Greetings Kankas
and Kankies.
Ankaragucu was
yet again forced to play without their two main strikers who are both injured,
and also without two other front men.
I don’t hold this up as an excuse for their recent results since all
professional teams should have a Plan B, C and D to cover these
exigencies. However, it has certainly
been a contributory factor which has set the alarm bells ringing with only 4
matches left to save their season !!
Embiya from the
Youth Team was brought in for his first start, but gave way to Emre in the 2nd
half. He is a young man with
potential but was not ready for a ‘baptism of fire’ to play up front on his own
in such an important match.
ANKARAGUCU 0 Gaziantep 1
Team – Korcan,
Atila, Sarlija, Kulusic, Kitsiou, Ibrahim, Lukasik, Pinto, Alper, Endri and
Embiya
Substitutes –
Emre, Diousse, Cetin and Orkan
We had to wait
until the 20th minute for the first real action when Pinto broke
away on the left and sent his cross into the box, Embiya’s shot was blocked and
the follow-up shot by Endri was way off target.
On the half hour
mark Lukasik made a vital tackle to thwart an Antep forward shaping up to
shoot.
Approaching half
time and Alper had a shot from just outside the box but it was just over the
bar.
So, a pretty
even 1st half with no clear-cut chances to give both goalkeepers any
problems.
3 minutes into
the 2nd half and Dico had a chance to put Antep ahead but his shot
was past the post.
6 minutes later
and Ankaragucu’s only chance in the match came when Endri sent in a goal bound
shot which produced a great instinctive save by the goalkeeper.
Still Ankaragucu
kept pressing forward searching for the vital goal and it was full back Kitsiou
who almost found a way through.
Firstly, he sent a shot high and wide of the left post, then he was
there again to send his header over the bar and another shot which went over
the bar. There is no denying his
willingness to get himself forward to assist the attackers but perhaps on
another day one of his efforts might have gone in !!
10 minutes to go
and some great play by Alper to work his way into the box past 2 tackles, but
his final pass went astray and the chance was gone.
So, with only 5
minutes left to play, I had settled for 1 point, and to be honest, I was
grateful for it. However, then came
the game changer !!
An Antep innocuous
cross came in from the right, and in an error of judgment, Korcan came off his
line to intercept but he totally misjudged the flight of the ball which went
well over his head to an Antep attacker on the right. He crossed quickly for Sousa to tap-in
for the easiest of goals with Korcan and the defence all at sixes and
sevens !! The TV camera zoomed in on Hikmet Karaman
and his facial expression said it all
!! A sickening end to the
match for Ankaragucu who could not be faulted for their efforts.
So, as i said
earlier, there are only 4 matches left to get the show back on the road and the
door is not closed yet. Ankaragucu is
in 6th bottom position, but the points difference between 4th
bottom and 10th bottom is only 5 points, and there will obviously be
a tense struggle in the final 2 weeks of the season.
Therefore, it is
to be hoped that Borven and Badji are fit to play on Monday against fellow
strugglers Basaksehir who have been in good form over the past few weeks. Every point is now vital to avoid moving
into the bottom 4. !!!
As always, watch
this space for the outcome.
All the best
from Eski Kanka Jim
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