Ankaragucu 2-0 Corum Belediyespor

Ankaragucu are through to the 3rd round of the Turkish Cup after a 2-0 win over Corum Belediyespor. They were made to fight for their win with the game being taken to extra time after the game ended 0-0 at 90 minutes.

Team line up:  Gokhan, Aytac, Metin, Umit, Kaan, Muhammed, Gokhan Erdogan, Artun, Timur, Umut Nayir, Hasan

Subs: Bayram, Sinan, Bilal, Mehmet, Orhan, Enes, Teoman

Goals game from Captain Umit Kurt and Timur Ozgoz. A good win for Ankaragucu and a clean cheet as well. Next up and away match at Adana Demirspor at the weekend.

Gokhan Akkan and Hasan Ayaroglu called up to Turkey U18 team !

Ankaragucu youngsters Gokhan Akkan and Hasan Ayaroglu have been rewarded for their impressive starts to their young careers with a call up to the Turkey U18 International team. Gokhan has been on fine form this season after a spell in the first team in place of the injured Bayram Olgun. The young goalkeeper has a bright career ahead of him and at the age of 17 has caught the eye with some impressive shot stopping.

Forward Hasan has found himself playing out wide on the left this season and after a bright start has found it tough the last couple of games. There is no doubting his ability, just needs to add to the physical and tactical side of his game.

We at the round ball in Ankara would like to congratulate both young players on a terrific achievement and wish them all the best. Its nice to see these young players representing Ankaragucu at international level.

Gencler progress into the third round of Turkish Cup !

Gencler are through to the Third round of the Turkish Cup thanks to a hat trick by Hursut Meric in their 3-1 win over Tepecikspor. The game wasn't on TV and with the early kick off team its doubtful any Gencler Kankas saw the game.

Thats one half of Ankara through, hopefully Ankaragucu can do the same tomorrow at home to Corum Belediyespor. Their will be no match tomorrow as everyone is working, but the score will be updated onto the blog with team information.

Well done Gencler on a good win.

Ankaragucu vs Corum Belediyespor match preview !

Its back to Turkish Cup action on Wednesday afternoon as Ankaragucu host Corum Belediyespor in the Turkish Cup second round. After yesterdays 4-1 drubbing at home to Gaziantep BB the club will be hoping to bounce back with a win over the Lig 3 side.

Corum have been struggling this season but recorded an impressive 4-1 home victory over Diyarbakirspor at the weekend. In the last round of the cup they knocked out high flying Lig 1 side Adana Demirspor out after a 2-1 victory at home.

Ankaragucu progressed after a 5-1 extra time victory over Igdir Universitesi, however this will be a much tougher test and the opposition must be respected otherwise Ankaragucu could find themselves on the end of another embarrassing defeat.

We have spoken the last couple of weeks about how Ankaragucu haven't been at their best, that quick one touch passing, creating lots of chances and high intensity work rate that was there at the start of the season has been missing. Maybe its because the other teams have found their form and sharpness, but this is certainly not the Ankaragucu side that should have beaten both Karsiyaka and Kayseri Erciyesspor who are both sitting at the top of the table.

Mert Erdogan was a big loss during the week and its important to get him back into the team as soon as possible. The likes of Aytac Oden, Orhan Evci, Volkan Geyic, Bilal Gulden and Serkan Sirin need to up their performances. Young Gokhan Erdogan came on as a sub at the weekend and was our best player, he should come back into the starting line up and maybe the likes of Artun and Sinan will be given a chance.

The kick off time for the match will be 1330 on Wednesday afternoon, you have to ask why the Turkish FA have decided to go with this kick off time due to the fact 95% of the fans will either be at work or school. Mind you, this is an organisation that turns a blind eye to corruption and match fixing.

Back to normal as Gencler fail again

Oguz Kanka approves the kofte. Orders seconds.

A guest post this week as I was unable to get to today's away match. Luckily Oguz and Spine decided to make the 200 kilometre hike to Karabuk. I had to follow the match on twitter as I couldn't even find the bloody thing on the radio. I did though get to learn one really cool word from this tweet from @kirmizikara

Dk 60|Kornerden gelen topta kafa vuruşunu Ramazan mükemmel bir plonjonla direk dibinden çıkarıyor 

Plonjon! Brilliant! Apparently it means when a keeper makes a full on parallel stretch to save a shot. That made my miserable day. Now on to @spinesideburn for his report.

Round Ball in Ankara guest reporter @SpineSideburn

Karabukspor 0 - 0 Genclerbirligi

After so many weeks of goals and excitement, the universe restored equilibrium this week by providing a goal-free and deeply undramatic 0-0 draw at Karabuk.

The home side had conceded five a week earlier, and spent the first few minutes utterly determined to make sure that wouldn't happen again. So determined were they to keep a clean sheet, that it took them a while to realise that Gencler were actually rubbish and were not about to score any goals. Once they twigged, Karabuk took the match to the visitors and ought to have scored, but for strong work by the back four and Ramazan.

No one looked good for Gencler. Passes went astray, Hursut was anonymous, Zec unlikely and poorly served. Fuat Capa clearly thought he had better on the bench when he took Jimmy and Zec off in the 58th minute. But his chosen replacements Oktay and Lekic were no better, and the latter looked particularly out of his depth.

The real event was the minor civil war that failed to completely break out between two Gencler camps. The top deck of Karabuk's rather nice stadium was occupied by Sweary Supporters, who were liberal with the "I" word, and directed it at our valued hosts. The lower deck was mainly Alkaralar people, who objected to the swearing. There was almost a fight. Then the police came. Angry men cried "hold me back!". The end.

Even the crowd trouble was a little disappointing. Still, Karabuk is pretty, their ground's a nice one, and we were back in Ankara for supper.

Karabuk Maraton coming shortly. Apologies for inconvenience.

Ankaragucu 1-4 Gaziantep BB match report !

Picture above taken from Amatorunsesi


Today should have been a close game between two teams struggling at the bottom of the Turkish First division. Instead one team turned up and the other didn't and unfortunately for us it was Ankaragucu who didn't turn up. There is a growing concern of late that Ankaragucu are conceding to many goals and not finishing their chances and today was no different.

Team - Bayram, Orhan, Mehmet, Volkan, Umit, Bilal, Aytac, Serkan, Hasan, Timur, Umut Nayir

Subs - Gokhan Akkan, Sinan, Kaan, Gokhan Erdogan, Muhammed, Enes, Artun


Bayram Olgun came into replace Gokhan after returning from injury, Aytac moved into midfield to replace the injured Mert Erdogan and Orhan came in at right back. It was a nice sunny day in Ankara and around 8,000 fans turned up to watch the game.

The first real chance of the game fell for Ankaragucu when Orhan Evci shot was well saved from Onur Bulut. Seconds later Ankaragucu were awarded a penalty, up stepped captain for the day Umit Kurt who sent Onur the wrong way to make it 1-0 Ankaragucu.

Then came what can only be described as the worst Ankaragucu have played since I've been a supporter. Instead of keeping it tight at the back and having some organisation, the defence fell apart and Gaziantep made Ankaragucu pay the price. First up the defence failed to clear the ball in the box, it eventually found its way to Eren Ozen who smashed the ball into the top corner to make it 1-1.

Two minutes later and it was 2-1, Volkan slipped at the back which allowed Gaziantep in, a lovely ball into the back post, the ball was then played across the face of goal which Serdar got onto the end of and made it 2-1. A few minutes later from a corner Bayram failed to deal with the cross, the ball found its way to Serdar again, and the striker smashed the ball through crowded bodies into the back of the net to make it 3-1.

Ankaragucu made a change and brought Gokhan Erdogan on for Orhan Evci. Ankaragucu failed to test Onur for the rest of the half as the teams went in at 3-1 Gaziantep BB. At half time Kaan Kanak came on for Umut Nayir.

Into the second half and it was a better performance from Ankaragucu. A couple of things that have to be noted, the first being the incredible support the Ankaragucu fans showed today, even when 3-1 down they still made a fantastic atmosphere and got behind the players. The other is the amount of space our fullbacks give the opposition, this is something Yilmaz needs to address quick or we will continue to concede goals.

Ankaragucu had a couple of good chances in the second half, the first a golden chance for Timur. The striker got onto the end of a long ball, Onur made a mistake in goal for Gaziantep which left and empty net for Timur, but the striker somehow missed as he hit the crossbar.

Gaziantep had a couple of chances of their own as the Ankaragucu defence continued to gift them chances due to silly mistakes. That man Serdar got his hat trick late on as he took the ball past Mehmet Tasci before a lovely finish into the back of the net to make it 4-1. Timur had another chance but again failed to hit the target.

Sinan came on for Hasan who had a disappointing game late on and had a good chance but failed to connect with the ball. Next up is a midweek game in the Turkish Cup at home to Corum. If we play the way we did today there could be a big shock on the cards.

Eid Mubarak from the Round Ball in Ankara !

We would like to wish everyone an Eid Mubarak or Bayraminiz Kutlu Olsen. The team today celebrated Eid at Bestepe training facilities and everyone was in good spirits. Both Mert Erdogan and Serkan Sirin spoke of the game on Sunday against Gaziantep BB.

Mert said the club would do all they can to win the game on Sunday and would like to wish everyone Eid Mubarak. Team mate Serkan added that the last game at home against Bucaspor 10,000 fans turned up to support the team and were let down by the team, they hope they can make up for that with a win on Sunday.

Lets hope for the perfect Eid present, three points for Ankaragucu !!