Getting our act together

Genclerbirligi 3 - Trabzonspor 0

I'm not sure why but our meeting up before the match thing didn't quite work out as planned. I was sitting in Chopin on my own reading the Economist (important pre-match reading material) when Maniac Kanka Harun gave me a call saying he was with Trainspotting Kanka Andrew in Cappadocia Bar.

Listen people, it is all quite simple, I send out e-mails telling you that we will be at Chopin Bar and you're supposed to show up at the appointed time. Hmmm. Viking Kanka Jens and Nordic Kanka Stien had clearly read their e-mails as they showed up at the Chopin.

Off to the match and while it wasn't the biggest crowd at the 19 Mayis stadium it wasn't that bad.

Gencler kicked off with, as usual, a back pass. The ball was sent down to Mehmet Cakir on the left who then sent it into the box where Okan headed it into the back of the net. A full 22 seconds into the match and Gencler were one up. Brilliant. And Trabzon hadn't even touched the ball at this stage.

Flying Dutchman Kanka Carlo and Legal Kanka Saadet had just walked into the stadium at this stage (they only just saw the goal) and took their reserved seats.

Gencler suffered a little in the following few minutes as Trabzon went on the attack but at no stage did they force any real saves from our goalkeeper Recep (who was in goal as our normal keeper Jesus was suspended thanks to too many yellow cards for wasting time near the end of matches).

It was then time for Gencler to press and we had a few chances. Unlike in previous matches we were actually forcing the keeper to make saves. Mehmet Nas and Okan both had good chances but pehaps the best was when someone (I think it was Cakir) sent the ball in and not one of three of our players managed to get on the end of the ball.

Oh well. 1-0 up at half time and I was feeling confident. As Viking Kanka said, we were compact in defence and playing positively up front.

Start of the second half and we were clearly still up for it. It was the 52nd minute when the second goal came in. I'm not completely sure what happened but someone made the Trabzon keeper make one hell of a save. the ball went out to the left and Mehmet Cakir sent it back into the melee in the box where Mehmet Nas headed it again to the Isaac Promise who headed it in. Yippeeee

Then came the last goal when Isaac Promise got the ball into a dangerous position and laid it back for Mehmet Nas who whacked the living daylights out of the thing. Trabzon keeper Jefferson didn't have a chance as the ball went off the post and in.

My impression was that this was a very good victory. We played damn well and perhaps the team is finally getting its act together. I actually thought that despite his goal Isaac Promise had a bad game but then I'm wondering whether me saying bad things about the bloke week in, week out is starting to affect how I see the bloke as Trainspotting Kanka thought he played well.

I have to also say that the referee tonight was a complete joke. I'm not sure just what the foul count was but there was no way that he umpired the game fairly. While Trabzon were being given free-kicks left, right and centre the bloke completely ignored it when our goalkeeper was taken out.

Trabzon did fight but tonight was one of those nights when all the luck fell our way.

A deserved win? You bloody bet.

This is the link here or when Lig TV pull their fingers out and actually put the goals on their site. If the window that pops up merely says "bant yuksek....." or something like that it means Lig TV have yet to update their site.

EDIT (Saturday morning): I forgot to mention that Maniac Kanka Harun was wearing a Gencler scarf last night. Considering he is an Ankaragucu fanatic I was quite impressed!

2ND EDIT (Monday morning): The goals are up on the Lig TV site and looking at the second goal again I think I was a little wrong in my description. Check out the second Gencler goal on the video site to see what really happened.