Gor Mahia look to bounce back
Gor Mahia coach Frank Nuttall is determined to put aside all the setbacks the team has faced this season and start the league on a positive note.
“We expect a tough season opener, but hope to pick some positive results from it,” he said to the Standard.
Goals have been scarce at the start of the season. And Nuttall has admitted that replacing the duo of Meddie Kagere and Michael Olunga is proving difficult.
“The two scored 50 goals last season between them and this is not an easy thing to do,” he continued.
Olunga scored four goals against Chemelil last season and gave their defence nightmares. One person who will heave a sigh of relief due to Olunga’s absence is Chemelil coach Mike Baraza. And whereas Baraza used to be the most vocal proponent of the “Gor Mahia wanabebwa na referee” conspiracy theory, Baraza has now changed his tune after Gor Mahia blasted seven goals past his side last season.
“Gor is a big team, with an admirable heritage and history. We respect them, but as Chemelil Sugar we don’t fear any opponents,” Baraza said to the Standard.
Coach Baraza will depend on the experienced trio of Hillary Echesa, Victor Majid and David Ojwang. The former two have been around for over ten years.
“We are determined to win against Gor and expect nothing short of collecting the maximum three points. We will be buoyed by the fact that we will be playing at our home ground at Moi Stadium, Kisumu,” Echesa said.
Echesa despite his vast experience does not seem to realize that Kisumu may technically be Chemelil’s home ground but Gor Mahia will have far more supporters. Perhaps Echesa has spent too much time outside the country having spent a decade playing in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Tanzania.
Please get your facts right…the coach is Francis Barasa not Mike Barasa.
Everywhere Gor plays we are the home team…All the best to the team today!!
It is a pity that Barasa had to play 32 matches against Gor last season. I hope this season he only plays the two matches as intended.
This is our chance to bounce back and even if it doesn’t happen the way we want then it’s just a matter of time. Since even last year we had a dry spell during the league I believe it’s good that the spell has come earlier for us. That means the only way to go is UP. And we will make it. All we need to do is to focus positively and take all the side issues happening as tests against us that we need to resolve in an amicable way.
Chemelil 0 – 0 Gor Mahia.
We still have the fight to uplift ourselves. Nuttal said that we cannot replicate last year’s performance and whoever thought otherwise just needs to look at Chelsea.
All the same I can see the team picking up and giving us a good year but definitely not like last year. You don’t go unbeaten two years consecutively unless there is something wrong with the opposition.
All we need is to give all of team encouragement despite or views.