Gencler around the world

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 !

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

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

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

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.

Ankaragucu vs Besiktas Match Preview !

Monday night will see Ankaragucu travel to Istanbul as we take on Besiktas. Both teams lost their opening match and will be hoping to get their first win of the season under their belt. It will be a very difficult game for Ankaragucu but anything is possible.

Last season Besiktas won 4-0 in Istanbul, we had a goal disallowed that night which would have given us the lead, but the referee got it wrong and Besiktas went on to win. Ankaragucu won 1-0 at home in the next game thanks to an early goal from Serdar Ozkan.

Besiktas have a number of new players, Mustafa Pektemek who will be well known by the Gencler Kankas and Brazilian defender Sidnei to name a few. Besiktas are a very flamboyant side with talented players like Ricardo Quaresma, Simao and Manuael Fernandes. Hugo Almeida will need to be watched as the striker knows where the net is. Besiktas lost 2-1 away at Eskisehirspor last weekend and will be disappointed with their start.

Ankaragucu started with a disappointing 2-1 home defeat against Mersin, Jim gave us our match report and the highlights also showed that we weren't good enough and Mersin deserved the win. Ziya Dogan will have worked the players hard this week and the players should be sharper. I would expect him to make a couple of changes to the starting line up as well with Tonia and Serdar coming in to start the game.

Prediction for the match is a Besiktas win, unfortunately with so many of our Key players having left, this is a huge task for the players.

Team I would start with would be Senecky in goal, Back four of Ugur, Ediz, Rajnoch and Ishak, midfield 3 of Kagan, Theo and Hurriyet, With Tonia and Serdar on the wings supporting Ergin Keles up front.

Nadeem

It's going to be a long long season

That Ankaragucu are going to struggle this year is obvious due the political struggle over who runs the place as well as the club's massive debts. That Genclerbirligi are going to struggle this year is is obvious due to the lack of a political struggle over who runs the place as well as the club's lack of massive debts.

Samsunspor 3 - 2 Genclerbirligi

It was great to be back at the Beer Bus but instead of the normal excitement that comes with the start of a new season most of the Gencler fans were depressed even before a ball had been kicked. The main reason of course is that we have completely failed to sign anyone of any substance, just a couple of young kids from the lower divisions and a couple of almost pensionable journeymen.

I was the only Kanka there but there was a decent show from other Gencler fans with us inside for our match, the Besiktas fans outside where the TV was showing the so-called "main match" and the Ankaragucu Kankas next door at the Chopin.

Kick-off and .... er ... where was Harbuzi, Zec and Azofeifa? They were all on the bench! We waved our heads in disbelief and it was Samsun who started off best. Admitedly we did get the first chance on goal but Mununga failed to really get hold of a ball and the Samsun keeper saved it instinctively.

After that, well, I haven't seen such an atrocious display from Gencler since, er... probably last season. Our defence was totally disorganised and Samsun were able to get passes through to free attackers time and again. It wasn't long before we were 3-0 down. Depressed, depressed, depressed.

Three-nil down and the Gencler fans don't have much to celebrate.

Half time and a quick visit next door to visit the Ankaragucu Kankas and then back again for more torture.

The surprising thing was that Gencler started to play some decent footy. Sure Samsun were sitting on a massive lead and weren't playing to much attacking football but still, Gencler's second half performance at least gives us a little bit of hope.

Azofeifa was brought on in the 40th minute replacing the young Efsan Geckin. You had to feel sorry for the 18 year-old. It was his first match in the Super Lig and here he was being taken off at 3-0 down inside the first half.

Back to the second half and Gencler started looking good, at least compared to the dismal first-half performance. Then in the 50th-something minute we got a free kick about 30 yards out. Azofeifa then pulled off a great feet by curling the ball low around the wall and into the net that the goalkeeper could only watch.

Slightly happier after Azofeifa's goal.

Time for a fightback and Gencler looked like they were up for it. At the same time though too many passes were being wasted and the team didn't look like they had played a lot together.

Not long before the end and Azofeifa floated a lovely corner into the middle where Burak Ozsurac got his head onto it and into the goal. 3-2 and there was the slightest chance we might get an equaliser.

And boy was it close... A few close shaves and then what would have been a killer blow to the Samsun fans. The Samsun keeper had picked up the ball and was killing time by throwing the ball on the ground in order to send it flying. He didn't realise though that Soner was behind him racing. Soner stole the ball and had a reaction shot, only for a defender to come racing back and clear it. Arrrrggghhhhh

And that was that. As I said before this could be a very long season.