By Richard Beale…..
Goalkeeper Osman Erdoğan was Esentepe hero saving two Lapta penalties and then picking himself to take the final penalty himself to enable Esentepe to retain the Erdal Barut Memorial Trophy.
Result: ESENTEPE KKSK 1 LAPTA TBSK 1 (Esentepe win 4-2 on penalties).
Saturday, August 19: Erdal Barut Memorial Cup: Esentepe Erdal Barut Stadium.
An impeccable minute’s silence was observed before the kick-off marking the 10th Anniversary of the death of the late Esentepe President Erdal Barut.
The first half between these two League 1 rivals was pretty even and to be honest uneventful. Two-goal attempts, one taken, the goal was scored in the 28th minute and it went to Esentepe. The move started on the right with Salih making progress down the wing passing to his younger brother Dinçer who squared the ball across goal for DENİZ KIBAR to control the ball turn and fire past Okyanus. 1-0.
The only other chance came in the 33rd minute following a Lapta corner on the left taken by Göksel finding the head of the tall, lanky defender Ahmet Sezer whose header produced a brilliant save from Ahmet pushing the ball over the crossbar.
HALF TIME SCORE: 1-0
As is the norm in these friendly matches both teams made several changes.
Lapta started the second half well pinning Esentepe in their own half.
Lapta equalised in the 50th minute following a corner from the right by Göksel, Esentepe goalkeeper Osman called and came for the ball, but missed it allowing HASAN YANAROĞLU to head in at the far post. 1-1
Osman made up for his error five minutes later making two brilliant saves in quick succession, firstly diving at the feet of a Lapta forward through on goal then getting up quickly to deal with the follow-up shot.
Lapta were looking more likely to score with Esentepe relying on quick breakaways relying on the speed of Ege Can.
66 minutes following an Esentepe corner Lapta broke quickly with Selçuk lifting the ball over the advancing Osman, only to be denied a goal by Mahmut who raced back and managed to hack the ball off the goal line.
Esentepe should have won the match in the final 5 minutes, good play from Gökdeniz on the left sent in a cross that was met the first time by Şahin whose side-footed effort bounced agonisingly onto the left-hand post. Ilyas retrieved the ball out on the right sending in a superb cross that was met at the near post by Şahin again who headed wide when he should have scored.
FULL TIME SCORE: 1-1
PENALTY SHOOT OUT: Esentepe: İLYAS, OKAN, Ali (missed), EGE CAN, OSMAN.
Osman saved penalties from Berkay and Göksel they scored the winning penalty.
Esentepe is missing the physical presence and strength of striker Melih Nisançı who is continuing to regain fitness from an injury.
Though goalkeeper Osman was the hero, central defender Nersin Osman continued his good pre-season form, again having a fine match.
MAHMUT IZOĞLÜ was my ‘Man of the Match” having a strong game at first, right back, tackling well, overlapping then was switched to midfield in the second half, making a brilliant goal-line clearance.
ESENTEPE TEAM : Ahmet (gk), (Osman 46) ; MAHMUT IZOĞLU, Devran (Okan 75), Nersin, Emek (Mahmut Şen 75) ; Tuğra (Gökdeniz 73), Salih (Ilyas 46), Dinçer (Ege Can 46) ; Emre (Mehmet Ada 70): Deniz (Ali 46), Semih (Şahin 65).
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