Greetings Kankas
and Kankies.
There can be no
excuses for Ankaragucu’s inept performance last night when Ismail Bey fielded
his strongest line-up with the exception of Pinto, who is perhaps injured.
As Harun said
post-match, there were only two serious efforts from Ankaragucu on target during
the match and both were well saved by the impressive Boffin in goal. That statistic is unacceptable for what was
a ‘home’ match !
ANKARAGUCU 0
Antalyaspor 1
Team – Hopf,
Alihan, Erdem O, Sedat, Faty, Yalcin, Mehmet Sak, Putsila, Mokhtar, Bifouma and
El Kabir.
Substitutes –
Ilhan, Kenan and Cerci
The kankas
met-up at The Anasonn Bar – Maniac Kanka Harun, Nurer Kanka, Kenan and
Ufuk. We were also joined by two of my
previous High School students, Berkay and Ozgur. Berkay is an Ankaragucu supporter and Ozgur
supports Genclerbirligi !
Ankaragucu
started brightly enough and almost scored in the 3rd minute. Some nice short passing moves on the right
resulted in the cross coming over, only for El Kabir to head his effort just
past the post.
One minute later
and Antalya gave a warning signal. A
blunder from Bifouma just outside the penalty area gifted the ball to an
Antalya attacker who probably couldn’t believe his luck. He evaded a tackle and his shot rebounded
off the post and into Hopf’s hands. A
lucky escape for Ankaragucu !
There was a
further scare for Ankaragucu 6 minutes later when a cross came in from the
right but there were no takers and the ball drifted just past the left post.
The crucial goal
came 8 minutes later when Antalya was awarded a free kick on the left just
outside the penalty box. Hakan sent in
a low shot into the crowded penalty area which unbelievably evaded all the
static Ankaragucu defenders and took a very slight deflection off ‘someone’ to
deceive Hopf and in it went to put Antalya’s tails up !
Ankaragucu
should have equalised in the 24th minute but Mokhtar’s effort was
well saved by Boffin. Mokhtar had
picked up a loose ball from an Antalya defender’s mistake and took off with
only Boffin to beat. However, instead
of curling his shot into the inviting space to the right of Boffin, he sent his
shot straight at the goalkeeper who was able to parry it and put the ball out
for a corner. A golden opportunity
missed !
Leading up to
the half time whistle and Hopf came to the rescue on two occasions with great
saves from goalbound efforts.
Ankaragucu
started the 2nd half in determined fashion but there was no cutting
edge in their attacks. Also, the
Antalya defence had an excellent match and were soaking up the pressure easily
which came their way.
Ankaragucu
continued to press forward but for all their huffing and puffing they managed
only one serious attempt on target. A
cross came in from the right and Ilhan met it and bulleted a header in which
brought us all off our chairs. BUT,
Boffin made an instinctive point blank save to frustrate us all.
Antalya almost
caught out the Ankaragucu defence on a few occasions as Ankaragucu pressed forward searching for an equaliser,
but Hopf was having none of it with some fine saves.
Faty had a great
chance to find the equaliser with 4 minutes to go but his header from a right
wing cross went flying past the post.
Well, in all
honesty Antalya deserved to take the 3 points, but on another day it may have
been a different story. There was too
much dithering in Ankaragucu’s play and their one touch passes were going to
Antalya players most of the time.
Also, there was no cohesion between midfield and in attack last night
with too many players having an ‘off day’ !
So, time to stop
dreaming of that Europa Cup slot and concentrate on consolidating a mid-table
league position.
The Kanka Group
are now focused on next Saturday’s match in Bursa and the arrival of our
Prodigal Son, Bellshill Kanka Nadeem who is flying over for the match from
Scotland. The Kanka Group will be
going to the match in a mini-bus and we know that we will be given a warm
welcome by the Bursaspor fans.
There will be
lots of photos of the event up here next weekend. Bring it on !
All the best
from Eski Kanka Jim
Thanks for the report Jim
ReplyDeleteFirstly, the pitch at Yenikent is a disgrace for any top flight football match in October. If you look at most of the pitches in Turkish Super Lig they are way below the standard required.
Although Pinto was missing, we can still count Bruce Dja Djede, Thibault Moulin and Thomas Heaurteux as missing from the starting line up.
Just didnt look like it was going to be our night in a game which we should be winning.
Onto Bursa at the weekend, really looking forward to it and seeing everyone again