About bloody time - A Genclerbirligi victory

Having paid the shit out of Turkish English-language newspapers for being slow with the news it is my duty to report the results as soon as they happen, as soon as the goals go in... ah... as soon as I get home.

Unfortunately, after tonight's match I went to the pub... and well.. I think you can guess the consequences. So here I am at 1:03 a.m. trying to write a report on Gencler's match tonight. Let's see what time I will finish, and how stupid I will seem. But first let me grab a another beer.

Bloody freezing in the capital of this great land can be the only excuse for various "fair weather" Kankas not showing up at the Chopin.

I had already assumed as such and so armoured myself with a copy of Radikal newspaper, got a beer and I was having a delightfully relaxing evening until Flying Dutchman Kanka showed up.

Now I always enjoy a conversation with FD Kanka but still had my eye on the door when a very strange fellow walked in.

Going by the yellow jacket and the tea-pot hat, this bloke could only be a foreigner. He walked in, walked out, and then a few minutes later walked in again. By the level of the bloke's Turkish it was clear he was a foreigner and after an awkward interlude he ended up sitting with us.

It turned out that Paul, and two of his mates, are on their way to the Beijing Olympics. In what is obviously a mission to see whether the human rights abuses of China stack up to those of various Turkic countries the three of them are bicycling their way to Beijing.

I once used buses when I went on a pub crawl from Sydney to Brisbane but these Irish blokes are clearly mad.

Whatever, Alpine Kanka joined us soon after and just as we were leaving the Chopin, Irish Bicycling Kanka Paul's mates showed up as well. Off to the stadium and finally on to the match.

Genclerbirligi 2 - 1 Trabzonspor

At the stadium was the usual rigmarole of convincing PC Plod that our Irish friends were not terrorists and that they were not planning on using the batteries of their cameras as projectile items. Luckily for all at the match the police did manage to confiscate a couple of coins and a pen from our Irish friends.

Match-wise.... oh dear.

The first few minutes were dire. Trabzon were passing well and looking dangerous but couldn't penetrate. As for Gencler's tactics, well let just say that the English style of "give a roost" was absolutely rubbish.

Mehmet Cakir though did get a good shot on which came off the post, but I'd say the run of play was Trabzon's, perhaps only just, when a bunch of Temels converged around the referee calling for a foul that never was. While Temel was arguing away Mehmet Cakir took a kick, it went over the attackers and defenders but found Burhan at the far post... he slotted it in. If the idiots from Trabzon had been defending instead of arguing they may well have stopped the goal from being scored. 1-0

Trabzon now went onto the attack. Luckily they couldn't find a way past Jesus in goal. I thought Jesus had a pretty good game although someone should tell him that at times he is allowed to pick up the ball.

Off to the loo at halftime and the riot police decided to frisk me again. Lucky I didn't have any illicit batteries on me.

Second half was fun, fun, fun, in the sun. There were no brilliant moments, just a succession of excellent attacking play by both sides.

Gencler were all over Trabzon for long, long periods. At the same time though we couldn't convert our advantage. Last passes were going astray and Cakir in particular was guilty of too many 40-yard strikes that were perfectly aimed -- if only he was an Aussie Rules player.

Then we had it. Hand ball in the box. Penalty to Gencler. Cakir steps up... and saved.

On we went though and after attack after attack we finally scored our second goal. As if in ignorance of all they had ever done together until this point Isaac Promise and Kahe worked well together, pass here, pass there and eventually Isaac was left with a simple push in to score. As I have always said, this is a simple game for simple people. 2-0

The simple people of Gencler seemed to be getting it right. A good 40 minutes to play and it was Gencler which made all the good moves. This was the best football I've seen them play for a long time. If it wasn't for a bit of bad-luck, a few billion miles away shots from Cakir and if only Engin had backed himself we could easily have scored another.

Then with about 20 minutes to go Temel sent a ball into the box which another Temel managed to head it in (admittedly it was an excellent goal). 2-1

From then on Gencler were on the defensive but we had about 328 counterattacking chances, of which each and every one was thwarted without their goalkeeper even having to make a save.

Ninety-minutes up and the referee decided to play 17 minutes of extra time. Well, I am exaggerating slightly... but the bloke clearly needs a new stopwatch.

So that's it. A victory against Temel of Trabzon. I'm bloody happy. I'm also bloody drunk. And the time, by the way, is 2:03 am. Hooray, it only took me an hour to write. Admittedly I did take a cigarette break, or two...