resident of ankara, gençlerbirliği fan, french-american thomas b. watched the trabzonspor-gençlerbirliği matched in the stadium and shared his feelings and opinions.
04/12/2012 genclerbirligi.org.tr
having stopped for water and food, we arrived a little late for kickoff. the passage through metal bars and metal detectors was done with köfte sandwiches in our mouths. as we passed through security, nothing could be heard above us but the chanting of the home crowd. a not so familiar excitement ran through my body up to my scalp. for only the fifth time since i’ve lived in ankara, i was once again at 19 mayis stadium to see gençlerbirliği play some football or, as we call it in my country, soccer.
what greeted is inside, besides the pounding chants from the fans in red and black, turned out to be a kind of bad omen: a barely seen, hasty corner kick turned into a goal as we were making our way to our seats. we turned and stared in disbelief only a few rows up the bleacher steps. after a moment’s shock, we picked some seats level to the player’s heads on the field. i began to settle and enjoy the greenness of the pitch, the movement of the players back to the line after the goal and both teams’ rival chants echoing throughout the old stadium. there was a slight, crisp ankara wind blowing around the place and no rain showers in sight.
because our seats were head level with the men on the field, i could comfortably observe most of the gençler players and did what i always do at sporting matches—looked for my favorite footballers. hurşut looked as lively and excited as ever, running up and down the right side with his usual passion for possession. ramazan was standing, stoic and impassive, yet to be tested in these first minutes. jimmy durmaz had already made a nice move or two for the home crowd’s pleasure, and mehmet sedef was sporting a new moustache which made him look like a player from times past. he also looked ready to do some serious defending.
the ankara side played well after the initial goal and were starting to slowly find cracks in the black sea defence. i thought an ankara goal was imminent. the wind had stopped blowing a bit and the weather turned a little warmer. right on the 17th minute mark there was a foul called on gençler in their half of the field. quickly, the players gathered around the kick spot. a minute passed as the referee moved around the middle of the player’s huddle, and i used the time to clean seeds from my pants. suddenly, a loud “‘booooooo!!!!” rang out from the fans on our side. as always, i felt like the last one to see or know what was going on. the small man in yellow had raised a red card and a lonely gençler player was making his way off the field. i scanned fan faces for answers. there was shock and hurt in a lot of their eyes. many were also laughing in disbelief, not knowing why the ref had made the motion. as a relatively new fan of the team, i was also disappointed but not as much as some of the die-hard supporters. for the time being, i lived vicariously through more seasoned fans.
trabzon played relatively well and kept possession of the ball during the first half and into the next. a second trabzon goal came from the brother of hamid, the one whose name i always forget. the red and black had moments of dazzle but never got a clear goal scoring chance. not with 10 men on the pitch. they kept refusing trabzon’s advances into their side until a third goal silenced the crowd. by then, we were well into the second half of the match but the gençler fans, myself included, continued with chanting and nervous ticking. i watched a large man in a leather jacket chain smoke cigarettes. he would take a puff, twirl the cigarette in his hand, touch the burning tip, re-position it, blow smoke on it then take another puff. and then take another cigarette. i joined him in his nervousness and so did the long-haired, bearded, sociology phd. candidate-looking guy seated to his right.
when the fourth goal came towards the end of the game, the crowd was settled and the big man never missed a beat with his smoking acrobatics. it was great to see that many of the fans continued to watch determinedly and still enjoy the game. everyone was smiling (or spitting seeds) and having a good time. the wind picked up again as the hours got late. i had been to other team’s matches in turkey where many fans left early if the home team was losing. everyone here was present to enjoy the atmosphere, to feel the struggle of the game, or to share a moment with a friend or a stranger. win or lose.
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