Kotoko will win on Sunday – Coach Bash predicts

By: Jerome Otchere

Sunday’s match day eleven fixture of the Onetouch Premier League between Kotoko and Tema Youth is a potentially thrilling game. Not surprisingly, Coach Isaac Opeele Boateng of Tema Youth has been talking big, promising to upset Kotoko. The Tema Youth coach may have reasons for being in a hyper-confident mood but Coach Bash is not the least frightened by that.

The response from Kotoko’s Coach Bashir Hayford is concise yet very heavy. In an interview on his preparations for the match, Coach Bash maintained that he has resolved not to lose at home. He said Sunday’s match would offer him another opportunity to fortify that resolution. “Kotoko has won eight matches, drawn one and lost one. That feat was achieved by dint of hard work – it was no fluke. What we know is improvement and nothing else” Coach Bash stressed.

The Kotoko coach said he had no time to respond to the comments made by Coach Opeele to the effect that Eric Bekoe was not deadly. He however had this point to make: “I have several strikers. It is amazing to hear that without Eric Bekoe Kotoko can’t score. In Kotoko, everybody can score. We have seen that happening in the ten matches.  The assertions of Coach Opeele only make the game exciting” said Bash.

“I won’t take anything away from him. He is a coach. Some coaches talk, others don’t. Some talk only after matches. It depends on the way you were carved. I will not begrudge any coach for talking. The point is that all this talk only makes the game interesting”. Making references to the African Cup of Nations, Coach Bash argued that, though some good strikers represented their countries at the tournament, not all of them made the sort of impact expected of them.

He said his team building efforts at Kotoko had been structured in a manner that would enable every player to score. Coach Bash said the fact that he was not talking loudly on the match was not because he had nothing to offer. He disclosed that he was ready for Tema Youth saying, “This job can raise you. It can also bring you down. To say is always easier than to do. I back my words with action. I practice what I say. My assurance is that I am tackling all matches one after the other. I am winning on Sunday”.

The Kotoko coach disclosed that he liked the ideas of Coach Opeele but insisted his confidence would not scare him in any way adding that Tema Youth’s high confidence was apparently emanating from the fact that they beat Kotoko last season. After succumbing to a harrowing back-to-back defeat to arch rivals Hearts of Oak last season, Kotoko shockingly suffered a 1-0 defeat against Tema Youth after Murtala Mohammed alone in defense failed to control the ball, allowing Gado Mahammed to capitalize on his defensive error to give his side the only goal.

While admitting that Tema Youth could draw inspiration from that triumph, Coach Bash served a reminder that Kotoko was presently in a different dispensation. He said there would not be a recurrence of what happened last season. “The transformation that has taken place in Kotoko since the 2006/2007 Onetouch Premier League is there for all to see” adding that the technical bench and the players were determined to do a good work. He consequently called for total support from the teeming supporters.