Greetings Kankas
and Kankies.
Ankaragucu, although
only claiming one point, gave the reigning champions as good as they got last
night.
Ankaragucu didn’t
set-up to defend, as some teams would against Trabzon, but made it quite clear
from the kick-off that they wanted all 3 points !
Ankaragucu
played some slick one-touch passing moves at times, but they came unstuck in
the final 3rd for the most part, and unfortunately didn’t really
test Ugurcan, the Trabzon goalkeeper.
This will be one of the things that Omer Bey must work on in the next
month.
However, having
said that, they fought for every ball during the entire match which was well appreciated
by the full house at the Eryaman Stadium.
ANKARAGUCU 1 Trabzonspor 1
Team – Bahadir,
Malcuit, Uros, Nihad, Yasin, Taylan, Tolga, Pedrinho, Emre, Beridze and Ali
Sowe
Substitutes –
Jese, Zahid, Tasos, Diack and Oguz
10 minutes in
and Trabzon was the first to threaten when Abdulkadir received a pass on the
right and from an acute angle his shot was saved by Bahadir at the near post
Taylan should
have done better 5 minutes later when he was put through in the centre of the
box, but instead of passing to an unmarked colleague on the right, he was
dispossessed and the chance was lost.
5 minutes later
and it was Bahadir to the rescue again when he punched a goal bound shot clear
and from the rebound a Trabzon attacker blasted the ball well over the bar.
The 1st
half fizzled out with Ankaragucu failing to put a shot on target, and for that
the Trabzon defence must take some of the credit !
Trabzon started
the 2nd half looking dangerous going forward and almost opened the
scoring 10 minutes in, but Yasin made a great tackle and clearance as the
Trabzon attacker was about to pull the trigger.
However, the
goal did arrive half way through the 2nd half when a fast Trabzon
attack caught Ankaragucu on the back foot.
The cross came in from the right and Bardhi was first to the ball ahead
of two Ankaragucu defenders and poked the ball in.
Did the heads go
down ?
No !!!
Ankaragucu re-doubled their efforts and were rewarded 5 minutes later
with a penalty when a Trabzon defender used an arm in defending a corner. Captain Tolga took responsibility and
sent his fierce shot into the centre of the goal with Ugurcan having no chance
of saving it.
It was mostly
all Ankaragucu in the last 15 minutes when they attacked relentlessly but for
the most part their attacks kept breaking down in the final 3rd, and
the Trabzon defending denied Ankaragucu the winner they searched for.
Notwithstanding,
Omer Bey in his post-match interview was pleased with the team’s performance, as
rightly he should be. He also said
that when he arrived to take over the team it wasn’t in a good shape, but he
has steadily built the team with his own player selection and is hopeful of
consolidating their position in The Super League. He was critical of the state of the pitch
last night. However, I suppose it isn’t
surprising given the number of League and Cup matches played on it recently by
both Ankara teams. Finally, he said
that he would use the World Cup break to bring Ankaragucu back stronger than at
present.
We now have to
suffer a 5 week break for the World Cup .........yawn ........ yawn !!!
League business will resume on 24/25 December
when Ankaragucu will travel to play mid-table Antalyaspor.
However, prior
to that on the week commencing 20 December, Ankaragucu will be at home to
Tuzlaspor in the 5th Round of The Turkish Cup.
As always, watch
this space for the outcome.
All the best
from Eski Kanka Jim
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