it wasn't until the very end but gencler managed to pull off a draw against bursa wednesday afternoon. the draw saw us slip a place or two on the table but the hunt is still on.
genclerbirligi 2 - 2 bursaspor
with snow everywhere and a kicking off time of 3:30 pm little oz kanka and myself decided to watch the match at the red lion club. we were the only patrons there but we had 11 friends to watch on the telly.
kick-off and gencler played their usual possesion game. a couple of chances thanks to good runs down the wings from hursut and yasin but the goal just wouldn't come as the bursaspor keeper kept everything out.
there was a bit of a disaster as curri got stretchered off after 11 minutes or so after falling awkwardly and with both ante kulusich and aykut demir still injured (they should be back for the next match) we were down to our third-string defenders.
bursa's only chances came from counter-attacks but each one of those looked dangerous and it was in the 40th something minute their first goal came. former ankaragucu player sestek sent in a perfect cross from the right which was wonderfully headed by someone. the red lion went quiet but gencler looked like they could get back into it... oh.
gencler were given a free-kick for some reason or another somewhere deep in our side of the field. ergun then inexplicitly kicked it pretty much to a bursa player who took a shot and ... goal. the red lion was so quiet this time as little oz kanka started screaming at the telly. dear oh dear ergun, that was just stupid.
second half seemed to be going along listlessly and i got a call from the missus ordering me to get home at once because we had been summoned by no less than the prime minister to attend dinner and soft drinks. so just as the gencler coach replaced a defender with midfielder azofeifa, his first run since being injured about four weeks ago, little oz and me trudged off.
as i was getting ready back home little oz screamed out "yes!" he had somehow got onto a football scores site and had discovered we had scored. not long later came another louder scream as we scored again in the depths of injury time. and that's how it finished.
i have no idea how our goals were scored, all i know is that we had the draw. we should have had the win, but to come back from 2-0 down is a pretty good effort.
off to dinner with the prime minister only to discover that 3,000 others had also been invited. hmmph.
