Saturday, March 04, 2023

GENCLERBIRLIGI’s REVIVAL PUT ON ‘PAUSE’ !!

 



 

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

 

Football resumed in Turkey this weekend after a break due to the horrendous earthquakes which have devastated lots of cities, town and villages in the South East of Turkey in recent weeks.    Hatayspor and Gaziantepspor will not participate further this season, but they will both retain their Super League status for next season.    Adanaspor and Yeni Malatyaspor will also be affected in a similar way in the Championship League.

 

As for today’s match, I have to say that it was one of the most boring matches I have watched........well, until the 2nd half goal woke me up   !!!

 

Tuzla                1                     GENCLERBIRLIGI             0

 

Team – Nurullah, Erkan, Thomas, Alperen, Ugur, Yasin, Khadfi, Mete Kaan, Tiago, Gabriel and Jaime

 

Substitutes – Ivan, Enes, Suleymanay, Altiparmak and Muhammed

 

Ankaragucu old boy, Yasin, started for Gencler and I doubt he will be missed by Ankaragucu........... unless I include his long throw-ins   !!!

 

Lots of attacking intent in the 1st half but nothing to trouble both goalkeepers.    Tuzla had 3 shots on target and Gencler had ............ zero   !

 

Gencler only had one shot on target in the match and it almost produced a goal in the 60th minute when a goal bound shot from the centre of the box was heading into the top left, but the Tuzla goalkeeper pulled off a great save to tip the ball over the bar for a corner.

 

15 minutes later and Tuzla swept down the right in a fluid move and when the goal bound shot was made, Nurullah made a great save for a corner.

 

From the resulting corner on the right, the ball was sent in to the near post which was met by the tallest player on the field, Awuku, who wasn’t marked properly, and he powered in a great header inside the right post.     Gencler will not want to see a replay of this goal   !       With Nurullah on his line in the centre there wasn’t a defender guarding the right post   !!!

 

There was no further action of note and Gencler can’t complain about returning to Ankara without any points.    On the balance of play, Tuzla fully deserved to take the spoils   !

 

Gencler remain stuck in the relegation zone, but only 3 points separate the bottom 6 Clubs, so it looks like being a messy scrap towards the end of the season.

 

Another hurdle for Gencler to negotiate arises on Wednesday 8 March when they host fellow relegation strugglers Denizli.     All matches at this crucial stage of the season fall into the ‘must win’ category with every point vital to survival   !!

 

As always, watch this space for the outcome.

 

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

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