well, that was a one hell of a disappointing end. last seconds of extra time, besiktas have a corner, the ball comes off our man kerem and then besiktas slot it home to knife us in the heart. the besiktas ankara yalakalar start singing and even decided to give us genclerbirligi fans shit and for the first time i have ever seen genclerbirligi fans were trying to get past the police to have a go at the besiktas lot. i won't say "we woz robbed" but i will say that referee yunus yildirim is a complete and utter incompetent idiot.
genclerbirligi 1 - 2 besiktas
i'm actually finding it very difficult to write this at the moment, a few hours after the match, because i am still very pissed off. pissed off with the referee, pissed off with the scum from ankara who supported besiktas and, obviously, pissed off with the result.
but let me start off on the happier start of the evening. tickets for tonight's match were 55tl each and so we had plenty of scroungers show up at the chopin bar trying to get one of our spare season tickets. those scroungers included sir eski kanka wearing his ankaragucu shirt, our contact for all things romanian dan, darts finisher oguz, and legal kanka saadet.
other attendees at the chopin who showed up with their own season tickets were good old alpine kanka wolfgang and his son chris (whom we really ought to find a kanka name - he comes to all the matches after all), flying dutchman kanka carlo and one of the teachers from chris' school, robbie.
beers and kofte and then off to the stadium (thanks for the lift yankee kanka - who also managed to scam one of our season tickets).
inside and we met up with jose and his son (who managed to get in with just a single ticket) and then off we went.
the rest of this report is going to be angry. i am not a happy man. for once though this is not because of the way we played. genclerbirligi outplayed besiktas from start to finish. we played attractive football. we got the passes going. we were streets ahead of the league leaders.
but from the very beginning it was clear that the referee was in awe to besiktas. fouls were given against us that wouldn't have been given in an under 5s match. dan and i stood there in amazement as foul after foul were awarded against us. i was ropeable.
still we attacked and attacked. nothing all too dangerous though as we just couldn't manage to get the right balls in. still, this was some of the best football we have played this season, all we need is a bloody decent striker. please please please sell isaac promise. as for besiktas, their defence was damn good.
then came the moment which to me summed up the match. the ball hits besiktas player ibrahim toraman in the face, we get the ball and start a promising attack down the right. ref yunus yildirim blows his whistle as poor ibrahim is hurt. bloody annoying sure, there was no foul or anything. then the referee decides to act as if yildirim was his own son!. "are you okay, would you like me to rub your nose better". toraman finally makes it over the sideline and the referee was still asking the bloke how he was. the genclerbirligi players are standing around wondering what the bloody hell is going on. a player is "injured" he is out of play, what the hell is the referee doing going over to the bloke, arm on shoulder of course, asking him how he is? play should be continuing. the referee had already snuffed out our attacking move. then, when toraman comes back on (which of course is straight away) the referee went up to him once again to ask how he was. i was livid.
half time and it was 0-0 and the general consensus amongst us gencler fans was that we were doing well, despite the efforts of the referee.
play continues in the second half much as the first except now the besiktas players understand that they have the referee in their pocket and perhaps go a bit too far as we actually receive the odd foul. we were still singing away when besiktas receive a free kick outside the penalty area. it is taken well and a besiktas player who should have been followed manages to get his head to it and just past our keeper. 0-1.
oh, i forgot a bit beforehand when really besiktas should have scored but instead someone or other hit the crossbar from a distance of about 10 metres.
unbowed, genclerbirligi continue to attack. the ball comes in, grandpa okan ozturk heads it in, besiktas heads it out and kerem has a strike from outside the penalty box and gets it past rustu (who, by the way, is a complete berk who would do well with his attitude not to visit the shadier parts of sydney on any given saturday night). 1-1.
the besiktas fans for the first time in the night are silenced. they knew their team was being outclassed and hopefully some of our chants about how they were all "istanbul cocuklar" (when of course they are all from ankara) were pissing them off.
the match was almost over. cakir had one hell of a shot on goal that just missed and then the match descended into farce.
besiktas are attacking. the ball is in the penalty box and a gencler player goes in to tackle. nothing in the tackle at all, nothing that even referee yildirim could see... but now the linesman decides to act the wanker. he raises his flag (indicating that a foul had taken place) and then lowers it again when the referee screamed play on. the besiktas players are furious. play continues but four of the besiktas players are around the referee. i would have assumed at least one card, but of course, not tonight. if you are an istanbul team you can intimidate all you bloody well want. we are going for the counterattack at this stage and in one hell of a good position when ibrahim toraman, the bloke whom the referee looked after so well earlier in the match, kicks the hell out of mehmet cakir. it should have been red, but was only a yellow.
meanwhile the besiktas yalakalar are screaming "ibne hakem" as if the referee had been on our side all night.
a few minutes later and besiktas got the corner and the subsequent goal which destroyed us.
i'm gutted and pissed off. the referee was a joke and the besiktas ankara fans were a disgrace. makes me glad that they were beaten 8-0 by liverpool.
by the way, legal kanka saadet and jose, can i have those season tickets back please.
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