Gencler lose again at home..... nothing new there

Genclerbirligi 0 - 1 Eskisehirspor

These are testing days. Genclerbirligi are down near the relegation zone and we need points.

It's not easy being a Gencler fan. We are ridiculed by the vast majority of those who live in Ankara. We are ridiculed by our own club who refuse to hold on to good players. We are ridiculed by the Ankara media in the way that they give us almost no space on their sports pages.

But I'm still a Gencler fan, but by god this is a difficult position to hold.

Watching tonight's match was painful in the extreme.

Eskisehir are not a brilliant club - pretty pedestrian in my view - but we were crap. Spine was yawning throughout the match and I can't blame him. The only reason I wasn't yawning was because I had to deal with all sorts of silly questions from Little Oz Kanka (Questions like - why don't we attack? or, Why don't we defend?, or Can we go home?). All of which makes me think - What have I done? I have forced my only son to support Genclerbirligi. What sort of a father am I?

Not only that, later on Saturday night he was telling his mother and me that when he has children he will make them support Genclerbirligi! Are we torturers? Have we subjected our unborn grandchildren to misery?

I can't bring myself to talk about the match. It was crap. The Eskisehir goal should not have stood... either there was a handball or an offside. Having said that though we certainly didn't deserve a bloody thing.

I'll continue to support Genclerbirligi, but if we keep this it up I'll soon be buying a season ticket for the second division. Not sure if even Little Oz Kanka can take that humiliation. But of course, I'll force him to take it on the chin.

Handball? Offside? Gencler go down to dodgy goal

Just a quick note before I head off for more alcohol consumption.

Genclerbirligi 0 - 1 Eskisehirspor

A pretty clear hand ball to us, a clear offside according to the Ankaragucu kankas watching at the Beer Bus. Either way, the Eskisehir goal should not have stood.

Apart from that, we were pretty hopeless. I'll post again tomorrow.

ANKARAGUCU - COMINGS AND GOINGS IN 'THE WINDOW'

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Our 'oracle' in Glasgow, Bellshill Kanka Nadeem, has put together a round-up of the comings and goings in Ankaragucu during the transfer 'window' which is shown below -

Quote.... Just over a month ago us Kankas were depressed and worried about the news that we were going to lose all players due to the Court Case. Everyone is glad that for the time being the management will continue and we can get back on with our challange for a UEFA Cup place.

There has been a lot of movement at Ankaragucu with players leaving the club and players coming in as well. First of all we will look at the players coming in.

As Harun mentioned just over a week ago, we have added Jarioslav Cerny from Slavia Prague to our midfield. The Czech Republic international was captain at Slavia Prague and can play on the left hand side or middle of the park. If he is as succesful as his international team mate Jan Rajnoch then he will do well.

Next up is 23 year old Ergin Keles who was signed from Manisaspor. The Striker is a former Trabzonspor player and was once watched by Atletico Madrid. He has a bit of height to him which is much needed in the Ankaragucu attack and will be hoping to find some of that early promise he had at the start of his career.

Former Galarasaray and Besiktas winger Serdar Ozkan is the next signing. Has good pace and skill but can be inconsistent which you are going to get with wingers. Looked ok on his debut and looks like he will be a handy player when he gets his match fitness back.

This week we completed the signing of Muhammet Turkmen from Kartalspor which i dont know anything about, midfield player who looks like he will come in as a squad player.

Another midfielder added was Mehmet Cogum from Diyarbakirspor, he came on against Bucaspor and looks a big lad in the middle of the park. Again he looks like he will also be a squad player.

One position we have finally got cover for is the left back position, Ishak Dogan has signed for the club from Arminia Bielefield in Germany.

Our biggest signing of the window so far has to be Fatih Tekke. We have signed him on a 1.5 year loan deal. The former Trabzonspor hero hasnt been able to break into the first team at Besiktas. A bit of experience added to our young squad and a quality player to get the fans excited about too.

There is still 11 days left of the Transfer window and we will be hoping to bring in one more player. A central defender must be priority as Michael Zewlakow and Jan Rajnoch are the only two players in the squad good enought to play there.

So far we have managed to keep hold of our top players, but as i said above there are still 11 days to go. According to reports tonight Red Bull Salzburg are looking to sign Robert Vittek and the deal looks to have some truth in it. Hopefully we can keep hold of him as he is an important player for us.

Players who have left the club are Muhammet Hanifi who has joined Aydin Karabulut at Karabukspor. The big defender never held down a place in the first team, not going to be a big loss and the move is best for both parties.

Mehmet Cakir has won himself a good move to league leaders Trabzonspor. Cakir was mostly used as a substitute and should have done alot better at Ankaragucu, lots of pace and skill but his final ball and shooting were very poor.

Former Captain Hurriyet Gucer has been released by the squad. A very talanted player for whatever reason fell out with the management. Its a shame as he was an important player in the team but Adem Kocek has come in and done a good job in his place.

Roguy Meye has moved to Paris FC in France's lower league. The Gabonese striker only scored 2 goals for Ankaragucu both in the cup and it also frees up one of the Foreign spaces in the squad.

Young Liberian Midfielder Tonia Tisdell has moved to Mersin on loan until the end of the season.

The most important thing is we keep hold of Marek Sapara, he is so influencial in everything we do, we have to be happy with the way the transfer window has went so far, especially as we were expecting not to have any players at all.

One other mention, our young centre half Aydin who is on loan in the Turkish Second division and who was involved in a serious car accident is on the road to recovery. He nearly lost his life and its unlikely he will play again but he still has his life and our best wishes go to the boy.

Nadeem

Unquote.

Thanks for that summary Nadeem. Hopefully the new boys will fit-in and we can see Ankaragucu climbing up the table in the 2nd half of the league. If not to a Europa Cup place, then at least to a respectable position which gives us hope to mount a serious challenge next season.

More optimism pills please !!!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

The referee

The Referee | Rättskiparen [2010] from Freedom From Choice AB on Vimeo.

Remember the fellow who allowed Henry's goal to stand and thus deny Ireland a place in the World Cup? Imagine what it must have been for him afterwards. Imagine no more as this brilliant Swedish documentary followed him for six months before the "incident".

This is one dark tale of being a professional referee. I highly recommend it.

From the blurb: "World class football referee Martin Hansson had a successful journey towards his vision in life, the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Then one dark night in Paris on November 18th, 2009, all hell broke loose..."

LEAGUE BUSINESS RESUMES

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

After all the excitement of the Cup in recent weeks it's back to the bread and butter of league business this weekend.

We can't really call the league 'shut-down' a winter break because we haven't had our winter ..... yet ! Let's hope I don't put the kiss of death on that subject and for us to experience a late winter !!!

So, to upcoming fixtures and one of trepidation for Ankaragucu for the first match me thinks, especially if we play like we did against Buca !

Saturday 22 January - Trabzon v Ankaragucu - KO 4pm
Saturday 22 January - Gencler v Eskisehir - KO 5pm

Sunday 30 January - Ankaragucu v Manisa - KO 2pm
Sunday 30 January - Gaziantep v Gencler - KO 5pm

Also, don't forget ...... sandwiched in between those is the vital Cup matches on Thursday 27 January. Haven't got KO times yet. Any idea guys ?

Fenerbahce v Gencler
Malatya v Ankaragucu

Your regular Ankaragucu reporter will be flying out of Ankara on 30 January and I'm sure Battle Damaged Kanka Damon will step boldly into the breach to update us with news of Ankaragucu until my return on 12 February ??!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

A FEELING OF DEJA VU !

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

It was just like the 'good olde days', or if you prefer, the 'bad olde days' circa 1999 when Eski was the ONLY Kanka ! The only difference was that I was in The Beer Bus Bar and not in Sahil !

A plea ..... come back Martyn, Robbie, Jamie and Steve !!!

Ooooops, I almost forgot as I was drowning in nostalgia ...... to the match, and as Oz said in the previous post .......

ANKARAGUCU 1 Buca 1

I have to say that Ankaragucu can consider themselves rather fortunate to be still in the mix for qualification. Even allowing for the fact that most of the 'star players' were absent, it was a shocking display from Ankaragucu (apart from Bora and Rajnoch).

As Nadeem mentioned in the comments of a post 1 or 2 back, lots of new faces in the line-up -

Bora
Ugur, Rajnoch, Zewlakow, Murat
Gabric, Adem, Weeks, Ozgur
Metin and Serdar

2nd half substitutes - Mehmet, Ergin and Muhammed

I was surprised at the turn-out for a Monday late KO match. All 5 Tribunes were well represented and 'noisy'. I was with some of my old buddies from Pegasus in Maraton, and Roger the Dodger Kanka joined me 15 minutes into the match.

The match started at a frantic pace with Buca on the back foot and Ankaragucu looking to nick the early goal. It almost came 14 minutes in when Serdar had a great chance after a defensive mix-up, but it was cleared before he could react.

Bora was called into action for the first time on 15 minutes with Buca gradually coming into the match and looking dangerous.

Then on the half hour mark Buca put two great moves together. The first was well saved by Bora, but the second a few minutes later was a clinical goal fashioned by the cut-back to the unmkarked Musa lurking on the edge of the penalty box, and he gave Bora no chance with a screamer of a shot.

Cue..... Eski shaking his head in disbelief and reaching for his optimism pills !

Approaching half time and against the run of play, Ankaragucu found the equaliser. A corner slung over and there was Man of the Match Rajnoch powering in to send a great header in - in hindsight he was the only player who was likely to score !

Into the 2nd half and Zewy almost made the break-through on 56 minutes with a great header which rebounded off the bar and was cleared.

Buca was beginning to take control of the match now and playing some delightful passing moves which had the Ankaragucu defence in panic stations at times. Another feeling of deja vu with the defenders hoofing it anywhere instead of trying to bring it out !

Buca almost scored the winner on 66 minutes when the Ankaragucu defence was left for dead and the attacker somehow contrived to miss an open goal thanks to a last minute goal-line clearance from (couldn't see).

It was all Buca now and Bora pulled off a few excellent saves as the clocked ticked down to the end of the match.

A feeling of relief then, rather than disappointment !

As Oz said in the previous post, it is all in the hands of Ankaragucu and Gencler to go out and WIN their last match of the group stage.

That should be another nail biting 90 minutes on the 27th January in The Beer Bus Bar !!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Ankaragucu make life difficult for everyone

Sir Eski Kanka will no doubt give us the run down sometime soon, but for those desperate to know.

Turkish Cup result.

Ankaragucu 1 - 1 Bucaspor

This buggers everything up.

The points as it stands:

Buca: Pl 4 Pts 7
Gencler: Pl 3 Pts 7
Ankaragucu: Pl 3 Pts 5
Y. Malatyaspor: Pl 3 Pts 3
Fenerbache: Pl 3 Pts 0

Remember there are only four games for each team. So next week Fener plays Gencler and Y. Malatya plays Ankaragucu.

A win for Ankaragucu away and they will be through, a draw is not good enough. Gencler need a draw against Fener. Gencler might even get through no matter what as they beat Buca. Oh maths was never my strong point.