ANKARAGUCU CLIMBS A 'REAL' MOUNTAIN

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Don't ask me the last time Ankaragucu won a match - my memory is fading, but ...........
Ankaragucu climbed a 'real' mountain yesterday in their 'Mickey Mouse Cup' match and did the
sparse crowd proud with an outstanding performance of true grit mixed with a fair amount of skill.

Unfortunately, I was the only Kanka there to see it and celebrate later in The Chopin !

Ankaragucu 1 - 0 Samsun

Team -

Bayram, Orhan, Volkan, Umit, Mehmet, Veli, Bilal, Serkan, Mert, Hasan and Sinan

Substitutes - Kaan, Oguzhan and Enes

I mentioned the sparce crowd .... well, when I arrived at the Ruzgarli Entrance I was thinking .....
errrmmm .... is the match today or tomorrow ? There were no supporters milling around and
nobody at the 'white box' except a lonely 'wee man'. So I watched Keciorengucu win their match in
the 'mini-stadium' and entered the eerie 19 Mayis Stadium 5 minutes before KO. I could have done
a head-count in Maraton and there was only about 200 in Gecikondu. I had a feeling of deja vu of
the last time I was at a Gencler match !!

Into the match then, and both teams were playing full-on attack and I had just written that
Ankaragucu was playing some nice footie in the 7th minute when they put together the best move
of the match. The ball was brought out of defence in a sweeping move and Serkan took it up and
scurried down the right wing at speed. He looked up and crossed an inch perfect cross to the left
wing where the diminutive Hasan was lurking. He collected the ball and struck a screamer into the
right corner of the goal with Atilla well beaten. A classic goal reminiscent of .... dare I say it .......
Barca !!

Samsun was not lying-down and came back into the match with some dangerous moves of their
own. However, Ankaragucu's 'secret weapon', Bayram was in no mood to give them an equaliser !

After 15 minutes Bayram pulled off a double save of the highest quality when he saved well with
the Samsun attacker one-on-one with Bayram. The rebound fell to the Samsun player and again
Bayram smothered it to save the day.

15 minutes later he pulled off another great save when he save instinctively on the goal line to
prevent a certain goal.

Half time arrived and both teams looked evenly matched. Ankaragucu was surprising me with
their close passing and running off the ball and could easily have increased their lead but for some
wayward shooting in the final quarter.

It was mostly all Ankaragucu in the 2nd half and they can feel a little unlucky not to have made it 2.

Just after the re-start in an Ankaragucu attack there was a cross and a great header from Sinan
which hit the post and went out.

Nearing the end it was all Ankaragucu pressure and with 10 minutes to go a great shot flew just
over the bar. One minute later Hasan brought out an outstanding save from Atilla who tipped over
a goal-bound shot.

So, a great win for the 'boys'. Sinan and Hasan look good prospects and since Mert took the
captain's armband he has been a power in the midfield, and at times he reminded me of Sapara's
leadership qualities last season.

I might have to reappraise my opinion of Ankaragucu's ability of surviving in the Bank Asya
League after this performance. However, playing against the likes of Es-Es, Sivas.... and dare I
say it .... Gencler .... in this competition may be beyond them !

Next up is a home match against Orduspor I believe, but I'll post details when I have them.

PS ..... The Hurriyet newspaper said this morning that it was 17 matches since Ankaragucu won a
match.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim