THE ANKARAGUCU KANKAS GO ON A ‘WORLD TOUR’ TO ............ BURSA !

THE ANKARAGUCU KANKAS GO ON A ‘WORLD TOUR’ TO ............ BURSA !

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

It wasn’t just about going to Bursa to see a footie match.    The main item on the agenda was to welcome Bellshill Kanka Nadeem back to Ankara, not only for his 99^th (or was it 100^th ??!!) match, but for his first away match !

Nadeem flew in from Scotland last Friday morning and the ‘welcoming committee’ met him on Friday evening to discuss plans for our mega trip to Bursa.

The Kanka Group set-off for Bursa early on Saturday morning in our mini-bus.   Nadeem, Harun, Tansu, Ahmet, Osman, Kenan, Oguzhan, Gokhan and yours truly.    Unfortunately, Damon couldn’t join us due to illness and we wish him a speedy recovery.

We met other Ankaragucu tribunes en-route and there was a clamour form them to have a photo opportunity with Nadeem.

On one of our petrol stops we had the pleasure of meeting the famous actress and singer, Hulya Avsar, and after chatting to her for a while we had a photo taken with the great lady.

Approaching Bursa and there was the customary Police Check on all the Ankaragucu buses and it also gave us the opportunity to interact with the other tribunes again.   High Tech has come to Turkey when the Police used a drone to photograph everyone.   A rare, but interesting sight !

We arrived at the Stadium later than planned due to the fact that only two turnstiles were in operation for the two and half thousand travelling fans.   To use the word ‘chaos’ is perhaps an understatement, but despite fighting breaking out among the frustrated fans, the Police managed to regain control ....... eventually.   A scary moment !

    

At last we were able to enter the impressive Bursaspor Stadium but it was 5 minutes into the match.   Oh yes, the match !    However, I don’t intend to say too much about it, probably because Ankaragucu didn’t have one direct shot on goal all afternoon.   Okan in the Bursa goal could have been forgiven for falling asleep !!

No sooner had we taken our seat than the first Bursa goal arrived, but after heated requests from the Ankaragucu players, the referee consulted his TV Monitor and disallowed the goal !

As always, there was lots of friendly interaction between the different Ankaragucu tribunes and also the Bursa tribunes.

Unfortunately, the Ankaragucu striker, El Kabir, received an injury shortly after this which left Ilhan to lead the line.   This left Bifouma and Kenan to support him.   However, as I said above, there was not one direct shot on goal, and as we all know, Ilhan is not what we could call a prolific striker !!

The inevitable Bursa goal came in the 22^nd minute and it was a goal worthy of winning any match.   A cross came in from the right to Umut Meras on the left who looped a header over Hopf who was perhaps too far off his line.

Ankaragucu’s defence was being overworked and special praise here for Alihan who was putting in some saving tackles to thwart the dangerous Bursa forwards.

It was more of the same in the 2^nd half with Bursa looking the more likely to add another goal, but the Ankaragucu defence was just grateful to clear the ball anywhere out of the danger area.

Having said that, Ankaragucu did have three opportunities to equalise.    Firstly, there was a great frun down the left by Bifouma who’s pace was troubling the Bursa defenders.   However, his cross into the box had no takers and the ball was cleared.   Where was Ilhan I was asking ?!

Secondly, Cerci was put through on goal with a well timed pass and all he had to do was beat the goalkeeper.   However, with him being as slow as a cart-horse (no offence intended towards cart-horses !!) a defender easily sprinted past him to clear the danger.

Finally, Ilhan had the chance to be crowned a hero when he was put through on the right, but instead of shooting when well placed to do so, he cut the ball back straight to a Bursa defender !

Almost at the final whistle and Bursa managed to breach the Ankaragucu defence for the 2^nd goal, but the goal was disallowed for what reason I know not !

Game over, and the Bursa players were then summoned to the Ankaragucu away end (minus olde boy, Unut Nayir, who jumped ship last season !) for applause and then there was another ‘love in’ between the Ankaragucu and Bursa supporters singing to each other.

Bursaspor    1                      ANKARAGUCU   0

Ankaragucu now slide into the bottom half of the league which heaps more pressure on Ismail Bey to have the team fully prepared for the next match at home on Sunday 21 October against Yeni Malatyaspor.

Before leaving the Stadium area, we bumped into Ankaragucu goalkeeper Altay and had a photo opportunity.

 

It was then off to Bursa City Centre for the kankas to enjoy some food and ‘refreshments’ in the company of our Bursa friends.

The journey back to Ankara was uneventful with exhaustion overtaking everyone on the bus ride back home.

So, Nadeem is still awaiting the chance to see Ankaragucu beat Bursa, but at least there is little chance that he will forget this trip, especially almost being sucked into The Battle of Bursa Stadium pre-match !!!

We wish him a safe journey back to Scotland on Monday as we begin the countdown for his next ‘home match’ !

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

PS ............ Another great win for Genclerbirligi yesterday with a 1-0 win away to Altay.   Still undefeated and the Gencler rush to the title shows no sign of slowing down !!!