ANKARAGUCU - THE INFLUX CONTINUES !

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

As reported by Oz Kanka recently, the demise of Ankaraspor has been sealed. The idea that FIFA or UEFA will spring to their defence in the appeal is laughable. Birds of a Feather flock together ..... and so it will be within FIFA and UEFA when all the 'fat cats' close ranks !

So, what of the players who have been left 'high and dry' ?

Well, Ankaragucu has already signed Ediz, Hurriyet, Risp and Mehmet Cakir, to name but four, who have played a vital part in the recent revival of Ankaragucu.

But, not content with that .... the Exodus continues !!

It was reported in The Hurriyet today that NINE more Ankaraspor players are on their way to Ankaragucu.

Foreigners Senecky, Brabec, Meye and Neca. Also, Turkish players Adem Kocak (returning to his previous Club), Aydin Karabulut, Ilhan Parlak, Ozgur Cek and Unut Sozen.

OK, some might say ...... oh great ..... new talent ! However, I'm wondering if we are not too top heavy - a point made by Oz Kanka a few posts ago.

Of course, it is too early to judge, but it will be interesting to see how Hikmet Karaman juggles his large squad and who he will eventually offload to make room for the newcomers.

A coach can only have so many on the bench and the players sitting in Protocol will only take that for so long.

Interesting days ahead for Ankaragucu me thinks ??!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

That's that then

Ankaraspor were officially kicked out of the league today with the TFF confirming the discipline board's decision of a few weeks ago (as we reported here).

As far as I understand the decision (you can check it out in Turkish at the TFF website) Ankaraspor won't be playing much footy this season - just the Turkish Cup - and will start up again in the Bank Asya Lig next season.

As for the rest of us, all games in which Ankaraspor played (and all which it hasn't) will be considered as three-nil losses. This means that Genclerbirligi get a two point boost as we only managed a draw back at the beginning of the season. I'll update the table when I get a chance. (EDIT - done)

The other decision is that just two other teams will be relegated at the end of the season.

Farewell Ankaraspor... you won't be missed here.

Time to resign Artukmac

It is all kicking off at Genclerbirligi with news spreading fast of an act from the deputy chairman of the club that if he has any dignity at all he should resign immediately.

Genclerbirligi Deputy Chairman Tarik Artukmac was caught during the live broadcast of the Fener-Gencler match as giving a high-five to one of the Fener directors after Fenerbahce scored their second goal against us. The man was apparently happy that a goal had been scored against his own team.



We in Ankara have to deal with all the Istanbul supporters but even if we don't like the directors of our clubs, the least we can expect is that they actually support us and not the opposition.

Uproar has ensued on the Gencler forums (fora for you Latin types) as news of Artukmac's actions spreads. The bloke has form. In 2006 for some reason or another he was on the private jet that brought Roberto Carlos to Turkey to play for... yep... Fenerbahce.

At the time he denied any involvement in organising Carlos' transfer from Real Madrid but I can't find any real explanation from him why he happened to be on that private jet. Maybe he was just hitching a ride back home.

"Apart from Genclerbirligi I haven't supported any other team and I still don't," Artukmac was quoted in the press at the time of the Carlos scandal. Mmmmm... right

Then just to add irony to the farce is news that Mehih Gokcek is going to use Artukmac's actions as a defence when he rocks up to try and wriggle Ankaraspor (and presumably his son Ankaragucu chairman Ahmet) out of the various bans they have been imposed with recently.

Artukmac has lost the support of the Gencler fans. At Gencler's next home match in two-weeks time expect the protests to be long and loud.

As the headline on the Alkaralar site says: "Yönetimde İstanbul Çocuğu İstemiyoruz!"

ANKARAGUCU SEND GALATASARAY BACK TAE ISTANBUL TAE THINK AGAIN !!

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Apologies to the author of the Scottish National Anthem for 'borrowing' some of his words !

Well, as usual, Galatasaray came swaggering into Ankara yesterday expecting a wlecome and another 'bent' referee, but they were sadly disappointed on both counts and had to slink out of Ankara suitably chastised and humbled !

ANKARAGUCU 3 Galatasaray 0

What a memorable day for us Ankaragucu Kankas after such a poor start to the season on the field and chaotic season off the field.

We met up in The Chopin - Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Connect Kanka Steve, Phillie Kanka Jamie, and 16 of the 'baby' Yank teachers from Bilkent. I forgot to ask if any of them were Confederates !

Too many to give details, but first names will suffice for now - Christa, Aisha, Kate, Kath, Natalie, Emily, Emma, Tim, James, Glyn, Paul, Joe, Andy, Zach, Charlie and Steve.

All photos and captions are the work of Zach Rosenfeld, one of the new Bilkent kankas. He took a whole heap more photos which can be seen on his Flickr page.

From the left: Jamie, Steve, Random Turk #1, Random Turk #2, Tim, Charlie, and Krista. Charlie and Krista are CSIs, and the other three are English teachers at the high school.

Random Turkish guys LOVE to get their pictures taken with Americans — even if (or perhaps especially if) they'll never even see the finished product. Whenever you take out a camera, you put yourself at risk of being approached by a random Turkish guy who wants to be in your photo album.

Unfortunately we had to sparate due to a logistics problem with the tickets. The Yanks ended up in Gecikondu where they received a tremendous welcome from the Gecikondu Boys. I will leave Connect and Philly Kankas to expand on that in the comments section.

Battle Damaged and I met up with Yankee Kanka and Huso Kanka in our usual position in Maraton near the Anti-X Boys.

Like I said, Turkish people want to be in your photo album! These guys saw me snap a picture of the simit hat guy, and asked me to take one of them.

That boy later gave his scarf to Christa, which was very sweet of him. (She refused at first, but he would have none of it). She gave him an appreciative peck on the cheek, to which all the other guys hooted and whistled. It was pretty cute.

The 3 Ankaragucu strikers were absent again. Vassell is continuing to have contractual problems, and if they are not resolved soon, he could very well be on his way back to England. Surprise surprise ........ it's financial !! Iglesias is injured and Bebbe is still on suspension after his aberration in Antalya 3 weeks ago.

So, it was a similar starting line-up to last week's in Antep, ie,

Serkan
El-Yasa, Ediz, Risp, Broggi
Semavi, Barbaros, Hurriyet, Murat Duruer
Ceyhun and Metin

2nd Half substitutes used were - Mehmet Cakir, Emre and Volkan

The Stadium was almost full and the small band of Galatasaray supporters in the 'away end' were being out-sung and drowned-out by the volume generated by the Ankaragucu tribunes.

The first half of the match was fairly even and I was thinking that if there was no scoring at half time then Ankaragucu would probably step-up their attacking options in the 2nd half. So it proved !

In the first half there were a few close things at both ends with Serkan pulling off a few of his 'agile' saves and at the the other end Ceyhun and Metin combined well to open up the Galatasaray defence only for Metin to blast the ball over.

Into the 2nd half then and Ankaragucu started to open up and attack more. However, Semavi was having a shocker of a match - it just wasn't his day. Seemingly everything he tried didn't work, and it was compounded half way through the half when Ceyhun had carved open the Galatasaray defence (not for the first time in the match) and put him through with only Franco in goal to beat. OK, he didn't do a Metin and send it skywards, but the ball hit the bar when it looked easier to score.

Amazingly, Hikmet Bey didn't substitute him but took Metin off instead !

Ceyhun also had a goal bound screamer of a free kick brilliantly saved by Franco.

Into the last 15 minutes of the match and Ankaragucu was upping the pressure. Again it was Man of the Match, Ceyhun, who did the damage. He put Murat Duruer through and he cleverly sidestepped a frantic tackle before slotting the ball past a helpless Franco with the other defenders arriving too late. A well crafted and well taken goal.

Scenes of jubilation and let's up the volume of the singing.

Galatasaray was in panic mode now and threw most of their players forward in search of the equaliser. However, this only served to leave space for Ankaragucu counter attacks and it was from one of those that Emre slotted in No2 only 2 minutes after coming on to replace Ceyhun.

Volume up yet another level, lots of 'high fives' amongst us and we are all shouting ..... uc uc uc (meaning three three three !!!).

Almost full time now and unbelievably the 3rd goal came. Galatasaray was in total disarray now and it was Hurriyet who did the biz.

Volume further up and the chant went up ...... bes bes bes (meaning five five five !!!!!). We were all on our feet now jumping up and down and singing like I haven't seen for many a year.

I would still love to know how long it has been since we beat Galatasaray by 3 clear goals (if ever) ??!!

Well done team and a rare word of praise from me for Murat Duruer who had an excellent all round performance in addition to scoring the vital opening goal.

Also, well done to the Referee, Koray Gencerler, who had an excellent match and stood no nonsense from BOTH teams. It is not often we have a referee who didn't favour the Istanbul team !!!

Holy crap! Look at all those riot police! Clearly they're used to dealing with potential mobs at every game.

Thanks to Oz Kanka for posting a link to the goals of the match and the after match fighting which we didn't see due to the fact that we left after the final whistle and before the lap of honour. No doubt there will be some comments tomorrow on this disgraceful behaviour. It is to be hoped we are not going to suffer another Stadium closure as a punishment if Ankaragucu supporters were to blame ?!

Most of us ended up back in The Chopin Bar to watch the Fener v Gencler match with Oz Kanka but it was not to be a clean sweep for Ankara as you will have seen in his report.

So, what can I say that hasn't been said about the Ankaragucu performance ? Super, Fantastic, Marvellous ?? Yes, all of them. However, can we maintain this standard is my question ?

We have to wait until weekend 17/18 October away to Kayseri for the answer to that question.

All the best from an upbeat Eski Kanka Jim

3-nil! Galatasaray got their butts handed to them.

And then there is a comment by someone who is probably more used to gridion scores:
Comments

emily.shinay says:
You know it's a good game when the scores are really low ... that's what Dad always says.

The kid on the right was about to hop the fence and run up to the team. He got one of the player's jerseys for his efforts.

Not the best end to an otherwise glorious day

Not a lot to say really. It began as a wonderful afternoon with Ankaragucu's brilliant victory over Galatasaray and hopes were high as I greeted the Ankaragucu kankas in the Chopin bar that Gencler could make it one hell of a night. It was not to be.

Fenerbahce 3 - 0 Genclerbirligi

It was clear that Gencler were up for the match, we had chances to score and at times were unlucky, but in reality Fenerbahce were a much better team, especially in their counterattacks.

Fener hit early but there was always a chance of us breaking back, even if it was unlikely. Towards the end the Ankara Fener supporters got there chance to shout at us as Alex hit his second and then the third was the twisting of the knife right at the end of the match.

Fener were too good and with Galatasaray, Eskisehirspor and Genclerbirligi all losing yesterday, they are the only undefeated team in the league. Fingers crossed coach Thomas Doll will lift the players spirits before next our next encounter (in two week's time) against Sivasspor.

ANKARAGUCU DEMONSTRATE THE 'POWER OF ANKARA' !

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

What an unbelieveable day for the Ankaragucu Kankas ..... all 24 of them !!

ANKARAGUCU 3 Galatasaray 0

I'm not going to repeat that score - it is NOT a misprint !

I'm too drunk and euphoric at this hour to report on the match, but a report will be posted tomorrow night !

Not so good news from the other Ankara team, Genclerbirligi, who went down by the same score in Kadikoy ..... grrrrrrr.

Quiz question for Maniac Kanka ..... when was the last time that Ankaragucu beat ANY Istanbul team by 3-0 ????

All the best from 'still up in the air' Eski Kanka Jim


The goals


After the match

CEYHUN ERIS

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Just heard this morning that Ankaragucu Club Captain, Ceyhun Eris, has been selected for the Turkish National Squad for the World Cup qualifier next weekend. Congratulations to him from the Kanka Group.

Who said he was 'over the hill' ? Not me, but I've heard it said (probably from Fener supporters who now realise that they released him too soon !!).

From what I've seen in recent months, this is something that has been missing in the Turkish Team. What ? A skillful player with 'fire in his belly' who can motivate team mates when the going gets tough.

So, a good enough reason to watch the match next weekend and hopefully he will be on from the start, or at the very least, come on with enough time left on the clock to do some damage to the opposition.

Also, good to see 'olde boy' Umut Bulut being selected. How we have missed a player of his calibre up front !

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim