Kotoko’s Libya diary

By: David Kyei, Tripoli, Libya

Kotoko’s quest for qualification to the group stage of the 2008 Confederations’ cup has been a long and difficult one.

After a 2-2 drawn game against Wikki Tourists in Bauchie, the team made minced meat of their opponents in the second leg at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi by forcing some four bitter unanswered goals down their throats.

As if that was not a strong enough test for Kotoko, the pairings of the competition by fate and design took the team back to Nigeria to face yet another stubborn opponent, Dolphins F/C of Cross River State.

With two goals down in the first leg in Calabar, the second leg became a tall order for Kotoko when they conceded an own goal in the first half of the match.

The rest of the action, especially how the team got charged on by the vociferous fans at the stadium, used twenty minutes to score the needed goals for qualification remains a topic of discussion in Kotoko circles up till today.

With the qualification to the group stage just an arm stretch away, a contingent of Kotoko players, technical team, management and journalists last Tuesday left the shores of Ghana for the Libyan Arab Jamarhiya capital, Tripoli, to lock horns with their league leaders, Al Ittihad.

7pm, Monday, 7^th July 2008: Kotoko contingent checks out of their lodging place for Kotoka International Airport to begin check-in and other travelling formalities. The flight had been scheduled for 11pm that night and so the team left early to be able to go through the processes without pressure.

Having completed check-in, what was left was to wait for the 11pm flight time. However, information got to the contingent that the plane was going to delay and so was not going to be able to leave Ghana at the scheduled 11pm.

After several hours of waiting at the airport, a new time of 2am on Tuesday was announced. Upon boarding and take off, the captain announced a twenty-five minute stop over at the Lome Airport in Togo for refueling since the Ghana ground crew had closed.

 Tuesday 8^th July: Contingent arrives at the Tripoli airport 8:40am after a smooth flight. Even if the flight was not as smooth as it would, most of the members of the contingent wouldn’t have known since they took the chance of the flight to sleep their tiredness away.

Going through immigration was the smoothest any traveler to Libya would dream about as the Charge d’affairs of the Ghana Embassy, Alhassan Yakubu, in the company of Ibrahim Hardi, Zachariah Issah and Innusah Adutwum, accountant, translator and driver respectively of the Ghana Mission in Tripoli had liaised with management in Ghana and so had done all the necessary ground work at the airport.

With the morning sun in Libya as high as over 36ºC the contingent quickly rushed into the comfort of the air-conditioned team bus of their hosts who checked them into one of the many state owned hotels in Madina, Al Wahat Hotel.

After some moments of sleep to rest their bodies, they were called to the restaurant for lunch at 1pm Libyan time.

News got to the Ghanaian community in Tripoli and so those of them who had documentation braved the scorching sun to come to welcome the contingent at the hotel.

A former player of Kotoko, Akwasi Owusu, a.k.a ‘Achemba’, who plays for a premier division side, Madina F/C, also came over to welcome his colleagues and share some thoughts with them.

6pm: The team goes for their first training session at the 8^th October Park in Madina. The schedule for the afternoon could be described as a muscle loosening exercise. They went through activities that would relax the tired muscles and also prepare them for the tough work ahead of them.

Wednesday, 9^th July: Two training session were held, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. In between the training sessions, the team remained indoors as the weather became too warm for any one to think of sitting outside to enjoy natural air.

The staff at the Ghana embassy took turns in the day to visit the contingent to ensure that they did not lack anything.

Thursday, 10^th July: The morning was declared a resting period for the players. Later in the afternoon, the charge d’affair, Alhassan Yakubu and his entourage, which included the leaders of the Church of Pentecost in Tripoli paid a working visit to the hotel and spent several hours with the contingent. They were later joined by the head of the Ghanaian Muslim community, Mohammed Ibrahim.

He finally capped his visit by accompanying the team for training.

With some twenty-four hours to the match, the team had their mandatory training session at the match venue, the 11^th June Stadium. With the floodlight at full beam as would be under match condition, the team rehearsed their strategies for the following day’s tough battle.

At the end of the training session, the Ghanaian Christian and Muslim leaders took turns to take the team through prayer sessions for luck and victory.

They implored the team to shelve their club commitment and know that the Libyans had moved the match from a club match to a national affair.

They reminded the players that the Libyans were looking for an opportunity to avenge the 0-3 defeat their national team suffered at the hands of the Black Stars.

Friday, 11^th July: Match day and the mood in camp changed. The players looked determined and their concentration was high. To provide a psychological urge for the players, the team was driven to the residence of the charge d’affair for their lunch.

There, they were served with rice and Ghanaian prepared light soup and assorted meat. Whilst the players enjoyed their meals, the Embassy staff went round chatting with them and in the process building their confidence.

The impressed on the players to see the match as a match between Ghana and Libya and so the players had to stand tall for mother Ghana.

In the afternoon, members of the Ghanaian community started coming to the hotel in their singles and doubles to cheer the players up. Some of them refused to leave the hotel premises when they were told that the players were resting for the evening’s grueling encounter.

Those who decided to stay on hanged around the hotel till 6pm Libyan time when the players came down from their rooms to board the bus for the stadium.

The shouts of the names of the players were enough to serve as a motivation for the players when they saw their compatriots who have braved the huge police presence at the hotel to see their heroes.

Kotoko’s convoy to the stadium included that of the charge d’affair, Alhassan Yakubu and his embassy staff, two mini buses full of Ghanaians resident in Libya and police convoy vehicles.

As the team drove through the streets to the 11^th of June Stadium, the Libyans by the road side gestured four goals against Kotoko.

After the match and the kind of result recorded, the hither to vociferous fans became silent as even though their team had won 2-1, they knew they have no chance against Kotoko in the return leg in Kumasi.

Saturday, 12^th July: A free day for the team. Members of the contingent were allowed to go to town for sight seeing and shopping.

Interestingly, both supporters of Ittihad and their avoid rivals, Ahly, hailed Kotoko players for their wonderful performance the day before. Though they varied in their opinion on the sending off of Emmanuel Osei Kuffour, their general assessment of the Kenyan referee, Alfred Ndanya, and his assistants were that of disbelief at the open bias against Kotoko.

The Ahly fans comforted Kotoko for the defeat and urged the players to get themselves together to beat Ittihad by more goals in the return leg.

The whole day was used for shopping as the players left the hotel in groups to town, and as usual, the sports equipment shops were their destination.

Sunday, 13^th July: With the contingent scheduled to fly out of Libya in the afternoon, members of the contingent who still had one or two shopping to do rushed to town to finish-up.

The embassy staff were at hand to see the team off from the hotel and to the airport where they ensured that the team had a smooth check in.

Having seen the blatant cheating of Kotoko, the embassy staff asked the contingent to send a special message to the officials of the Black Stars to have a better preparation for the second leg of the AFC/World Cup qualification match against Libya in order not to be frustrated by their opponents.