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Kotoko must end season on good note
As they battle All Blacks in final league fixture
Preview By: Jerome Otchere
Posted: 3rd July 2008
Director of Operations, Jerry Asare has said that Kotoko has no choice than to beat Gamba All Blacks on Sunday to end the club’s successful run in the 2007/2008 Onetouch Premier League on a good note.
He said a win on Sunday would do a lot of good for the team that travels to Libya next Monday to engage Al-Ittihad in the CAF Confederation Cup match.
Kotoko plays as guests of Gamba All Blacks at the Swedru Park in the last round of league matches and Jerry Asare argues that the Porcupines ought to go all out although the league title is already in their grips.
Kotoko thrashed the Black Magicians 3-0 at the Sunyani Coronation Park in the first match of the season. As a result, Jerry Asare contends that just like how the team started the season on a good note, it must close the chapter in a similar fashion.
With that humiliating defeat, Gamba All Blacks could not have a good start to the season. Things did not go too well for the Swedru-based club as it struggled to avoid regulation at one point. At the moment, All Blacks have escaped relegation.
Sunday’s match will more or less be a battle for pride. Playing at home, the Black Magicians would like to appease their fans.
However against a side that has been impressive lately, it remains to be seen whether the home team will be capable of winning.
Kotoko-All Blacks matches particularly at the Swedru Sports Stadium has been intensely exciting for supporters and at the same time uneasy for the two teams.
The margins of victory or defeat in their encounters have often been close.
Last season for instance, Kotoko won 1-0 but with the club’s scoring record this season. That could change especially when leading scorer Eric Bekoe is bent on scoring more goals.
The top striker returned from the Black Stars camp to score twice against Zaytuna United and despite coming close to winning the goal king title, Eric Bekoe believes that much as the season has not ended he must remain focused.
Besides Eric Bekoe, Kwadwo Poku has also hit wonderful form. Should he find his rhythm alongside Eric Bekoe, Gamba All Blacks could be in for trouble.
The technical bench of All Blacks obviously has an arduous task of coming up with strategies that will keep Kotoko’s attackers at bay.
That is not to say Coach Bash and his assistant, Johnson Smith, and the supporting staff have nothing to do because they equally have the task of devising tactics that will enable Kotoko overpower the Black Magicians perhaps in spectacular fashion.
In Kotoko’s last league match against Zaytuna United the team, much to the chagrin of Coach Smith and the teeming supporters wasted brilliant scoring opportunities.
The same goal-squandering episode was witnessed against Heart of Lions in last Tuesday’s President’s Cup match in Accra.
It will undoubtedly be disheartening to see a repetition of that at Swedru this Sunday.
Whiles making sure that Kotoko’s attack functions perfectly, the coaches must additionally endeavour to parade a compact midfield coupled with an impregnable defensive network to ensure victory for Kotoko. All said and done, the Porcupines are set for victory. They dare not take anything for granted for the Black Magicians could characteristically conjure magic to record an impressive win.
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