New Super League season kicks off
Champs Mağusa Türk Gücü start title defence with a win
THE Aksa Super League returned for another season last weekend, with all 16 teams in action across an action-packed five-day programme.
Reigning champions Mağusa Türk Gücü (MTG) began their title defence away at Türk Ocağı Limasol (TOL) last Thursday night, and fell behind after 21 minutes when İbrahim Halil Karadal curled the ball in off the post from the edge of the box.
TOL’s lead did not last long, however. They gave away a penalty just two minutes after going in front, which Beninese striker Mickael Pote converted.
MTG got themselves ahead just before the half hour mark, with Eray Vudalı perfectly arrowing a header into the far corner of the net from an Emre Kuvvetlişahin cross.
They were two ahead five minutes before half time, with the head of Eray Vudalı once again leading to a goal, this time rising highest to glance a corner from Arif Uysal into the net.
Ten minutes after half time, TOL halved the deficit. Ertaç Taşkıran and Remzi Betmezoğlu, both summer signings from Mesarya, combined to score, with last season’s Super League top scorer Betmezoğlu opening his account for the new season by slotting the ball between the legs of MTG goalkeeper Ufuk Şimşek.
However, their progress in attempting to salvage a draw was thwarted by a loss of discipline, with a member of their coaching staff being shown the red card before Ertaç Taşkıran also received his marching orders. MTG held on to record their first win of the season and the first three points of their latest title charge.
Last Friday night’s game saw Yonpaş Dumlupınar and Cihangir play out a goalless draw. Dumlupınar’s Tahsin Kaya thought he had put his side ahead when he kneed the ball in from a corner, but his effort was chalked off after referee Evren Karademir saw a foul in the box. However, aside from that, the game saw few chances, and finished 0-0.
Newly promoted Miracle Değirmenlik have made the rest of the Super League sit up and take notice after beating last season’s third-place side Doğan Türk Birliği (DTB) 2-0 on Saturday.
Değirmenlik dominated the game from the start and won a penalty midway through the first half.
Captain Burak Koçar, signed from Gönyeli in the summer, stepped up to take it, but was denied by a terrific save from Ozan Moroğlu.
Moroğlu was on hand to make a number of other saves to keep the scores level, and when he could not keep Değirmenlik out, the linesman’s flag could, with Hüseyin Deynekli having a goal ruled out for offside.
Just minutes into the second half, Arda Eren Metin thought he had given DTB an unlikely lead, but his header was plucked out of the top corner in magnificent fashion by Değirmenlik goalkeeper Hasan Piro.
Değirmenlik eventually got their lead through their second spot kick of the game, with Emmanuel Akabueze, signed in the summer from Turkish second-tier outfit Bandırmaspor, placing his effort beyond the reach of Moroğlu and scoring his first competitive goal in North Cyprus.
Değirmenlik then had to weather a few DTB chances, before scoring their second in stoppage time, with Akabueze on the end of a swift attacking move. The win, at this early stage, puts Değirmenlik top of the league.
Saturday’s other game saw North Cyprus’s most decorated club Çetinkaya begin life back in the Super League with defeat away at Göçmenköy.
Çetinkaya had the better of the chances and saw more of the ball in the first half, but were undone in first half stoppage time when Mahmut İneci rose highest from a corner to bullet a header into the net.
The away side continued to dominate possession in the opening stages of the second half, but suffered from a lack of pace in attack.
In contrast, pace in attack seems to be exactly Göçmenköy’s strength this season, with summer signing Samet Akrep latching on to a pass from Hüseyin Sadıklar, before bearing down on the penalty area and doubling his side’s lead with 56 minutes played.
Akrep and Ndue Mujeci, who was signed from Montenegrin side FK Jezero, combined well going forward but were unable to kill the game with a third goal, and things looked a little nervier for Göçmenköy when Ekrem Sümeraka latched onto a Malick Mane pass and kept his composure to beat two players and score his first senior goal at the age of 18.
However, their lack of pace going forward seemed to hurt them, as their front two of Malick Mane and Özgür Ongun were simply slower than Göçmenköy’s backline, and the game finished 2-1.
Last season’s runners up Merit Alsancak Yeşilova (MAY) started like a house on fire at home against Gönyeli on Sunday, scoring three times within the opening 13 minutes.
They took the lead in just the second minute when Gönyeli failed to make any attempt whatsoever to defend the first corner of the game, allowing Bill Osman Beyza to emphatically volley home.
Gönyeli did not make much of a better fist of defending MAY’s second corner of the game three minutes later, with a goalmouth scramble eventually allowing for Mejdi Direniş to score his side’s second from point blank range.
Direniş scored his second and MAY’s third soon after, when Aksel Kaptanoğlu whipped in a free kick and not one Gönyeli defender thought to mark him, allowing for him to head yet another goal past Gönyeli goalkeeper Mustafa Dağman.
MAY’s mercurial start, and Direniş’s contribution to it, was dampened somewhat when a mixup in their defence saw Direniş head the ball beyond his onrushing goalkeeper Cenk Yılmaz and into the path of Gönyeli striker Osita Obiekwe, who had an open goal.
Yılmaz then petulantly tripped Obiekwe, giving away a penalty and getting himself sent off in the process, just 17 minutes into his MAY debut. Substitute goalkeeper Kemal Molla was brought on, but was sent the wrong way by Mehmet Fatih Parlak, who reduced the arrears.
On the stroke of half time, MAY’s lead was reduced to just a single goal when their defence sat off Kadir Çetinkaya and allowed him to cross for Osita Obiekwe to flick the ball past Molla and into the net.
In the second half, MAY managed to sufficiently shore up their defence to hold onto their lead and begin their season with a win that they no doubt made harder than it needed to be.
Küçük Kaymaklı twice came from behind to earn a point away at Hamitköy on Sunday. Hamitköy took the lead through Emmanuel Ernest, who they signed in the summer from Romanian outfit FC Argeş Piteşti. He headed home from a Toykan Hacet cross to score his first goal in North Cyprus after just four minutes.
They held their lead for 20 minutes, before a through ball from Mehmet Öztürk sent Obada Felix one on one to level the scores.
Hamitköy were back in front just shy of the hour mark when Ernest was left unmarked from a free kick, allowing him to head in his second goal of the game. However, they were pegged back again just five minutes later when Felix robbed a napping Hamitköy defender of possession on the edge of the box and crossed for Yağış Gençay to head home his first goal for Küçük Kaymaklı after returning to the club from Düzkaya in the summer.
On reflection, both sides will likely be happy with a point.
Mesarya hosted Lefke on Sunday with both sides having had their squads raided over the summer. Okan Göktürk scored the game’s only goal, beating three players on a mazy run and capping it off with a fantastic finish into the top corner.
In the final game of match week 1, played on Monday evening, Yenicami beat Gençlik Gücü 3-2 at the Lefkoşa Atatürk Stadium.
Gençlik Gücü took the lead after just four minutes when Hasan Akkuyu took advantage of a defensive mix-up.
Yenicami then hit back with three goals in the space of 10 minutes – two from new signing Badara Naby Sylla and one from Hascan Kırmaz – to go into the break 3-1 up.
Gençlik Gücü pulled a goal back in the 67th minute when Akkuyu was brought down in the box and Charlton Mashumba converted the subsequent penalty, but the side were unable to score an equaliser.
The Super League’s second match week began last night after Cyprus Today went to press, with Doğan Türk Birliği hosting Yonpaş Dumlupınar.