it was just Spine, Little Oz Kanka and myself who showed up for pre-match drinks. Have to admit though the kofte was very yummy.

Made it in just in time for the national anthem.

Kick off and it was a bit of this, a bit of that. Neither team was outstanding but Gencler were looking okay. A few scary moments but ultimately no real shots on goal from either side except for one shot from former Gencler player Burhan. I think it hit the post and then out but I'm not sure.

Then in the 23rd Cem Can had the ball on the right and sent in a perfect cross right onto the head of Herve Tum who is becoming a real header specialist. The keeper had no chance. According to a tweet by @sayinumit this was Tum's ninth goal this season, eight of them coming from headers.

All joy in the stands and then almost immediately we threw it away with some crap defence, especially in the midfield/final third. Argh.

1-1 at half time and actually I wasn't too upset. We had played okay, not brilliantly, but we were still in it.

Second half and Gencler again played well. I particularly liked Ergun at the back. He was not just good at some last minute tackles but also got himself forward and almost got an assist for his troubles.

The winning goal finally came from a corner.

It was played short and (I have to look up a report of the match here) Ergun sent it in to the box and Oktay Delibalta headed it in. --- so I guess Ergun did get his assist.

Great stuff. plenty of time left in the match though and Eskisehir went all out for the equaliser. They played like mad but couldn't really set up many good chances. Those they did set up they sent them miles wide.

Then .... drama!!!!

87th minute, a scramble of sorts in the box and my hero of the match, Ergun, made a schoolboy mistake by holding on to the arm of an attacker. There was absolutely no need for it and the referee pulled out a yellow card and pointed to the spot.

Fingers were crossed, Little Oz Kanka's legs and arms were crossed as well. Damn lucky they were as the Eskisehir player sent the penalty wide.

Cue celebrations in the stadium.

Oz and Little Oz Kanka post match.

And that was it really. We had a few more chances in the last minutes but didn't take them. I don't care. This was a huge win for Genclerbirligi and for the briefest of moments we go into fourth spot (this may change before the end of the weekend).

All up, Gencler are looking okay, not brilliant, but winning ugly is better than losing beautifully.

* Headline provided by Little Oz Kanka

EDIT: I forgot to add the very last seconds of the match. Ermin Zec was fouled within millimetres of the box. The decision was a free kick outside the box. For my mind it should have been a penalty. In any case, we had the shot and then the referee blew it up.

Ankaragucu vs Sivasspor Match Preview

2012-01-13T16:43:00.001+02:00

Ankaragucu travel to Sivas on Sunday in yet another vital match in the clubs fight against relegation.

Ankaragucu will be hoping to take something from Sundays match after the humiliating 6-2 defeat at home to Kasimpasa in the Cup on Wednesday night. Ankaragucu have been showing signs of improvement of late with a 2-1 win at Mersin and 0-0 draw at home to Besiktas.

Sivasspor are a very difficult side to beat at home though, They are currently 9 games unbeaten at home with Eskisehirspor the last team to beat them in Sivas. They are also unbeaten in there last 8 games in all competitions. Last week they drew 1-1 away at Eskisehirspor despite playing a big part of the game with ten men. They also won 3-1 against Mersin in the Turkish Cup in midweek.

The two sides met earlier this season in Ankara in which Sivasspor won 2-1. They took the lead through Jan Navratil before Kagan equalised with an excellent strike. Sivas dominated the game and Morten Rasmussen scored the winner.

Jan Rajnoch will be in the Sivas squad and will play against his former employers. Rajnoch left Ankaragucu after the last game between the two sides. Sivas have some very talented players in the powerful Michael Eneramo, Kamil Grosicki who is a tricky winger and Bolivian Striker Ricardo Pedriel.

Ankaragucu will be hoping Turgut Dogan Sahin will be available. The player has been at the centre of a bizarre transfer row between Ankaragucu, Gaziantepspor and Bursaspor. He returned to Ankaragucu today and Hakan Kutlu will be hoping he will be in his team on Sunday.

Another huge game for Ankaragucu who will have to give the performance of there lives to take anything from this game. The elections are been held tomorrow and Erdal Sanli is the leading candidate. I've been informed by our friend Bugra Mete that he is a friend of Ahment Gokcek.

ANKARAGUCU - LAMBS TO THE SLAUGHTER !

2012-01-12T21:20:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

There is very little to be said about last night's match !

Hakan Kutlu decided to rest his 'regulars' and play a team which was totally unrecognisable from last season. His philosophy being that 3 points in Sivas on Sunday is preferable to a run in the Turkish Cup. We may agree or disagree with this, but the fact was that Ankaragucu is going nowhere, especially if they keep leaking players. Cider Kankas John's comment about Keles joining Bursa being a point in case !

No shame on the Ankaragucu 'boys' last night. They played their hearts out, but, as Nadeem mentioned in a previous post, Kasimpasa is a strong team and that was proved last night. They totally dominated the 2nd half and gave Ankaragucu a torrid time. A case of men against boys !

Ankaragucu 2 Kasimpasa 6

Only Cider Kanka John and I turned-up last night and it was into an eerily emptyish Stadium we entered. However, Gecikondu did their best to create an atmosphere.

I don't intend to catalogue all the goals. Suffice to say that Ankaragucu was like a ship without a Captain on the Bridge, or ....... for that matter, a rudder !!

I also don't want to be a defeatist, but, if any more 'leaves fall off the tree' Ankaragucu can definitely say bye-bye to the Super League. Even with the 'leaves' remaining, it is going to be a long hard struggle until May/June.

Every match grows in significance now, but Sunday's match in Sivas takes on giant proportions if Ankaragucu is going to stay in touch with the other relegation candidates above them.

Watching in The Chopin on Sunday KO 1pm.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Gencler knocked out of Turkish Cup

2012-01-11T16:21:00.002+02:00

This photo was taken an hour before the match was supposed to kick-off. Photo nicked from aktifhaber.

Oh dear. Wasn't what I was expecting.

Boluspor 3-2 Genclerbirligi (1-1 after full time)

No radio broadcast of the match so all I could do was follow mackolik.com which merely had the scores, the goals who go yellow cards and a small comments sections below which was overtaken by trolls confusing the hell out of me.

So again, no real match report from me. All I can say that the game was played deep in snow (kick-off was delayed by 40 minutes as they tried to clear the pitch).

With a few key players injured, namely Azofeifa and Aykut, and the coach deciding to let a few fringe players a run, including new signing from Ankaragucu Duruer, Gencler were certainly not fielding their best team.

So it's no surprise that we ended up losing.

The game:

Bolu went ahead in the 49th. (1-0)

~~Yasin~~ Curri scores in injury time. (1-1)

Bolu score first in extra time (2-1)

Herve Tum scores in 112th (2-2)

126th minute and trolls take over mackolik forum. Goals are being reported for both sides. I have no idea what is happening.

127th minute and Bolu scores (3-2)

Back to the league for us then.

Ankaragucu vs Kasimpasa Match Preview !

2012-01-09T23:05:00.001+02:00

Ankaragucu take on Kasimpasa in the Turkish Cup on Wednesday night !

Another excellent performance from Ankaragucu last night as they held Besiktas 0-0 at home in the Turkish Super Lig. The Youth team have now taken four points from there two games played.

Kasimpasa were relegated from the Turkish Super Lig last season and will be hoping to cause an upset. The visitors are in 4th Position in the Bank Aysa and only two points behind leaders Elazigspor.

Last season they met twice, the first in Ankara where Ankaragucu won 3-0, and the second game in Kasimpasa where the home side won 2-1. Although Kasimpasa are in the lower league, they must be considered favourites for this game. Can Ankaragucu Youth team pull off yet another shock ?

There will be a return to Ankara for former Ankaragucu defender Luiz Henrique. The Brazilian defender has been a key player for Kasimpasa this season. Ankaragucu will be hoping for big performances again from the likes of Aydin Toscali, Bora Kork and Ergin Keles. A big question remains over weather Turgut Dogan will still be here.

Lets hope for another good turnout from the crowd.

Gencler back down to earth

2012-01-09T19:26:00.000+02:00

Karabukspor 2 - 1 Genclerbirligi

I'm afraid this is a very short report as I didn't see the match on the telly, nor was I able to listen to it on the radio. I can't actually remember the last time I missed a Genclerbirligi match entirely. This really is bad of me as I even managed to radio blog a Gencler match against Fenerbahce a few years ago, from the lounge room of my parent's house in Sydney in the wee hours of the morning.

Karabuk went 1-0 up first. Herve Tum equalled things before half-time and then Karabuk got the winner in the second half.... er.... that's it.

It does seem as if the wheels have come off after Gencler had such a great run at the end of 2011. Just one point after playing two relegation-threatened teams is not great.

You never know though. We could bounce back.

Ankaragucu confirms the Kankas designation ..... beshikTRASH !

2012-01-09T17:20:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

I shudder to think of the damage which Ankaragucu could have inflicted on Beshiktrash last night if they had all the 'leaves on the tree' available. As it is, with the few recognised 'leaves' remaining, Ankaragucu can be proud of their evening's efforts. All the players gave 100% and I only single-out Bora as Man of the Match due to his heroics between the sticks and getting up to clear potential danger from the 'giant' Ameida at corners and free kicks which saved a few certain goals.

Ankaragucu 0 Besiktas 0

Team -

Bora
Mehmet, Aydin, Umit and Ishak
Muhammed, Bilal, Abdullah and Gokhan
Keles and Turgut

Substitutes used - Mehmet, Atilla and Gurkan

Battle Damaged Kanka Damon and I met up at The Chopin and we were joined by Cider Kanka John and 'still no name kanka' Simon in the Stadium. Almost a full-house with Gecikondu and Maraton in fine voice pre and during the entire match.

Ankaragucu went for the early goal and were unlucky in the 8th minute when, first, Keles had a chance, and then from the ensuing corner, Turgut blasted over.

However, as the match settled down it was Beshiktrash looking the likelier team to score with Ankaragucu having problems getting out of their own half and defending desperately at times.

25 minutes in and the best chance of the match fell to Turgut who went on one of his mazy runs down the left wing, cut inside into the penalty box and let fly with a 'curver' which was heading for the top right hand corner. Unfortunately, Cenk made a world class save and touched the ball over for a corner.

Ankaragucu was being restricted to breakaway attacks, and from one of those, Keles scored a great 'offside goal' on the half hour mark. He was buzzing, but getting caught offside too often !

Approaching half time and a reflection of the 1st half was Bora dealing competently with everything thrown at him and the defence standing firm, although it has to be said ....... with a fair measure of luck !

Into the 2nd half and Bora was again the busiest player on the pitch. Almeida had been causing problems for most of the match with his head-flicks as he towered over the diminutive Ankaragucu defenders. Fortunately, Bora was able to deal with the high balls into Almeida who's fellow strikers were unable to feed off his good work.

Fernandes was causing all sorts of problems for the Ankaragucu defence with his probing runs and astute passing, and he came in for some stick from supporters above where we were in Maraton. On one occasion he was bombarded with plastic/metal cigarette lighters while taking a corner. Fortunately none connected, or if they did, he chose not to 'make a meal of it' and go down feigning injury which could have had serious repercussions !

65 minutes in and Keles scored his 2nd 'offside goal' but this time he also received a yellow for following through after the whistle !

5 minutes later and Beshiktrash almost made the break through from a well taken free kick, which was heading low into the bottom right hand corner, but Bora got down smartish to pull off another great save.

Into the final stages of the match and Ankaragucu was holding on desperately under extreme pressure from Beshiktrash, then .......... almost on the final whistle and a great chance came for a 'bent referee' to give Beshiktrash the 3 points when Edu made a spectacular swallow dive in the box from an innocuous tackle. Well done Mr Muftuoglu for giving that cheating 'bassa' an immediate yellow !!

So, another valuable point for the Ankaragucu 'B' Team who are now looking not a bad side, considering the haemorrhaging of players over the past 5 months. The burning question is though ............. can they hang on to Bora, Aydin, Turgut and Keles during the January Transfer Window ? If so, all is not lost me thinks !!

The next league match is away to mid-table Sivas on Sunday 15 January (probably the early KO) and it will be interesting to see if they play Rajnoch against his old club !

However, first up is the Cup match against Kasimpasa at home on Wednesday KO 6pm. This is another of those 'must win' matches to give Ankaragucu the chance to enter the group stage and earn some extra dosh for the Club !

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

THE TURKISH CUP

2012-01-08T13:18:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Surprise surprise ........ no live blogging from Oz Kanka today. Anyway, I'm sure Gencler will see off Karabuk. Ooooops ......... I hope I didn't put the kiss of death on it ??!!

Now to the Turkish Cup and the last of the knock-out rounds before going into the Group Stage.

Ankaragucu and Gencler will both be in action on Wednesday -

Boluspor v Gencler - KO 1pm
Ankaragucu v Kasimpasa - KO 6pm

Of course, these matches will depend on the weather, especially the Gencler match. Heavy snow is forecast for tomorrow and who knows how long it will last. If it continues into Tuesday then the Gencler's match will definitely be the first to be postponed.

As for the Ankaragucu match, if it goes ahead, I will be going direct from work to The Chopin and then to the Stadium at about 5ish.

Watch this space for further updates.

For now, it's off to the Stadium in a few hours to see if Ankaragucu Youth/B Team can do a Gencler to Beshiktrash !

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Frustratingly freezing football

2012-01-05T14:10:00.000+02:00

It was a frustrating evening freezing Ankara last night. Gencler must have had something like 70 percent of the possesion but only on a few occassions did they really look like converting that into goals.

Genclerbirligi 1 - 1 Samsunspor

Wrapped up in our Artic gear Little Oz Kanka and myself headed off to the 19 Mayis full of hope. Genclerbirligi have had a great run of late and their style of play has been fantastic to watch. Until Wednesday night that is.

After being joined by Oguz and not too many other fans, Gencler started off in great fashion and had the ball in the back of the net after just two minutes. Problem was a foul had been called. I didn't see it but as there isn't much complaining happening on the Gencler forums I guess it must have been the right decision.

It was unlucky though. I'm not sure who was doing the heading, but the first header bounced back off the upright and the second was sent in. A brief cheer from us until we realised the ref had blown his whistle.

Then it was... ergh. boring, boring stuff. For some reason Azofeifa wasn't in the starting line up and it showed. Without a decent midfielder to direct traffic all Gencler seemed to do with the massive amount of time we had on the ball was to pass horizontally all night. We had a few chances to score but they were either blown or saved. All very frustrating. One of our key defenders Aykut then managed to get himself injured and had to be replaced just 30 minutes into the game.

Then in the 40th-odd minute disaster struck.

A Samsun player seemed to get away from his defender and bang, a shot from distance that our keeper Ramazan had no chance to stop as it hit the post and went in.

Arggh. Gencler piled on the pressure though and the reward came just a few minutes later when Hursut sent in a cross which found the head of a Samsun player and into the back of the net.

Half-time and I was still pretty sure we would win it but Gencler played without much imagination in the second half. We might have been unlucky on a couple of occassions but this was not the Gencler of the last few weeks. We need Azofeifa back in the midfield... or at least someone who knows how to direct traffic.

Try as they might, Genclerbirligi fail to secure the full three points

2012-01-04T22:33:00.000+02:00

Re-read headline for my summary of the match.

Genclerbirligi 1 - 1 Samsunspor

I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't get the win, especially after seeing that the two extra points would have put us into fourth place.

A slightly more detailed report will be appearing on the blog on Thursday.

ANKARAGUCU - A BELATED CHRISTMAS PRESENT FROM 'HE' WHO DWELLS ABOVE !!

2012-01-04T17:03:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Ankaragucu, having won their 2nd league match of the season last night, I suppose we should be jumping up and down with glee. However, we should not get carried-away and believe that Ankaragucu has 'turned the corner'. True enough, there were 2 excellent goals from Keles, but it should be borne in mind that had it not been for the heroics of Man of the Match, Bora, it could easily have been a different story !

Manisa 1 Ankaragucu 2

Team -

Bora
Mehmet, Aydin, Umit and Ishak
Bilal, Abdullah and Muhammed
Atilla and Turgut
Keles

Substitutes used - Gokhan E and Gurhan

Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Cider Kanka John, Oz Kanka Chris and I met up in The Red Lion Club more in curiosity than expectation. Could the Ankaragucu 'B' Team and 'Youth Team' deal with the pressure ? It didn't take long for that question to be answered.

The match was just one minute old when we were all stunned with the opening goal. The ball was cleared from defence and fed to Turgut on the left who went on one of his now famous surging runs. He looked up, saw Keles in the middle in support and sent over a great cross which Keles volleyed in with Sehic wrong footed and motionless.

It took about a second or two to sink-in and then we were all high-fiving !

For the remainder of the 1st half it was mainly one way traffic towards Bora who pulled off some great saves to deny Mersin. Also, Ishak cleared off the line when Bora made his only mistake of the match.

Approaching half time and it flashed up on the screen that Mersin had 72% of the possession, but as I said to Oz Kanka (more in hope than anything else !) ...... 'possession doesn't win a game' !

Into the 2nd half and Mersin was still taking the match to Ankaragucu, but the defence was still holding firm. However, the inevitable equaliser came in the 66th minute when a cross came in from the left and the unmarked Erman gave Bora no chance. Lots of knowing looks between the kankas expecting the flood gates to open !!

But ................ that man Keles had other ideas ! 3 minutes later came a candidate for goal of the season. A long ball was sent upfield to Keles, and with Sehic racing out of his goal area to intercept, Keles deftly lobbed the ball over him, beat a covering defender and walked the ball in for a truly memorable goal.

It was round about this time when another memorable event occurred. Battle Damaged Kanka, who had arrived in his 'school uniform' decided to take his tie off to the cheers of the assembled throng ! Perhaps the excitement was too much for him ??!!

I interrupt my report to give the following statment from Oz Kanka ............

10 minutes to go and Ankaragucu was awarded a free kick just outside the box, near the goal line. The ball was kicked at least 20 metres away for anyone from either team. The most stupid free kick I've ever seen !!

Who was the perpetrator ? Can't remember !!! My comment now ..... come back Sapara ..... all is forgiven !

So, Ankaragucu ran the clock down with some desperate defending and we were able to celebrate an unbelievable victory and 3 valuable points.

Ankaragucu can consider themselves rather fortunate to take the 3 points, but at this stage in the season all the crumbs of luck are gratefully received !

Whether Ankaragucu's luck will hold for the visit of Beshiktrash on Sunday is debatable, so we must be realistic and not go to the Stadium expecting more 'presents' !

Meeting in The Chopin on Sunday from 4.30pm for the 7pm KO.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Ankaragucu vs Mersin match preview !

2012-01-02T21:19:00.001+02:00

Ankaragucu travel to Mersin tomorrow night knowing they have it all to do if they are to take anything from the game.

Ankaragucu have lost Key players such as Theo Weeks, Hurriyet Gucer, Ozden Ongun, Serdar Ozkan, Ediz, Murat Duruer and Kagan to name a few. The team tomorrow will be made up of the A2 Team and the remaining players who have decided to stay.

Aydin Toscali is set to captain the side now that Hurriyet has left the club to sign for Eskisehirspor. Mersin marked there return to the Super Lig with a 2-1 win over Ankaragucu in Ankara the last time the two sides met. Mert Nobre scored both goals while Serdar Ozkan pulled one back for Ankaragucu late on.

Ankaragucu key players in this match will be the experienced players like Aydin Toscali, Turgut Sahin, Mehmet Cogum and Bora Kork. They will need to perform and help the youngsters who come into the side. The youngsters now have a chance to show what they can do and make a name for themselves in the Turkish Super Lig.

Mersin have performed above all expectations this season and find themselves in the Europa League places. They have some good players and Ankaragucu will need to watch out for the pacey Nduka Ozukwo and his strike partner Mert Nobre. They also have talented midfielder's in Wassim Ben Yahia and Andre Moritz.

Last time out Mersin drew 0-0 at home to Eskisehirspor, while Ankaragucu lost 3-0 at Kayserispor. Another tough game for Ankaragucu but they have nothing to loose. Expectations are on Mersin to win the game, can the Ankaragucu youth come out and cause an upset? Lets hope so

FIXTURES THIS WEEK

2012-01-01T12:40:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies on this snowy New Year's Day in Ankara.

There has been a change to the fixtures for this week.

According to TRT, the Ankaragucu match will be played on Tuesday and not Wednesday as previously announced.

Mersin v Ankaragucu (YOUTH TEAM !!!) - 3 January - KO 8.30pm

Gencler v Samsun - 4 January - KO 6pm

In view of the fact that the Galata....spit....saray match has the same KO time as the Ankaragucu match, Oz Kanka is going to let me know if we can watch the Ankaragucu match in The Red Lion Club. Failing that, we may be stymied for a venue ! Watch this space for further.

Oz Kanka will no doubt be meeting in The Beer Bus for the Gencler match and he will confirm that in due course.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

A letter from Darius Vassell

2011-12-31T20:05:00.001+02:00

This e-mail from former Ankaragucu player Darius Vassell just arrived via the "contact us" button on the right-hand side of the blog.

Hi Guys, im reading your blog and also nadeems ankaragucu website to keep track of the clubs progress. Im saddened for what i hear and hope things improve drastically... Ankaragucu supporters have shown so much support and patience with me during my affiliation with the club, i cant understand the whole situation but i do wish the club and its fanbase a full recovery not just for myself but for the thousands of fans that invest so much and receive so little.. Happy new year!!

You can see Vassell's blog here.

Happy New Year to you too Darius, and to the tens of other people who read the blog.

Gencler wow us again

2011-12-23T15:29:00.002+02:00

Wow,wow, wow. Genclerbirligi end the first half of the season in fifth spot. FIFTH SPOT! I was so unconfident at the beginning of the season I would have been happy with fifth last spot. Goals from Yasin, Herve Tum (2) and Ermin Zec near the end had everyone at the Red Lion Club jumping up and down. This was great stuff.

I have to go Christmas shopping with Mrs. Oz Kanka now so I'll finish this report later on. Let me just leave you with the magic score from last night.

Genclerbirligi 4 - 0 Istanbul BBS

There is only one person to blame for why I wasn't at the match... Sir Eski Kanka! He had asked last week if we could play our darts match last night. I didn't realise that the Gencler match would be on at the same time. Oh well.

It was just Little Oz Kanka and myself at the Red Lion Club for the kick-off, slowly but surely though the club started to fill up as news of Gencler's exploits spread throughout the capital.

It was all looking okay at the beginning and then the magic started. Yasin took the ball down the left. Starting from about the half way line he cut back in somewhere near the box and got past a couple of defenders before shooting from outside the box. The Istanbul keeper dived to his right but the shot was just too good. 1-0 up and seven minutes gone.

Even though Istanbul had more of the possession for the whole match they only looked like scoring once or twice. Another great effort from the backs and keeper Ramazan.

As Gencler went on the attack again and again the second came in the 24th minute when Azo sent a ball in to Soner in the box. There was no shot on so Soner did his Whirling Dervish impression and then half shot from an angle. The keeper dived but missed and the ball was probably going to miss when Herve Tum's outstretched leg sent it in. 2-0. Looking good.

Almost half-time and Tum gets his second in what can only be described as weird circumstances. Soner passed it to the edge of the box... The keeper comes out but Azofeifa just manages to get a touch on it to keep it going. Tum was being marked but got off a shot from a fairly acute angle, the keeper was missing and an Istanbul player had too much momentum and was unable to intercept the ball as it slowly rolled over the line. Wow.

Second half and well... I don't think Gencler cared any more. We made a few changes to give some of our fringe players a bit of a run around but the performance was nothing like that in the first half.

Hursut gets past his man. Photo by Sabrican Sarak via the Alkaralar website

The fourth goal came via one of those fringe players, Ermin Zec, who scored after being fed wonderfully by Oktay.

All up this was a great performance and we go into the Christmas break with great hope that we can grab a European spot by the end of the season.

Happy Christmas all from a very happy Oz Kanka.

ANKARAGUCU - FLATLINING ?!

2011-12-22T17:55:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Is it too late to resuscitate the sleeping giant of Ankara ? After last night's 'performance' I now believe that the line will be flat at the end of the season, ............ unless ........... the UEFA transfer ban is lifted ! It is glaringly obvious that the present team is dead on its feet !

Kayserispor 3 Ankaragucu 0

Team - same as last match.

Kaleci Kanka Tansu and I watched the match in the Red Lion Club and it only took 4 minutes for Kayseri to prise open the Ankaragucu defence.

A fairly innocuous shot from outside the box came in, which under normal circumstances, would have been dealt with easily by Ozden, but the attacker in front of him got a touch with his head and Ozden could only parry the ball which was heading over the line until Turgut palmed it out to Triosi who calmly accepted the 'present' and tapped in. If Triosi hadn't scored, there would no doubt have been a straight red card, but Mr Ozkahya was obviously feeling generous and gave Turgut a yellow !

20 minutes in and No2 arrived courtesy of a 'comedy show' by the Ankaragucu defence. The ball was crossed into the Ankaragucu penalty box and a defender (who ?) had a swipe at it and blasted it straight into another defender (who ?). The ball then took a ricochet off him to Triosi who again had the simplest of tap-ins ........ thinking to himself ........... who's a lucky boy then ??!!

10 minutes later another comedy of errors when a Kayseri breakaway put Sefa through, but he was covered by an Ankaragucu defender (who ?) and just as he was about to tackle, he fell, leaving Sefa tearing away on his own to shoot past a helpless Ozden.

At this point, I'm shaking my head in disbelief at the ineptitude of Ankaragucu and 'biting my tongue' to control my normal stream of profanity - there were ladies sitting near me !!

True enough, Ankaragucu was playing some nice tip-tap footie in midfield, but approaching half time I still hadn't seen the Kayseri goalkeeper' face (Navarro) farless witnessed him making a save !

Atilla and Umut came on for the 2nd half to replace the ineffective Keles and Turgut and Atilla almost scored from the kick off, but the angle of his shot was tight and he found the side netting.

It was on the 70th minute mark that I uttered these words for the first time at an Ankaragucu match. I turned to Tansu and said, 'I'm bored with this match' ! He nodded in agreement !

10 minutes to go and Ankaragucu's only real chance in the match came when Ediz sent in a bullet of a header from a corner, but Navarro made a great save. Near the end, Hurriyet tried his luck, but to no avail. Incidentally, Hurriyet's yellow card means he will miss the next match !

So, halfway through the season and Ankaragucu is still propping the rest up. 8 points behind 4th bottom Antep who are at home to Bursa tonight. It's looking grim and I honestly don't know how Ankaragucu will be able to avoid flatlining !

Winter Break ? What Winter Break ? The next round of league matches are on Wednesday 4 January -

Mersin v Ankaragucu and Gencler v Samsun

I'll give the KO details nearer the time.

In the meantime, A Happy New Year to all our readers !

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Ankaragucu vs Kayserispor Match Preview !

2011-12-20T16:17:00.001+02:00

The final match of the first half of Season 2011/12 games are upon us and we take a look at Kayserispor vs Ankaragucu.

Ankaragucu go into the game knowing they need to take the three points as they fight for survival. Saturdays match against Gaziantepspor should have seen Ankaragucu take three points, but there finishing let them down and instead had to settle for a sole point.

Kayserispor have hit a bit of form of late after a poor start to the season. Manager Shota Arveladze has a young squad of players and will be hoping to bounce back from there 1-0 defeat at Eskisehirspor.

The key players for Kayseri are Gokhan Unal who is the clubs leading scorer with 6 goals and Nordim Amrabat who has arguably been the best player in the Turkish Super Lig this season. The playmaker is a target of Galatasaray who hope to sign him in January.

Last season the sides drew 1-1 in Ankara, Serdar Kesimel gave the visitors the lead, but Mehmet Cakir gave Ankaragucu a share of the points with a second half goal. In the return game Kayseri won 2-1, Murat Duruer gave Ankaragucu the lead but two late goals from Ermin Kujovic and Marcelo Zalayeta won the game for Kayseri.

Ankaragucu key players will be Hurriyet Gucer , Serdar Ozkan and Turgut Dogan Sahin who is also a target for Galatasaray. Ankaragucu are capable of the win but can they finish there chances?

Time to dream of Europe?

2011-12-18T23:41:00.000+02:00

My head is starting to get a bit giddy. Just one match before the end of the first-half of the season and Genclerbirligi are in sixth place. Not only that but we are playing good football that is fun to watch, even when we lose or grind out a 0-0 draw. Considering that at the beginning of the season I put Gencler down as one of the teams most likely to go down... this is amazing stuff.

Manisa 0 - 1 Genclerbirligi

Having been told to stay at home on Sunday I had to rely on my trusty little radio to follow today's match. Unfortunately my one-year-old nephew loved the radio too and played havoc with the reception for the full 90 minutes.

That's my excuse in early. From the first half I understood that neither side was great but that we really should have gone ahead except that Herve Tum again missed in a one-on-one situation with the Manisa keeper. Oh dear, that man makes me groan at times.

He made up for it though in the second half when he scored a header from an Azofeifa corner. That's becoming a bit of a habit for Gencler. Tum misses a sitter and then gets a header a bit later on.

I can't be totally sure but it sounded like we had a few great opportunities towards the end but all were blown. Manisa also fought like hell but Ramazan had another great match in goal.

Er... that's it really.

A few matches ago, I think it was after we beat Besiktas, Sir Eski Kanka predicted a European spot for Gencler. I laughed at the time... but maybe he was onto something.

ANKARAGUCU - WELCOME TO THE 'REAL' WORLD HAKAN KUTLU !

2011-12-18T09:56:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

'Prodigal Son' Hakan Kutlu returned to Ankaragucu in a different time zone to what he was familiar with ! Gone are the glory days of the Ankaragucu days of yore when they took on the might of Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Cup in the early 2000s. This is 2011 and he faces an uphill struggle to keep his beloved Ankaragucu in the top tier !

Ziya Dogan took the poisoned chalice and now it is in the hands of Hakan Bey, and who can envy him his task after yesterday's performance ?! He would probably be reflecting at the end of yesterday's match that the team he played in would have won 8-0 with the likes of Kennedy, Augustine, Hakan Keles, Niyazi et al. However, that's how many genuine chances Ankaragucu passed up yesterday and a result that may come back to haunt them at the end of the season !

Ankaragucu 0 Gaziantepspor 0

Huso Kanka, Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Cider Kanka John and I met up in The Stadium and we were initially entertained by the boisterous Antep fans before Gecikondu decided to join in the singing and drown them out.

It was a familiar line-up apart from the recent 'leaves which fell off the tree', ie, Weeksie and Tisdell (the last 2 foreigners of the team) !

Ozden
Kagan, Aydin, Ediz and Ishak
Guven, Hurriyet and Murat
Serdar and Turgut
Keles

Substitutes used - Umut and Atilla

It was pretty much a non event until the 20th minute when Murat was put through, but instead of opening the scoring, he shot past the post. Sound familiar ?

10 minutes later, and with Ankaragucu enjoying the lion's share of possession, it was Turgut's turn to pass up a chance when he shot tamely at Karcemarskas when a goal was the easier option !

5 minutes before the interval and Ozden still hadn't been called upon to make a save when he might easily have been caught out when the impressive Olcan's shot went just past the post with Ozden struggling to cover it.

It was more or less one way traffic in the 2nd half towards the Antep goal, and Turgut should have opened the scoring within one minute of the resumption when he was put through, and instead of blasting the ball into the goal, he flicked it past the post.

5 minutes later that man again Turgut was put through with an excellent pass from Murat and he screwed the ball past the post when it was too easy to find the back of the net. Cue ....... kankas look at each other in astonishment !!!

5 minutes later Ankaragucu almost paid the price of carelessness when Antep's No9 was presented with an open goal on a rare attack, but he somehow got himself in a tangle of feet and ball which gave the defence that split second to clear.

Into the 60th minute and some really fine footwork from Turgut allowed himself to make space for his angled shot which came back off the bar with the goalkeeper beaten.

At this point Hakan Kutlu made a strange decision to substitute Turgut for Umut. Whaaaaat the f.....k I was shouting ?! He was the only player who looked capable of breaking the deadlock and Guven (who had a shocking match) stayed on much to my disgust !

5 minutes to go and it was all Ankaragucu pouring forward desperately seeking the winner. Serdar sent over an inviting cross which Atilla met well, but it was saved the the keeper.

Ankaragucu left holes in the back and were almost punished when a saving tackle from Hurriyet spared the blushes with the clock ticking down to the 90th minute.

There was still time for Ankaragucu to pull the rabbit out of the hat, but Murat had the miss of the match when he found himself in front of goal with only the keeper to beat, but guess what ................. he missed !!!

The final chance fell to Guven when he headed over from a free kick.

So, 5 points lost against a very poor Antep team. Hakan Bey, you have to impress on the players that the round leather thingie must go between the sticks and not past or over !!!!

Man of the Match goes to Ishak who had a great match and completely bamboozled the Antep defence with his surging runs upfield from defence. If I was Hakan Bey, I would put him in midfield alongside Hurriyet as an attacking midfielder !

Now for the last match in this half of the season away to Kayseri on Wednesday KO 6pm. Not sure where we are watching that one with the Fener match KO at the same time. Probably in The Red Lion Club, but watch this space.

It goes without saying that the result of the match in Kayseri will speak volumes about Ankaragucu's chances of mounting a challenge in the 2nd half of the season.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Genclerbirligi finally win away from home

2011-12-15T11:02:00.000+02:00

Hooray! Mid-December and Gencler finally win an away match. Not against some middling team but against Trabzon. All good stuff except for the KO time.

I ranted last week and I'm ranting again today. Last night's mid-week match kicked off at 5:45 pm. Is it any wonder that the stadium just outside Trabzon was empty?

Trabzonspor 1 - 2 Genclerbirligi

I was volunteered to become the bar manager at the Red Lion Club so last night I headed down there to do some work and to watch bits and pieces of the Trabzon-Gencler match. The sound was down but the club certainly knew it when we scored.

Things didn't start off so brilliantly with Trabzon in complete control, especially in the midfield, but somehow or other we managed to score first.

Before that there was a clear handball from a Trabzonspor player. Of course, neither the referee nor the linesman saw it.

But anyway, it was enigmatic Hursut who was the hero for this one. As we have seen so often, he had the ball down the right wing near the touch line, and a defender in front of him blocking any chance for a cross. He takes the ball slightly to the left (with his left foot mind you), defender goes with him, and then flicks it through the defender, follows it up and sends in a perfect cross to an unmarked Soner who headed it home.

Lovely stuff and Trabzon upped the ante but thanks to some great defending, especially from Aykut, and with some luck we managed to hold out till half time. Possession at this stage was something like 65 percent to 35 percent in Trabzon's favour.

Second half and Trabzon kept on coming but Gencler stretched the lead when Herve Tum sent a great ball to Yasin who shot from outside the box and perfectly placed it in the bottom left-hand of the goal. Much shouting and celebrations.

Trabzon upped it again but ultimately it was the referee who had to gift it to them when he gave a penalty for handball.

It was no handball. It was obvious from the very start and the TV replays made it even more obvious. Aykut even took his jersey off to show the welt mark where the ball had hit him. Yellow card for Aykut and Trabzon scored.

Then it was about half-an-hour of defending. Attack after attack from Trabzon, at least two shots hit the post, desperate defence, keeper Ramazan making saves left, right and centre, scary scary stuff but finally the whistle blew.

An away win against Trabzon. I'd say that we were very lucky, but at the same time we took our chances and Trabzon didn't. Got to put it in the back of the net boys.

Ankaragucu vs Gaziantepspor Match Preview !

2011-12-14T20:55:00.001+02:00

This Saturday Ankaragucu host Gaziantepspor at the 19 Mayis Stadium in Ankara.

Hakan Kutlu will take control of his first game in a relegation 6 pointer against struggling Gaziantepspor. Kutlu spent 28 years with Ankaragucu as a player and coach and Saturdays game will be the biggest game in his career. Win and Ankaragucu still have a chance of staying up, loose and it could be all but over.

Gaziantepspor won both games last season, the first game in Ankara finished 2-0 to Gaziantepspor thanks to two late goals from Olcan Adin and Ivan Popov. In the return game Gaziatepspor also won, this time 3-2 at home. Two goals from Cenk Tosun and another from Olcan Adin with Jan Rajnoch and Ozgur Cek scoring for Ankaragucu.

This season Gaziantepspor have struggled to reach the heights of last season and find themselves in a relegation battle. Things were so different last season with Gaziantepspor clinching a Europa League place after finishing 4th in the Turkish Super Lig. The season didn't start so well after been knocked out of Europa by Legia Warsaw and struggling to find the net in the Turkish Super Lig. Only three wins to date, one of them been a 4-2 win at Galatasaray, there key players from last season Cenk Tosun, Ismael Sosa and Ivan Popov haven't performed to the same level as last season.

Gaziantep lost 1-0 at home to Eskisehirspor last week, but had there chances to get something from the game. If Ankaragucu are to win the game, they will need to stop Olcan Adin as he has been the one bright spark this season for Gaziantep.

Ankaragucu have looked good going forward of late until last Sunday against Antalyaspor which proved to be Ziya Dogans last game in charge of the club. Hakan Kutlu will welcome back Turgut Dogan Sahin to the side and will be hoping he along with Serdar Ozkan and Ergin Keles can fire Ankaragucu to victory. If Ankaragucu are to win the game then Hurriyet Gucer will be the key player to drive the team on.

Another tough game, lets hope the players and fans can give Hakan Kutlu a much needed win in his first game in charge.

Lay lay lay lay lay Hakan Kutlu !!

ANKARAGUCU - ANOTHER LEAF FALLS OFF THE TREE !!

2011-12-12T17:16:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

I had to change my headline after receiving a text message this afternoon that Ziya Dogan has resigned from the Club (and who can blame him ?!). No doubt we will hear more about that from you all in the comments section, but for now ............... back to yesterday's match.

With the halfway point of the season rapidly approaching, Ankaragucu are doing themselves no favours by slipping further behind in the relegation zone. It is now at the critical point with the crucial relegation fixture against Antep scheduled for next Saturday. If Antep win it I think we can start looking out our map for places such as Tavsanli, Giresun and Gungoren !!

Ankaragucu had a golden opportunity to put some points on the board yesterday, but in the end, ended up with nothing. There were 3 chances for Ankaragucu to take the lead in the opening quarter of the match, but from that point onwards it was all downhill for Ankaragucu.

Antalyaspor 1 Ankaragucu 0

Team -

Ozden
Kagan, Aydin, Ishak and Mehmet
Weeks, Hurriyet and Gokhan
Serdar and Murat
Keles

Substitutes used - Guven, Muhammed and Atilla

Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Cider Kanka John, Simon and I met up at The Chopin to watch the match but we were not 'happy bunnies' at the end.

Ankaragucu looked not too bad in the opening period and it was 15 minutes before Ozden was called upon to make a save. At this point, Antalya came into the match and took control. Their passing and running off the ball was impressive and they always seemed to be a split second into the tackle before Ankaragucu. Why it took so long for Antalya to open the scoring was really down to 3 glaring misses by Necati, which on any other day would have gone in.

As I said, Ankaragucu had only 3 chances in the match. The 1st came in the 2nd minute when (I think it was Keles) was put through but for some reason he delayed his shot and was dispossessed. Shortly after, Serdar had 2 good chances. The 1st was deflected by a defender and the 2nd went just past the post.

From that point, it was all Antalya and but for some heroics from Ozden and some howlers from Necati, it could have been a rout.

Ozden saved from Tita, who was a constant menace to the Ankaragucu defence throughout. Ishak made a timely tackle as Tita was lining up to shoot, and then just before the break, the unmarked Necati missed a sitter in front of goal when he 'skyed' the ball over with the goal at his mercy.

The 2nd half was mostly one way traffic towards Ozden with the Ankaragucu defence all over the place and hacking the ball anywhere when Antalya came calling on Ozden !

Halfway through the 2nd half and again Necati missed 2 easy chances. The 1st when he shot direct at Ozden when it would have been easier to angle his shot. The 2nd was a good headed effort but Ozden, who was off-balance and wrong-footed, managed to stick a foot out and deflect his goal bound header for a corner. A few minutes later, Tandogan sent his header just past the post.

With 10 minutes to go, I was wondering if the Ankaragucu defence could withstand the final onslaught, and the answer was .............. NO !

Yet another Antalya attack down the right wing and the cutback came in to the unmarked Zitouni who made no mistake with Ozden helpless. A real sickner after a backs-to-the-wall performance by the Ankaragucu defence, but in all honesty it was no more than Antalya deserved.

Antalya was streets ahead of Ankaragucu in all departments and there can be no complaints with them taking all 3 points.

So to next Saturday and the nerve ends will be jangling when Antep come calling. In previous seasons we would expect to pick up 3 easy points from this match, but not anymore. The boot is on the other foot now !

It will probably be an afternoon KO again but I'll post it in the comments section as usual when I have confirmation.

If Ankaragucu doesn't take the 3 points from this match, the burning question is ................ where do they go from here ? With a visit to Kayseri the following week, it is probably not the fixture a bottom of the league team would care to choose !!

All doom and gloom in this part of Ankara !

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

What is with these early KO times? Gencler defeat Ordu

2011-12-11T16:12:00.001+02:00

What is it with the TFF and the extreme times for starting a football match. I simply can't remember the last time Gencler had a 3pm KO. I'd barely gotten out of bed this morning before heading off for Kizilay.

Genclerbirligi 3 - 1 Orduspor

It was just Little Oz Kanka and myself down at the Beer Bus, before midday! Kofte and ayran for the little one and usual for me and then we layered up and headed off to a pretty much empty stadium.

I'd say there were about 150 Ordu supporters and a couple of thousand Gencler fans.

Anyway, peep peep and the match was underway and pretty soon I was wishing I'd stayed in bed. It was crap. Absolute rubbish from both teams. And with that I end my report of the first half.

Second half and everything changed, at first for the worse, as Ordu sent a great ball through to a player in space at the back who sounded sent it past Ramazan in goal.

After having watched 11 goats dressed in black and red doing bugger all in the first half, hopes weren't high that we could get back in it. But the goal finally woke Gencler up and we started to play some good attacking football.

In the main it was good work from the backs and midfield who were spotting Yasin or Hursut down the wings. Chances were being created and it was in the 50th minute or so when Mehmet Sedef got a ball through to Yasin who timed his shot to perfection, sending it with power over the keeper's outstretched hand and then watching it dip down under the post. 1-1 and this match had come alive.

We were now getting shots on goal, and a few not far off and it was looking increasingly like we would get a winner, we just needed someone up front to shoot properly. At this stage the chant from the crowd was for Ermin Zec to come on. As fate would have it, the man whom he would have replaced, Herve Tum, managed to get his head onto a ball sent in by Azofeifa. 2-1 and the call for Ermin Zec was suspended quick smart.

Hearts in mouths a few times as Ramazan made a few mistakes only to be saved by some good clearance stuff from Aykut and Klusic and the minutes were ticking down. Yasin was taken off as extra time started and Zec finally came on to the roar of the crowd.

A counter attack and Zec dribbled a bit to set himself up for a shot. It smashed straight into a defender and went flying into the air. I started clapping to acknowledge the good play and then the ball came back down and somehow found its way into the net. I've never seen Zec so happy.

A good win, even if the first half was more painful than a root canal... and I can tell you from recent experience, that ain't much fun.

Ankaragucu vs Antalyaspor Match Preview !

2011-12-10T00:45:00.001+02:00

We look ahead to this Sundays relegation clash between Ankaragucu and Antalyaspor.
Ankaragucu travel to Antalyaspor on Sunday afternoon in another important game. Antalyaspor are just outside the relegation zone themselves, but are very difficult to beat at home. Only Mersin have won in Antalya this season.

Ankaragucu drew 0-0 with Bursaspor last night, and will hope to follow that up with the three points in Antalya. With only three games remaining until the January transfer window opens, its important Ankaragucu don't loose any more ground on there relegation rivals.

One positive from the game against Bursa, was the first clean sheet of the season for Ozden Ongun in Goal, the defence will hope to build on that and hope the strikers can take there chances in the game. Ankaragucu have taken one point from there last three games, however it could have been so different if they had taken there early chance in every game.

Antalyaspor go into the game on the back of a 1-0 defeat at Eskisehirspor and will be hoping to get back to winning ways themselves. They have some good players in Necati Ates, Ugur Inceman and ex Ankaragucu Striker Tita Gokcek. Tita signed for Ankaragucu in the summer but returned to Antalyaspor due to the financial problems haven not played a single game.

Last season when the two sides met they drew 2-2 in Antalya with both Michael Zewlakow and Marek Sapara on the score sheet. In the return game in Ankara it was Antalyaspor who won 3-2. They were 3-0 up before a late comeback from Ankaragucu in the second half, goals from Jan Rajnoch and Roman Bednar weren't enough to see Ankaragucu take anything from the game.

This is a huge game in which Ankaragucu are capable of winning, they need to show the same commitment they have in the last few games and with a bit of luck and better finishing then the three points are possible.

AN ANKARAGUCU AND BURSASPOR LOVE-IN !!

2011-12-09T16:42:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Lots of sceptical looks between the kankas last night as the two 'brother teams' managed to conjour up a no score draw. Surprisingly, there were 2 or 3 yellow cards, but nothing malicious, well ........ apart from the giant black guy up front (name ?) who obviously wasn't informed of the 'love-in' before the kick off !

Apart from 4 genuine goal chances for Ankaragucu and a great save from Ozden, the 'love-in' singing between the Ankaragucu fans and Bursa fans was the only real highlight of the match !

Ankaragucu 0 Bursaspor 0

Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Cider Kanka John and I met up at The Chopin and welcomed back one of the original kankas from 2000 (?), Richard Carlson, who was introduced to our group by Kirkaldy Kanka Martyn. We also welcomed Phil Crabb from Oxford who was attending his first Ankaragucu match. Phil is going to be a regular visitor to Ankara and we expect to see him again and hopefully he will be a regular contributor to the Blog with his vast footie knowledge.

A pretty good turnout for a midweek match on a cold winter's night, with the Bursa end almost full and singing 'love songs' to the Ankaragucu tribunes throughout the match which were all reciprocated.

There was only one genuine scoring effort in a boring first half when, after some good work from Serdar down the left, the cross came in and Keles shot wide when he really should have done better.

Ankaragucu came out for the 2nd half showing more determination and adventure and they almost opened the scoring from the kick off when Turgut fired in a goal bound shot which Carson did well to get down for and tip the ball round the post for a corner. One minute later, Keles had another goal bound shot well saved by Carson.

Bursa's only serious effort on goal in the entire match came on 55 minutes when Ozden did extremely well to tip a goal bound rocket over the bar for a corner.

Ankaragucu continued to press forward and always looked the likelier team to score in the 2nd half. Another case of almost arrived in the 60th minute when Turgut beat 2 defenders down the left with some tricky footwork, but a 3rd defender blocked his shot.

5 minutes later another opportunity came and went when Serdar sent over an inviting cross for Keles, but just as he was about to make contact with his head, a defender's head got in the way !

The last action of the match saw Aydin sending in a screamer from just outside the penalty box which went just over the bar.

I should also mention that Sestak came on as a substitute for the 2nd half and was 'boo-ed' every time he touched the ball. So............ if you make a friend of Gecikondu and Anti-X they will be your friend for life, BUT ..... !!!!

We could argue that it was 2 points lost rather than 1 point gained, but at this stage of the season, any crumbs are gratefully received and snapped-up !

So, despite the fact that '2 more leaves have fallen off the tree' (Ozgur and Ugur), there were some encouraging signs last night that all is not yet lost.

Hurriyet continues to be the driving force in midfield as Captain Courageous, and we must all hope that he is not going to be 'another leaf'. Turgut, Serdar and Keles were full of running last night and seem to have developed a better understanding of what their roles are. Atilla came on late as a substitute and could press the others for a place up front.

However, the area of concern is in defence and that is a situation which Ziya Bey has to resolve within his limited resources.

Back to The Chopin we went to meet up with Maniac Kanka Harun who watched the 2nd half on TV.

Next up is the away match in Antalya on Sunday KO 1pm. Watching in The Chopin.

Yet another MUST WIN match ..... (how many times have I said that this season ???!!!).

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

FIXTURES THIS WEEK

2011-12-06T18:38:00.003+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Further to my comments two posts ago concerning fixtures, I have more information.

Like I said, Ankaragucu take on Bursa on Thursday at home KO 6pm. Meeting in The Chopin and going to the Stadium at about 5pm. As Nadeem said in the previous post, this match takes on huge proportions for Ankaragucu as the gap between bottom and 4th bottom grows even wider !

On Sunday 11 December, both Ankara teams are in action.

Antalya v Ankaragucu - KO 1pm (watching in The Chopin)

Gencler v Ordu - KO 1pm (meeting in The Beer Bus Bar)

Also, as I said before, Gencler play Trabzon away on Wednesday night 14 December. There is a difference in KO times between The Hurriyet and TRT. Oz Kanka will clarify nearer the time.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Ankaragucu vs Bursaspor Match Preview !

2011-12-06T18:24:00.002+02:00

Not good news im afraid fellow Kankas, just when we think things cant get any worse, then this.

Ankaragucu welcome our brothers from Bursa on Thursday night to the 19 Mayis stadium in the Turkish Super Lig Fixture.
Sami Altinyuva today confirmed Ugur Ucar has left the club after he decided to terminate his contract due to unpaid wages. Ugur along with Ozgur Cek and Tonia Tisdell went to the Turkish FA and have won the right to terminate there contracts.

Ozgur will play the next two matches before leaving the club unless they can come up with the money. Altinyuva said he is hoping to keep Tonia and the player wants to stay. Tonia has fractured a bone in his foot and will be out injured for the next three months.

Ankaragucu go into the game, having found a bit of form of late, the last two results a 3-2 loss at Eskisehirspor and 4-2 defeat at Fenerbahce have given the players and fans a little heart in the relegation battle. If Ankaragucu can take our chances and tighten up in defence then a victory over our brothers from Bursa is possible.

Bursaspor have only won one of there last eight games, and lost 1-0 at home to Eskisehirspor at the weekend. Manager Ertugal Saglaam is under pressure as the team struggle without the likes of Volkan Sen and Sercan Yildirm. Former Ankaragucu players Adem Kocak and Stanislav Sestak will be in the squad and hoping for a happy return to Ankara.

Sestak and Kocak were two of Ankaragucu's most important players, Kocak protected the defence and kept hold of the ball in midfield. Sestak was top scorer for Ankaragucu. Both players have yet to find there top form at Bursa, and the Ankaragucu Tribunes will be hoping it stays that way on Thursday.

Last season, Bursaspor won 5-1 in Ankara, after Sestak gave Ankaragucu an early lead. Bursa scored with nearly every attack as the Ankaragucu defence failed to cope with the speed of Sercan and Volkan Sen. Ibrahim Ozturk and Omer Erdogan caused a lot of problems from set pieces as well. The return game in Bursa was a 0-0 draw, a fair results for both sides and one which both sets of fans were happy with.

You can see more on the Bursankara relationship here http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/ankaragucu/news/ankaragucu-and-bursaspor-broth-442945.html

Bursaspor have some good players who should be performing to a higher standard. Ozan Ipek, Turgay Bahadir, Ibrahim Bangoura and Prince Tagoe have all yet to reach there best form. Young French Under 21 International Alfred N'Dyie has come in and looked a very good young player. Strong and athletic in the middle of the park and a player who will give captain Hurriyet a tough game.

Both teams need the points, but Ankaragucu cant afford to fall further behind other teams in the relegation battle. A win against Bursaspor followed by a tough game at relegation rivals Antalyaspor on Sunday makes this a huge week for Ankaragucu.

Hopefully the team can put problems off the field to one side and take the three points. Bastir Ankaragucu !

Gencler are finally defeated at home

2011-12-05T15:56:00.003+02:00

It had to happen some day and Saturday was it as Genclerbirligi lost at home for the first time this season. If only we had a half-decent away record we would be pushing for a top place.

Genclerbirligi 0 - 1 Galatasaray

Flying Dutchman, Spine, Robin and myself started the day at the Beer Bus where the conversation drifted into, according to Flying Dutchman Kanka, the decline and fall of the Dutch civilization... according to Spine the conversation was about evolution of languages.

We possibly talked a bit about football as well but then it was time to pay up and get moving.

A good crowd at the 19 Mayis. The Galatasaray fans filled their area and spilled over into ours resulting in some handbags in the second half.

Galatasaray got off to the better start as Gencler tried out their radically positive 8-1-1 formation. It was all a bit frustrating as we had managed to get free a number of times but the midfielders refused to move up quickly. Our defence again was good with Galatasaray managing just a single shot for the first half.

Half-time and I was fairly happy. We had a few chances, Herve Tum really should have had us 1-0 up when he chested down a ball three metres out, swivelled, and failed to make any contact with the ball he had trapped so well. Much shaking of heads there.

But all up we were playing okay and probably had just shaved it over Cim Bom.

Second half and it was much the same. Azofeifa had a quiet match, as did Hursut. The second half and Galatasaray upped the tempo and managed to get a few shots on, with Ramazan needing to actually make some saves.

Then the killer when in the 70-something minute Eboue found himself in a perfect position and he gave it an almighty whoof and the Galatasaray fans went wild. It was at this point that the tension in the stands rose as various Galatasraray fans started getting pissed off with us. They were in our section for God's sake. If it was any other set of fans those Cim Bom supporters would've been legging it quick smart. One of the Gencler amigos calmed things down and we got back to concentrating on the match.

Gencler tried hard but they just couldn't manage to pull off an equaliser. Back to Kizilay and whilst it was disappointing to have lost I'm still fairly happy. In the past month we have played the top three Istanbul teams and have managed a win, a draw and a loss. Before the season I would have taken a single draw.

ANKARAGUCU - WEAKNESSES CLINICALLY EXPOSED

2011-12-04T10:19:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Ankaragucu's deficiences were cruelly exposed last night when they received a salutory lesson on the art of finishing. Fener's strikers produced 4 goals of high quality, and despite Ankaragucu's never-say-die spirit, they had no answer.

Ankaragucu's defensive frailties re-surfaced and I doubt that even with the inclusion of Ediz it would have made a difference to the eventual scoreline.

Fenerbahce 4 Ankaragucu 2

Team -

Ozden
Guven, Aydin, Ishak and Ozgur
Weeks, Hurriyet and Murat
Serdar and Turgut
Atilla

Substitutes used - Tonia and Keles

A crowd of us met up at The Chopin. Maniac Kanka Harun, Battle damaged Kanka Damon and No Name Yet Kanka Simon. We were later joined by the Gencler Kankas returning from the Stadium, Oz Kanka Chris, Flying Dutchman Kanka Carlo and Spine.

Fener came out of the traps like a whippet and had Ankaragucu panic defending and backs against the wall. However, it was Ankaragucu who almost opened the scoring when Turgut was put through with only Volkan to beat, but he shot wide (a similar situation to Murat's abomination in the 2nd minute last week !).

The breakthrough came at the other end in the 16th minute when a cross came in from the left to Stoch who was hovering around unmarked just outside the penalty area. He let fly with a bullet which went in like a rocket just under the bar with Ozden having no chance.

Fener was in complete control now and thanks to Ozden making some great saves, the scoreline remained the same until just before half time. Then, against the run of play, an Ankaragucu breakaway on the left and a great ball to split the Fener defence and there was Eski's favourite player, Murat, coming in on the blind side to slide in the equaliser.

Was a miracle about to happen ? No ! The Ankaragucu players were split seconds behind Fener in their tackles and movement which is probably why they had only 39% possession during the match ! They even allowed Fener to tip-tap the ball around at will in their own penalty area. A recipe for disaster which thankfully didn't happen.

Into the 2nd half then and Ankaragucu came out in attacking mode and went for it. They had 2 or 3 chances to score in the first 10 minutes until Fener seized the initiative and scored their 2nd which was a replica of the first goal.

A cross from the left to the unmarked Baroni lurking just outside the penalty box and he let fly with a screamer which Ozden had no chance of saving.

5 minutes later and it was 3. A delightful piece of football from Fener when Stoch latched on to a cute backheel and he let fly with another screamer with Ozden motionless and unable to react.

That was it I thought, but all credit to Ankaragucu for continuing to beaver away and they clawed themselves back into the match with 10 minutes to go with an excellent goal, when Ozgur sent over a great cross for Keles to head in despite the attention of 2 defenders.

With only 5 minutes to go, Hurriyet almost found the equaliser, but his shot went past the post.

2 minutes later and Fener wrapped it up when the unmarked Dia headed in at the far post from an inviting cross.

The large Ankaragucu contingent in The Chopin still found the spirit to break into song at the end of the match. Now, that's loyalty for you !

So, with Ankaragucu sliding further into the relegation quagmire, Thursday night's match at home against Bursa takes on even greater significance. Can Ankaragucu claw themselves out of this shit before the winter break ??

Not sure of the KO time yet, but as usual, I'll put it up in the comments section of this post.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Ankaragucu vs Fenerbahce Match Preview !

2011-11-30T19:56:00.003+02:00

Ankaragucu travel to Istanbul on Saturday where it will be top against bottom.
The question again will be what Ankaragucu side will turn up, will it be the one who were so poor in the first half against Eskisehirspor, or the second half team which were so unlucky not to win the game ?

Fenerbahce have been on excellent form this season, although the last couple of weeks haven't been at there best. Last season Ankaragucu won 4-2 in the cup at home, and also won 2-1 at home in the league. Fenerbahce won 6-0 in Istanbul in a game Ankaragucu will want to forget. The game was one of many at the centre of match fixing allegations.

The home side have so many talented players such as Emre Belzoglu, Miroslav Stoch and the Brilliant Brazilian Alex to name a few. If Ankaragucu are to take anything from the game then they will need to stop Alex as everything goes through him. They also have a strong defence with Joseph Yobo and Goalkeeper Volkan the experience at the back.

Ankaragucu have to go into the game and show the same determination and attacking play that they showed in the second half at the weekend. Turgut Dogan and Ergin Keles may come into the starting line up after impressive performances when they came on. There can be no repeat of the school boy mistakes that we have seen so often and the reason Ankaragucu find themselves at the bottom of the table. Tonia Tisdell looks set to miss the match due to injury and will be a big loss.

Fenerbahce have only scored 4 goals in there last 5 games so this may be the best time to meet them. Or maybe its wishful thinking that Ankaragucu who only have one win to day can take anything from Fenerbahce who are top of the league. Anything can happen in football.

Good news is the Gecekondu and Anti X will be in Istanbul to cheer the team on.

ANKARAGUCU - 'ALMOST' MEANS ..... NOT QUITE !

2011-11-28T16:26:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Despite Nadeem's brief summary in the comments section of the previous post, I will attempt to put some 'meat on the bones' ! Yes, he was spot-on with his summary of the 1st half - to put it quite simply ......... it was a disaster and an error strewn catalogue of mistakes which could have been so much more damaging than going in at half time only 0-2 down. Thank God Ozden is in fine form these days !

However, it was 'almost' a great start by Ankaragucu in the 2nd minute of the match when a great ball was passed to the unmarked Murat who had the goal at his mercy, but shot tamely past. That was to be Ankaragucu's last serious effort of the 1st half.

Eskisehir 3 Ankaragucu 2

Team -

Ozden
Guven, Ediz, Aydin and Ozgur
Weeksie, Umut Hurriyet, Kagan and Murat
Atilla

Substitutes used - Turgut, Keles and Muhammet

Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Maniac Kanka Harun and I met up in The Chopin where there was about 20 other fanatics watching the match.

Ankaragucu was all at 'sixes and sevens' in the 1st half with only Atilla showing any inclination to attack.

Eskisehir was waltzing through the Ankaragucu defence at will and it was only a matter of time before their attacking bore fruit and it was an excellent goal which did the damage.

On the half hour mark, the defence got into a muddle and lost possession (again), the breakaway on the left wing was on and the cross was inch perfect for Kamara to outjump the Ankaragucu defender (couldn't see which one) and send a bullet of a header into the top right corner.

That man Kamara (who had an excellent match) again was responsible for the 2nd goal just before half time when he was allowed to carry the ball into the Ankaragucu penalty area without a tackle coming in, but his powerful shot rebounded off the post, hit Ozgur and went in. It is debatable whether Ozgur could have avoided the ball, which as I said, was travelling at a fast rate of knots. I think we have to give him the benefit of the doubt and sympathise with him !

Ziya Bey had obviously been as unimpressed as us with the 1st half 'performance' and sent on Turgut and Keles for Guven and Umut at the start of the 2nd half, and the tactic 'almost' paid off.

10 minutes in and that man Murat (again) had another golden opportunity to change the course of the match, but he missed a 'sitter' and blew it. Turgut went on a great run down the left wing beating one defender after another, crossed the ball in to the unmarked Murat who should have tapped-in, but he screwed the ball wide. Unforgivable to miss an open goal ..... arrrrgh !

It was becoming an end-to-end match now with Ankaragucu coming more into the match, but Eskisehir was still looking dangerous and having most of the possession. But, Ankaragucu had chances all spurned when Atilla headed over after good work from Hurriyet and Turgut. Also, Hurriyet and Keles had shots saved by Ivesa.

However, the break-through came in the 72nd minute when I decided to go to the toilet. Damon and Harun were obviously thinking that this is the time to score when Eski goes to see his beloved 'Fatmagul' in the toilet ! OK, so it was a lucky ricochet which gave Atilla the chance to guide the ball into the empty goal, but it certainly cheered us up.

2 minutes later we were all up on our feet high-fiving and singing when Keles guided the ball in for the equaliser with a delicate glancing header. Ivesa 'almost' reached it, but not quite !

5 minutes later and it should have been the winner. Another surging run down the left by Turgut and a pass to Atilla, who caught the 'Murat Disease' and screwed the ball wide when it should have been buried.

So, OK, a great fight-back to win a point. We could accept that, but ..........

Into time added-on and a deflected shot from an Eskisehir attacker hit the bar and rebounded off for a corner. With Turgut defending on the 18 yard line, the ball came to him from the corner kick and he somehow managed to mis-kick his clearnace to an Eskisehir attacker and ....... GOAL !

What a sickener which left us all stunned and speechless !

Having 'almost' won the match, we 'almost' had a point, and to lose like that was a bitter pill to swallow.

Ankaragucu now face the prospect of a visit to Kadikoy next Saturday for what is sure to be a testing time for the shaky Ankaragucu defence. The burning question is .... will Ziya Bey start with a defensive formation, or will he 'bite the bullet' and repeat his 2nd half tactics from yesterday's match ? The clock is ticking !

btw, Gencler are also in action on Saturday at home to Galatasaray. So I guess that will be the late afternoon KO and the Fener v Ankaragucu the evening KO. I'll put it in the comments section as usual when known.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

ANKARAGUCU SNATCH A DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF A GREAT VICTOREEEE !!

2011-11-27T18:45:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Yessssssssssss. Two nil down at half time after an abysmal display of 'football' in the first half and Ankaragucu came back from the dead to ................ lose ................. in the end ............

Eskisehir 3 Ankaragucu 2

Eski Kanka's 'fav' player .......... Murat Duruer ........... knows the reason, but .......... the report will be up tomorra. I'm still too upset ...... and ...... under the affluence of incohol to make a report !!

All the best from back down in the dumps ....... Eski Kanka Jim

Genclerbirligi grab a point off league leaders Fenerbahce

2011-11-26T12:11:00.000+02:00

Genclerbirligi 0 - 0 Fenerbahce

Just a quick note to say we managed to get a point last night against Fenerbahce and we were unlucky not to grab the win. I'll be back later for a full report. In the meantime I'm off to a wedding and then the Barbarians v Australia rugby match at the RLC.

Jan Rajnoch and Stefan Senecky Contracts Terminated !

2011-11-24T20:46:00.004+02:00

Both players have had there contracts terminated today by the club and are now free to talk to other clubs.

Stefan Senecky a Slovakian International had two spells with the club, first two seasons ago when he signed from Ankaraspor before moving to Slavia Prague. Senecky then returned to the club last season, but hasn't been able to hold down the number 1 spot due to injury and poor form. The player hasn't been paid for the last ten weeks and has decided to terminate his contract. Senecky said his farewells to his former team mates today.

Jan Rajnoch signed for the club from Mlada Boleslav and became a fans favourite for his committed performances. He played in many different positions but mostly at the centre of defence. He was one of the few players who stayed at the club through the financial mess, but returned to the Czech Republic last month due to get treatment on an injury. Reports from Czech Republic said the player wouldn't return to Ankaragucu and this was confirmed today when the player termintated his contract. Rajnoch will now have discussions with Trabzonspor about a possible move that will see him join Robert Vittek and Marek Sapara.

Good luck to both of them, especially Rajnoch who served us well, and im sure he will keep the bench warm with Sapara at Trabzon if he moves.

Ankaragucu vs Eskisehirspor Match Preview !

2011-11-22T21:10:00.003+02:00

This weekends match will see Ankaragucu travel to Eskisehirspor as we try and make it two wins in a row. Reports today seem to suggest there will be no travelling fans for this match due to trouble between the two sets of fans in the past.

Eskishirspor have had a dissapointing start to the season, and find themselves in 12th Position. Consistency has been a problem, with wins of late at home to Genclerbirligi and away to Karabukspor, and defeats at home to Manisaspor and away to Fenerbahce. Last weeks match at Fenerbahce saw them play a big part of the game with ten men, they were unlucky not to take a point after Volkan pulled off a fantastic save from Dede late on.

Last season saw both meetings end in a draw, The first game ended 0-0 in Eskisehir and the return game in Ankara finished 2-2 with Fatih Tekke and Serdar Ozkan (pictured above) with the goals.

Ankaragucu grabbed there first win of the season at the weekend with a 2-1 win at home to Karabukspor as we saw in Jim's Report. Young Atilla Garhan and Tonia Tisdell with the goals. Young Atilla has come in and done a good job, and we look a lot better with Tonia out wide and Atilla through the middle. Hopefully Serdar Ozkan will be back for the game to. Two other youngsters made an appearance at the weekend in Umit Sozen and Ishak Dogan who both showed some nice touches. Its good to see the youngsters get some playing time this season.

Eskisehirspor have some good players in there side, and our defence will need to be at there best with the likes of Diomansy Kamara, Mehmet Yildiz and Batuhan Karedeniz up front, and Rodrigo Tello and Veysal Sari dangerous coming forward from midfield. They only need a couple of wins on the bounce and they are back in the chase for a champions league place. Kris Boyd who couldn't stop scoring in Scotland and England cant even get in there squad, which shows how capable there attack is.

Again I will refrain from making a prediction, as it brought us a win last week. A draw would be nice as Dublin Neil said on the Karabuk match report but i think we can go and get the three points if we defend well and take our chances.

Sivas v Genclerbirligi: Live radio blogging

2011-11-20T12:21:00.028+02:00

Perhaps Live Radio Blogging is one of the more useless ways of filling up the internet. The threat is clear! But it gives me something to do on a Sunday afternoon.

Sivasspor v Genclerbirligi

Preview: Gencler and Sivas are on the same number of points. It is probably very cold in Sivas. er... that's it. I'll be back here at 1pm Turkish time for the kick-off. As always you can contact the live radio blog and even get your thoughts printed during the match! That's something you could tell the kids. Contact me through twitter @Ankaraozkanka or through the "Contact Us" button on the righthand side of the page. Back soon.

1:00 pm We are sharing the radio broadcast with Antalya v Isnabul BBS. By the way the former chairman of Istanbul BBS was arrested taken into custody yesterday in connection to the match rigging investigation.

1:08 And off they go to Sivas. Gencler freekick just outside the box. Five in the wall... Cem Can takes it and out for a corner. A shot or two but no result.

1:09 Gencler seem to be on the attack. The commentator is attempting to tell us who is playing but Gencler keep on interrupting with attacks. He finally gets the team in. Pretty much the same as usual as far as I can tell.

1:13 Gencler today: Ramazan, Aykut, Ante, Mehmet Sedef, Harbuzi, Yasin, Hurşut, Soner, Özgür, Cem Can, Tum. (I actually nicked that off the @Genclerbirligi twitter feed.)

1:17 In fact @Genclerbirligi seem to be tweeting the match. Probably from the telly and therefore probably 100 times more informative than this rubbish. Latest report from their twitter feed, no mention of this on the radio, Sivas have already been given two yellow cards.

1:22 Commentator says there have been no real goal opportunities but that Gencler have been trying harder. Mmmm.

1:26 First proper shot of the match goes to Sivas. Ramazan controls in easily.

1:28 Istanbul BBS have gone one up away to Antalya.

1:29 and now Sivas go one-nil up. From a corner it seems like. Sivasspor 1 - 0 Genclerbirligi

1:38 Oh yummy. Hamsi and salad have been delivered to my desk. Thanks Mrs. Oz Kanka. No news from the match.

1:42 They finally cross back to Sivas and then straight back to Antalya where Antalya have equalised.

1:43 Half-time and it seems like Sivas are the better team. Got to take the commentators word for that.

Half-time scores: Sivasspor 1 - 0 Genclerbirligi, Antalyaspor 1 - 1 Istanbul BBS

2:02 Second half and Sivas have already had a shot, just out. This is not looking great. Sivas have another go from a corner but defence clears. And another Sivas attack. Freekick to Sivas... Cleared by defence. Oh get on with it Gencler.

2:08 Harbuzi off, Mununga on. Let's see.

2:20 We are back to Sivas. Seems like we missed a good chance with Yasin hitting the defence, then hitting them again. And just now Herve Tum has a shot saved. This is sounding a bit better.

2:22 Azofeifa brought on, not sure who went off.

2:23 Herve Tum scores with a header! That was a very important goal. Can we get a winner? Sivasspor 1 - 1 Genclerbirligi

2:29 Like-for-like substitution here. Well, only if you look at the bald heads. Hursut off for Erdal.

2:40 Sivas get close, Mehmet Sedef clears... oh. it was offside.

2:42 Gencler start to slow the game down. A couple of minutes left.

2:43 Sivas with a free kick... Ball goes in, defence clears. Erdal goes through. no shot in the end. Nail-biting stuff now.

2:47 Peep, peep. Gencler grab only their second away point of the season. "Better than a loss," says Little Oz Kanka. Afternoon all. Sivasspor 1 - 1 Genclerbirligi

And in the other match: Antalyaspor 2 - 1 Istanbul BBS

ANKARAGUCU - OFF THE MARK AT LAST !

2011-11-20T11:21:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Ankaragucu churned out their first league win in 11 attempts yesterday to belatedly kick-start their season.

Ankaragucu 2 Karabuk 1

Despite their league position, Karabuk are no mugs, so it was a vital win in what was effectively a 'Six Pointer'.

Due to the early KO, we all met up inside The Stadium. Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Simon (no kanka name yet) and Husso Kanka. All things considered, it was an amazing turnout by Gecikondu and Maraton with both tribunes full and Gecikondu in fine voice pre-match and during the match. The away end was well represented with about 500 Karabukers and they even had the audacity to try and outsing Gecikondu !

On the Fashion Front, Damon was resplendent in his new black Italian boots which unfortunately didn't have any silver buckles. Oh well, at least he contrasted the black boots with his luvvlie white Ankaragucu scarf which drew lots of admiring glances from the supporters around us !!!

Back to footie and the team -

Ozden
Guven, Ediz, Aydin and Ozgur
Weeksie, Hurriyet, Umut and Murat
Tonia and Atilla

Substitutes used - Turgut, Ishak and Muhammed

Into the match then with both teams feeling each other out and then with only 7 minutes on the clock, the break through. An excellent solo effort from Atilla who received a through ball. He held off 2 defenders with his pace and tucked his shot low and hard into the corner for the opening goal.

30 minutes in and it was end to end stuff, although it's fair to say that Karabuk was enjoying most of the possession. Some panic defending from Ankaragucu, but Ozden dealt capably with everything that came his way.

At the other end, Atilla was The Lone Ranger with Tonia and Murat doing their best to support him, with the ocassional forages up front from Ozgur who is really developing into an excellent attacking full back. Tomic in the Karabuk goal also had an easy time and dealt with all the high balls being pumped in with Atilla being crowded out by the tall Karabuk defenders.

Into the 2nd half and Ankaragucu pressed forward from the whistle looking to kill the game off. Only 10 minutes in and we were all up cheering when Tonia scored a great headed 'goal'. Unfortunately, the Linesman had his flag up for offside ..... arrrrrgh !

Still Ankaragucu continued to attack and one minute later Atilla blasted over from about 3 yards out when a tap-in was all that was required.

Halfway through the 2nd half and Karabuk was coming back into the match more, but I have to praise the Ankaragucu defence for their performance yesterday. Ediz in particular was commanding in central defence, and I should also mention the role of Captain Hurriyet who played like a terrier and was a dynamo in midfield.

Then disaster struck on the 70th minute mark. The Effin Referee, Mr Muftuoglu, who had a shocker of a match, awarded a penalty to Karabuk for what we think was a handball by Guven. We didn't see it, but perhaps Nadeem can confirm one way or another. 'Olde boy' Ilhan stepped up and despatched a perfect spot-kick.

Mmmmmm ..... just as I was thinking another draw was on the cards, Tonia produced a piece of sheer magic to score from the tightest of angles to send us wild again.

The last 5 minutes of the match was sheer purgatory with Karabuk on all out attack searching for the equaliser, but the Ankaragucu defence stood their ground and the match ended in the Karabuk half with Ankaragucu attacking !

So, will this be the turning point in Ankaragucu's season when we look back and say ..... 'we avoided relegation after the Karabuk match' ? Best not to speculate yet, but to see how the team reacts next Sunday away in Eskisehir. Another win would really have the pulses racing !

Back we went to the Chopin to celebrate where we were joined by Maniac Kanka Harun and Cider Kanka John. Also have to mention a great quote from Simon during the 'Efes Haze' ...... he said ...... 'I have an intuitive warmth for Ankaragucu'. Nice one Simon !

Watching next Sunday's match in The Chopin and it will probably be an afternoon KO. I'll put the KO time up here in the comments section when known.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

ANKARAGUCU - AAAAT ..... LAAAASSST !!!!

2011-11-19T20:41:00.002+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Weeeeeeeeee did it aaaaatt lasssssssst yessssssssss !!!

Ankaragucu 2 Karabuk 1

We were celebrating long into the afternoon and evening in The Chopin and now ........... I'm celebrating more at home yessssssssssssss !

This, despite having a woeful referee, but the bottom line is ...............

firrrrrst leeeeeg victorrrrreeeee of the season yessssssssssssss !!!

Report tomorrra when I'm sobirrrrrr.

All the best from ..... up in the clouds and full of optimism ..... Eski Kanka Jim

Police called in at Ankaragucu AGM

2011-11-18T23:59:00.002+02:00

The following is a shortened version of Klasspor's live blog of today's Ankaragucu Extraordinary General Meeting. Hats off to Klasspor as this is sort of thing the internet was invented for.

A surprise development... It has been learnt that Ankaragucu's former spokesman Sami Altinel Atinyuva is a candidate for chairman.

There is a lot of people and a lot of security.

Ankaragucu Chairman Cengiz Topal Yildirim and the board members have arrived.

Erdal Sanli and Kemal Unsal, who had both pulled out of the running for the chairmanship, have arrived.

Former chairman Osman Kolsuz has arrived. Cemil Aydin has yet to arrive.

Cemil Aydin's daughter has arrived.

(I told you this was good - Oz Kanka)

Kemal Unsal is chairman of the meeting.

Director Ahmet Sari reads out the accounts.

Ankaragucu has debts of 94 million lira.

Supporters protesting.

...

An Auditing Commission report is presented.

(A bit of shouting - Oz Kanka)

Cengiz Topel Yildirim talks

"When we left the club two years ago there were no debts. There was no ban of licences. At most there were debts of 1.5 million lira.

We want the full audit of (Gokcek's) term.

(The meeting goes on, various procedural stuff and whatnot)

Cengiz Topel Yildirim wishes the new management well.

SUPPORTERS ATTACK THE PODIUM

THERE IS A SERIOUS INCIDENT HERE

POLICE INTERVENE

RIOT POLICE ARE IN THE HALL

AS THE CANDIDATE LIST WAS BEING READ SUPPORTERS ATTACKED

"THIEVES OUT" IS STILL BEING SHOUTED..

The candidates list: Sidar Tunca - Sami Altınyuva - Fatih yurdemi, - Sait Demirci - Mehmet Aybek - Hüseyin Acar - Nilay Ermiş - Mehmet Ural - Cem Memikoğlu - Sait Özcan - Süleyman Yiğiter - Ramazan Başdoğan - Necmi Bilgin - İsmet Ölmez - Ahmet Telek - Tercan Yüce - Adnan Alimoğlulları - Hülya Kalaycıoğlu - Özgür İncesu

Riot police have left

Yildirim is trying to calm down his supporters.

He sits down with the supporters. The meeting gets back under way.

Voting on the one candidate list starts.

Sami Altinyuva makes his speech. "With my 18 friends we will work to take Ankaragucu to a great place. It doesn't matter who is chairman.

130 votes were cast.

And that my dear friends was the whole sorry tale.

Ankaragucu vs Karabukspor Match Preview !

2011-11-14T22:47:00.003+02:00

This weekend will see the 19 Mayis host Ankaragucu vs Karabukspor in a match that is a must win for both sides. Ankaragucu are yet to win a game this season, and Karabukspor haven't won in there last three matches.

Ankaragucu will go into the game with a bit of confidence gained from there performance two weeks ago at Samsunspor. A 2-2 draw was a disappointment in the end when we deserved to take all three points.

Karabukspor lost at home to Eskisehirspor 2-1 who themselves were also on a poor run of form. The main players in the Karabuk side are Romanian midfielder Florian Cernat and Luton Shelton there Jamaican Striker. Ex Ankaragucu players Bilal Kisa and Muhammet Hanifi are also part of the squad.

With both sides struggling in the relegation zone, they will be both hoping to take three points and kick start there seasons. Ankaragucu need to win the game to keep the gap between them and the teams just outside the drop at a minimum. Cengiz Topal has already said the team in January will be a completely different side as we will add to the squad.

Ankaragucu will hold a Press Conference on Wednesday and then the elections will be held on the 18th of November, so an interesting week ahead. In transfer news, Trabzonspor have added Ozgur Cek and Ugur Ucar to there wanted list in January, and Bursaspor are interested in Hurriyet Gucer. Hopefully we will keep the mentioned players and add to the squad instead.

Its also unknown weather Jan Rajnoch will return to the team at the weekend or if he will remain back home in the Czech Republic. The starting line up will be interesting to see if Ziya Dogan will go with Atilla Garhan up front after his goal last week. I think the boy deserves his chance and it will allow Tonia and Serdar to play in the side areas to support him.

Tough match again, the last time we had a good performance at Trabzon, it was followed up by a poor one at home to Orduspor, so im not going to predict a score this week. Good Luck Ankaragucu and lets get that first win under our belts !!

EYEIRRRRRLINNNDD !

2011-11-12T18:34:00.003+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

True enough, this is an Ankara football website, but ............. hey ........ wait a minute ...... don't we have some Eyeirrrrish Kankas, ie, Paddy Kanka Paul and Dublin Kanka Neil ?!

So, apart from Genclerbirligi's result against Beshiktrash last week, we haven't had much to cheer about so far this season. Therefore ........ let's put our hands together and give the Irish a cheer for 'almost' qualifying for Yooro 2012. I'm sure it's going to be a done deal in Dublin in the return leg and great to see those boys in green there.

After all, would we, or could we, support Ingallind ???? Nay nay nivvvvirrrrrr !!!!

Well done Ireland. Along with Paddy Kanka and Dublin Kanka, we will support you there next summer.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Classic Ankaragucu goal

2011-11-11T16:03:00.000+02:00

I'm still high after last weekend's Gencler victory over Besiktas. As you all know it included an extremely funny own goal by the Besiktas defender Egeman. I've just discovered an even better goal against Besiktas, this one by Ankaragucu from way back in the 80s.

Gencler sacrifice an eagle*

2011-11-07T13:17:00.002+02:00

I'm still bouncing off walls the day after one of Gencler's best wins in recent years. How great it was to silence the Besiktas fans. To come back from two-nil down at half-time to win by two clear goals. Amazing stuff.

Genclerbirligi 4 - 2 Besiktas

What a lovely autumn day in Ankara for the first day of the bayram. Normally we don't get football on during bayrams but I guess the late start to the season meant they had to cram it in. It did feel a bit like having a match on Christmas Day but I have a feeling that for many fans in the crowd it was a great excuse to get away from the relatives. Not for me of course. I'm a family-type of man.

Down at the Beer Bus Little Oz Kanka and myself were joined by Spine, Oguz, Sir Eski, Flying Dutchman and two newcomers from Sweden, Robin and John. The new guys were kicking themselves that they hadn't bought 100 tl season tickets earlier in the year as tickets for last night were 56 lira. Oh well, they were about to get their money's worth.

We left Flying Dutchman and Sir Eski in the pub, Maniac Kanka Harun joined them a bit later, and got in with a few minutes before kick-off. A decent crowd, by Gencler standards, and the Besiktas lot filled their section behind the goals.

As usual we were outsung from the off. Outplayed on the field as well as Besiktas went one up after just three minutes. The defence was again to blame as Mehmet Sedef failed to keep on his man. It was soft and deflating. To be scored against so early is just depressing.

Maniac and Little Oz Kanka after the match

The team didn't seem to depressed though as they played some decent footy with Yasin getting a good shot from distance on target. There were a couple of other scrambles in the goal mouth that with a bit of luck would have seen us draw level but in the end it was Besiktas who got lucky with Genclerbirligi old boy Mustafa Pektemek pouncing on a loose ball to make it 0-2.

I then managed to lose a 1 lira bet with my son as we won a free kick just outside the box. I bet that Azofeifa would take it and Aykut would head it in. I almost won but Aykut sent it wide.

Oguz and Spine with John and Oz Kanka in the background

Half time and the general consensus was that we weren't playing too badly. Just a slight problem with the score and some rubbish referee decisions. Oh well, been there a million times before.

Text from Flying Dutchman comes in: Possession stat: "51 percent versus 49 percent. But as Sir Eski says 'possession doesn't win matches. Goals do!' We are not playing bad in my opinion. Mind you the first goal was a blatant mistake in defence. Spelled with a 'c' ;-)"

True, true. Gencler coach Fuat Capa obviously kept spirits up during the half-time break as we came out again in a positive manner.

Besiktas should have killed the match early in the second half when Pektemek found himself one-on-one with Ramazan but failed to get his shot on target.

And then the fun began.

About the 54th minute and Herve Tum (who had a pretty good game compared to recent weeks) short passes to Azofeifa. Azo takes a shot which deflected off a defender and Tum from a tight angle sends it in. The fightback begins

Just a couple of minutes later Yasin goes down the wing and sends a lovely cross right onto the head of Hursut (my man of the match) who had the Besiktas keeper diving to no avail. 2-2 and this was looking good.

John, Robin, Oz Kanka and Little Oz Kanka after the fourth had gone in.

And then the best goal I've seen all season. Our keeper Ramazan whacks the ball way to hard and all the Besiktas defender Egeman had to do was tap it back to his own keeper. Problem was the keeper had come out. He desperately tried to stretch out to get it but had to watch as the ball, as if in slow motion, crossed the line.

We were singing and dancing in the stands but there was still 10 minutes left. Besiktas had a go but it was right at the death when we sealed it. Hursut put a ball in to Erdal who somehow or other managed to swing around and get a shot off. An amazingly difficult goal.

Back at the Beer Bus to celebrate

Peep, peep. What a match. To come back from two-nil down and really embarass Besiktas. Back to the Beer Bus for a celebratory beer and high-fives all round. That was simply brilliant stuff last night. Iyi Bayramlar all! Hopefully I'll put up some more photos soon.

* Headline thanks to Maniac Kanka Harun.

Wow, wow,wow,wow,wow

2011-11-06T22:34:00.000+02:00

I've been watching Genclerbirligi for a few years now and I'd have to say this was one of the best wins we have had. It was up there with defeating Blackburn Rovers. It was up there with defeating Valencia, it was even up there with beating Ankaragucu. More.... much, much more tomorrow when I sober up a bit. For now though let me just print out the score. Oh, how I'm loving this.

Genclerbirligi 4 - 2 Besiktas

ANKARAGUCU ...... NEVER SAY DIE !

2011-11-05T10:57:00.003+02:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Ankaragucu snatched a point from the jaws of defeat last night in Samsun, when to all intents and purposes, they should have been dead and buried. Another two schoolboy errors in defence put Ankaragucu on the back foot, but to their credit they never let their heads fall. We will need to see more of this before the end of the season !

Samsun 2 Ankaragucu 2

Five of us turned-up at the Red Lion Club to watch the match. Flying Dutchman Kanka Carlo, Cider Kanka John and his friend Alex from Frankfurt-in-Main and my friend Onur (whisper it quietly ..... he supports Fener !).

Team -

Ozden
Kagan, Ediz, Aydin and Ozgur
Weeks, Hurriyet and Guven
Serdar and Turgut
Tonia

Substitutes used - Atilla, Umut and Murat

Carlo was just paying for his beer and getting ready to settle down to watch match but he missed the first goal which arrived with only seconds on the clock. In the first attack of the match, the ball was put through to Zenke, but Aydin was covering the move and was about to tackle him when he stumbled and fell. Zenke was then clean through and fired in a shot which Ozden managged to get an arm to, but in it went to stun us all.

Play swung from end to end and then in the 14th minute Ankaragucu should have equalised, when from a great cross ball from Tonia, Turgut contrived to miss an open goal when all the ball needed was a touch. Again, 5 minutes later, Serdar was put through with only Ahmet in goal to beat, but instead of having a go, he passed the ball to the unmarked Tonia on the right but his feeble effort went past the post.

Then just before the half time whistle the killer blow was struck. Ahmet rolled the ball out to a defender and he carried the ball unchallenged to the halfway line, looked up, saw a gaping hole in the Ankaragucu defence, and threaded a great pass through about 5 defenders to the unmarked Murat who latched on to the ball, brought it forward, and lashed in a powerful shot with Ozden well beaten.

With Samsun sensing blood and Ankaragucu wobbling, the half time whistle arrived as a relief !

Ankaragucu came out for the 2nd half with the bit between their teeth and pressed forward relentlessly for a breakthrough. They were playing some neat footie in the Three Quarters area of the field, but with only Tonia up front, the attacks kept breaking down. Tonia (my Man of the Match) was everywhere and it was his inspiration and non-stop running which probably turned the match. He almost made the breakthrough on the 60 minute mark when he fired in a goal-bound shot but Ahmet saved well.

With 15 minutes to go, I decided to go outside for a siggy, more in frustration than anything else, and that's when the match was turned on its head. I saw the goal through the window and what a great goal it was. Captain Hurriyet latched on to a pass just outside the penalty area and sent a great shot into the top right hand corner with Ahmet helpless.

Oh well, I thought, that's it. We had a small crumb of comfort for all our endeavours. Then, just as I was about to extinguish my siggy the equaliser arrived.

Atilla received the ball just inside the penalty box, and with 2 defenders bearing down on him, he swivelled, wrong footing them, and sent a peach of a shot into the bottom right hand corner with Ahmet again helpless.

Jumping up and down with joy, high fives, and singing ...... Aaakaaarrraaaagooojoooo. I was back in the Club, but ............. maybe I should have stayed outside ??!!

True enough, it's only one point, but is could so easily have been zero points.

I have to say ....... if only. If only what you might ask ? With this fighting spirit ........ if only we had 2 strikers up front, what a difference it would have made to our season. The fact is .... we don't .... so it's still going to be an uphill struggle, however, all credit to the team for their efforts last night.

If the team show the same fighting qualities in 2 weeks time at home to Karabuk (Saturday 19 November) then we might be celebrating a first win of the season. Never say never, and, never say die !!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Crap Monday night football

2011-11-02T15:48:00.000+02:00

I really don't like Monday night games. It seems so wrong and it was clear that many other Gencler fans felt the same as there were only a dozen or so at the Beer Bus on Monday night. Those who didn't make didn't miss much.

Mersin Idmanyurdu 2 - 1 Genclerbirligi

I was a couple of minutes late to the pub and already we were 1-0 down. Not the best way to start the evening. Replays showed that a Mersin player hit the ball and it was going to go out. A defender near the line instinctively kicked it and STRAIGHT TO A MERSIN PLAYER who whacked it in.

Annoying yes, but Gencler looked like they could get back into it. We launched wave upon wave of attacks but almost none of them resulted in an actual shot at goal. There seemed to be too much setting it up for yet one more player and eventually all the fancy work would be wasted. Zec and Oktay in particular were guilty of this. Hursut was having a great day getting past his player almost every time but we still couldn't score.

That last para pretty much sums up the match. That and the fact that the only player who was taking shots, Erdal, couldn't get any of them on target.

Still, we were playing well and then our keeper Ramazan made a terrible mistake. He came out of box to clear a loose, but not very dangerous, ball. Instead of sending it to kingdom come he hit it along the ground straight to a Mersin player who lobbed it into the empty goal from about 35 metres.

And that's it really. Oh yes, Herve Tum got a consolation goal in the last minutes. That goal, by the way, was the first scored by a recognised striker this season. Sort of sums up Gencler's problems really.

Gencler fail to find the net

2011-11-01T23:51:00.001+02:00

Mersin 2 - 1 Genclerbiligi

I've been busy as hell since Monday night's match and won't have time to put up a report until some time Wednesday afternoon. Suffice to say it won't be pretty.

Ankaragucu vs Samsunspor Match Preview !

2011-11-01T20:42:00.003+02:00

Image above taken from Habervereti

This weekend Ankaragucu and Samsunspor are up first in the Friday night game in Samsun. Both sides met in a pre season friendly where it finished 1-1. A lot has changed since then, especially the Ankaragucu playing staff, but both teams are struggling in the relegation zone.

Ankaragucu come off the back of a poor week where both Manisaspor and Istanbul BBS took three points from us, and in both games the performance could only be described as dreadful. Poor defending, another sending off, conceding penalties and of course not taking our few chances.

Samsunspor are struggling themselves and only have one win in the Super Lig to date. They came up with both Mersin and Orduspor who are both having good starts to there campaign. Indeed there only win to date was the opening game of the season at home to Genclerbirligi where they won 3-2. Unlike Orduspor who are well organised at the back, Samsun have a weak defence and there forward line are off form to. Sound familiar ? This is a game which will be won by the team who wants it most.

The Key players for Samsun will be Ekigho Ehiosun and Simon Zenke who is similar to former Karabukspor striker Emanuele Emunike in that he is quick and powerful. They also have Colombian Playmaker Alvaro Dominguez and Aristode Bance who will be looking to break his run of games without a goal. Last weeks match against Eskisehirspor ended in a 1-0 loss, but they will take comfort from there 0-0 draw at Fenerbahce a few weeks earlier.

Ankaragucu will be without Ugur Ucar through suspension for his red card against Istanbul BBS, and Jan Rajnoch through injury, although reports are saying he wants to leave the club and has travelled back home. Ziya Dogan doesn't have much to work with, but he needs to do better with the squad he has. We have some good players in Tonia Tisdell, Theo Weeks, Serdar Ozkan, Hurriyet Gucer to name a few, but they need to cut out the stupid mistakes or face been punished every week. Will we even see Jarioslav Cerny make an appearance ? Even kids like Umit Kurt and Atilla Garhan seem to be ahead if him in the pecking order.

I cant see us winning any time soon, so im going for a 2-1 win for Samsunspor, nothing of late has given me any reason to think other wise.

Live radio blogging! Ankaragucu v Istanbul BBS

2011-10-30T18:51:00.028+02:00

Pre-match: Things aren't looking great for Ankaragucu. One point after eight matches. I just left the Chopin Bar where I shared a couple of beers with Sir Eski Kanka who was not in the best of moods. He is probably now in the stadium. The big news of the day was broken by Bellshill Kanka a few hours ago... Rajnoch may well have already left the club. More news soon. First I'm going to grab a beer and some Chilli Con Carne which I cooked up last night. Back soonish.

Still pre-match: Please send any comments via twitter @ankaraozkanka or via the comments section below. Last week we had a record three comments during the actual match! Three more than ever before.

7:06 pm: Ohhh yum. I love my Chilli Con Carne. Anyway I assume the Ankaragucu match has kicked off, not that we would know it. Oh yes we do know it as they have just crossed to the 19 Mayis.

7:08 pm A coldish night in Ankara. And yes, Bellshill Kanka was right. No Rajnoch.

7:12 pm It seems as if both sides have had a chance but the first goal comes from the other match this evening. Besiktas has gone 1-0 up over Sivas. In matches earlier today: Galatasaray 2-0 Kayserispor and Bursaspor 0-0 Manisa.

7:21 pm Not much news from TRT radio. As always they are concentrating on the Besiktas match. Tha Ankaragucu fans sound like they are in good voice though.

7:23 pm Lucky chance for Ankaragucu as an Istanbul player got through but hit it out when he was almost one-on-one with Gucu's keeper Ozden.

7:27 pm GOAL!!!! Hurriyet scores with a header. Ankaragucu 1 - 0 Istanbulspor A great team effort as the ball went through various players. Could this be Ankaragucu's first win of the season?

7:31 pm Short but sweet message from Sir Eski at the match "Guven up front works".

7:32 pm Gucu's Ugur gets a red card for handball in the box. Penalty to come. Huge boos from the crowd and.............. SAVED. Ozden saves and a huge roar goes up. Ankaragucu are now down to 10 men though. Sir Eski says that the ball was going in if it hadn't been for the hand ball.

7:36 pm Looks like Ankaragucu are going to spend the rest of the match defending the lead as Sir Eski informs us that Guven has come back to cover the now Ugur who is now enjoying an early bath and an Efes.

7:43 pm Oh dear as Istanbul get an equaliser. Istanbul seem to be attacking, as have Ankaragucu but TRT were following the Istanbul match. No idea what happened but the score is now Ankaragucu 1 - 1 Istanbul BBS. This is going to be a long, tough match. The commentator says Istanbul are now all over them.

7:52 pm Half-time in both matches: Ankaragucu 1 - 1 Istanbulspor, Besiktas 1 - 0 Sivasspor. The round ball in Ankara's resident gambling expert Little Oz Kanka Matthew predicts that Istanbulspor will score another goal and win. Get onto those betting sites people and FILL YOUR BOOTS!

8:05 pm Gucu's Kaan goes on for Tisdal as the second half kicks off. Tisdal off? The only recognised striker! This could be a very long 45 minutes.

8:07 pm Oh dear, TRT Radio got the replacement wrong. It wasn't Tisdal off but in fact it was Ergen Keles. How hopeless can these guys be. The commentator said it was because he was confused by the Istanbul BBS substitution, which was the same number. Thing is, Tisdal is black, Keles certainly is not. Surely not too difficult to see that the only black player for Ankaragucu hadn't been replaced.

8:11 pm Some more messages from Sir Eski: "Goal was a typical Ankaragucu defensive mix up. But have to say I saw it coming. It's looking dangerous now." and a few minutes later. "This is the first time Eski has been on his own since 1999, Sad." Indeed. Where are you Ankaragucu kankas?

And one more: "Having problems getting out of our own half"

I think those depressive messages sum it all up. I now have to put Little Oz Kanka to bed. Back soon.

8:17 pm Good news from the other match, Sivas has equalised.

8:18 pm Sir Eski has been joined by Yankee Kanka. Ah now I feel less sorry for the old bugger. Right, now to put Little Oz to bed.

8:27 pm Little Oz is in bed and Sir Eski says Ozden deserves man of the match. A few minutes later the message is short and sweet: "Panic Stations. Man lifeboats!" Says it all really.

8:34 pm In Istanbul, Besiktas have been given a penalty and they score. Besiktas 2 - 1 Sivas

8:36 pm In all the excitement of putting Little Oz to bed I missed Battle Damaged Kanka Damon's message that Istanbul have brought on former Gucu player Metin Akan.

8:43pm "It's grim stuff. Not pretty to watch". I don't need to write anything. Sir Eski is writing this blog via text message.

8:45 pm Goal. Istanbul go on the attack. Ankaragucu try to clear but fail and in a sort of confusion in the box an Istanbul player scores from 10 metres out. It was coming. Ankaragucu 1 - 2 Istanbul BBS

8:48 pm The anger is rising at the 19 Mayis as Sir Eski reports that seats are being ripped up and thrown. @kankanadeem (on twitter, or Bellshill kanka as we know him a bit better) says: "Im starting the campaign to get ziya dogan out, 1 shot on goal even with ten men is pathetic". Somehow I think that particular campaign could get quite a few supporters after this match. By the way, Battle Damaged hasn't purposely not gone to the match, he is ill. And in Istanbul Besiktas have gone up 3-1.

8:52 pm Last seconds in the match, Istanbul are still ahead. And then ... beep, beep, beep. Final result: Ankaragucu 1 - 2 Istanbul BBS. This is Bad, bad, bad stuff for Ankaragucu. Nine played, no wins, one draw. No wonder the seats are flying at the stadium. @kankanadeem writes on twitter, "another defeat due to dreadful defending, sending offs and an inept manager. Get him out now !!!!!" Hard to disagree.

Post match: The pain and the frustration in the messages from the Ankaragucu kankas is quite obvious. Here's Battle Damaged "Well, looks like the Uğur red did not pay off. We can't even fucking manage a single point. So sad." I see Battle Damaged has already commented below and no doubt we shall get a few more some time soon. Sir Eski will probably want to calm down a bit before he jumps on here. Evening all.

Ankaragucu v Istanbul BBS match preview

2011-10-29T16:30:00.001+03:00

Ankaragucu coach Ziya Dogan explains his tactics on how to beat Istanbul BBS on Sunday night.

ANKARAGUCU - STARING INTO THE ABYSS !

2011-10-28T14:30:00.003+03:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Another day, another defeat. So, what's new ?

Last night Ankaragucu laboured their way through their 8th league match without a recognised striker and the writing on the wall is now there for all to see, if you haven't noticed already. With only Tonia showing any danger to the Manisa defence, he was banging his head against a brick wall !

Manisa 2 Ankaragucu 0

Team -

Bora
Ugur, Ediz, Aydin and Guven
Weeks, Kagan and Rajnoch
Umit and Ozgur
Tonia

Substitutes used - Atilla, Serdar and Murat

Battled Damaged Kanka Damon, Kaleci Kanka Tansu and I met in The Red Lion Club to watch the match more in hope than expectation. My pre-match prediction of a stalemate was looking good and I was thinking that, under the present circumstances, one point would be acceptable.

Well, my prediction was blown (not for the first time as Oz Kanka mentioned in the previous post) 10 minutes before the break when Ozgur had a rush of blood to the head when he decided to upend a Manisa player at the edge of the penalty area when there was no danger of the player doing any damage. Penalty !

What he was thinking about only he knows ! 'Olde Boy' Murat Erdogan stepped forward and despatched it with clinical precision.

No way back for Ankaragucu without a strike force I thought, and once again so it proved.

The 2nd goal arrived halfway through the 2nd half and once again we witnessed schoolboy defending. The ball was played out of the Manisa half with 3 forwards chasing the ball. There was only ONE Ankaragucu defender on the half way line and he was left behind trailing in the wake of the 3 attackers as they played one-twos towards Bora. He had no chance with Yigit slotting in for a simple goal to kill the game.

Yigit celebrated the goal by removing his shirt and 5 minutes later he received another yellow card and off he went for an early bath !

Could this be the springboard for an Ankaragucu onslaught against the 10 men we thought ? Answer ............ NO ! Without any significant support up front, Tonia tried a few long range efforts which were off target and Serdar had a shot near the final whistle which hit the post.

Manisa is a team in the same category as last week's opponents, Ordu. Efficient, but average, and this puts this Ankaragucu team's league position into perspective !

I honestly can't see any light at the end of the tunnel for this Ankaragucu team unless it is significantly strengthened in the January transer window. It may even be too late at that stage unless a few wins are put together before then.

So, no need to mention how important Sunday's match is against Istanbul BBS. Meeting in The Chopin at 5pm and going to the Stadium at 6pm for the 7pm KO.

Say a prayer for Ankaragucu !!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Gencler get to the midtable!

2011-10-28T09:40:00.000+03:00

The death toll on Turkey's roads almost increased by at least one yesterday as I was driving to the school and listening to Radyo ORTU. "And tonight is the Super Lig's first derby match of the season as Fenerbahce take on Besiktas". WTF! Gencler played Ankaragucu weeks ago. At least that match was between teams from the same continent.

Genclerbirligi 1 - 0 Kayserispor

Midweek games were with us again last night in the squished-up season we have this year thanks to the league starting late after all the allegations that Fener bought their title last year. Those investigations are continuing, and who knows when it will end. The long and short of it was that the TFF put the Gencler game on the same night as my darts match. A quick trip outside and I decided it was way too cold to go to the stadium and so we watched at the Red Lion.

Gencler came out attacking and whilst it wasn't brilliant football it was Gencler who were getting the shots in. Only problem was that the shots were going straight to the Kayseri keeper.

We should have been 1-0 up after about 10 minutes when Ermin Zec sent a ball in to Azofeifa. About 10 metres out, right in front of goal and Azo hit it hard, and straight at the keeper. It was one of those that you score 95 per cent of the time. Much knashing of teeth and tearing of beard at the RLC.

As I said it wasn't great football and there were plenty of passages where nothing was happening.

Second half and the Ankaragucu kankas started piling in to the club for their match later on and Gencler had a few more chances. Again, they were going straight to the keeper.

Then on about the 70th Sir Eski Kanka said his magic words. "This one is going to finish a bore draw".

Hursut found Tum down the right, Tum sent the ball in to the box where Oktay headed it back for Soner who smashed it and this time it wasn't at the keeper! 1-0.

A couple of scary moments towards the end with our keeper pulling off a couple of nice saves but Gencler survived. We were the better team last night and deserved the win. It was then time for darts and the Manisa-Ankaragucu match. More about the latter a bit later on once Sir Eski calms down.

Ankaragucu vs Manisaspor Match Preview !

2011-10-26T22:14:00.003+03:00

Ankaragucu travel to Manisaspor tomorrow hoping to win our first three points of the season. The last time the two sides met ended in a 3-1 win in Ankara for Manisaspor. Two late goals from Mehmet Guven sealed the victory after Metin Akan had equalised from an early Kahe strike.

The last time Ankaragucu travelled to Manisa we won 3-0 with goals from Stanislav Sestak, Ozgur Cek and Goal of the Season from Guven Varol, who can forget the sublime control before volleying the ball into the top corner. Even the Manisa fans gave a standing ovation.

Manisaspor have had a good start to the season and find themselves on a three match winning run. Victories against Samsunspor, Karabukspor and Eskisehirspor see them in 8th place in the league. There Key Players who will need to be watched are Yigit Incidemir, Josh Simpson, Mehmet Guven and the very quick and powerfull Nigerian Striker Isaac Promise. Former Ankaragucu defender Michael Klukowski will also play in the game.

Ankaragucu go into the game without Hurriyet Gucer who is suspended. Ozden Ongun and Turgut Dogan Sahin did not travel with the squad as they are both injured, so it looks like Jarioslav Cerny will make his full debut. Time is running out and the team need to start winning. If we see a repeat of the performance against Trabzon then we can take three points. But its more likely the performance against Orduspor that disappointed that will be on show. Tonia needs service to his feet and not high balls like he had to deal with on Sunday. Its time for the midfield to step up and take some responsibility and the defence to cut out the silly mistakes.

My predictions is a 2-0 win for Manisaspor. Sorry Kankas but I just cant see us winning any time soon.

Some good news from today is that President Erdogan and Melih Gokcek have both said work will start on the new stadium soon. They are talking about the site been on Old Eskisehir Road. Anyone else heard anything similar?

UPCOMING FIXTURES FOR THIS WEEK

2011-10-25T10:25:00.002+03:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

With a busy week of footie coming up, the fixtures are as follows -

Thursday 27 October - KO 6pm - Gencler v Kayseri
Thursday 27 October - KO 8.30pm - Manisa v Ankaragucu

Sunday 30 October - KO 7pm - Ankaragucu v Istanbul BBS

Monday 31 October - KO 8pm - Mersin v Gencler

Dealing with the Thursday matches first. Oz Kanka has a darts match in The Red Lion Club that night and will be watching the Gencler match there. He also said that we can watch the Ankaragucu match there too since he is on The Committee. As you know, the BJK v FB is also at the same time as the Ankaragucu match so it will be difficult to find a place in Kizilay to watch the Ankaragucu match. A great decision by Oz Kanka and any Ankaragucu kankas attending should buy him a beer for his great decision making !!!

I'll try and get to the Club as early as possible on Thursday to watch the Gencler match. See you there for what is must win matches for Gencler AND Ankaragucu.

As for Sunday, we will meet as usual in The Chopin from 5pm.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

ANKARAGUCU - LOSING THE PLOT ..... AGAIN !

2011-10-24T16:41:00.002+03:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

After all the euphoria of last weeks' performance in Trabzon, it was 'as you were' again last night in Ankara. Ankaragucu's capitulation to an efficient, but average, Orduspor was disturbing. On last night's performance we can look forward to Thursday night's match away to Manisa with trepidation (and without the inspirational leadership of Captain Hurriyet !).

Ankaragucu 0 Orduspor 2

Team -

Bora
Guven, Aydin, Rajnoch and Ozgur
Serdar, Weeks, Hurriyet and Kagan
Tonia and Turgut

Substitutes used - Atilla, Cerny and Murat

It was all smiles though when Battle Damaged Kanka Damon and I met up at The Chopin Bar with yours truly predicting a 2-0 win for Ankaragucu, and that without optimism pills !

Off to the Stadium where we met up with Cider Kanka John, Yankee Kanka and Huso Kanka. A fantastic turn-out for a team propping up the league with all the tribunes (including Ordu's) full.

Ankaragucu started fairly slowly in comparision to last week and the match was finely balanced for the first 15 minutes, until 'olde boy' Fatih Tekke pounced on a howler of a mistake in the Ankaragucu penalty area. The ball was crossed from the right to left and then crossed into the danger area with Bora and Rajnoch well placed to clear the danger. However, with Bora poised to collect the ball and make a routine save, Rajnoch decided to stick his foot out to intercept and the ball broke to Fatih who walked it in for probably the easiest goal he's ever scored !

Where was the communication between Bora and Rajnoch, and who was at fault ? No matter. The damage was done and Ordu's tail was up.

Ordu saw out the half easily and their tall defenders had the measure of the diminutive Tonia and Serdar for all the high balls and corners which were floated in, more in hope than anything else. It was not difficult to see why Ordu has the best defensive record in the League !

The 2nd half was barely a few minutes old when another calamity struck. With an Ordu attacker put through in the penalty box and lining up a shot, it appeared that he was brought down by Hurriyet. From our angle on the opposite side of the Stadium it looked like Hurriyet climbed all over him and brought him down. The referee obviously agreed with that assessment and brought out his red card for Hurriyet and pointed to the spot. Stancu sent Bora the wrong way and then it was two.

btw, shortly after this incident, a friend phoned to say that, having watched the replay, it was not a penalty. Small comfort for Hurriyet unless the TFF decide to rescind his red card, but on past form, that is unlikely.

From this point in the match depression set-in and how it remained at 0-2 only God knows ! Ankaragucu threatened to score only once when Tonia came bursting through, but he delayed his shot for a fraction of a second which made his angle more acute. Fornezzi saved his first effort and his 2nd effort from the re-bound was cleared.

Into the last 5 minutes and Gecikondu and the Ordu Fans decided to have a 'love-in' singing each others songs back and forth to each other. Comical, but it certainly beats the shit out of throwing insults and other more dangerous objects !!

So to Thursday and Ankaragucu travel to a much improved Manisa team from last season. Sitting pretty in 6th position, they also have a good defensive record and Ankaragucu will need to put in a vastly improved perfomance to break it down. Still waiting for the KO time which I'll put in the comments section of this post when known. Watching the match in The Chopin.

Ankaragucu is beginning to lose touch with the teams in the relegation zone. As if it wasn't obvious, the future looks bleak !

btw, Damon mentioned on Facebook today that Gecikondu and Maraton turned their backs to play in the 2nd half for about 5 minutes in a 'mini protest'. You will no doubt be pleased to hear that we didn't join them ??!! I personally think that this type of behaviour is counter productive to players morale. A better form of 'protest' would be to shout encouragement to the players for more effort, or is that being too logical. Agreed ??

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Gaziantep v Genclerbirligi: Live radio blogging

2011-10-23T19:19:00.023+03:00

Preview: Out all day and so couldn't make it to the Beer Bus for the match so tried to find a stream on the web. No luck so off to the radio. Of course with Fenerbahce playing there isn't going to much time for TRT 1 to devote to Gaziantep - Genclerbirligi.

7:04 pm (Turkish time)Herve Tum up front ?

7:15 Off the keeper Ramazan and then whacked in. 1-0 after 13 minutes. Gaziantep 1 - 0 Genclerbirligi

7:19 Gencler get a penalty!

7:20 Arrrrggghhh Keeper saves. I'm not sure who took the shot. Attack continues.

7:27 No idea what is happening as they are concentrating on the Fener match. No surprises really but it does make it difficult to call this a riveting live radio blog.

7:33 Ohh, we are back. Erdal Tum got the ball into the net but was offside. Oktay seems to have been given a yellow card (this all happened some time in the last 13 minutes. Both sides have had chances but none taken. Still 1-0 to Antep.

7:37 Hursut fouled in a decent position. Nothing happens in the end.

Fact: Gaziantep haven't won at home since 7 May 2010.

7:40 Radio goes back to Fener-Samsun. I'm off for a fag. The cigarette type.

7:48 Yep, just my luck... whilst having a fag Antep scored. No idea what happened.

7:48 Azofeifa has a shot and it was just saved. Ref blows for half-time. Gaziantepspor 2 - 0 Genclerbirligi

7:51 In the other match it is Fener 0 - 0 Samsun. Earlier today scores: Ankaragucu 0 - 2 Orduspor, Kayserispor 6 - 2 Sivasspor That sounds like a fun game to have watched. Not that I did of course. I was out umpiring cricket matches in Kecioren.

7:56 Commentator gives his half-time report: Antep could well extend their lead in the second half... that's it, oh and that Gencler were very disappointed to not score from the penalty. Really? Pathetic commentary.

8:08 Second half has kicked off. By the way, if anyone is actually reading this as it is happening, a big if, you can send me any questions, comments etc. either below the line or on twitter. I'm @ankaraozkanka

8:17 Oh dear. Antep have gone three up. Seems as if it was a great attack, not that they have described it. These live radio blogs were so much more fun a few years ago when Lig TV had a radio feed for every match on their website. Now it is all TRT. I'm depressed in so many ways. Gaziantep 3 - 0 Genclerbirligi

8:24 A comment! During the actual match! A first for everything. "I'm following ya, Oz Kanka," says Jeremy. "I guess my biggest comment/question is how can Gençler bounce back? It's probably too late for the game, but I mean for this start to the season. They have earned only 1 point on the road so far this season and their defense has allowed the lowest scoring team in the league to score 3 goals." Interesting points Jeremy which would deserve a decent response from myself but I refuse to discuss football with people who spell defence with an "s". Hope that clears things up. Now I'm back to listening to TRT's Fener commentary.

8:33 The radio crosses to the Gencler match, Hursut has had a few chances according to the commentator and finally we have brought on Ermin Zec. Why oh why we started with Herve Tum I have no idea. Oh, that's it, back we go to the Fener match.

8:43 Radio still on the other match so back to Jeremy who has rightly seen the light. "Fair enough, Öz Kanka. I'll try to stick with British spellings from now on," says Jeremy. "In either case, I strongly prefer your commentary to that of the jokers on tv. Wish we could your live audio commentary, but maybe the internet isn't quite ready for that." Careful what you wish for Jeremy. I'm sure it won't be too long before Sir Eski Kanka Jim and me end up doing a live internet radio broadcast. I'm sure people would love it... Probably wouldn't be a safe for children sort of thing though. By the way, I was just about to put a link here to Jeremy's blog until I saw how he spelt my name. I'm not "Öz Kanka" I'm "Oz Kanka".

8:50 Sir Eski Kanka is back from today's Ankaragucu match and comments below. "Another weekend of wailing and knashing of teeth in Ankara. The Ankaragucu v Ordu report will be up tomorra night. It will be short and not very complimentary towards Ankaragucu !!!" So that's something to look forward to! Still no commentary on the Antep-Gencler match.

8:54 And off we go to the Antep-Gencler match where we are given the news that the final whistle has blown. So that's it. Full time Gaziantepspor 3 - 0 Genclerbirligi. Afraid I can't really say very much. This was perhaps the worst radio broadcast I have heard on TRT. First half we got a bit of our match, second half bugger all.

Thanks for the thousands of e-mails, twitter messages etc. I'm so sorry I didn't have the time to reply to you all. Fener - Samsun are still playing 0-0 but I being a dedicated chronicler of Turkish football I really can't be bothered to listen to the last couple of minutes of that one. Oh, it has just finished, 0 - 0.

One more thing. Follow Jeremy on twitter on @asimbey

Ankaragucu vs Orduspor Match Preview !

2011-10-18T18:28:00.002+03:00

Picture taken from AA

This Sunday we will see Ankaragucu play host to newly promoted Orduspor. In Pre Season the two teams drew 1-1 and Ankaragucu were fancied to finish above Orduspor with the exciting squad we had built and won the Ankara Cup. Few months on and how things have changed.

Ankaragucu sit at the bottom of the table with the draw against Genclerbirligi our only point to date. Orduspor on the other hand are 5th at the moment and look to be holding there own in the Super Lig.

We have discussed what Orduspor are doing off the park the last couple of days, but on the park they are also making a few people take note. Players such as Bogdan Stancu, Juan Culio, Wilfred Dalmat and of course Fatih Tekke who played for Ankaragucu last season. They have only lost one game this season and that was the opening match at Fenerbahce 1-0.

Since then Orduspor have went on a run and include victories over Manisaspor, Karabukspor and a 2-1 win at home to Eskisehirspor last week thanks to goals from Bogdan Stancu and Juan Culio. Ordu are well organised and hard to break down, while there front man are taking there chances. Something which Ankaragucu have struggled with from the start of the season.

Ankaragucu have shown signs of encouragement the last couple of games, a battling display against Galatasaray was followed up with our performance of the season where we were so unlucky not to take a point at Trabzonspor. See Jim's match report for more details on that.

The question is, which Ankaragucu will show up ? The one who looked dreadful at home to Sivasspor, or the one which took the game to Trabzonspor on there own ground ? If its the later then there is no question we have enough to win this game. Theo Weeks was outstanding in his last match and if he can produce that type of performance very week then we have a very good young player on our hands. Tonia as usual will be our danger man with his pace, and he needs help from Turgut and his fellow midfielder's.

Tough game but i'm going with my heart and going for a 2-1 win for Ankaragucu !

Orduspor Show Ankaragucu how its done off the field ?

2011-10-16T21:48:00.004+03:00

http://www.since1910.net/Haber/orduspor-un-kurumsal-yuzu

Took this article from the Anti X website and found it a very interesting read. You may be wondering what has this got to do with Ankaragucu and Genclerbirligi? Well with the current state we are in at the moment it has everything to do with us.

Orduspor are back in the Super Lig after a long absence and they don't intend on just making up the numbers. They have added players like Juan Culio, Bogdan Stancu and ex Ankaragucu striker Fatih Tekke to there squad. But its what they are doing off the football pitch that is very interesting.

Their management are very ambitious and are doing everything they can to bring in extra revenue and grow the clubs name. They had sales days in Ordu where people could buy season tickets, they have their main website in English, an official club magazine, Orduspor supporter cards and a mobile telephone deal that makes the club money too. On top of that they have plans to build a new stadium.

I'm sure you will all agree what the club is doing is nothing short of fantastic and we can only wonder what Ankaragucu would be like if our management had the same ideas. Orduspor have even opened up its own Club Shops while Ankaragucu still lag behind with the one small shop at Tandogan. Not good enough !!

A weekend when too much sport is never enough

2011-10-16T19:44:00.000+03:00

Saturday morning off to Balgat for Little Oz Kanka's football match, then straight to the Red Lion Club to watch a very unlucky Wales go down to France in the rugby, then it was off to Kecioren for Little Oz Kanka's cricket match and then I had to umpire a couple of Under 13s cricket matches. Quite a sporting day, followed by - Sunday morning off to Kecioren for Little Oz Kanka's cricket match, then to the Red Lion Club to watch Australia get beaten by a far superior Kiwi side (oh how it pains me to say that, but it was true) and then off to watch Genclerbirligi... phew, quite a weekend.

Genclerbirligi 3 - 0 Antalyaspor

Spine, French Kanka Hande and Little Oz Kanka joined me at the Beer Bus at about 1pm for what was not my first beer of the day. With just a bit of a cloudy brain off we went to the stadium, minus French Kanka who preferred to go home to do some cleaning.

One of the best things about having bugger all supporters is that we can time our arrival at the stadium to a T. We showed up just in time to hear the national anthemn and still we got excellent seats. All up I'd say about three to four thousand at the match. Not many, but we did make ourselves heard, especially since we took the lead in the fourth minute.

It was all a bit scrappy but these things need a decent build up and that was what we got when Hursut sent the ball into the box. I think it was Oktay who got to it but he didn't get the ball cleanly and instead it was an Antalya player who did... and put the ball into his own net. As I said scrappy but we were as over the moon.

Gencler continued to attack and it was quite exhilarating for us fans as they actually showed some promise. This was not the Gencler of a couple of weeks ago. Great attacks and some brilliant defending had Antalya on the back foot for the entire 90 minutes. Our coach Fuat Capa got his own chant from the fans towards the end of the match because he had obviously banged into our players the importance of keeping the ball and defending hard. My only criticism, which Spine also pointed out during the match is that our man up front today, Herve Tum, just doesn't seem to fit in, especially with through balls from people like Azofeifa, Erdal or Hursut being lost completely because Tum clearly doesn't have the speed to get to them. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself a touch.

It wasn't long before Gencler went 2-0 up after Azofeifa sent a ball over the top to Aykut just inside the box. he hit it with a fair amount of power and Antalya's keeper Omer didn't have a clue. In fact he probably could have saved it, but obviously he couldn'T be bothered.

As the Gencler fans started chanted Uç, Uç, Uç, someone sent a ball through to Oktay who managed to get away from a defender and found himself one-on-one with Omer. No worries as Oktay slid it in. 3- 0 after just 33 minutes. This was great stuff.

There were no more goals but plenty of chances and the football from Gencler was great. One problem we did have was the failure of the forwards to actually take chances as they came to them. Some brilliant chances deserved to have been taken but too often than not the Gencler players didn't back themselves and instead went for a pass.

Still, I can't complain much. All up it was a great match. The Gencler defence was excellent with Aykut and Curri in complete control. Hursut was his usual enigmatic self and Oktay in midfield/up front put his all in.

Antalya may not be the best team in the league but if we beat these type of teams we won't be worrying at the end of the season.

ANKARAGUCU - ALMOST, BUT .... NOT QUITE !

2011-10-15T17:33:00.002+03:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Ankaragucu returned to Ankara empty handed after putting on an excellent performance last night. Had Lady Luck contrived to be present in Trabzon, it just might have been a different story. However, facts are facts, and Ankaragucu still find themselves propping up the League today.

Trabzonspor 3 Ankaragucu 2

Team -

Ozden
Ugur, Ediz, Aydin and Ozgur
Kagan, Hurriyet, Rajnoch and Weeks
Tonia and Turgut

Substitutes - Guven, Atilla and Cerny

The Four Kankas met in The Chopin Bar for pre-match 'refreshments'. Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Cider Kanka John and Simon (Aston Villa supporter -brave man !). Also, a large Ankaragucu contingent was present and all fired up singing and shouting (just like being in the Stadium !).

So, Ankaragucu came out at the KO and was full-on into attacking mode and it was 30 minutes on the clock before Ozden had a save to make.

But, the first goal arrived on the 20 minute mark and what a goal it was too. Turgut collected the ball on the left, beat 2 defenders and curled the ball round another defender into the right corner of the the goal for a great individual goal. (Damon commented that Turgut had probably been studying David Villa videos !!)

Trabzon was not to be denied though, and despite a shot which rebounded off the crossbar, they finally equalised 5 minutes from half time when Pawel received a cut-back from the left and walked the ball in with Ozden helplessly exposed.

Half time, and my thoughts ............ Ankaragucu unlucky not to be in the lead.... and impressed with Turgut's workrate after some early season poor perfomances.

Into the 2nd half and Trabzon was gradually coming into the match and beginning to take control. Then, 10 minutes in and almost a break-through for Trabzon when Ozden made a great save from a goal-bound shot and the rebound headed off the line by ...... couldn't see which defender was the hero !

Then on the 60th minute, and against the run of play, Ankaragucu fashioned a breakaway of their own when Weeksie took a long ball played out to him with the Trabzon defence caught napping. He rounded Tolga and slotted in. Cue ..... The Chopin breaks into song and we are all sensing a great victory.

Grrrrrrr ............ 5 minutes later and the 2nd equaliser arrived when Celustka was given too much time, with no tackles coming in, to deflate us.

To their credit, Ankaragucu didn't go into their shell and protect the one point. Ankaragucu still pressed forward, but in the end another dead-ball situation was their downfall.

With 10 minutes to go and the match finely balanced, they conceded a free kick just outside the penalty box. Burak probably saw a space in the 'fragile' wall and curled his free kick into the right corner to win the match.

A real sickner at the end and we could see the disappointment on the faces of the Ankaragucu players at the final whistle.

However, this Ankaragucu team bereft of its star players, can take heart from this performance. The Ordu match next Sunday can be viewed with optimism on this showing.

Down, yes, but not out ............. yet !

You can be sure that the Stadium will be full next Sunday ...... and ...... the kankas will be there to see our first win of the season.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Ankaragucu vs Trabzonspor Match Preview !

2011-10-10T21:46:00.003+03:00

~~Sunday's~~ Friday's match will see Marek Sapara take on his former club as Trabzonspor host Ankaragucu. Robert Vittek will miss the match with another long term injury.

Last seasons matches between the two clubs saw Trabzonspor win 2-0 in Ankara thanks to Two goals from Teofilio Gutierrez. The return match in Trabzon saw the home side take the lead through Jaja Coelho, but Ankaragucu fought back through a well taken goal from Drago Gabric.

A lot has changed since then, with Trabzonspor loosing a lot of there key players like Umut Bulut, Jaja Coelho, Ibrahim Yattara and Selcuk Inan to name a few, they have been able to replace them though with players like Didier Zokora, Volkan Sen, Paulo Henrique and of course Marek Sapara to name a few.

Trabzonspor are starting to hit a bit of form now, and look much better than they did in the first few weeks. A fantastic win at Inter Milan in the San Siro was followed up with a draw at home to Lille in the champions league, and last weeks 2-0 win at Eskisehirspor showed they mean business.

Key players for Trabzonspor are Burak Yilmaz who is the leagues top scorer with 7 Goals in 4 games, and new Polish signing Andre Mierzejewski who looks a real find with his pace and skill causing problems for defenders.

Ankaragucu although full of spirit in the last game against Galatasaray need to cut out the silly goals from set pieces, and goals we loose from counter attacks. Our Key player again will be Ozden who has been on great form this season, and we will need big performances from the likes of Jan Rajnoch and Tonia Tisdell.

Its going to be tough and unfortunately i cant see this poor run stopping here, a comfortable win for Trabzonspor is all i can see from Sundays game.

The one thing I would like to add is that although we are in big trouble this season, and the football on show is hard to watch, the club needs us, the fans need to stick behind the team and encourage them, who knows what can happen. If we can show the same commitment that we did against Galatasaray but tighten up at the back and finish our chances then nothing is impossible. As the great man Marvin Andrews once said KEEP BELIEVING !

FIXTURES RELEASED

2011-10-09T17:09:00.003+03:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

The fixtures for next weekend have been released.

Friday 14 October KO 8pm - Trabzon v Ankaragucu

Sunday 16 October KO 3pm - Gencler v Antalya

As we long suffering Ankara supporters know, there are no 'easy' matches in the Super League, so we take nothing for granted anymore.

Everyone is agreed that Ankaragucu doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of 'escaping' from Trabzon with anything. However, if they show the same commitment and effort that they did against Galatasaray then anything is possible. Agreed ???!!!

We shall watch that match in The Chopin and meeting there for pre-match drinkies between 6 and 7pm.

Oz Kanka will be sending out a mailie soon with details about meeting for the Gencler match.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

ANKARAGUCU - HIGH ON ENDEAVOUR, BUT ......

2011-10-03T11:18:00.002+03:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

NO CUTTING EDGE !!

As expected, Galatasaray won last night with one clinical well taken goal, one fantastic own-goal and a penalty.

Ankaragucu 0 Galatasaray 3

Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Flying Dutchman Kanka Carlo and I met up in The Chopin and spent more time discussing The Rugby World Cup than discussing Ankaragucu's chances of creating an upset ! We were later joined by Cider Kanka John (he does a great West Country accent and he's a World Famous authority on Cider !). We also had a flying visit from Smart Arse Kanka Dave and his beautiful wife Suzanne (I refuse to call her Mrs Smart Arse Kankie !).

Off then to a full capacity Stadium with Gecikondu again in fine form with their usual repertoire of songs and dances. btw, I'm pleased to report that peace has been declared between Gecikondu and Anti-X with BOTH tribunes joining in the 'Bursa Song' on 16 minutes !

Team -

Ozden
Ugur, Aydin, Ediz and Ozgur
Kagan and Hurriyet
Rajnoch and Turgut
Ergin and Tonia

Substitutes - Guven and Umut

It was pretty much end to end stuff for the first 10 minutes with both teams sizing each other up. Then one of Ankaragucu's many weaknesses resurfaced, ie, defending dead balls.

The ball was whipped in from the left touchline from a free kick to the danger area where Rajnoch and an attacker went for it. We couldn't see clearly who got the bullet of a header in at the time to send the ball into the corner of the net, but it was Rajnoch.

I had been hoping that Ankaragucu could hold out until half time to put pressure on Galatasaray for the 2nd half, but the goal lifted Galatasaray and they began to dictate things.

10 minutes later the writing was on the wall when another of Ankaragucu's weaknesses was exposed. It was an Ankaragucu corner and there was nobody covering any clearance on the 18 yard line and in the channel behind it. Golden opporunity for Galatasaray to exploit it which they did in clinical fashion with a breakaway which left Ozden with no chance as Kazim slotted in for a well taken goal.

Ankaragucu was well and truly on the back foot now with Galatasaray in full cry and Galatasaray always seemed to have a man spare with their excellent running off the ball and finding space for the pass which was giving the Ankaragucu defence the runaround.

The half time whistle came as a relief with no further damage inflicted.

When Ankaragucu came out for the 2nd half they were given a standing ovation by Gecikondu in recognition of their endeavours and a call to will them on for the 2nd half.

I have to admit that the players did respond and all credit to them for not folding, but Galatasaray still had control of the match and but for some heroics from Ozden could have increased their lead.

Some of the Ankaragucu players were tiring and another weakness reared its head. Some of the players don't look fit enough for 90 minutes, ie, Turgut and Ergin who both struggled to make any impression throughout. It is quite obvious that they are out of their depth at this level, but what other options does Ziya Bey have ? Hasn't he been handed the poisoned chalice ?? I'm stuffed for an answer !

Ankaragucu can feel aggrieved that a penalty wasn't given on 75 minutes when there was a clear handball in the area. Perhaps I should have been refereeing instead of Mr Aydinus ??!!

However, a penalty came at the other end with 5 minutes to go and I suppose we can't argue with that decision. Baros despatched it and the Ankaragucu supporters headed for the exits.

Man of the Match was a difficult one with Ozden in the frame alongside Ugur who ran himself into the ground in defence and joining in attack when necessary. Hurriyet played a captain's role but was defending most of the match. Also, I musn't forget Tonia who was everywhere and never gave up the fight. In fact, he almost scored at the end but was a whisker away from connecting with a cross. So, Tonia gets my vote, for tying to play his own game, and at the same time, compensating for the inadequacies of Turgut and Ergin.

I don't want to criticise Ziya Bey who is on a hiding to nothing, but he really must sort out another option in the attack alongside Tonia otherwise the 'goals for' column in the League Table is going to remain static !

5 matches in now and still on ONE point. Is it time to hit the pancic button yet ? Away to Trabzon in 2 weeks time ............. arrrrrrghhhhh !!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

ANKARAGUCU DON'T DISAPPOINT

2011-10-02T23:12:00.002+03:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Only Bellshill Kanka Nadeem had high expectations (no doubt high on optimism pills !!) but Damon and I were not for being fooled !

It was my intention to paste and copy Oz Kanka's report, changing the names of course, and giving him credit, but .............. after reading his report it seems I'll have to try and think up some excuses for our defeat tomorrow !

Ankaragucu 0 Galatasaray 3

Actually, no excuses will be forthcoming. Report tomorra sometime.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

A weekend best to get away from Ankara

2011-10-02T17:05:00.001+03:00

All my plans to watch at the Bursa-Gencler match came to nothing when Mrs. Oz Kanka dragged me off to the Lucerne Festival Strings. A lovely night and in the end and once I had seen the score I was glad I didn't watch the match.

Bursaspor 4 - 0 Genclerbirligi

Having not seen the match and then subsequently heading off to Kerkenes to check out the archaeological digs there (one person took a look at my new beard and asked if I worked there) I haven't read anything about the match and therefore can say nothing.

All except for the fact that it wasn't much of a surprise. I'll be back in the groove for the next round of matches.

Ankaragucu vs Galatasaray Match Preview !

2011-09-28T19:15:00.002+03:00

Image above taken from The Haber.

Cengiz Topal and Captain Hurriyet Gucer both gave interviews today on the upcoming home match against Galatasaray on Sunday. The players were given a goat to sacrifice at training today which was quite disturbing to watch, even for some of the players.

Cengiz and Hurriyet were both saying the teams preperations for the game are coming along well, the players are getting sharper and they can take points in this game. Captain Hurriyet made a very good point in that our players hadnt trained in a long time which effected the start of the season. We have some good young players and after a better performance at the weekend Ankaragucu are hoping to build on that.

Who could forget last seasons Victories over Galatasaray both Home and Away ? The first game was in Istanbul where we took the lead early on in the game through Metin Akan. Ozgur Cek, Stanislav Sestak and Turgut Dogan Sahin scored second half goals with Milan Baros scoring a double for Galatasaray. The return game in Ankara saw Ankaragucu fight back from 2-1 down late on to win 3-2 thanks to a fantastic hat-trick from Stanislav Sestak.

The likes Of Sestak, Metin Akan and Marek Sapara are all gone as we know, but as Captain Hurriyet said, we do have some good young players in Ozgur Cek, Turgut Dogan Sahin and Tonia Tisdell. One thing is for sure, if we are going to take anything from the game we need to tighten up at the back, and take any chances that come our way.

Young Tonia Tisdell has had a good start to the season, and he will be our Key Player along with the likes of Ozden Ongun and Jan Rajnoch. For Galatasaray, Fatih Terim has added many players to his squad as they look to improve on a disastrous season last term. Felipe Melo, Albert Reira and Milan Baros are all dangerous players but Galatasaray are weak at the back and Tonia has the pace to cause them trouble.

I have taken one of Jim's Optomism pills and im going for a 1-0 win for Ankaragucu with Tonia scoring the winner. Inshallah !!!

Handbags and the derby

2011-09-26T11:26:00.000+03:00

Both Genclerbirligi and Ankaragucu fans ought to get used to watching the sort of football we saw last night. It was second division stuff and if I had to put money on two of the teams to be relegated at the end of the season, I'd put it on both the Ankara teams.

Genclerbirligi 1 - 1 Ankaragucu

Derby Day! The day everyone has been waiting for. A chance to rib each other over a beer and swear at each other at the stadium. Well, it would have been if any of the Ankaragucu kankas had shown up. Where were you all? Just a couple of us Gencler fans then - me, Spine and Flying Dutchman.

Pretty crap turnout at the stadium as well. We guessed maybe four to five thousand all up. Ankaragucu had a semi-decent contingent in the away area whereas Gencler had only a couple of thousand in Maraton and no one at all in Gecikondu. I'm thinking that it isn't only us here at "The round ball in Ankara" who are depressed.

Smile for the camera cause there's bugger all else to smile about

Gencler came on in the traditional red and black strip while Ankaragucu were wearing a uniform which Spine described as "I guess they are trying to get sponsorship from Ikea".

Oh well, kick-off and erggh. Rubbish from both sides. Both Gencler and Gucu had chances but they were stuffed up. Ankaragucu were playing fairly tough and I was surprised that ref didn't hand out a few cards in the first half, especially when Zec was brought down just outside the box in the 22nd minute just before he got a shot in.

The ref gave the free kick though and Soner managed to score thanks to a hefty deflection from a Gucu defender.

The Gencler fans celebrated of course but the match stayed boring. Crap passing and whatnot and it was at this stage that we at least had something half-interesting to watch as various Gucu fans in our section started swearing at us. There was a bit of push and shove, nothing much though. Still, why on earth do Ankaragucu fans sit in the Gencler section and then get upset when we celebrate getting a goal?

The police took ages but eventually escorted them all out of our section. Spine took advantage of the police being distracted and decided to light up a fag.

I read an interesting stat today that there were 411 police and 300 private security guards at the match, or about one security person for every six fans or so. Overkill?

Ankaragucu woke up a little after the goal and had a couple of chances but managed to send most of them out and so Gencler went into half time 1-0. Only one player had impressed me at this stage and that was Gucu's Tonia Tisdall. All he needed was some gold around his neck and he'd have been a dead ringer for Mr. T. (I'm referring to his haircut, not his size)

Second half and we actually got some half-decent football from Gencler. Hursut was doing his tricky stuff and new boy Ozgur Ileri was playing well. There were at least two occassions when we should have scored but Zec had one saved and Soner failed to get his good chance on goal. About 20 minutes in and Gencler should have been two or three up but none of the dominance was coverted.

Ankaragucu at this stage started playing hard and the referee finally decided to use the cards in his pocket. Some of them were a bit dodgy and I think he may have been compensating for his failure to dish them out in the first half.

Gencler started time wasting and what a stupid move that turned out to be. Just near the end Ankaragucu got a free kick and at the same time one of their players (Serdar) got a second yellow. The free kick was taken and Gencler's keeper Ozkan failed to control it. The ball sort of bobbled around in the box and the defenders failed to clear leaving Rajnoch with an easy shot and goal.

And that was that.

"Sweden are crap," Spine said.

Yet again the police decided to allow the away fans out first leaving us to cheer on the cleaners. Not only is this not the way it is supposed to be done but from a security point of view it is a complete waste of time. By the time we got out the Ankaragucu fans had taken the long walk around the block so that we were all together. Nothing happened but what if both sets of fans were up for it. Stupid.

If you are going to get locked in after the match you might as well do something useful.

A point a piece for the derby

2011-09-26T00:56:00.000+03:00

Genclerbirligi 1 - 1 Ankaragucu

The Ankaragucu fans left the stadium a lot happier than the Gencler fans after Gucu scored with about five minutes before regulation time just after having man sent off. It wasn't the best football in the world, but what do you expect from two teams that will be fighting hard this season from being relegated.

More on Monday.

ANKARAGUCU HEADING SOUTHWARD !

2011-09-23T15:38:00.002+03:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Ankaragucu is now on course for heading southward, and I don't mean to Antalya ! On last night's performance against an average Sivas team they are assuredly favourites for the Big Drop into the Bank Asya League !

As I mentioned in my previous report, the team do not have a recognised striker, and no matter what Ziya Bey does to juggle his attacking formation, it can't be solved. Also, the defensive frailties at defending dead-balls and corners returned last night, and only the heroics of Ozden saved Ankaragucu from a thrashing.

Ankaragucu 1 Sivasspor 2

We met up at The Chopin (Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Maniac Kanka Harun, Vegetarian Kanka John, Josh, who was attending his first match in Turkey, and I). Off to the Stadium where we were joined by Huso Kanka. Gecikondu was full as usual and in good voice, Maraton was about half full and there was a small contingent from Sokak, all in all, not a bad attendance for a Thursday evening match.

The Team -

Ozden
Ugur, Rajnoch, Aydin and Murat
Weeks, Hurriyet, Kagan and Ozgur
Tonia and Ergin

Substitutes used - Turgut, Gokhan and Ediz

Ankaragucu was straight into attack mode and they almost scored after 5 minutes when Tonia back-heeled a pass to Ergin but his shot was cleared for a corner. Sivas weathered the early Storm and the match swung from end-to-end.

On the 16th minute mark the usual song rang out from Maraton for Bursaspor, but Gecikondu did their best to whistle it down in protest against the move of Sestak and Adem. More of this later !

20 minutes gone and Sivas was coming into the match more and almost scored but for a great save from (my Man of the Match AGAIN) Ozden. The ball rebounded off him and the 2nd effort was cleared off the line.

Then on the half hour mark we had that feeling of deja vu when Navratil rose above the Ankaragucu defenders to head in from a free kick. A copy of the Besiktas goals and perhaps Sivas did their homework on the Ankaragucu 'Achilles heel' ?!

Ankaragucu persevered for the remainder of the half but their continual habit of lofting high balls up to the strikers were easily swallowed up by the tall Sivas defenders (don't they ever watch clips of Barcelona bringing the ball out of defence and try to copy this tactic ??!!).

Half time and I have to confess I was fearing the worst. However, 5 minutes into the 2nd half and the equaliser arrived. Some neat close passing on the left and the ball was squared to 'unsung hero' Kagan who first-timed a swerving shot into the corner. It should have been a wake-up call, but Sivas had other ideas.

Ozden was becoming the busiest players on the field and made numerous saves in the 2nd half to deny Sivas who were controlling the tempo of the match. So, it was no surprise when they took the lead again with 15 minutes to go.

Ankaragucu was caught out pushing too many players forward and this gave Sivas the chance for a fast break-away with Ankaragucu defenders scurrying to get back. Ozden spotted the danger and ran out to intercept Rasmussen and succeeded in reaching the ball at the same time as Rasmussen shot for goal. Unfortunately, the ball rebounded off Ozden and over his head and into the goal.

Ankaragucu battled hard to find another equaliser and there was no doubting their effort and will. However, it was like banging your head against a brick wall with the Sivas defence putting up the shutters.

In my opinion, this Ankaragucu team just doesn't have the ability or perhaps the belief for the challenges that now lie ahead !

5 minutes to go and we kankas left the Stadium. Not in disgust I may add, but for our safety. Gecikondu and Maraton started throwing insults at each other and saying things which I can't print here to save the blushes of any of our female readers. It was getting quite nasty and we were thinking that it might develop into a fully blown battle similar to the one which occurred at the Istanbul BBS match a few years ago. Better safe than sorry we thought !

I am not sure what will happen on Sunday at the Ankara Derby when both tribunes will occupy the 'away' end. A very good reason for us to watch the match in Kapali me thinks ?!

With Ankaragucu's abysmal record against Gencler over the past few seasons we can only hope that the defence can hold out for a 0-0 draw. However, and to be realistic, Ankaragucu may be propping up the League next Sunday at 10pm ! Here's hoping that I have to eat my words !!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Ho hum. A 0-0 draw for Gencler

2011-09-23T14:46:00.000+03:00

Damn TFF put the one away match I always try to get to on a Wednesday night. With kick-off at 8pm the last fast train from Eskisehir to Ankara would have left before the match finished. So instead I had to watch it on the telly. Problem was I got caught up in a conversation about hazing in the army and police force and so I hardly saw the match at all. Probably a good thing as it ended up ...

Eskisehir 0 - 0 Genclerbirligi

Not a lot to say really. Gencler seemed to play fairly well in the first half but Yasin blew our best chance when all he needed to do was send a pass to Hursut who was in an excellent position. Second half and Eskisehir turned it on but were denied a number of good chances.

An away point is a good result. All eyes now turn to the 19 Mayis on Sunday for the derby.

Gencler around the world

2011-09-20T15:37:00.001+03:00

Dan the Man mentioned this in the comments section today. I thought it was worth making a separate post. Click on the picture for a better view.

I just discovered that on White Hart Lane you can find TWO big clubs.

THE ORACLE'S PREDICTION IS SPOT-ON !

2011-09-20T10:41:00.002+03:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Our Oracle in Glasgow (Bellshill Kanka Nadeem) did warn us in his pre-match assessment not to build our hopes up, so we listened to his words of wisdom and met at the Chopin last night expecting the worst. We were not disappointed !

Besiktas 3 Ankaragucu 1

When I saw the team news go up on the TV screen I have to say that I shook my head in disbelief. How many times have I said on the Blog that the only way to play the Istanbul Three is to ATTACK them from the kick-off ?!

Team -

Ozden
Guven, Rajnoch, Aydin and Ugur
Weeks, Hurriyet, Kagan, Bilal and Ozgur
Turgut

Ankaragucu don't have a recognised striker since the loss of Sestak, Vittek and Fatih and Besiktas must have been rubbinhg their hands with glee when they saw in the Ankaragucu line-up that Turgut was the 'Lone Ranger' up front. He is NOT a striker !!

However, that doesn't excuse Ziya Bey for flooding the midfield when there was Tonia and Serdar warming the bench. Admittedly, they both came on the 2nd half (Tonia just after the break, and Serdar with 20 minutes to go). Too little attacking options too late !

Anyway, we all met up in The Chopin (Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Maniac Kanka Harun, John, Fetish Kanka Huseyin and I), and like I said, we were not holding our breath for Ankaragucu to do an Istanbul BBS or Ess-Ess and take the game to Besiktas.

Besiktas was soon into their stride and it took a great save from my Man of the Match (Ozden) to tip the ball over the bar to prevent a certain goal. It was very much a 'backs against the wall' for Ankaragucu with Ugur in particular making some excellent tackles to break-up the frequent Besiktas attacks which came pouring forward.

Half an hour gone and Ozden again made two great saves one after the other to keep Ankaragucu in the match. Ankaragucu did have a chance to score against the run of play when a long shot came in from the left and hit the bar with Cenk helpless. Weeksie was following up but he didn't react quick enough when a header might have been the wise choice, and ballooned the ball over the bar.

With half time approaching the inevitable happened. Another Besiktas corner and there was the unmarked Sidnei at the near post to bullet a header in with Ozden well beaten.

Besiktas resumed where they had left off in the 1st half, ie, in full attacking mode, and once again Ankaragucu was on the back foot. Off went Guven and Bilal and on came Umut and Tonia to applause from the kankas and the response was almost immediate.

The Ankaragucu equaliser arrived and it was really down to the 2 goalkeepers. An astute throw-out by Ozden which found Tonia unmarked, and as he was racing to pick the ball up, out came Cenk , but a fraction of a second too late. Tonia nicked the ball past him and angled his shot into the net with the Besiktas defenders unable to intercept.

This sparked some life into Ankaragucu and for a while we were dreaming of taking all 3 points. Well for about 25 minutes anyway as Ankaragucu tried to make the break through.

However, another dead-ball goal from a corner and again Sidnei was given a free header which beat Ozden all the way with Ugur static on the goal line unable to make the headed clearance.

That took the steam out of Ankaragucu and Besiktas wrapped it up when the unmarked Quaresma received a pass on the left in acres of space and he fired in an inch perfect cross with the ouside of his foot for Mustafa to head in with Ozden helpless.

Ziya Bey has some work to do in the next few days with his limited resources. He has to find an answer to the striker situation, and he has to practice defending corners and dead ball free kicks into the box. If the January transfer window doesn't open for Ankaragucu then I don't envy his task for the reamainder of the season !

In the meantime, Ankaragucu play fellow strugglers Sivas at home on Thursday night. Meeting in the Chopin at 6pm and going to the Stadium at 7pm

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

ANKARAGUCU SUCCUMB ..... IN THE END

2011-09-19T23:00:00.002+03:00

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

It was a great rear-guard action from Ankaragucu tonight, but ............ they had to succumb in the end .........

Beshiktrash 3 Ankaragucu 1

Full report tomorra.............. I can't possibly comment further without swearing !!!

Iyi geciler from Eski Kanka Jim

It wasn't pretty but Gencler take the three points

2011-09-18T12:58:00.000+03:00

It wasn't one of the big Istanbul teams and it wasn't the best football I've ever seen but last's nights win over Karabuk is quite a boost for Gencler. The game had flashes of brilliance but the severe problems we have at the back were there for all to see.

Genclerbirligi 2 - 1 Karabukspor

Lots of sport for me on Saturday. First up was Little Oz Kanka's football at Balgat, then off to the Red Lion Club for the 11:30 start of the Australia-Ireland rugby match (don't ask me about it), a quick nap at home and then off to the Beer Bus to find me all alone with just a beer and the paper to keep me company (Posta really is a crap newspaper).

Not to worry. Caught up with Ertank and we made our way into the stadium. Maraton was pretty much full but the depression that most Gencler fans have at the moment was evident in that there were about six people watching from the Gecekondu stand.

Gencler started out well. With Zec, Azofaifa and Harbuzi all on the pitch, much to our surprise they had all been left on the bench last week, Gencler coach Fuat Capa was obviously looking to attack. Attack they did with various half chances created right from the off. Karabuk was looking totally lost. In about the 19th Zec threaded a lovely ball through the centre to the young Yasin who smashed it in. 1-0 up and Gencler kept on attacking.

It wasn't brilliant football and no one had a brilliant game really. Stupid decisions were being made and Karabuk should really have been put to the sword. Still at least we were attacking and it paid off when Oktay Delibalti managed to get past two or three players close to the line, Hursut was waiting for it but Oktay's pass was crap. Luck was with us though as the ball came off a Karubuk player and Hursut got back quickly and scored.

Half-time and Gencler should have been up by more.

The half-time talk must have been pretty hopeless because Gencler came out and were rubbish for the first 15 minutes or so. Our defence had holes galore and it was only thanks to our keeper, the post at times and some rubbish shots from Karabuk that kept us in it, until the 50th when Karabuk scored after we failed to clear our lines.

We seemed to get back into rhythm not much longer after that and towards the end we had some decent chances. Match said and done and we were happy as were the Gencler players. I'm still not convinced we have a side that will trouble the big guys this season. A good team on its day would have put five or six past Karabuk. Gencler are clearly not a good team at the moment. Still, I'll take the three points any day.

By the way. Not once during the match did one of the medics have to come on to treat a player. So why the hell was five minutes of stoppage time played? Bloody hopeless.

Genclerbirligi defeat Karabuk

2011-09-18T00:35:00.000+03:00

A great first half performance. Pretty crap second half. Still, a win's a win. Genclerbirligi defeat Karabuk 2-1. A fun match with plenty of hearts-in-mouths moments. More soon on The Round Ball in Ankara.