ANKARAGUCU - CUP HOPES HANGING BY A THREAD !

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

On a night of high hopes and near misses, ANKARAGUCU gave themselves a slim chance of Cup qualification.

ANKARAGUCU 1 Besiktas 1

Maniac Kanka and I met in the Cappadokia full of optimism and expectation. Hakan Kutlu had promised Maniac Kanka 100% endeavour for this one and that is exactly what we got !

The ANKARAGUCU 4 tribunes in the Stadium were surprisingly full for a 4pm KO, and the singing was high volume as usual. The Sekiztrash end was about half full and they were `silenced` every time they tried to sing !!

ANKARAGUCU made their game-plan clear from the outset and went into attack mode. Passes were sticking and tackles were going in hard. Hakan in the Sekiztrash goal was the busier goalkeeper and ANKARAGUCU went close with long range efforts from Bebbe and Gokhan.

Battle Damaged Kanka’s new hero, Gokhan, was having a great game down the right and causing all sorts of problems for Sekiztrash.

Serkan saw his first real action on 30 minutes when he tipped a certain goal over in the top right hand corner of the goal. Great save and a wake-up call, if one was needed !

At that point, we were joined by latecomers Battle Damaged Kanka and Mountaineering Kanka who had arrived direct from work.

Good timing from them when shortly after their arrival the opening goal came. A fast move down the left wing, with Erdogan prominent, cut the Sekiztrash defence wide open. Gokhan, who had drifted across from the right was on hand unmarked to sweep the ball in for a classic goal to send us all into raptures. Strike up the Olay…. Olay…. Olay…. song !!

5 minutes later it was half time and we were thinking the unthinkable. With ANKARAGUCU attacking the Gecikondu end, would we bury Sekiztrash ?!

Hmmmm… we had a rude awakening when Sekiztrash came out all fired up for the 2nd half and took the game to ANKARAGUCU. Just when I was thinking that we had weathered the storm of the first 10 minutes, the equaliser arrived, but for God’s sake Serkan what were you thinking about !! Having had a very good match thus far he went and spoiled it all by making another one of his schoolboy blunders !

The cross came over in a crowded penalty area, and fair enough, Serkan couldn’t make a clean catch, but at least he could have punched the ball out to safety. However, he didn’t and he fumbled the ball which was begging to be struck. Unfortunately, El Yasa was leaning backwards on the line when he tried to clear and it rebounded off his knee into the path of the lurking Bobo who said …. thank you very much as he despatched the ball in for a goal !

A scrappy goal and a real sickener !

However, all credit to ANKARAGUCU for not losing the plot. Heads stayed up and the match developed into an end to end affair until the last 10 minutes when ANKARAGUCU took complete control. Bebbe had countless opportunities to put the match beyond Sekiztrash, but luck was with them last night when all the chances were squandered.

Then `hard man` Baki Mercimek was sent off for a 2nd yellow card with 10 minutes to go and the pace was upped by ANKARAGUCU seeking the winner. It was total attack now as they threw everything at Sekiztrash. However, having mentioned `Lady Luck` in yesterday’s post, she was not wearing Sari/Lacivert last night !!

All credit to ANKARAGUCU for giving 100% for the 90 minutes, and on any other night they would surely have won it.

So, what now ? Well it is really quite simple. Besiktas will make it through by virtue of their superior goal difference. However, ANKARAGUCU can still do it, but they must beat Rize away next week by at least 2 clear goals. They must also hope that Ankaraspor don’t win by more than 2 goals away to Diski. A tall order perhaps, but I’m sure stranger things have happened in footie before ??!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

PS... and away from footie. There was a competition in the Stadium last night for Best Dressed Supporter. The result will be published soon on this Blog with a photo of the lucky person. Watch this space for the exciting news of the winner !!!

PPS......The Round Ball in Ankara...... the blog that doesn't ignore fashion !!!