ANKARAGUCU REGAIN TOP SPOT – ASSIST ..... KARSIYAKA !!!

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Sighs of relief all round last night as Ankaragucu regained top spot in the league with a hard fought victory in front of a full house of 21,000 fanatical supporters.   Praise also to ‘brother team’ Karsiyaka for disposing of title rivals Gumush.....spit.....hane down on the south west coast.

ANKARAGUCU   1       Etimesgut BBS   0

Ankaragucu were wasteful throughout the match with many chances to put Etimesgut to the sword but fortune smiled on them when the referee awarded a penalty in the 2^nd half.   That’s not to say Etimesgut were an easy nut to crack.   They persisted throughout the match to find a goal and they gave the Ankaragucu some scary moments with their fast and dangerous breakaways.   Gumush....spit.....hane will visit Etimesgut on the last day of the season and they can expect an opponent on a par with Karsiyaka.

Team – Korcan, Serkan, Mehmet, Cenk, Muhammed, Sezgin, Ferhat, Omer, Harun, Erhan and Kenan

The kankas met up at The Bira Park Pub on GMK Bulvar in Kizilay (Maniac Kanka Harun, Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Newby Kanka Nurer and yours truly) to celebrate Karsiyaka’s great win and to analyse the Ankaragucu match.   We entered the Stadium 40 minutes before KO and it was almost full at that point.   An unbelievable atmosphere for a Wednesday night match and .............. 2^nd League match !!    Gecikondu and Maraton were in full voice mode and they didn’t let up for the whole match, except to have a breather at half time !!!

Ankaragucu went straight into attack from the whistle and the players were buzzing – playing in front of a full house does that !    However, it took until the 13^th minute to have a clear cut chance when a cross came in from the left and a goalbound header (we were too far away to see who it was) hit the crossbar and cleared.

One minute later Omer had another chance but his shot was high and over.  Then came the Bursa song on the 16^th minute followed by another great chance which fell to Erhan but his goalbound shot was well saved.

Another great chance on the half hour mark was cleared off the line, but as I said before, Etimesgut was looking dangerous on the break and they almost silenced us with a goal on the 32^nd minute mark when from the cross on the right the ball was flicked towards goal, but it was just inches past the post.

Just before the half time whistle Ankaragucu was awarded a free kick just outside the box on the left and Omer tried one of his special dead-ball efforts but it was well saved.

So, a disappointing 1^st half insofar as there were no goals to show for all the Ankaragucu pressure which Etimesgut had to withstand.   However, we were still optimistic of cracking open their defence !

Ankaragucu started the 2^nd half as they did in the 1^st half, ie, on full throttle and they should have opened the scoring from the kick off when Erhan was put through with only the goalkeeper to beat but he shot narrowly past.   He will surely have nightmares about that miss !

One minute later an Ankaragucu penalty claim was quite rightly waved away by the referee when the ball hit an Etimesgut defender’s hand in the box, but as I saw it, he was only protecting his face and it was ‘ball to hand’ !

3 minutes later and another golden opportunity was missed when Ferhat’s shot from outside the box hit the bar and went over.

Still it was all Ankaragucu with Etimesgut still looking for a goal with their breakaways, however, the Ankaragucu defence was ‘standing up’ and Korcan ably dealing with any shots which came his way.

Then in the 64^th minute, the breakthrough !   From yet another Ankaragucu attack an Etimesgut defender used his hand to push the ball out of play, but it was spotted by the referee who pointed immediately to the spot.   Up stepped Erhan to stroke the ball in with the goalkeeper nowhere.

15 minutes to go and time for the stadium to enjoy a Mexican Wave which was followed by a ‘firefly display’ by thousands of the fans with their Cep telephones and serenading the players at the same time.   There has never been scenes like this since the good olde days when Ersun Yanal took Ankaragucu into the UEFA Cup !!!

5 minutes to go and Ferhat and Enes had efforts saved and then in the final stages of the match Erhan almost connected with an Enes cross but the goalkeeper smothered the ball.

So, it was back to The Bira Park Pub to celebrate and round off an excellent evening.

Ankaragucu will be away in Trabzon next weekend and with another attacking performance like this we can hopefully expect them to return with all 3 points and maintain top spot.   The ball is well and truly in the players hands now !!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim