By Richard Beale….
Playing against superior opposition who were physically stronger, Esentepe fought back from being two goals down to earn a creditable draw.
Results: ESENTEPE KKSK U21 2 DÜZKAYA KOSK U21 2
Sunday April 30: AKSA U21 League 1 : Esentepe Erdal Barut Stadium.
After losing the last 2 matches Esentepe produced a stirring performance to gain a well-deserved point over 3rd place Düzkaya.
Düzkaya with far greater resources than Esentepe has a very good team with some talented individuals. They looked stronger both physically and age-wise.
Düzkaya who won their previous match 17-1 is the League’s leading goal-scorer and NECDET NUMAN is the League’s leading goal-scorer on 28 goals.
For the majority of the match the Esentepe defence kept him quiet, and so did the Düzkaya defence against the home team’s attack.
The midfield battle was pretty even with Düzkaya’s Ali tüfekçi catching my eye, Esentepe’s Mahmut Şen was playing a Captain’s role in midfield getting through a lot of work.
The game which looked like it would be heading for a goalless draw erupted with 4 goals in 16 minutes.
DÜzkaya were a goal up in the 52nd minute and it was the goal poacher NECDET NUMAN getting a touch to a header at the far post, despite desperate efforts from Esentepe goalkeeper Can and defender Mehmet Ada, the ball just crossed the line.
Necdet set up Düzkaya’s second goal in the 65th minute crossing the ball on the right-hand by-line to ENES MALIK HIZLI who miss-kicked his first effort but managed to score with his second. 0-2
Many of the team would have rolled over but not Esentepe as within a minute of Düzkaya’s second goal they pulled a goal back when GÖKDENİZ KOL got his head onto a long bouncing ball. 1-2
3 minutes later he equalised with a brilliant goal, he went on a run beating a couple of players before hitting a shot that struck the left-hand post before rebounding back to him to crash into the net. 2-2
This was Gökdeniz’s 12th goal of the season, sometimes he does some outrageous things on the pitch that doesn’t come off, but the talent is there it can be worked upon.
Düzkaya finished the match strongly but the Esentepe defence stood firm.
There were good performances from HÜSEYİN AKCAL playing at left-back due to an injury to Atakan Kar. On the right flank, Mehmet Beyazbayram had a good match, often overlapping.
All in all, a good enjoyable match.
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