Greetings Kankas
and Kankies.
Football will
ultimately take a back seat to the flare-up which occurred after the final
whistle last night when the referee, Halil Meler, was physically attacked by
the Ankaragucu President, Faruk Koca, and others. Disgraceful scenes which will have dire
consequences for Faruk Bey and The Club.
More details of this incident and the subsequent action taken will be
posted here soon.
However, for
now, I return to football and last night’s match ........
I have been
reminded quite a few times over the years by Battle Damaged Kanka Damon that
ball possession doesn’t necessarily win matches, and so it proved again last
night.
With Ankaragucu
playing the 2nd half with 10 men, Rize took full advantage and
boasted 68% possession, but in the end they only had 2 shots on target to show
for it !!
It was a bad
tempered match at times with Rize resorting to over physical measures. The referee showed 2 red cards and 6
yellow cards !!
ANKARAGUCU 1 Rize 1
Team – Bahadir,
Atakan, Radakovic, Mujakic, Alper, Ali Kaan, Pedrinho, Morutan, Efkan, Renaldo
and Ali
Substitutes –
Tasos, Macheda, Rodrigues and Andrej
Ankaragucu made
a great start after only 10 minutes when the ball was played to Ali just inside
the box on the right. He then avoided
tackles from 3 defenders and shot inside the right post. However, celebrations were cut short when
the referee was directed to the VAR and then disallowed the goal for a handball
by Renaldo prior to the build up to the attack.
But, 3 minutes
later and Ankaragucu found the goal when Morutan received a pass 30 yards out
and drove into the box on the right. He
sent his rasping shot inside the left post for an excellent individual goal.
Ali had 2
further chances to add a 2nd before the half time whistle. Firstly from a corner, he sent his
downward header just past the post, and then scuffed his shot past after good
build-up play.
The Ankaragucu
defence held firm and restricted Rize to zero shots on target !!
The 2nd
half was only 1 minute old when things started to go pear-shaped for
Ankaragucu. Ali, who had received a
yellow card for arguing in the 1st half, was shown a 2nd
yellow card for a clumsy push in the back on a Rize player. A foul, no doubt about it, but hardly
malicious and never deserving of a RED card
!!!
Despite being
down to 10 men, Ankaragucu should have put the match to bed in the 2nd
half as they upped their work rate and continued to attack. Tasos replaced the ineffective Renaldo and
then Macheda came on to lead the line.
The 2nd
goal wouldn’t come and that was all down to a brilliant display by my Man of
the Match, former Ankaragucu goalkeeper, Gokhan Akkan, who performed heroics.
Firstly, Efkan’s
free kick rebounded off the wall which was collected by Pedrinho who sent a
bullet of a shot to inside the right post, but somehow Gokhan got a finger to
it to push the ball around the post.
Efkan, Pedrinho
and Tasos had further goal bound shots saved to add to the frustration.
Into time added
on and Emirhan of Rize was shown a 2nd yellow card which was well
deserved after his niggling fouls and petulance throughout the match !!
Then, almost on
the whistle for the end of the match, and the cruel undeserving blow for the
Ankaragucu defence. A cross came in
which was attacked by a Rize striker when his header rebounded off the
post. Gaich who was following-up had
an empty goal as he sent the ball in via his chest for the lucky equaliser !!
A cruel blow to the Ankaragucu defence which had played so well
throughout.
As I said
earlier, details of the flare-up will be posted here by Nady soon. A punishment will obviously be given to
Ankaragucu but we await in trepidation as to its severity !!!
So, if the TFF
allows Ankaragucu to play their match next weekend, it will be an away match
against Alanya on Sunday 17 December.
All the best
from Eski Kanka Jim
