By Richard Beale….
Super League giants Doğan Türk Birliği eventually ran out comfortable winners against a dogged, battling Esentepe team who managed to hold their more illustrious opponents to a 0-0 score at Half Time. After the interval DTB turned up the heat and in the end it could have been a more heavier defeat as the visitors struck the woodwork at least 3 or 4 times.
Result: ESENTEPE KKSK 0 DOĞAN TÜRK BİRLİĞİ 3 (Friendly)
Wednesday August 11: Esentepe Erdal Barut Stadium.
On another very warm August evening a crowd of around 50-60 saw the home team start brightly passing and building up attacks from the back.
However during the opening 10 minutes it was the visitors who should have taken the lead after a fine cross from Aydın on the right was somehow scooped over the bar from close range by Hamıt.
Esentepe were still causing DTB problems and they themselves created a good chance in the 15th minute when Mustafa Soytürk burst through on the right, fastening onto a long ball but delayed his shot a fraction too long to enable goalkeeper Okyanus to push the ball away for a corner.
Esentepe were certainly “up for it” putting in a number of aggressive and hard tackles which kept Super League referee Mehmet Sezener’s whistle busy.
DTB came back and Hüseyin headed off the line from a powerful header following a corner.
In the 33rd minute Esentepe had an even better chance as a delightful build up on the right between Hüseyin and Mustafa Soytürk ended with a cross to the far post to Ege, who teed up the ex DTB player Emek but he blasted widely over from a great position.
DTB eventually sussed out Esentepe’s tactics and now started pushing up, putting pressure on Esentepe players who were now having little time to dwell on the ball and therefore errors started occurring.
Esentepe reached the interval all square thanks to some good saves from young goalkeeper Osman and outstanding defending from Nersin and Gürkan Demir who was having a particularity good match. HALF TIME : 0-0
As with the norm with friendly matches both sides made a number of changes during the break.
DTB started turning the screw forcing several corners, after a good run from Cagrı who sent a perfect cross to the far post, where the tall KAAN BOROVA eventually got the better of his marker to head in. 0-1
A second goal was not far away in the 55th minute, a corner from the right was headed to the near post where HAMIT had the simple task to score. 0-2.
It was all one way traffic now with Esentepe unable to gain possession of the ball for any length of time.
A third DTB goal in the 70th minute came after Esentepe were caught in possession, the ball was quickly played through to Hamıt whose shot beat the advancing Tuğrul hit the post and rebounded out to SERCAN DEMİRMAN following up to score. 0-3
A combination of the woodwork, poor finishing and some desperate Esentepe defending kept the score down to 0-3 until the final whistle. FULL TIME : 0-3
SUMMING UP: No disgrace to lose to Super League opponents, Esentepe stuck to their task, we must remember this is a very young Esentepe team with some players having not even made their League 1 debuts, let alone play in the Super League. I think only 3 Esentepe players have experienced playing in the top league, this was a good learning curve for some of the youngsters – but in the end class always tells..
ESENTEPE TEAM (first half)
Osman (gk): Doğukan, Gürkan Demir, Nersin, Emek (Asıf 35): Mustafa, Hüseyin Ermış, Emre, Ilyas : Ege, Eser.
ESENTEPE TEAM (second half)
Tuğrul (gk): Doğukan, Nersin, Demir, Asıf : Salih 45, Emre (Hürkan 68), Semih ( Mustafa 78), Ilyas, Hüseyin (Şenol 55): Eser (Emrah 55), Ege.
STOP PRESS =+++++++++++++STOP PRESS++++++++++++++++STOP PRESS+++++
ESENTEPE NEXT FRIENDLY MATCH:
Saturday August 14th —–Esentepe Erdal Barut Stadium —–kick off 5-45pm ————-
ESENTEPE v DÜZKAYA.
