A wild day at 19 Mayis Stadyum

Today I went to my second football match ever with the last one 30 or so years ago watching Pele play for the New York Cosmos in Toronto. With my new buddies Chris and his son Matthew, and Carlo, Oğuz, and Emin. First stop was the Beer Bus Bar in Kizilay to have some drinks and get ready for the game and make our way to the stadium to see home team Gençlerbirliği face Manisaspor.

After exiting the taxi we were greeted by the loud thunder of a political rally right beside the stadium, the road clogged with people. Entering the stadium was a whole new experience for me – being frisked up and down, bag checked, amidst the excitement of the crowd moving to the entrance gates. Inside we found our seats to the never ending cheers and chants.

We were sitting in the “commoners” section – across the stadium sat the VIPs. No cheers from them. They sat in their seats and sipped their tea and that’s about it. Then off in an isolated and secluded corner of the stadium were the wildly chanting Manisaspor fans. I don’t think I ever saw them sitting down, constantly chanting and jumping up trying to motivate their team.

The sun shone bright into our eyes. So bright that some used newspapers as sun hats. For the whole game the chants of the home team were quite incredible. My favourite being “Kirmizi! Siyah! Hayatim, Ankara!” (Red, Black, My life, Ankara!!) The black and red referring to the Gençlerbirliği colours and those black and red chaps put quite a number on Manisaspor dominating the game with endless scoring chances and putting two goals in to win convincingly 2-0.

My new buddies told me it was the best they played all season. For me, the whole experience was quite something. The constant chants, and cheers, many times led by a ringleader to our left; everyone always seemed to look to him for guidance and just wait for him to ignite a new cheer. Although and older gentleman below me sure tried to match this ringleader, with many a biting comment on the action. Too bad I couldn’t grasp his commentary in my limited knowledge of Turkish.

One thing is for sure; although the stadium seemed practically empty – maybe 3000 fans in a 19, 000 capacity stadium – the energy of the fans were kinetic. Almost felt like a choir rehearsal - so many different songs to sing, while taking our lead from the ringmaster.

One of the chants was to support and motivate one of the stars of the team Hurşut Meriç. His first name is pronounced “Hoorshoot”. When I first heard this loud chant I wondered why everyone was saying. “Hoorshoot, Hoorshoot, Hoorshoot” – it really sounded like a chant you might say if a referee made a bad call:)

Apparently his name was Hurşit before he was advised to change it to Hurşut. Good call there. Anyways, my worries were laid to rest when it was explained all this chanting was in support of this star player, who actually came out to the pitch after the game was over to whip the fans in frenzy.

My new buddy Chris is a football regular and has a detailed blog on football in Ankara. You can check that out at

http://ankarafootball.com/