Gor Mahia held by DC Motema Pembe 1-1
Gor Mahia and DC Motema Pembe settled for a 1-1 draw in the CAF Confederations cup playoff at Kasarani on Sunday. Charles Momanyi was sent off for blocking a goalbound shot with his hands. The resulting penalty was saved by Mapigano.
Additional reporting from the Nation
Ivorian Yikpe Gieslien Sunday scored his first goal for Gor Mahia with his first touch, but this wasn’t enough for the hosts who settled for a 1-1 draw with visiting Daring Club (DC) Motema Pembe in a Caf Confederation Cup play-off first leg match at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.
This result leaves both teams with all to play for ahead of the second leg in Kinshasa next Sunday.
The Kenyan champions will have to score to stand a chance of progressing to the money-spinning group stage of this continental tournament.
“Does this (result) make our life difficult? Maybe. But I have seen enough today to believe we can do something over there (in Kinshasa) and progress,” opined Gor Mahia coach Steven Polack at full time.
William Likuta turned home the precious goal for the 27-time Congolese champions and the visitors missed a penalty late on as a rusty Gor Mahia hang on after Charles Momanyi had been sent off.
“We will win in Kinshasa. I am very sure of that because nobody wins there,” boasted Likuta.
Kick-off was delayed for about 15 minutes as Tanzanian Khalid Abdalla, serving as the match commissioner, insisted Gor keeper David Mapigano should change his jersey as it colour clashed with the opponent’s outfield attire.
Fast forward into the proceedings and the home team masterminded the first attack of the match after five minutes.
Boniface Omondi found some space down the left and delivered a cross which was connected towards the opponents goal by Lawrence Juma.
The latter’s effort was however easily saved by visiting keeper Barel Mouko.
Muoko was called upon three minutes later to gather an inviting cross from Dickson Ambundo as the hosts main striker Nicholas Kipkurui lurked at the near post.
Then Motema Pembe were called into an early substitution as midfielder Ngimbi Mapangu was stretched off after coming worse in a challenge involving Kenyan defender Joash Onyango, and was replaced by Inonga Baka.
Thereafter, it was the turn of the off-colour Kipkurui to miss the next chance of the game. The attacker fluffed a clear opportunity by electing to square the ball to captain Kenneth Muguna while he should perhaps have had a go at Muoko.
Vinny Kombe was the most enterprising player in the visiting team, and most dangerous as well. The forward created the best chance for his side by beating his marker and squaring the ball to Ikoyo Iyembe whose cracking shot came off Mapigano’s post.
Kipkurui and Ambundo again combined to miss a one-on-one chance at halftime as both teams headed into the dressing room without a goal.
The tale of missed chances continued 15 minutes into the second half with Kipkurui and Omondi the main culprits.
This might have played in Polack’s decision to bring on Ivorian forward Yikpe for Omondi on 62 minutes.
Barely three minutes later, and the substitute scored with his first touch. He was fed through by Juma after a marauding run and powered home a shot which slipped past Mouko’s grip.
But the hosts joy was short-lived. Likuta reacted quickest to tap home into an empty net a loose ball after Mapigano had parried Junior Kone’s free kick.
Then came the drama.
Charles Momanyi handled in the box and was shown red by match referee Lofti Bekoussa who also awarded a penalty. But then in a twist of events Mapigano made a heroic save to deny Vinny Bongonga from the spot.
I would say today was that day. My opinion is that Yikpe starts in our away game with Kip, and Joash to work with Joachim; the other Joash not this one of today.If they put Joash W. Stima partner then we’ll suffer.We will score away.
The truth is right now gor mahia ain’t just good enough to compete intercontinental….the coach is a tactical dwarf.. players are broke and confused….we will not go through because we don’t deserve… let’s focus on winning the league and getting a sponsor…I love gor mahia but the bitter truth is we can’t get any good results in Congo
And Thea goes GM dwarf ,vigeugeu supporters,
Probably you didn’t watch the match…. Kipkirui was extremely poor why did he play until 80th minute… missing chance after chance…even a layman can see that Kipkirui can’t thrive as a lone striker…Tobby lacks positional discpline..his passing range is extremely poor but work rate is good … Ambudo doesn’t have the stamina to play more than 70 minutes…must we play the same formation week in week out…Polack is a good coach but tactically oktay and Kerr were better off
Totally agree with your analysis of the players mentioned, but on the coach I beg to differ.All of our previous coaches have been called names during their time only to be seen “afadhali” after they have left.I believe the coach plays the same formation week in week out coz majority of GM players are happy being squad players and have no desire or passion to be in the first 11 and try to cement their position in the first team.
Oktay wasn’t that great of a coach, he was just lucky that he had a very good team consisting of big game players like Tuyisenge (captain of the amavubi), Kahata, Shakava, Batambuze and Philemon and Muguna-These players made everyone around then look good. He begged the management to retain Kahata and Tuyisenge but the team lost not only Kahata and Tuyisenge…they went further and sold Shakava and now with Batambuze and Philemon also out with long term injury…the current coach doesn’t have much to work with.
Truth be told , It could have been worse had EC not chipped in this week with the 20k per player to ease their ever growing financial stress. We very much appreciate their effort ! ….and offcourse to today’s man of the man mapigano , your contribution was world class !!
Next headache – player motivation, more money and tickets from government to fly to Congo. In Gor, we live day by day. We have to believe better days lie ahead.
Let us help our team. Paybill No.350100
I call on the “noisy registered members” to put step up to their obligations and underwrite the expenses of GMFC i.e 3 and soon to be 4 months salaries, allowances, air tickets etc.
They can’t leave it all to ADOR/EC.
I have come to realise that the so called registered members (election rubber stamps) are literally worthless to the club be it financially and toothless in effecting accountability at the club. They are just on lookers at AGMs.
Registered members should show or prove of what value, if any, they are to the club.
Their often derisively scream out “Are you even a registered member?” yet so far they seem
even more “useless” than ordinary fans who dutifully pay their match tickets for 2 or more games in a season.
Uphill to climb but still we have hope
We still have hope, though not an easy task. The club has so many problems to deal with at the moment. It would be too ambitious to expect players to give their best. All the best in the return leg. We hope that we will get a sponsor soon.
In the prevailing circumstances…tbey did their best. The coach too. We wish them well and success in Kinshasa. All thinvs are possible if we believe.
The team need to be relaxed and focus on round two, it’s possible
From yesterday’s game we have a mountain to climb. Either we were down or our opponents were good. Apart from our mid of Captain, Tobia, Lawi and Momanyi most of our player were literally down. Joash was down, and our left and right backs were exposed, while Kip7’s inadequacy is being exposed. Maybe we need now to concentrate on KPL where we are above everyone else since with all our problems it’s going to be a tall task competing in Africa this year
I cant blame the players.
why cant he play the two foreigners upfront?? kipkirui hawezi,,
True Kipkirui is so short of confidence at the moment
Give the players a break. Its difficult to stay motivated when you are not being paid
Thinwa kucho u can’t miss to score with an empty net eti motivation…the team that win unbeaten in 2015 was equally broke
With all the ongoings in Gor Mahia , I would be hesitant to blame the players , any player/TB for the performance witnessed yesterday , on the contrary , I would laud the players/TB for , inspite of the shenanigans , still managed to secure a fair result against a team that for all intents and purposes is not a small team and had all the advantages , moreso off pitch , that we didnt have .
On the TB , cut and paste e.g Pep Guardiola , Klopp , Mourinho into the Gor Mahia situation , with all its sideshows , with
Players not being paid , players training halfheartedly and others going AWOL , the results would never be any different .
Further to that , cut and paste Ronaldo, Messi and Mane into the same situation , what we witnessed yesterday would not be any different , so guys need to go easy on Kipkirui and Joash and on this I challenge the fans/ any fan to try going to the stadium after not being paid for three months and on an empty stomach/plus a wife whose stomach is even emptier and an uncertain tomorrow and lets see how cheerful you are while supporting , in the first instance , you will not even be in the stadium because you will not even have the fare , for how would you even have the fare when you have not eaten , you have not paid the rent and the only route you have to the stage is occupied by shopkeepers , mama mbogas whose debts are overdue .
A team is a sum total of all its parts and each part complements the other and the parts that are not doing their part cannot turn around and blame the other part that
inspite of all is trying .All in all , our result yesterday was a very fair result and am an optimist , so all is not lost , the only disadvantage the optimists have is that when a positive result comes , its the pessimists , the ones who lack shock absorbers are the ones who celebrate the most shouting like Gini wasekao , so sad because pessisism has a lot of unwarranted consequences , moreso on spineless fans who get too demoralised and scared to attend matches and be the 12th man and woman .
On this one, I concur with Teddy. Let’s give the players a break. They tried their best, given the prevailing circumstances. We wish them well in the return leg.
Currently no player in GMFC deserves a monthly gross pay (salaries and allowances included) of more than ksh.75k.
A squad of 28 players will mean a monthly payroll expense of kes.2.1m.
With TB and a lean secretariat included it can be capped at Kes.3m.
This is kes. 2m less than the current bill of kes.5m which is not only exorbitant and unsustainable but also sadly cannot be justified in terms of current player quality and achievements restricted to only winning the league not even a local double.
Next I call upon the registered members to set up a GMFC Players Salary Trust Fund to underwrite and guarantee players salaries.
This fund is to be strictly used for ONLY paying players salaries and is to be independent from the club so that ADOR, EC, KRA etc do not / cannot raid it on the pretense of being reimbursed for use of their “own millions” to run (down) the club.
With 10,000 stakeholders contributing 300 per month you have the kes.3m but for the sake of stability maybe a minimum of 3 months or even better a yearly contribution should be encouraged.
Season tickets can be an excellent quid pro quo.
Can the so called registered members take the lead. I know good people like @ BB who have demonstrated support both financially and spiritually can be counted on.
In view of the current financial crunch we need to think of drastic step to save our beloved club.
Alternatively the Gor Mahia Players Salary Trust Fund should own the players and their contracts, since it is the trust that will be paying the salaries.
As such any transfer fees payable and due should be paid for and received by the trust fund.
Again though some disagree I doubt if any of the recent GMFC signings could have cost more than 250k each yet we got 14m for Jausenge.
With this alternative the trust fund can be the entity for buying, selling GMFC players whilst paying their salaries whilst EC is concerned with the other day to day management of the club.
This option may even be an attractive investment to none football lovers making it easier to reach the 10,000 target.
Let’s think of creative ways of sponsoring the club instead of/ in addition to looking for corporate sponsors who have proved to be very fickle.
Again I call on the “registered membership” to step up financially, spiritually especially at the A/SGM instead of being perpetual entertain choirs or rubber stamps at these meetings.
Kes.300 per month means 10bob per day. All we demand is accountability for this sacrifice.
i cannot agree with those saying we gave players abrake,, why let go somethng that you are inneed of? if they are playing for morney why let go 56m in caf champions, and already 27m is already gone,, and they say that they are broke??,, you cant convince me that the players will pull asupprise result in kinshasa, iam an optimist bt thse is out of optimism,, the entire GM squad needs an overhall come december, only lawi and other 3 players shud remain how can g a GM striker miss a one on one with only goalkeeper to beat, awuoro!!
if u cant win at your homeground with all the surpport frm the funs dont expect afair result in brazavill i tell u for free,,, if bandari of all the teams can manage to score 2 goals against one of the africa giant teams and gor mahia cannot even manage to score one goal away to lobi stars of nigeria, just ‘lobi’,,,?? end i hard someone saying that gor will soon counqour africa… with such dismall,and below avarage performance?? myb here in kenya bt not in africa and as iam seeing we are soon loosng our pride.
I’m confused ,winning kpl 4m cup oppener no money ,to prepare a team for a match 8000/ ,some of gor players should demand exit ,
Coach needs to play 2 strikers upfront for him to have any meaningful result in DRC,his 1 striker policy is not working