Greetings Kankas
and Kankies.
Ankaragucu
spurned the opportunity of moving 6 points clear at the top of the league last
night, but still remain in top position, but only 3 points ahead of Umraniye
with the chasing pack of Bandirma, Eyup, Istanbulspor and Erzurum closing in
with an eye on promotion to the Super League.
Ankaragucu was
defeated last night by their defensive frailties in the 1st half
when they failed to deal with the pace of the Eyup attackers. That is no criticism of Ankaragucu’s
endeavours, but the bottom line is that for all their attacking play they were
not clinical enough against an impressive Eyup team.
However, with their
never say die attitude, there is still cause for optimism, but Ankaragucu needs
to translate that into 3 points next Saturday
!!
ANKARAGUCU 2
Eyupspor 3
Team –Akin,
Erdem, Yusuf, Sinan, Yasin, Ishak, Abdullah, Aatif, Zahid, Ariyibi and Owusu
Substitutes- Eren, Murat, Geraldo and Hasan
Eyup was first
out the traps and had Ankaragucu on the back foot in the early stages of the
match. They almost opened the scoring
after only 2 minutes when Sinan was caught dithering in the box and was
disposed by 2 attackers. The shot was
parried by Akin and a defender was in the right place to sweep up and send the
ball out for a corner.
It only took
another 12 minutes for Eyup to open the scoring with a sweeping move started in
their own half from a throw in. The
long ball was played forward to Rodrigues who outpaced 2 defenders and sent in
a fierce shot for a classic goal.
7 minutes later
and it was two when danger man Rodrigues outpaced defenders on the left wing
and sent in an inch perfect cross for Ogulcan to bullet a header in with the
defence again a split second behind to pick him up.
Some teams would
have crumbled at this point, but to Ankaragucu’s credit they continued to press
forward and their heads didn’t go down.
6 minutes later
and Ankaragucu was back in the match with a controversial goal. A free kick on the left was swung over and
headed in by Sinan, but the ball went through a hole in the net. The referee initially gave a goal kick, but
after protests by the Ankaragucu players and after the 4th official
had spoken to the referee the goal was given. The ground staff and one of the linesmen
will have a ‘smack on the wrist’ today
!!!
The equaliser
came 5 minutes before half time and was a goal worthy of winning any match and
well crafted by Aatif and Owusu. Aatif
played an accurate cut-back on the right to Owusu who avoided 2 tackles and
sent his shot inside the left post with perhaps a slight deflection on the way
in.
An impressive
fight back by Ankaragucu to go in all square at half time !!
We were full of
expectation of Ankaragucu winning this match at this stage, but only 2 minutes
into the 2nd half and Eyup scored the winner. A free kick on the left was sent into the
box and Ogulcan was there first to flick the ball inside the right post. There was a suspicion of offside, but
.......... without VAR the goal stood.
To their credit,
Ankaragucu pressed forward to find the equaliser again and they almost did when
Owusu scuffed a shot when in a good position and the ball was retrieved by the
goalkeeper. Aatif hit the bar with a
shot near the end, but Eyup held on and saw the match out.
Disappointing
........... yes, but as I said earlier, Ankaragucu is still on top of the
league with another crucial match coming up next Saturday. Ankaragucu travel to take on 2nd
top Umraniye in a match which could very well have a major bearing on which
team ends up as Champions and which team has to settle for runners-up.
This match will
be the acid test of Ankaragucu’s season, so as always, watch this space for the
outcome and the details.
All the best
from Eski Kanka Jim
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