KAPLICA KARADENİZ 61 SK
By Richard Beale….
After being out of sorts and trailing to a Türkmenkoy penalty, Kaplıca shrugged off their lethargic mood, scored 2 goals within a 5-minute spell, and won this vitally important match, to keep them in second place in the League.
Results: KAPLICA KARADENİZ 61 SK 2 TÜRKMENKOY ASK 1
Saturday March 25: İktisatbank BTM League 1 Red Group : Kaplıca Emre Genç Stadium.
With runaway leaders Çanakkale looking on course to secure automatic promotion, the chase is on for the second “playoff” spot, contested between 4 teams. The second-place team Valdılı lost to fellow rivals Geçitkale enabling Kaplıca to overhaul them with this victory over Türkmenkoy. Next week Kaplıca have a bye match with a “guaranteed 3 points” as their due next opponents Görneç have been expelled from the league and the match forfeited, so with this win over Turkmenkoy, it was a “6 pointer” victory.
In front of a large partisan crowd, things did not go well in the first half as the home team appeared to be out of sorts. Their final ball was poor, they were predictable and their attacks were being easily dealt with by the visitor’s defence.
They were a goal down after 21 minutes through a penalty scored by HASAN BAHITKARA after a corner was cleared to the edge of the box to a Türkmenkoy player whose shot hit the arm of defender Batuhan. 0-1.
The crowd was getting frustrated, the Kaplıca team was getting frustrated and referee Fatih Bardakçioğlu was kept busy, dealing with numerous fouls and stoppages, in the end, he handed out 11 yellow cards.
At the end of a poor first half for Kaplıca, their striker Ibrahim Çelik on two occasions led by example, chasing down two lost causes to give them hope.
Firstly in the 43rd minute a hopeful punt on the left, saw Ibo chasing the ball as goalkeeper Valentin looked certain to clear, the Kaplıca player managed to get a toe to the ball and saw his effort go narrowly wide of the left-hand post.
Then a couple of minutes later chasing another long ball he outstripped his marker got to the by-line to put the ball across goal where Deniz from an acute angle hit the outside of the right-hand post.
HALF-TIME SCORE : 0-1
Whatever Kaplıca had in their half-time cuppa (maybe Rakı !) within 10 minutes of the restart they were leading 2-1.
In the 49th minute Kaplıca was awarded a free kick, centrally, just outside the “D”, Kaan took the kick that saw his effort cannon off the inside of the right-hand post, fly across the goal where EKREM AKTAŞ unmarked at the far post headed into an empty net. 1-1
4 minutes later from another Kaan free kick out on the left, poor Türkmenkoy marking led to İBRAHİM ÇELİK flicking the ball past Valentin. 2-1
Kaplıca were now in the ascendancy going close on a number of occasions as Türkmenkoy pushed men forward leaving gaps at the back.
Türkmenkoy’s big strong powerful centre-back Süleyman was pushed upfront to give the visitors some physical presence up front.
In the closing minutes, the visitors pressed hard for an equaliser Kaplıca goalkeeper Yasin was called into action making couple of good saves.
Türkmenkoy deadly marksman Abdullah Parıdar who had been kept quiet for most of the match, suddenly sprung into life sending an effort just past Kaplıca’s right-hand post.
With an extraordinary amount of injury time being played Kaplıca hung on and there was much relief and excitement when the whistle was finally blown.
FULL-TIME SCORE : 2-1
MAN OF THE MATCH – İBRAHİM ÇELİK (Kaplıca) – scored one goal and never gave up.
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