Gor Mahia could face Esperance again
The draw for the 2018 CAF Champions league is out. In the preliminary round, Gor Mahia have been pitted against little known Leones Vegetarianos Fútbol Club of Equatorial Guinea. Leones have virtually no experience in African football. They won the Equatoguinean league for the first time ever in 2017. And clubs from Equatorial Guinea rarely make an impression in this tournament. Last year’s representatives, Sony Ela Nguema lost 4-1 on aggregate to Al Merreikh of Sudan
Should Gor Mahia win, they will face the winner between Esperance De Tunis and ASAC Concorde of Mauritania. The Tunisian side are two times winners of the tournament and 5 times runners up. In 2017, they reached the semis. It is a chance for Kogalo to redeem themselves after losing 8-2 on aggregate to the Tunisians in 2014.
Gor Mahia will be buoyed by having signed Ivorian striker Ephrem Guikan. He is best known to Kenyan fans for scoring twice against Tusker in the 2017 Africa champions league.
“We can confirm the signing of striker Gikan Ephraim from a club in Mauritius. We have scouted him for some time and we watched him play against Tusker in the Caf- Champion’s League. We also watched him on you tube and had a fruitful discussion with his agent. Everything has worked to plan,” Ronald Ngala told Citizen Digital.
This is good for us but let’s first focus on the Vegetarians, with good signings and team work, we can overcome. So it’s what we do between now and the first match that will matter, not mere talk.
Since our first game is only slightly over one month away between 9-11 February 2018 and Esperance await us, its imperative that we get our preaseason preparations right and early. How I wish we could land the Mapinduzi Cup invite, to me it’s the most competitive and cost effective. We must reach the group stages be it the CAF Champions League or the Confederations Cup through the playoffs if we falter against Esperance. I however believe that Esperance are beatable like in 1987
Esperance nii is cast in stone that it must always meet K’ogalo.Issorait kuome like they come,so this vegetarianos must be killed early coz you never know tricks they will employ in the return leg,3-0 should be our target.How i wish we started away this time round so we can know their style of play and plot their downfall in fortress nyayo during the return fixture…
We shouldn’t under rate Vegetarian and think ati watakua Mboga tu .
Am not sure if there are preparations going on, our problem has been lack of a proper plan for continentals, players are signed late, no meaningful friendlies etc etc
It was so evident we were going to wean the league, the office should have started planning early
We have always been dogged by late preparations.nothing much happens in December,so my take is we will gather early January.depending on the intensity of the training and recruitment before then,we should at least be ready to square it off with Leones..
However,alot needs to be done between now and esperance…that is if we overcome leones
Musymo ur dream player zanzibari cecafa midfielder donning jersey no 21 Abdul Aziz Makame heading to ingwe for two years as they bolster their squad for Caf.Thats the goodness of being fluid with foreign quota slots,Afc recently released 3 ugandans Katerrega,Mussa Mudde and Yakubu Ramadhan hence are spoilt for choice bringing in fresh blood,problem is quality as ingwe likes getting them on the cheap…
Me thinks the foreign quota will be increased to 7 by 30th December 2017…negotiations are at an advanced stage !
Foreign Quota is okay at 5,we need to build local talent,the current Cecafa tournament is testamemt to the importance of a homegrown talent dominated league with minimal foreign proffesionals…Ibaki tu hivi vile iko sai