Greetings Kankas
and Kankies.
Yet another of
those matches of two halves with an impressive fight back by Ankaragucu in the
2nd half after huffing and puffing their way through the 1st
half against 10 men.
It was a
frustrating 1st half with Ankaragucu doing everything but put the
ball between the sticks, so it wasn’t really a surprise that Denizli went in
2-0 up at half time with their only 2 serious attempts on goal.
ANKARAGUCU 2 Denizlispor 2
Team – Korcan,
Cebrail, Alihan, Pazdan, Pinto, Sedat, Faty, Kitsiou, Canteros, Ilhan and
Orgill
Substitutes –
Scarione, Zaur and Aydin
The kankas
assembled in the Metro AVM Cafe near the Eryaman Stadium – Maniac Kanka Harun,
Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Posh Kanka Ahmet, Kenan and Nurer.
The match
exploded into life in the 10th minute when Barrow received a
straight red card for a high tackle into Cebrail’s head. Fortunately, Cebrail was able to continue
after treatment.
Denizli then
sneaked a goal in the 22nd minute and Korcan and his defenders must
shoulder the blame for not defending the 6 yard box which is the goalkeeper’s
domain. A free kick was awarded to
Denizli on the right touchline and the ball was crossed into the danger
area. Korcan stupidly stayed on his
line instead of attacking the ball and Mustafa bulleted a header in to shock us
all. Korcan’s first real touch of the
ball was to retrieve it from the net !
That should have
been a wake-up call for Ankaragucu, but Orgill and Ilhan both missed good
chances to equalise.
Pazdan came to
the rescue on the half hour mark with a timely interception to save a certain
goal after some sloppy play from Ankaragucu in midfield.
Then, on the
half time whistle came a reprise of the first goal from a cross on the
right. Again the ball was sent into the
danger area and again Korcan stayed on his line. This time it was Rodallega who bulleted in a
header with Korcan stationary.
Aaaaaargh, terrible defending
!!!
The 2nd
half revival started with the introduction of Man of the Match, Scarione, for
Alihan 10 minutes in. He took the match
by the scruff of the neck and showed his team mates how it should be done !
God knows what the score would have been if he had started the match, however, we
Ankaragucu supporters are thankful for small mercies !!
Prior to his
first goal, Kitsiou had two chances and Orgill one chance to score but both
blasted over and wide to increase our frustration.
At last, Scarione’s
great play was rewarded in the 66th minute when he went on a mazy
run on the left, weaving his way past tackles, and shot into the bottom right
for an outstanding individual goal.
10 minutes later
and a huge sigh of relief when Pazdan made an uncharacteristic mistake to gift
the ball to a Denizli attacker. He bore
down on goal one-on-one with Korcan who came rushing out to narrow the angle
and his shot went just past the right post.
10 minutes to go
and again Kitsiou was ideally placed to find the equaliser but he fired past
when it was easier to find the target.
However, 3
minutes later and Scarione again showed his class by firing in a great shot to
the top right with the goalkeeper well beaten.
Cue
........volume up ............ as Ankaragucu searched for an unlikely winner
which didn’t materialise, but again Ankaragucu showed their fighting spirit to
snatch a precious point.
So, despite some
heroics in the past few weeks, Ankaragucu is still rooted to 2nd
bottom position in the league, but it is still very tight at the bottom with 6
Clubs within touching distance of each other.
With the
transfer ban still in place, it is going to be a tense 2nd half of
the season. The one worrying aspect is
we must hope and pray that Ankaragucu can still pay their existing players
their salaries, and also be mindful of other Clubs hovering over their players
in the January transfer window.
If Ankaragucu
can retain all their players, then we can at least be hopeful of the team
moving out of the relegation zone at some point.
First up during
the weekend of 18/19 January is a home match against fellow strugglers Konya
and that most definitely falls into the category of a ........ must win match !
Keep watching
this space for updates.
In the meantime,
a Happy New Year to all footie fanatics who follow our reports on this blog.
All the best
from Eski Kanka Jim
Well done Jimbo 💙💛💙
ReplyDeleteGreat comeback again from Ankaragücü as the players just never give up. The two goals we gave away were very poor and could have been avoided.
ReplyDeleteNow it’s onto the January transfer window, the board are still working hard to lift it and the media are reporting that we want Tyler Boyd and Younes Mokhtar. Other reports claim Dever Orgill wants a move away from the club
Happy new year Kankas
If the transfer ban is lifted before the end of the season I will start supporting Osmanlispor ............ that's how confident I am that we are going ....... nowhere !!!!
ReplyDelete