Gençlik Gücü win the Cup
CHINA Bazaar Gençlik Gücü have clinched the first piece of silverware of the new era of women’s football in North Cyprus by beating their local rivals Küçük Kaymaklı to become the first ever winners of the Ayten Berkalp Cyprus Women’s Cup.
While women’s football attracts many naysayers who claim that the game is less attractive than its male counterpart, and, in truth, this first season has been defined by many one-sided games where the result was in no doubt by half time, to the extent that the Cyprus Turkish Football Association (KTFF) had to step in and rewrite the rules to disincentivise thrashings and do away with goal difference, this game was the complete opposite of that.
The game was played at the July 20 Mete Adanır Stadium in Girne in front of a raucous crowd last Friday night.
Gençlik Gücü near enough filled their allocation, with barely a spare seat available on the north side of the ground, and while Kaymaklı did not travel in so many numbers, those who did make the trip over the Five Finger mountains were no less partisan, and no less loud.
On the pitch, the game was a full-blooded local derby played at a hundred miles an hour, with tackles flying in all over the park and neither side giving the other any quarter.
The sides were evenly matched too, having finished the regular league season in second and third place respectively.
Gençlik Gücü were the marginal favourites, having won the league encounter between the two sides last month, but with the two sides both having come on leaps and bounds in terms of quality since the start of the season, both sides came into the game with full belief that they could win.
The early exchanges were defined by both teams pressing each other high up the pitch, with Gençlik Gücü having more of the ball but Kaymaklı looking dangerous on the counter attack.
It did not take long before the deadlock was broken, with a piece of individual brilliance from Gençlik Gücü winger Ayşe Çetinkaya seeing her beat two Kaymaklı defenders before slotting the ball past Pembe Beyitoğluları
to open the scoring after just eight minutes.
Çetinkaya was a livewire from the start, causing Kaymaklı all manner of problems down the right wing, and was good value for her goal, keeping the ball hard and low when others may have been distracted by the occasion or the noise inside the ground.
From there, Kaymaklı had to weather the storm somewhat, with Gençlik Gücü’s talented forward line taking the game to the opposition and creating a series of half chances.
However, they did grow into the game as the first half went on, with the outlet of pacey Guinean striker Mariama Dioulde Sow allowing them to get in behind Gençlik Gücü and begin to create chances of their own.
They were gifted a route back into the game in first half stoppage time when Aslı Ebru fired a shot into a crowd of players and referee Abdullah Genç judged that the ball had hit one of the scrambling Gençlik Gücü players on the arm, and pointed to the spot.
Aslı Ebru stepped up to take the penalty, and fired it into the bottom left hand corner to send the two sides in level at the break.
The second half began in similar fashion to the first, with Gençlik Gücü having the majority of possession but Kaymaklı posing a threat on the counter.
Kaymaklı, likely buoyed by their goal, grew into the half much quicker, and soon were dominating the match.
Gençlik Gücü’s defence could not live with the pace of the likes of Sow and Ayten Akgünler, who both were prompting and probing throughout the first 20 minutes of the second half.
Their only relief came when six dogs somehow found their way onto the field and had to be chased out of the ground by a combination of policemen throwing water, officials from the KTFF, players, and ball boys, in what resembled a scene from a Benny Hill Show.
Once the comic relief had been removed from the playing surface, Kaymaklı retook the initiative, driving forward on attack after attack and stretching Gençlik Gücü to their breaking point.
At the halfway point in the second half, just when Gençlik Gücü seemed to be getting a foothold in the game, another of Kaymaklı’s counter attacks brought them a reward as they won their second penalty of the day.
If the first penalty was controversial, the second was as stone wall as they come, with İdal Çukurovalı being scythed down in the penalty area just as it looked as if she could be through on goal.
With Ebru having been so deadly from the spot in the first half, it seemed almost a given that she would give her side the lead and leave Gençlik Gücü needing a goal with a little over 20 minutes to play.
However, possibly overcome by nerves, she blasted the penalty high over the crossbar and into the Girne sky.
From then, chances at both ends somewhat dried up as both teams shored up their defences and played the game largely in the midfield, and with no extra time in the Ayten Berkalp Women’s Cyprus Cup, a penalty shoot-out loomed.
Gençlik Gücü posed the greater threat, with a series of setpieces putting Kaymaklı under pressure, but the counter attacks still ensued.
With five minutes remaining, Mariama Dioulde Sow once again broke free of the Gençlik Gücü defence but was adjudged to have been offside. She finished the opportunity anyway, after the whistle had been blown, and received a booking for her troubles.
From this moment forth, everything seemed to happen at once.
Gençlik Gücü attacked down the left-hand side and looked to find a way through Kaymaklı’s defence, retaining and recycling the ball every time their attacks were rebuffed.
The ball eventually found its way to Gençlik Gücü’s captain Sevim Okur around 30 yards out, and she curled the ball perfectly into the top right-hand corner beyond the desperate reach of Kaymaklı goalkeeper Pembe Beyitoğluları.
It was a goal worthy of winning any game, and set off jubilant scenes in the packed out section of Gençlik Gücü fans.
With just three minutes left on the clock, the ground was bouncing, and the result was put beyond all doubt in stoppage time when Başak Ruso, who had had an uncharacteristically quiet game up to that point, arrowed a carbon copy of Okur’s winner into the top corner to make it 3-1.
It was heartbreak for Kaymaklı, who were applauded off the pitch having received their runners-up medals from Republican Turkish Party (CTP) MP and Deputy Speaker Fazilet Özdenefe.
They will take heart from a strong performance and a valiant display against their city rivals, and the fact that they will have the chance this weekend to exact their revenge in the Puma Women’s League play-off semifinal.
For Gençlik Gücü, this represents the result of hard work and belief in their women’s football project, and potentially the first trophy in a league and cup double that is still very much on.
The celebrations in front of their travelling fans went on long into the night, but attention will soon turn to the remainder of the season.
This weekend will see another Lefkoşa derby between Gençlik Gücü and Kaymaklı, with the winner set to face the winner of the Gazimağusa derby between Desly Mağusa and Yonpaş Dumlupınar for the league title next weekend.