There was heartbreak for Ankaragucu last night as Polatli came back from a goal down to win 3-1 after a disastrous second half performance from Ankaragucu.
Team - Emrah Tuncel, Serkan Balci, Alihan Kubalas, Mehmet Tasci, Onur Atasayer, Ferhat Culcuoglu, Harun Aydin, Omer Bozan, Emre Sahin, Erhan Senturk, Enes Kubat
Subs - Emre Koyuncu, Orhan Evci, Ahmet Yavzur, Adem Saglam, Murat Yilmaz, Mustafa Ozturk, Muhammed Gonulacar
Firstly let me say that the conditions last night made it difficult for both teams due to the heavy downpour of rain. That said it was no excuse for the performance and the better team won on the night.
Ankaragucu started the game stronger and looked very solid at the back while the likes of Erhan Senturk, Harun Aydin and Omer Bozan were all showing their quality in midfield. There was a smaller turnout last night with about 5,000 in attendance.
The breakthrough came for Ankaragucu late in the first half with an excellent goal from captain Erhan Senturk. The ball was crossed to the back post where Emre Sahin nodded the ball down into the path of Senturk who flicked the back past the keeper with a lovely finish.
The Ankaragucu fans seemed pretty happy with the first half showing and some of the new players looked like they are going to be good signings for the club. Their are big concerns over the Goalkeeper position though. Emrah Tuncel flapped at everything that came into the box and looked like the weak in most pre season games.
Into the second half and it was Polatli who came out and looked like they wanted it more, had more energy about their play and quality too. It wasn't until the 75th minute though that things would take a change for the worse for Ankaragucu. Alihan Kubalas who had already been booked earlier for a bad challenge was red carded for an apparent elbow. Polatli were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box, up stepped their player who fired into the back of the net, it was a fantastic free kick but the Ankaragucu wall and goalkeeper got it all wrong.
Five minutes later and it was 2-1 Polatli, a stunning goal from Murat who beat two Ankaragucu players before firing into top corner. They then made it 3-1 a couple of minutes later with Ankaragucu searching for the equaliser they were punished by the counter attack, game over.
Ankaragucu did have an effort cleared off the line late on but Polatli were the 2016 TSYD winners much to the anger of thr AG fans who booed the team off the pitch. It was another opportunity for Ankaragucu to give the fans something to cheer about but they failed.
The only thing that matters this season is the league, and winning promotion. Ankaragucu start their campaign next week at Aydinspor and we will have all the latest news and match previews here.
Thanks for taking care of the report Nadeem, which incidentally I was supposed to do ! However, in my defence, all five of us kankas were stuck in the Sportswriters Restaurant/Cafe near the stadium in the middle of an electric Black Sea Storm with torrential rain and no let up in sight. This meant that we were forced to drink more of that nasty amber nectar called Efes …….. sigh ………… oh dear, the things we have to endure for Ankaragucu !!!!
ReplyDeleteWell, eventually the storm subsided and we were able to venture out and make it into the stadium avoiding the flooding and puddles ! We entered just after the Ankaragucu goal, which Nadeem has described for us.
So, we were expecting a few more from Ankaragucu as they proceeded to dominate the first half. However, I think the problem was that the Coach decided to use his full compliment of subs instead of sticking with the starting 11 who had done so well, and as Nadeem quite rightly said, the 2nd half was a disaster from an Ankaragucu perspective. The old cliche comes to mind …………. a game of two halves !!!!
After the equaliser, I noticed that Ankaragucu players heads dropped, and they only started to really ‘wake up’ after the 3rd goal went in. Too little too late ! The Coach needs to instill a fighting ‘never say die’ attitude to the players for the challenges that lie ahead.
It’s going to be a long slog till next May. Let’s hope it’s not too bumpy a ride !!!