Northern Cyprus Football

Esentepe Win Exciting Friendly Match

News report from Rich’s Sport………

By Graham Brown and Richard Beale…….

Esentepe Win Exciting Friendly Match.

Result: ESENTEPE KKSK 4 ALSANCAK YEŞILOVA SK 3 (friendly match).

Saturday January 9th 2016 @ Esentepe Erdal Barut Stadium.

Esentepe won an exciting friendly match against A.Yeşilova who play their football in League 2, a division lower than Esentepe. A.Yeşilova were unfortunate to lose as they were the better team for most of the match. They tried to play football and strung together some fine moves and only poor finishing let them down. Esentepe understandably were disjointed, having lost their entire midfield players (İlyas, Burak, Kaan, Umar) through injury, picked up in the last couple of matches.

A.Yeşilova started very brightly. Esentepe goalkeeper Tuğrul (coming back from a dislocated shoulder), made a couple of good saves to prevent A.Yeşilova taking the lead.

Against the run of play Esentepe took the lead in the 18th minute, when Mahmut and Mehmet broke away on the right, Mahmut made a decoy run on the outside, allowing Mehmet to cut inside and try his luck with a shot from 25 yards. His luck was certainly in as the ball hit defender Enver and was deflected past keeper Kemal who had already committed himself to save Mehmet’s shot. 1-0.

Tugrul was in action again making a great one handed save from a header sent by one of the A. Yeşilova forwards.

Esentepe increased their lead in injury time of the first half, after Emek had been fouled. Aziz took the free kick and was met at the near post by Eser who headed past Kemal. Eser had only been on the field a couple of minutes as a replacement for Emrah. H-T : 2-0.

Both teams made a number of changes to their line up and a surprise lining up for Esentepe upfront alongside Eser was Deniz Kibar who had left the Club in the summer, to pursue a full time career as a footballer with a Turkish 3rd division side. I understand the Turkish Club has money problems, surprise, surprise and maybe Deniz may return to Esentepe for the second half of the season. As Esentepe have no money as well he may also not get paid but at least he is home.

A.Yeşilova reduced the lead in the 62nd minute with a superbly worked free kick routine. Saydam and their number 9 (sorry don’t know who he is) lined up to take the kick, Saydam ran over the ball and ran on into the area where No 9 passed to him and he shot past replacement keeper Kurşat from the edge of the penalty area. A great training ground routine that brought rewards. 2-1.

Esentepe increased their lead in the 66th minute when following a corner which was practically cleared Mahmut on the edge of the goal area miss kicked his shot but the ball hit the unfortunate Enver and deflected past a startled and flat footed Kemal, to record Enver’s 2nd own goal of the day. 3-1.

Esentepe brought on Fehmi and Tuürulşan in the 72nd minute, but before he had touched the ball Fehmi badly twisted his knee, and was carried off the field only 3 minutes after he had come on. Esentepe’s bad luck with injuries continues as it looked like another bad one.

Esentepe scored a fourth goal in the 81st minute, when from another corner, which was not cleared, defender Eşref on the edge of the goal area hit a weak shot that again completely deceived the keeper and went in. 4-1.

A 4-1 score flattered Esentepe as A.Yeşilova had been the better team and to their credit they rallied in the last 5 minutes. In the 88th minute they broke quickly on the right Gökhan squared the ball across to Barış Rabo to slide in 4-2.

In the last minute, following another good move No.88 (sorry don’t know him) scored. FULL TIME 4-3.

SUMMING UP :

Very entertaining match which despite being a friendly game was very competitive at times. A.Yeşilova who are 5th in League 2 were very impressive, and have a good mix of experienced and young players. For Esentepe the match gave the entire squad a run out, especially to some of the youngsters which will have been invaluable to them. It was nice to see Deniz back in an Esentepe shirt, he looked a little ring rusty, but if we can re-sign him, a fit and motivated Deniz is a very big plus for the Club.

ESENTEPE TEAM (First half)

Tuğrul (gk) : Barış, Nersin, Salih, Arif : Mehmet, Aziz, Mahmut, Emek : Başak, Emrah (Eser 43 mins).

ESENTEPE TEAM (Second half).

Kurşat (gk) : Muhammed, Nersin, Salih (Tuürulşan 72 mins), Eşref : Tugay, Berkan, Mahmut, Emek (Fehmi 72 mins) **: Eser, Deniz.

** Emek came back on to replace the injured Fehmi after 75 mins.

ESENTEPE MAN OF THE MATCH ; MAHMUT- full of running both in attack and defence.

The first round of the Kıbrıs Kupası may have provided some shocks elsewhere, but at Esentepe it was business as usual, where the “Supa League” side overcame the League 1 side to proceed into the next round of the Cup.

To read more from Esentepe Community and see the latest match video, please click here