the heat was oppresive. sitting in our sweat at the chopin bar on saturday afternoon/evening was viking kanka jens, brummy kanka amelia, spine, stein (a kanka whose name we have yet to figure out - more on that soon) and myself. there were also about 30 gencler supporters who have now decided that the chopin is the place to meet.
it was with great relief when the heavens opened up. unfortunately this was just a brief storm and so with the thermometre still showing 40 plus we jumped into the taxi (admittedly we had had a good three hours of drinking beer by this stage).
sitting in the good seats on the half-way line and we were up for it. the crowd was not enormous but voices were in full cry.
those voices got even higher on the 5th minute mark when mehmet cakir had what i thought was a wasteful shot on goal from outside the box. the ball curved around and went into the back of the net. cakir, you are a genious.
nothing much for a while except for the referee giving umpteen dozens free kicks to ankaraspor. this was real pathetic refereeing. the slightest nudge by our defence was adjudged to be an infringement.
and thus from one of these "infringements" ankaraspor were given a free kick from about 30 metres out from the goal. our keeper gokhan buggered up completely. he didn't get the wall sorted out and wederson managed to send the ball into the right-hand corner. 1-1 and considering that neither team had managed bugger all i was all ready for a draw.
half time and we were all feeling a bit depressed.
but then came the redemption we deserved. in almost the same position as the ankaraspor freekick that resulted in a goal, the referee forgot all about melih gokcek and gave us a freekick.
mehmet cakir took the shot and it somehow or other came off engin baytar who managed to get it passed an outstretched kingston. 2-1 up and we were one happy bunch of gencler fans.
not a lot else except for the odd scary moment towards the end.
all up i'd say that, as usual, isaac promise had a crap game, as did okan ozturk. risp at the back was brilliant, some of his last ditch tackles were fantastic. traore was also fantastic at the back, and i thought that haminu looked bloody good when he came on and it should only be a matter of time before he gets amongst the goals.
2-1 at the end of the match and we were happy campers until the police decided to get heavy. one of our fellow maraton supporters got arrested for nothing at all and we, good friends that we are, decided to leg it and go to another pub. i'm sure he is okay... and if you are reading this my arrested friend we wish you the best of luck... but hey, we were thirsty and needed another beer.
in the meantime, it would be nice if a copper reads this and realises that us gencler fans are not evil. as for crowd control, ever thought of taking a look at a match in europe?
