Greetings Kankas
and Kankies.
Ankaragucu lost
their way in the 2nd half last night, and not for the first time
this season, conceded the winning goal just before the end of the match. Having looked as though they would share
the spoils, it was a bitter pill to swallow.
This defeat
moves Ankaragucu back into the relegation zone which means that, with 2 matches
remaining, their Super League status is not totally in their own hands.
They sit in 4th
bottom position on 38 points, 2 points behind Kayseri and 5 points behind
Kasimpasa and Antalya. So, that means
that Ankaragucu is now looking at Kayseri to drop points, and at the same time,
win their remaining 2 matches against Kasimpasa and Alanya.
A tall order perhaps,
but all is not lost ...........yet !!
ANKARAGUCU 1 Fenerbahce 2
Team – Ricardo,
Kitsiou, Kulusic, Sarlija, Atilla, Ibrahim, Endri, Alper, Paintsil, Saba and
Badji
Substitutes –
Atakan, Pinto, Geraldo, Lukasik and Erdi
It was a
promising start by Ankaragucu as they rushed into the lead in the 2nd
minute of the match when Alper punished a slack back-pass and steered his shot
inside the right post.
Ankaragucu
continued to attack and Alper had 3 more chances to increase the lead, but two
shots and a header were all off target.
As half time
approached we could have been forgiven for thinking that 3 points was a possibility,
but all it took was a simple mistake to allow Fener to go in at half time with
a spring in their step.
Surely it’s not
too difficult to understand that if there isn’t a colleague free at a throw-in
then the sensible thing to do is to send it back to a defender or the
goalkeeper to keep possession and build another attack in a different
direction ??!! The whole idea of having a throw-in is to
keep possession !!!
Ankaragucu had a
throw-in near the half way line and Kitsiou elected to propel the ball along
the line in the hope of finding an Ankaragucu head. However, with everyone covered by Fener players,
the ball went to one of them and was quickly played across the field to
Valencia who outpaced the Ankaragucu defence as they tried to scuttle
back. He then made a cut-back from
the right to the unmarked Ozan on the left who had the simplest of task of
firing in the equaliser.
Shortly after
the resumption Alper had another chance to put Ankaragucu ahead again, but as
he bore in on goal on the right he elected to shoot but it was well saved by Harun. If he had looked up before shooting, he
would have seen 2 unmarked Ankaragucu colleagues on the left waving their hands
frantically for the cross !!
It was mostly
all one way traffic towards Ricardo in the 2nd half as Ankaragucu
fought a rearguard action to at least win one point. Ricardo was in excellent form as he saved
time and time again, especially in the 64th minute when he saved a
point-blank header in the 6 yard box.
The last 10
minutes of the match was nail-biting stuff with the Ankaragucu defence under
constant pressure. Passes were going
astray and they were conceding free kicks on a regular basis as they tired in
the closing minutes.
Ricardo and the
defence were destined to become heroes as the match went into time added on,
but football can be cruel sometimes.
It was 90 plus 5 on the clock when a Fener cross came in from the right. Erdi looked to have it covered, but he missed
the headed clearance and Valencia just behind him didn’t. He said ........... thank you very much
.............. as he headed in for the winner
!!
Although Fener
had 70% possession which was mainly from their 2nd half performance,
Ankaragucu will look back on this match with regret that they didn’t put the
sword in during the 1st half when they had so many chances. However, there will be no time for
dwelling on the ‘if only’ and ‘maybe’ matches with 2 crucial matches coming up
this week.
First up is the
away match against Kasimpasa on Tuesday and finally a home match next Saturday
against Alanya.
The only tactics
which Hikmet Bey can employ now is quite simple, ie, .............. attack,
attack and attack !!!
Let’s keep the
faith !!!
All the best
from Eski Kanka Jim
No comments:
Post a Comment