friday night started out okay. just myself, dan the man, guclu and a new man in town, james, at the chopin but we got the beers in and in what should have been an omen for the evening i got pulled over by the cops at the first of the two police checkpoints and was accused of being "alkollu" for having had three beers.
immediately understanding the situation i went "dumb" and let guclu do all the talking. a minute or so later they let me through. at the second police check, the one just inside the stadium, i got through no worries but this time it was james' camera that was the problem... not the camera itself but the battery which the cops thought james was planning at throwing at the linesman (who probably deserved it).
guclu was on hand to save the day the day once more.
finally in and we get to watch genclerbirligi finally play some decent football. we were all over trabzon. pretty much completely controlled the midfield and james troisi was constantly getting past his man (he was subsequently given the highest rating out of the gencler players by hurriyet newspaper).
first half over and no goals though. i was feeling pretty up beat, as were most of the gencler supporters.
second half and a simple breakaway by trabzon led to old ankaragucu boy umit bulut scoring...
time for full on attack and gencler went for it.
shots were being sent wide though and one from a free kick hit the crossbar. match over and it was with disappointment that we left the stadium.
the match had started with gencler fans making the now familiar "management resign" chants. it ended, even though we had lost with calls for the players to take a bow. heads held high, even if the result was disappointing.
