Match day in Ankara

As I write this the Ankaragucu Kankas are heading off to the Chopin for pre-match beers (KO between Ankaragucu and Sivas is at 3:15 pm) whilst us Gencler Kankas are waiting for the 7pm KO of Besiktas v Genclerbirligi.

We will be watching the Gencler match in the Knight and Flight Bar on Cevre sokak and then heading off to a party. That means no report on the Gencler match until either very late tonight or some time on Sunday morning.

Don't expect a quick Ankaragucu report either as I'm sure that lot will be heading off to the Red Lion for Scotland v England in the rugby.

EDIT: I'm not going to Knight and Flight for the match, instead going to Kizilay to a bar called Beer Bus. - Oz Kanka

0-2 Deja vu

Not again!!! Yes, unfortunately, as in the first half of the season, Gencler manage to topple Gucu, and again by a score of two to nil.

Connect Kanka Steve, Mountaineering Kankas Robbie and Judy as well as myself all made the journey to the Chopin from Bilkent.

But something was different: we actually made it to the Chopin before Eski Kanka Jim this time. I guess he just wasn’t as thirsty as usual.

No worries though. We didn’t have to wait long before he too showed up, followed not long after by Kaleci Kanka Tansu (Yankee Kanka and his cousin met us at the stadium).

On the Gencler side there was only Spine Kanka Steve, as Oz Kanka Chris had work related duties to attend to. Flying Dutchman Kanka Carlo, I believe, went directly to the stadium.

The Gucu fans quickly filled up the away section, and the Gecekondu guys and gals were in fine form. They even had a new chant to the tune of Turkey’s 2009 Eurovision song contest entry Hadise’s (Shakira rip off) Dum Tek Tek. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVM7PFHWVCw

“Dum” is right. Sounded much better with the Ankaragucu lyrics.

I believe it was also during the first half that some fans began chanting for Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek. Another group of fans began responding with the very negative Turkish “Yuuuuuuu!”.

I suppose the rumors concerning the merger of Gokcek’s team Ankaraspor and Ankaragucu are still floating around out there.

Eski kanka wrote about this in this September 10 entry from of The Round Ball, but since then I have not heard anything new. And our expert on matters such as these Maniac Kanka Harun (Come back Maniac. Come back.) is unfortunately nowhere to be found.

About the football, there is not a whole lot worth talking about. Neither team looked particulary good, and for about the first half hour or so they appeared to be evenly matched.

Serkan was in fine form and in the 35th minute made an absolutely beautiful save when Kahe drilled one from outside the penalty area.

As the first half wound down, however, Gencler appeared to be fighting harder and more successfully than we were. Nonetheless, nothing dramatic occurred, and when our players left the pitch at half time, the fans gave each player a round of hearty applause.

The second half started more or less like the first half had. Our guys were passing as often to the Gencler players as they were to each other. Gencler too were less than stellar, but at least they were giving Serkan some work to do. Gencler’s keeper Isailovic was having himself a bloody holiday.

On the up side, our fans appeared to have infiltrated the home sections of the stadium by not wearing their colors. Soon the Gucu chants were circling the stadium much as they do when we are the home team. Unfortunately for us, chanting does not win matches, goals do.

And in the 63rd minute one happened. I couldn’t see it that well from my vantage point, but according to Eski Kanka Jim, Serkan badly misjudged Momha’s free kick, and Mustafa who had ghosted in behind Serkan was able to get to the ball first. Gencler was up by one.

The rest of the 90 minutes was spent with us playing catch up. And then “In the closing minutes with Ankaragucu looking like lost sheep, a curling shot from Troisi deceived everyone, and with Serkan 'blinded' by the defenders in front of him, Troisi's quick thinking saw the space in the top left corner and went for it. Great goal!”

Following the match, the Ankaragucu chants got nastier. Targets were the ref, the management in general, and Cemal Aydin. The fans also once again turned their backs to the players.

It could have been a lot worse. I think if we had been playing someone other than Gencler, the mood would have been much darker and the chairs might once again have started flying.

When we arrived at the Chopin again afterwards, we found Oz Kanka Chris, Spine Kanka Steve, and Flying Dutchman Kanka Carlo waiting for us. They were complete gentlemen and did not rub even a grain of salt into our wounds. Chris had little Oz Kanka with him and wasn’t able to stay too long, but Carlo went the distance with us.

After leaving, a number of us picked up flowers for the women in our lives in honor of International Women’s Day.

Next week we will be at home playing league leaders Sivas (shudder shudder).

In keeping with Eski Kanka Jim’s near perpetual optimism, however, let us look on the bright side: Ankaraspor was able to take one point away from their match yesterday with Sivas and we were able to beat Ankaraspor in their “stadium from hell” last November, so anything is possible.

Highlights from the match.

Gencler v Ankaragucu

I'm working today and so couldn't get to the match (which has just kicked off). Sir Eski will send in a report later today or tomorrow.

EDIT: Not long till fulltime and Gencler are 1-0 ahead (header by Mustafa Pektemek), sounds like Gencler are putting on amazing amounts of pressure and only the heroics of Ankaragucu's keeper Serkan are keeping Ankaragucu in the game. Troisi and Jedinak are having a good game. Aussie Bruce is on the bench.

EDIT 2: Match over... Gencler win it 2-0. Troisi scores in extra time. I'm off to the Chopin to meet the kankas who watched what sounds like a good match. Check this space later on for Sir Eski Kanka's report.

EDIT 3: I found this TRT report on the match. The link is to a video on Facebook. If anyone knows how to "extract" the video so I could put it here, please get in touch.

The greatest Turk

Football columnists can sometimes go a bit over the top... but this first sentence must be one of the most over the top I've come across. Not only that, it also promotes Sertab Erener pretty high up in the Turkish pantheon of heroes:


THE PETER HUGHES COLUMN - HE'S THE GREATEST TURK IN HISTORY...
Peter Hughes; 3 March 2009

…or so the song goes.

And with the greatest respect to Orhan Pamuk, Sertab Erener, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and even Sulyman the Magnificent, you have to think that when he’s on form, Tuncay Sanli IS the greatest Turk in history.

Keep reading

ANKARAGUCU – A STRONG STORM !

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Actually, it’s not my headline – it was nicked from Hurriyet, but for the kankas at the match yesterday it was fantastic, amazing, unbelievable, super-fantastic …… OK enuff, but please forgive Hurriyet and me for getting carried away on a wave of euphoria !

The fact is that Ankaragucu has now won 3 in a row !

ANKARAGUCU 1 Hacettepe 0

We met up as usual in The Chopin Bar. Minesota Kankie Ema and her friend Larissa from Brazil for her first match in Ankara (which probably won’t be her last). Kaleci Kanka Tansu, Mountaineering Kanka Robbie, Connect Kanka Steve and Battle Damaged Kanka Damon joined us late for a ‘quickie drinkie’ and then off to the Stadium.

We were given tickets to Gates 11 and 12 so we couldn’t make contact with Maniac and Yankee if they were there ?!

Gecekondu and Maraton were full and there were the usual two groups in Kapali. I counted 13 Hacettepe supporters in the away end, but it could have been 14 – I won’t argue the point !

This was our first chance to see some of the latest arrivals in the team and overall I was pleased with their contribution.

However, the first half was a disappointment with most of the action in midfield, passes going astray and the goalkeepers not overly troubled.

Ankaragucu did have the best chance near the end of the first half when Semavi was put through with only Recep in goal to beat. I was screaming for him to cut the ball back to the incoming and unmarked Jaba, but he elected to shoot. Great save from Recep who spread himself out and saved Semavi’s shot.

Half time and still all to play for, but the kankas were shaking their heads in frustration at Ankaragucu’s feeble attempts to put Hacettepe under sustained pressure and create chances. Some of the adjectives used were ….. boring, congested midfield, uninspiring …… get the picture ?

The second half got underway with a more determined Ankaragucu performance but the cutting edge was still missing, although Jaba had a couple of near things which on another day might have produced goals.

There were still too many high balls being punted up to De Negris and when he was able to win anything in the air, there were no takers from his knockdowns and back headers. Sevami was busy beavering away in midfield and the left wing in the mould of old favourite Umut Bulut and he was my man of the match. Santos was commanding in defence throughout the match and he was Robbie’s man of the match. I agree he had a great game and is improving every match.

Ankaragucu moved into overdrive halfway through the second half with a concerted period of pressure and it was from one of those forward thrusting moves that the breakthrough came.

New Captain, Burak, played the ball out of the right side of defence and signalled for Ceyhun to make a run from midfield to the right wing. The pass was perfectly weighted and Ceyhun took the ball around a defender and sent over an inch perfect cross for the in-rushing De Nigris to bullet a header into the top left hand corner with Recep clawing air. Defo a contender for goal of the season !

Cue …… up the volume, smiles back on faces and join in the singing and dancing !

In all fairness to Hacettepe they didn’t let their heads go down, but even their small band of supporters would have to agree that Ankaragucu should have had the match wrapped-up long before the 75th minute.

There was a lap of honour from the players at the end, and the tribunes gave Hakan Kutlu a rousing chorus too. Reminded me of the scenes after the Scottish League Cup Final of 2007 when the fans wouldn’t allow the Hibs players back to the dressing room !

There was also a performance from Barbaros on the centre circle doing an impression of an Ankaragucu amigo ! Heady stuff !

Back to The Chopin for match analysis and the resulting forecast for next week’s encounter with Gencler. The unanimous decision was …… FOUR in a row !!!

Wins for Eskisehir and Denizli still keeps the pressure on Ankaragucu, but at least we are out of the 3rd bottom position. That ‘honour’ now belongs to Antalya.

Watch your in-boxes for details of next week’s meeting date and time.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

PS ……. Congratulations to Connect Kanka Steve for witnessing his first Ankaragucu goal at the 19 Mayis Stadium in 5 attempts !

Hibs 0-0 Falkirk

Hibs were credited last week of producing their worst performance of the season when they were beat 2-0 away to Inverness.

Yesterday at Easter Road they must have been close to matching their award at Inverness. Both Hibs and Falkirk were terrible and the scoreline reflects what both teams put into the match.

Falkirk probably had the best chance to score but when the final shot sailed over the bar I think the crowd accepted there would be nothing to cheers about from this match.

A lot of people are calling for Mixu to resign but I think Hibs are as well letting him go untill the end of the season. If Mixu would stop trying to fit all his strikers into the starting eleven at the expense of dedicated midfielders I think Hibs would produce more fluent football.

As things stand Hibs will soon find themselves looking over their shoulders at the bottom teams if no victories are achieved.

Looks like we are all in for a nervous finish to the season.

Dan the man

It's just a photo, but have we ever needed an excuse to publicise our members spreading the word. Here is Dan the Man midweek at the Madrid-Liverpool match