STALEMATE IN BURSA

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Only Maniac Kanka Harun and I turned up to watch the match last night. However, in fairness to Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, he was tied up with work until late, but managed to watch most of the match at home.

We had to meet in Sedir last night due to the fact that The Beer Bus Bar was closed. We believe that the reason was a death in the family of one of the staff.

Bursaspor 0 ANKARAGUCU 0

Team -

Ozden
Mehmet, Rajnoch, Zewlakow and Klukowski
Adem and Kagan
Sapara, Ozgur and Gabric
Bednar

Substitutes used - Vittek, Dogan and Murat

The 1st half was pretty even with both teams having spells of dominance.

Bursa was first to threaten on 10 minutes when Miller almost got on the end of a free kick in a dangerous position.

Volkan had a fierce shot which was well covered and saved by Ozden.

Gabric had a great run into the Bursa defence and his shot was just past with Ivankov beaten.

Ankaragucu has some good chances from free kicks in dangerous positions, but unusually for him, Sapara was over-hitting them.

The best chance of the half fell to Bednar just before the break when he curved a shot into the far corner only for Ivankov to pull off a great save and turn it round the post with his fingertips.

So, an even 1st half with defences on top. However, Ankaragucu's defence showed the old signs of panic in the last few minutes as Bursa pressed to score before half time. Some words of praise for Rajnoch and Klukowski who both played well throughout in defence.

More of the same in the 2nd half.

Gabric had a good header well saved and then a few minutes later should have done better when put through, but he shot straight at Ivankov.

Miller had an angled shot which went just past and then he tried an audacious over-head kick which flew just over.

All end-to-end stuff !

Altidore had a great chance but shot over.

A few minutes left on the clock and Vittek had a great chance but dithered too long on the ball to get his shot in with defenders having time to challenge him. However, he did manage to cross it into the box, but .......... surprise surprise .......... nobody there to score the winner !

OK, so, as I said, a fair result, but .......... here's my first piece of criticism coming up for Mesut the Messiah !! We are seeing The Lone Ranger Syndrome again. Bednar up front and nobody to play off him on breakaways or high balls up from Ozden. We need TWO strikers - how many times have I repeated this ??!!

Also, it was a poor decision to take Bednar off and replace him with Vittek just into the 2nd half. Bursa was there for the taking and with two strikers it might have been a done deal !

Bednar had a good match and put himself about a bit. However, Vittek was way off the pace and looks like he will need another match or two to get up to speed.

To end on a positive note ....... it was heartening to see Ankaragucu still attacking as the final whistle approached. Good sign.

Next up .........

Saturday 2 April - Ankaragucu v Eskisehir
Sunday 3 April - Manisa v Gencler

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim