Karabukspor 2-0 Ankaragucu match report!

It was a brave and spirited performance from a depleted Ankaragucu side in testing conditions after heavy snow threatened to postpone the game. The Karabuk groundsmen did a great job to ensure the game went ahead but it was difficult to even watch the game on TV as the Ankaragucu white shirts blended in with the white pitch.

Team - Gokhan Akkan, Metin Aydin, Gurkan Alver, Volkan Geyik, Onur Atasayer, Harun Aydin, Hasan Ayaroglu, Gokhan Erdogan, Teoman Erkan, Levent Kale, Umut Nayir

Subs - Turgut Kirvelli, Ramazan Adiguzel, Batuhan Gulcan, Hasan Kaya, Ali Sinan Gayla

New coach Aykan Atik couldn't even name 7 substitutes as this Ankaragucu team gets smaller as the weeks go by, he can however be pleased with the way his team performed and questions must be asked why the team cant perform like this every week.

Both Hasan Ayaroglu and Harun Aydin were excellent in the middle of the park, while Volkan Geyik put in his best performance of the season with a commanding performance at the back. Teoman Erkan worked tirelessly up front but yet again Levent Kale will be disappointed by his performance.

The first real chance of the game fell to Ankaragucu after 14 minutes when a lovely Hasan corner was met by the head of Umut Nayir who headed over the crossbar when he should have done better.

A couple of minutes later and Ankaragucu nearly scored again following another excellent Hasan corner. The ball eventually found its way to an Ankaragucu player in the box who back healed the ball towards the net but the Karabukspor defender cleared the ball off the line.

Ankaragucu continued to push for that opening goal and Gokhan Erdogan almost got lucky as his cross nearly caught the Goalkeeper out at his front post but it clipped the bar and went over.

It was all Ankaragucu with the home side not having a single effort on goal, next up was a well worked free kick by Hasan and Levent who chipped the ball into the box for another headed effort to go over the crossbar.

Just before half time Ankaragucu should have taken the lead, a good ball into the box found its way to Volkan Geyik who headed over the crossbar when it looked easier to score.

Half Time

Karabukspor 2-0 Ankaragucu

Into the second half and with their first effort on goal Karabukspor took the lead. Emre Ozcan stepped up to take a free kick from a tight angle, he looked to cross the ball into the box and the ball went straight into the net with Gokhan Akkan having misjudged the flight of the ball. A real blow to the Ankaragucu players going behind after all their hard work.

Karabukspor had another couple of chances through Turgay Bahadir and Joseph Akpala who both should have scored but poor finishing saw the score remain the same.

Ankaragucu failed to create any chances in the second half as the snow looked to have taken a lot out of the legs of the players. Onur Atasayer went off injured after a poor challenge on him witch went unpunished by the referee.

Batuhan Gulcan came onto make his debut and big things are expected from the talented teenager.

Karabukspor finished the game off in the last minute of the game, young Batuhan lost the ball and from the counter attack Onur Ayik put the ball into the back of the net to make it 2-0 Karabukspor.

A disappointing result as the team put in so much effort, but as so often the case, if you don't finish your chances and don't defend properly for 90 minutes you won't get anything from matches against superior opposition.

Next up for Ankaragucu is the Congress on the 10th January which is one of the most important days in the clubs history. Depending on the outcome from that, the next home match is on 18th January at home against Kahramanmarasspor in a relegation 6 pointer.  

Ankaragucu vs Karabukspor match preview!

Ankaragucu travel to Karabukspor on Tuesday in the Turkish Cup group stages clash between the two clubs. Karabukspor won last weeks match 3-0 comfortably in Ankara and will be looking to take 3 points again as they fight it out with Sivas 4 Eylul and Istanbul Basaksehir for a place in the next round.

As Jim said on the match report thread, we don't care about the Turkish Cup, we have more important things to worry about at the moment including keeping our place in Lig 2 and more importantly the existence of the club.

Ankaragucu will go into the game without Serhat Gulpinar who terminated his contract with the club and Mehmet Erdem who signed for Goztepe. Losing those players will be a real blow especially Mehmet Erdem who has been the clubs best player.

Levent Kale has been appointed club captain and should come back into the team, and their also could be a place for highly rated Batuhan Gulcan. The Ankaragucu U17 team are top of their league table and the club continue to produce talented youngsters. That alone would be a real shame if the club did finish as Ankaragucu are responsible for bringing through many talented young players.

Karabukspor will likely field a weakened team and we can only hope that Ankaragucu can keep the score to a respectable outcome. Aykan Atik will take control of the Ankaragucu team following the resignation of Mustafa Kaplan. Lets hope he gets off to a decent start.

Ahmet Gokcek pays 22 Million tax bill!

There was another twist in the future of Ankaragucu yesterday as former chairman Ahmet Gokcek paid the 22 Million tax bill that was due during his period at the club. Gokcek has also called on Cemal Aydin, Cengiz Topal, Serdar Ozersin, Sami Altinyuva, Ertan Sumer, Bent Ahlat and Atilla Suslu to pay their outstanding tax debts to the club.

Now this news should be positive for the club, but unfortunately we don't know what the motives behind this move from Gokcek are. It now looks almost certain that he will be involved in someway along with his father Melih Gokcek. Harun seems to think they are trying to hide something as a lot of dirty work went on during their time at the club.

It looks like their are two possible scenarios on what is going to happen at the club. First option is that the Gokceks clean up the mess they made, come back to the club and merge Ankaragucu with Osmanlispor in Lig 2. That would be the honourable thing to do, it would mean paying outstanding debts that them and Cemal Aydin were responsible for.

The second option is that they merge Osmanlispor with Ankaragucu in the PTT Lig and leave the current Ankaragucu to fall to the Amateur Leagues and eventfully the club will close. I have already discussed this option with Harun, Bugra and Damon. My feelings on this scenario is that it would be the end of me supporting the club. We would no longer be Ankaragucu, we would basically be Osmanlispor with a name change. Harun and Bugra share the same opinions, i know Damon is kinda undecided at the moment, and that is simply down to his love for the club the same as the rest of us.

The first option for me is the only option, Ankaragucu have 105 years of history. Osmanlispor and Ankaraspor done have any history or fans. The congress will take place on 10th January and I'm sure we will know a lot more then. It needs to be sorted out one way or another as things cant continue like this any longer. If the second option happens then I'm finished with Ankaragucu, i would almost certainly be finished with Turkish football for them letting this happen, but i would possibly just follow Genclerbirligi as i wouldn't want it to be the end of the Kanka group.

In other news, Levent Kale is the clubs new captain after Serhat Gulpinar terminated his contract last week.

Genclerbirligi grab an away point

Genclerbirligi could have got it. A bit of luck and a bit of urgency at some points and yes, we could have won it.

Genclerbirligi 1 - 1 Galatasaray

The TFF are a bunch of jokes. This year there are bans for away fans if the supporters have been mucking up. Seems reasonable except for the fact that in the past this was a major money spinner for teams like Gencler.

So, the Saatlı away end at the 19 Mayis Stadium in Ankara was closed. Of course, that just meant that all the Galatasaray and Fenerbahce fans in Ankara who have Passolig cards simply bought tickets for Maraton. They vastly outnumbered the Gencler fans because most of us are boycotting this year. Even with the huge numbers of Galatasaray fans Maraton wasn't full. I would say that the numbers were down by about 70 percent compared to last year's Gencler v Galata match.

So it was down to a packed Su'dem pub to watch the match. Friday night, beers flowing, a big rowdy crowd singing away. Excellent fun.

Kick off and er... not a lot. Galatasaray seemed to be intent on keeping it slow and we weren't really penetrating.

Then in the 19th Galatasaray had a counterattack and scored in a one-on-one with Ramazan.

Slowly but surely the crowd at the Su'dem was getting restless. We had a couple of shots on goal (both brilliantly saved by the Galatasaray keeper) but we should have had a lot more.

It wasn't until the 72nd minute when Berat got a brilliant cross in and my favourite Romanian, after Dan the Man of course, headed it in.

We had a few more chances but failed to convert. There were some heart in mouth moments towards the end but finally the whistle went. Genclerbirligi can be pretty pleased with the result.

Mustafa Kaplan resigns!

The problems at Ankaragucu continued yesterday as Mustafa Kaplan and his backroom staff resigned from the club. His resignation follows the clubs decision to sell Mehmet Erdem to Goztepe for a feeble 150,000 TL and Serhat Gulpinar who has left the club as he looks to start his coaching career. Its also expected that Gokhan Akkan and Umut Nayir will leave the club next week after talks with Eskisehirspor and Karabukspor. Levent Kale is also a target for Goztepe.

Mustafa Kaplan only took over the club 3 months ago following the dismissal of Muammer Ozdemir who hadn't lost a game under his reign. The club claimed they had to accept the offer for Mehmet Erdem in order to pay outstanding debts to former player Michael Klukowski otherwise they would face a 6 point deduction from Fifa.

It is almost certain now that Ankaragucu will cease to exist, with Melih Gokcek getting his way and changing the name of Osmanlispor to Ankaragucu A.S. How this has ever even got to this stage is shame on the Turkish Government and shame on Turkish Football.

Ankaragucu set for mass exodus!

As Jim often says, it never rains at Ankaragucu, it pours!!! And today the club were faced with more bad news as 2 key players are on their way out with more expected to follow. The club has agreed a fee of 250,000 TL with Goztepe for Mehmet Erdem and the winger is set to join his new team after the congress.

Goztepe are also set to make a move for Levent Kale as they look to boost their promotion chances to the PTT Lig this season. Another player on his way out of the club is captain Serhat Gulpinar who has terminated his contract with the club as he looks to start his coaching career.

Its a major blow for the club loosing Mehmet and Serhat both who have played important roles for the club. Mehmet joined last season from Polatli and has impressed with his skill and pace while scoring some important goals. Serhat has been with the club for 2 years after signing from Istanbul Basaksehir and brought much needed experience to the side.

In the last couple of hours its also been reported that Umut Nayir and Gokhan Akkan are set for moves to Eskisehirspor. Both youngsters are set to leave the club in January with many surprised they didn't move on in the summer.

Losing the above players and more set to follow with Hasan Ayaroglu and Onur Atasayer also interesting clubs, Ankaragucu will be lucky to win another game this season, thats if they make it beyond January.

Genclerbirligi draw in Turkish Cup group match

Giresunspor 2 - 2 Genclerbirligi

I didn't get to see any of today's Turkish Cup match so all I can say is that we were 2-0 down at half time and somehow managed to get two goals in the second half.

Good to see Mervan getting one of the goals. He needs a bit of a confidence boost after a lean period. The other goal went to a player who someday is going to play for a big big team - Irfan Can the Coffeeman.

So, after three matches in the Turkish Cup group stage, we have won two and drawn one. We are still at the top of the group.

Happy Christmas everyone.