Greetings Kankas and Kankies.
ANKARAGUCU received their first home defeat of the season last night in bitterly cold Ankara. What rankles though is that it was at the hands of an Istan….spit….bul team !!
ANKARAGUCU 0 Galatasaray 4
It was all upbeat in The Cappadokia Bar pre-match when I joined the kankas where the Basement Bar had been `taken-over` ! It was an amazing sight to see about 30 kankas gathered together, and finding a seat proved to be a daunting task !
Too many kankas to mention, but all the `regulars` were there and lots of Moutaineering Kanka Robbie’s Bilkent Babes (oh yes….. and ….. after-thought…..there were some Bilkent Boys there too !).
No probs getting into the Stadium which was about full by KO time. Lottsa singing with the ANKARAGUCU tribunes drowning out the Galatasaray Mob. Our own Trekking Kankie Nicky was Chief Kanka Cheer Leader and doing a great job too (well, at least for the first 37 minutes of the match when we had something to cheer about !!).
It was a tight struggle up to that point with both teams taking time to settle and testing each others defences.
Then in an 8 minutes spell just before half-time the singing was interrupted and shock took over !
The first goal on 37 minutes was a defensive nightmare. A fierce shot at goal brought a great instinctive save from Serkan and the second shot from the rebound was again saved, but the ball rebounded to the unmarked Hakan who had the easiest of tap-ins. During all this fiasco, the defence were standing admiring Serkan’s heroics and Galatasaray's shooting practice !! No doubt Hakan Kutlu will be conducting a post-mortem this week on this aberration ??!!
4 minutes later another schoolboy error set-up the 2nd goal. Murat Duruer taking the ball out of defence allowed himself to be tackled and dispossessed instead of passing the ball and Arda ran through unchallenged between FOUR defenders to give Serkan no chance !
2 minutes later and the goal of the match. A break along the left wing, look up, cross to the unmarked Umit Karan to half volley in past the helpless and exposed Serkan. Kirita and Paulauskas were both marking Hakan and were unaware of Umit’s run. Of course, Paulauskas should have been marking him, but he is a central defender normally and was playing out of position at left full back in place of the suspended El Yasa. However, no excuses for leaving a striker of Umit’s predatory talents unmarked !!
So, 3 defensive blunders and 3 `presents` to Galatasaray and the half-time whistle came as a relief !
Not much to say about the 2nd half, except that ANKARAGUCU did not allow their heads to go down. All credit to them for that at least ! Bebbe and Diawara both had good chances to score but it was not to be.
Galatasaray’s Serkan added a 4th near the end but it was purely academic by then.
So, what now ? ANKARAGUCU is now 10 points behind 5th placed Kayseri and I have to be realistic and concede that the UEFA Cup dream is now on-hold until NEXT season !
It’s the Gencler v ANKARAGUCU derby next weekend. Details to be announced by Oz Kanka when known.
All the best from an extremely disappointed Eski Kanka Jim
PS…… I just heard that Gencler were drawn against Adana Demirspor in the quarter final of the Turkish Cup. I can see Oz Kanka grinning from here !!!
The Round Ball in Ankara! Dedicated to football lovers in Ankara (Except for those who follow Osmanlispor)
I would have preferred Gencler was drawn with Galatasaray so we could get revenge for you.
ReplyDeleteNah.... you can play Fener in the final and win the bloody Cup for Ankara yesssssss !!!
ReplyDeleteI don't really know what to say about last night's match. I lost a lot of spirit watching that. Normally when Gucu has a bad game, there's at least one player who keeps it together. Not last night. Nobody was playing and it showed. The second half had some of the worst passing I've seen in a while and everyone looked confused and there was obviously no communication going on! I've had enough of Jaba and Hakan Kutlu needs his damn head examined for relentlessly starting a midget Brazilian up front whom the rest of the league has clearly "figured out". If he had started Diawara, maybe, just maybe we get a goal in and that would've changed everything. Or at least we might've kept Cim bom's defense busier and they couldn't have organized that wicked assualt that left us down 3. I'm sick of this Jekyll and Hyde %$*&%. This flip flop on again off again stuff all boils down to bad coaching and bad management. People love this team, but they're not going anywhere under Cemal Aydin. I'll support them forever though and when the Cemal Aydin nightmare era is over, they'll rise to the top again, where they belong.
ReplyDeleteStraight from the heart from Battle Damaged Kanka as always !
ReplyDeleteI had tears welling up in my eyes reading that comment. However, when you have been supporting Ankaragucu as long as Maniac Kanka and Eski Kanka, you learn to be Battle Hardened !!
Rome was not built in a day Damon, and I'm afraid that the future of Ankaragucu is in the hands of future possible Tycoons who are willing to pump money into our great Club and take them forward with serious intent !
It sounds mercenary, but that is a fact of life nowadays and never moreso than in Footie !!
Time to go back to my original moniker!! Eski, do I have to break out a joke about failing eyesight that comes with. . . Ok, I won't say it, but you get the point. That was Mountaineering Kanka not me!!!!
ReplyDeleteMy only comment is to share this heartfelt e-mail I received from one of my favorite students who happens to be an avid supporter of Trabzonspor (In the words of Maniac Kanka "good Istanbul fuckers"). My student sent the following to me shortly after the end of our match with GS:
I'm with u.
dont think about the loss... we are proud of to support our teams where we
belong to...
Now THAT had tears welling up in my eyes, Jim. Ok, so the grammar is not perfect, but the sentiment is. We belong to Ankara and therefore support our team Ankaragucu through thick and thin. Iyi gununde kotu gununde hep berabiz cunku biz Ankaragucluyuz!!!
Let's not dwell on the loss. In the words of Fatih Terim (a man whose English makes me feel better about my Turkish): "That's the football. Something happens. I don't want to see the back; I want to see the front."
Oooops tilt.... sorry about my little hiccup, but in my defence you are both handsome hunks and I naturally get confused when I see you both together !!!
ReplyDeleteHowever, back to the subject and of course we will support Ankaragucu through thick and thin ! Loyalty doesn't grow on trees and you can't buy it in a Supermarket either !!!