ANKARAGUCU GRIND OUT A POINT !!

 

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

 

Ankaragucu won a vital point last night to maintain their serious challenge for European Football next season.    In all honesty, it could have been 3 points after the players gave an impressive fighting performance throughout the match which has obviously been driven by Coach Emre.

 

It isn’t easy to single out players, but I have to mention Ali’s work rate, Atakan’s improving reliability in defence and Renaldo who gave the BJK defenders a torrid time down the left during the match.     Emre Hoca seems to have moulded them into a team with fighting spirit and a never-say-die attitude   !      Whether that will be enough towards the end of the season remains to be seen    !!!

 

ANKARAGUCU           1                      Besiktas             1

 

Team – Bahadir, Atakan, Mert, Mujakic, Alper, Ali Kaan, Pedrinho, Morutan, Efkan, Renaldo and Ali

 

Substitutes – Rodrigues, Hanousek, Tasos and Andrei

 

Ankaragucu was first to threaten in the 13^th minute when Renaldo outpaced 2 defenders down the left wing, but his angled shot was saved.     4 minutes later he had another goal bound shot saved.

 

However, 3 minutes later Ankaragucu went ahead when a BJK defender made a sloppy pass to a team mate which was intercepted and the ball played forward to Ali.     He drove into the box, and despite being sandwiched between 2 defenders, managed to wriggle himself free and let fly with his left foot from the left to inside the right post.    Great persistence by Ali to make the space for the shot   !

 

The Ankaragucu players were fighting like terriers and chasing every loose ball and BJK players in possession during the 1^st half.

 

Unsursprisingly, the pace of the match slowed a little in the 2^nd half with BJK having most of the ball, but fortunately they were not firing on all cylinders and it took an Ankaragucu error to assist them with the equaliser   !!!

 

It was in the 73^rd minute with Ankaragucu looking like they could see out the match for all 3 points when disaster struck.      I don’t want to point my gun at Efkan because. of course, all players make mistakes from time to time, but he chose a bad time to make his howler !   Only he knows what he was attempting, but he somehow contrived to give the ball away on the centre line when seemingly not under any pressure.    Alex Chamberlain took off with the ball with the Ankaragucu defence caught unawares.     He surged into the box with not one tackle being made and shot inside the left post.    A real sickener of a goal to concede.

 

Approaching the final whistle and Bahadir made a great save from a goal bound header. 

 

In the last action of the match Tasos scored with a header which was correctly ruled offside and Morutan sent a shot into the side netting.

 

Anyway, as I said, it was a hard earned point which keeps Ankaragucu in the mid-table area of the league with still all to play for.

 

Up next is another home match on Monday 11 December against Rize who are 4 points above Ankaragucu in the league.    Needless to say that this is one of those MUST WIN matches to move into a serious challenging position in the top half of the league.

 

However, prior to that we turn our attention back to The Turkish Cup.     Ankaragucu will be at home on Thursday 7 December against Iskenderun in the 4^th Round.

 

As always, watch this space for the outcome of both matches.

 

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim