Ankaragucu 1-1 Amedspor match report!

Ankaragucu were held to a 1-1 draw in Diyarbakir with Amedspor which now leaves them 6 points behind leaders Manisaspor who won 1-0 at home against Gumushanespor. The match was shown live on Ozgur Gun TV but unfortunately their internet channel crashed due to the sheer number of Ankaragucu fans who had tuned in. That in itself shows the gulf in size between these two clubs, unfortunately the quality on the pitch is about similar in standard.

Team - Turgut Kirveli, Goksu Alhas, Adem Saglam, Volkan Geyik, Mehmet Tasci, Salih Sefercik, Muhammed Gonulacar, Omer Bozan, Emrah Bozkurt, Sertan Vardar, Timur Kosovali

Subs - Altay Bayindir, Onur Atasayer, Sedat Bayrak, Hasan Ayaroglu, Hasan Kaya, Gurkan Alver, Teoman Erkan

Ferhat was replaced in goal with Turgut due to injury and Ankaragucu decided to stick with the same formation that saw them win 2-0 at home against Kocaeli Birlikspor. Myself and Damon managed to catch parts of the match due to a link through Periscope. We both agreed that the standard of football at this level is woeful and horrible to watch.

Ankaragucu struggled to put any passes together and the only players who showed any decent attacking quality were Hasan Ayaroglu when he came on as a sub and Omer Bozan. Its difficult to see this Ankaragucu becoming champions unless they go into the January break no more than 6 points behind Manisaspor and then make some quality additions to the team.

It was the home side who took the lead in the first half after the referee awarded a penalty due to a handball in the Ankaragucu box. Former Genclerbirligi striker Deniz Naki stepped up and scored to make it 1-0 Amedspor.

The score remained that way until mid way into the second half, Hasan Ayaroglu delivered a nice cross into the box from a free kick, Volkan Geyik headed the ball back across goal and Timur Kosovali was on hand to head the ball past Serkan in the Amedspor goal to make it 1-1.

Neither side created any chances for the remainder of the match and neither could argue about the 1-1 draw. Its now 1 win from their last 5 games for Ankaragucu with 1 game remaining until the winter break.

That match is against on form Tuzlaspor next Sunday at home while Manisaspor travel to Sivas in a huge weekend for both clubs. The match preview will be here on the blog midweek.

Rubbish all round

A cold day is always a good day to go for a walk and so Spine and me walked down to Kizilay, had a refreshment stop, and then on to the stadium where we met a frozen Alex.

Genclerbirligi 0 - 1 Sivasspor

Passolig has truly killed the crowds in Ankara. There was hardly anyone at the match. Those few of us there hardly made any noise during the first half thanks to the cold and the absolute dross being played by Gencler.

It wasn't as if Sivas were playing great stuff... but, but, but....

We went behind after a nicely taken header. Half time and many long faces amongst us Gencler fans.

Second half and our Nordic players were taken off and clearly the coach had had a sharp word. This half we went on the attack but a million times too many we went high when we should have tried to penetrate. Sivas played with all their men behind the ball and they were able to easily head away our attacks.

Frustration all round.

That was Sivas' second win of the season, their first away. We are now truly in a relegation fight.

God help us next week when we play Fenerbahce. We are now truly in a relegation fight.

EDIT: By the way. I forgot to mention that we didn't have a single shot on goal. Not a single shot on goal.... asdfgghhjk

EDIT 2: Dan the Man has just reported below the line that Gencler coach Mehmet Ozdelik has been sacked. Am I being too optimistic to think that Cavcav has a brilliant new coach lined up? It is a cynical rhetorical question so don't bother answering.

Ankaragucu vs Amedspor match preview!

Ankaragucu are away tomorrow against Amedspor in the hostile city of Diyarbakir in what will be another tough match. The good news is that the match will be played live on Ozgur Gun TV meaning we can all cheer the team on and finally see an away game, for me it will be the first time i have seen the team play a full game this season on TV.

The team will go into the match full of confidence after a good 2-0 win last weekend against Kocaeli Birlikspor. However as we have seen all to often with Ankaragucu over the years, nothing is a given and the team will need to raise the performance levels even higher to bring the 3 points back to Ankara.

Emrah Bozkurt has hit a bit of form of late and showed that he can be a big player for the team this season. Not only is his experience invaluable to the younger players, but his work rate and technique are two areas that will play a big part in the teams season. He has scored 2 goal of the season contenders in the last couple of weeks and long may it continue.

Harun Aydin will miss out due to suspension and it looks like Muhammed Gonulacar and Salih Sefercik will continue their pairing in the middle of the park after last weeks success. Timur Kosovali will be hoping he can find the back of the net as he looks to hit the goal trail after a disappointing start.

Make sure you tune into Ozgur Gun TV at 1pm Turkish time for the full match live!

ANKARAGUCU DELIVER TO REGAIN 2nd TOP SPOT IN THE LEAGUE !

Greeting Kankas and Kankies.

Ankaragucu did the biz yesterday to churn out a valuable win against a useful Kocaeli team to overtake them in the league and regain 2^nd top spot.

ANKARAGUCU   2     Kocaelispor   0

It was a sunny, but very cold day, when the kankas met up at the Stadium – Cider Kanka John, Apple Kanka Erman and Genclerbirligi Kanka Alex.   We were joined by ‘Honourary Kankas’ Emir and Murat.   Emir, pictured below is a long term friend of mine and was a founder member of the famous Pegasus Group, who are now unfortunately defunct, but as you can see from his jacket, he still wears their motif with pride.  

Murat is an ever present in Maraton and has attended every away match this season so far.   Whether he will be brave enough to make the long journey to Diyarbakir next week remains to be seen !

The Stadium was not as full as 2 weeks ago, but still a good attendance considering the low temperature !    Gecikondu was full and all the other tribunes about half full.   The away end was empty and this was probably a Police decision in view of the historic problems between both sets of fans.

Team – Ferhat, Goksu, Volkan, Mehmet T, Muhammed, Adem, Salih, Sertan, Omer, Emrah and Timur.

Substitutes used – Sedat, Hasan A and Harun

Ankaragucu started out in determined fashion and should have gone ahead in the 5^th minute when Timur found himself free in the penalty box, but his weak shot was easily saved.

However, 2 minutes later we were celebrating when Omer evaded 3 tackles and calmly shot into the bottom corner.   A clinical and well taken goal.

Kocaeli’s response was positive and they looked particularly dangerous down the left wing with their No21 showing fleet of foot and keeping Goksu busy.   The No21 sent over 2 dangerous looking crosses which were well defended by Vokan and Mehmet to deny the Kocaeli attackers homing in on them.

On the half hour mark, Emrah had a great chance to extend the lead when he had a goal bound header saved.  

Half time arrived and we were reasonably happy with the performance of the team.   However, we were mindful of being in the same situation against Manisa and so were not ‘counting our chickens’.   We were all aware that a 2^nd goal was necessary to be sure of claiming all 3 points !

The 2^nd half was only 8 minutes old when the 2^nd goal arrived, and it could easily have been a candidate for goal of the season if the TV cameras had been there.   A sweeping move out of defence resulted in the ball being sent into the path of Emrah just outside the penalty box.   He had time to control the ball and send a fantastic shot to the top left hand corner with the goalkeeper nowhere !

7 minutes later there was a scare when Volkan went to ground after a heavy tackle.   The stretcher was called for and the ambulance crew prepared to take him on board.   However, after a lengthy delay, he managed to hobble off, with assistance, back to the dressing room.   Able deputy Sedat replaced him and 10 minutes later Hasan replaced Emrah who left the field to thunderous well deserved applause, and not just for his great goal, but his tremendous workrate.

With 15 minutes to go, Kocaeli was looking dangerous as they searched for a way back into the match, but the Ankaragucu defence was holding up well.   However, there was a scare on the 80^th minute when Kocaeli ‘scored an offside goal’ from a fast breakaway.   It looked a good goal from our tight angle, but the linesman was quick with his flag and there wasn’t any protest from the players.

Almost at the final whistle we witnessed some fancy close passing on the left wing between Salih, Timur and Omer, which resulted in Salih breaking away and firing in an angled shot which hit the bar and went out.

Into time added on and Harun was put through one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but he shot straight at him instead of trying to go around him.    Then a few moments later, in a confrontration with a Kocaeli player, Harun was shown a red card for an incident which we all missed, and from the re-start the match ended.

So, a crucial victory after the disappointments of the past 2 matches when only one point was won.   Not only did it move Ankaragucu back into 2^nd position in the league, but with Buca beating league leaders Manisa, the gap between 1^st and 2^nd was reduced to 4 points.

Optimism is perhaps back on the agenda for some, but with a visit to Diyarbakir scheduled for next weekend it may be premature to think ............’League Champions’ !     I would prefer to reserve judgement for now and see where Ankaragucu is at the half way point when the winter break is on us and the picture becomes clearer.

Back to The Chopin Bar we went to celebrate.   Let’s use the old cliche ............ let’s take one game at a time !!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Yet another collapse for Gencler

"Gencler need to petition to for 75-minute matches," Alex texted me after yesterdays defeat. He's not half-wrong.

Istanbul Basaksehirspor 2 - 0 Genclerbirligi

I couldn't get out yesterday afternoon and so I was playing Grand Theft Auto and had the match on the radio. I crashed my car quite a few times.

According to the radio announcer (in fact everything here is from the radio announcer), Gencler had about 10 fans and Basaksehir 100. Must have been an amazing atmosphere.

Basaksehir had a 99 percent shot on goal. Missed. Then they should have had a penalty. Wasn't given.

Then it was all boredom for a while with no one stringing any passes together. Then in the 30th Djalma had a go, off the crossbar and bounced. Did it cross the line. No says the 13th official. First half ended 0 - 0 and I sought of drifted off a bit.

Then was jolted back into the game in the 78th when Basaksehir went ahead. Oh God. Then a few minutes later they went ahead 2 - 0.

asdfghj  

Ankaragucu vs Kocaeli Birlikspor match preview!

Another huge match in Lig 2 this week as Ankaragucu host Kocaeli Birlikspor as both teams look to close the gap on leaders Manisaspor. Kocaeli climbed above Ankaragucu into 2nd spot last weekend after the Capital side were held to a 2-2 draw at Ankara Demirspor. The visitors are in excellent form scoring 12 goals in their last 4 league games including last weekends 5-0 thumping of Keciorengucu.

Ankaragucu on the other hand have struggled for goals this season and had to thank defender Adem Saglam for his 2 goals last weekend to rescue a point. He has now scored more goals this season than Timur Kosovali, Enes Kubat and Teoman Erkan combined.

Last weekend was another woeful and inexcusable performance from Ankargucu, the passing was what you would expect to see from a Sunday league amateur team, the final ball is what you would expect from people playing football for the first time, and the finishing well the less said about that the better.

Kemal Kilic has against the odds managed to keep his job, the Ankaragucu board released a statement on the website saying that he would be staying and there is an important match this weekend which they need to concentrate on.

Abdullah Halman is the form man for Kocaeli with 6 goals in 10 games this season and will be looking to add to his tally on Sunday afternoon. The Ankaragucu fans will be hoping for changes in the starting line up with Orhan Evci, Hasan Kaya and Mustafa Ozturk all in contention for a place in the team. Enes Kubat is suspended after his sending off last weekend and a few of the players could see themselves dropped from the starting line up after a string of poor performances.

The match kicks off at 1330 Turkish time on Sunday afternoon in front of another big crowd at the 19 Mayis Stadium. Lets hope this time the players give the fans the 3 points that the deserve.

Gencler's Turkish Cup preview

Err... not much of a preview but the picture below was taken a few minutes ago (about 11am) at the Kemal Ataturk Stadium in Etimesgut where at 1pm Etimesgut Belediiyespor is set to run out against Gencler.

Good luck.

Photo from Klasspor.com