Update: Mashemeji derby date confirmed
Update
Kenya Premier League and Nyayo stadium management have reached an agreement to host the Mashemeji derby this Sunday.
“Following a successful meeting between the Kenyan Premier League management and the management of the Nyayo National Stadium, Kenyan Premier League would like to confirm that the facility owners have agreed to exceptionally allow the AFC Leopards SC-Gor Mahia FC match to be played at the venue on Sunday, 07 May 2017, kick off time 3PM,” read a statement posted on goal.com
With Nyayo stadium still being renovated for the IAAF world championships, security is should be tight and fan misbehaviour will result in heavy punishments.
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The highly anticipated contest pitting Gor Mahia against AFC Leopards that was scheduled for this Sunday at Afraha has been put off by the KPL due to security issues. KPL in consultation with clubs and KPL has determined that Afraha is not a suitable stadium and neither is any other venue besides Nyayo and Kasarani.
“Following intensive consultations between the KPL vice-chairman Erick Oloo, AFC Leopards chairman Dan Mule, Gor Mahia chairman Ambrose Rachier and the FKF president Nick Mwendwa, it has been unanimously decided that owing to the home team’s confirmation on being unable to provide adequate security, no chance can be taken at hosting the match at Afraha,” the KPL statement said.
Therefore the match will be played only when either Nyayo or Kasarani is available. These two Nairobi venues are currently undergoing government-commissioned renovations in readiness to host both the IAAF World Under-18 Championship and the Africa Nations Championship football tournament in July this year and January/February next year, respectively.
The match was highly anticipated because the two teams are literally neck and neck in the league standings with Gor Mahia in second place with 16 points, only two ahead of AFC who are in fourth place with 14 points.
This fiasco brings into focus the lack of quality stadiums in Kenya. Both Gor Mahia and AFC leopards have struggled to make money from their home matches this season because they have played home matches in sub par stadia like Thika and Afraha
Question: As I read this I wondered what if the two stadia become available say in August? Will we play the first leg in August when we shall have played almost five matches of the second leg?
Point of correction: The teams are not making money because match attendance has gone down not because of the stadia we are playing in. Gor fans used to fill the Thika Stadium to the brim same for Afraha in seasons gone by. Last time we were in Nakuru against Tusker you could count less than 1000 in the VIP. Last Sunday in Thika we could not even fill those two roofed sheds. Maybe it was for good reason because it always feels worse when people come in their thousands and the game ends the way it did!!!!
Musymo owadwa the kind of football GM is playing has made fans decide to do other things. Why go watch predictable football that almost always ends in an anti-climax and even when it works is still not inspiring. A simple comparison of the Energy Gor emitted during era’s gone by when Logarusic was at the Helm and Nuttal will tell you about the low attendance levels. I mean Ze Maria doesn’t inspire fans confidence me included and resonates very badly with most of the playing unit whereby our veterans have been sidelined and furthermore he doesn’t recognize or resonate with the GM Fanbase which i repeat is the only reason an otherwise Average Kogalo team dominated the past 3 seasons and went ahead to reach the Cecafa finals. Gor is its fans and nothing else and so long as they remain disgruntled owing to a coach who doesn’t appreciate them then struggling Galore will define our season just like things were during ZEdekiah Otieno 2009/10 Era…
The derby is on at Nyayo Stadium on Sunday 7th May 2017 at 3pm. Catch you there.
In football or any other competition for that matter, there can only be 3 results, a win, loss or draw. We lost on Sunday, so what? Thats football, accept and move on. This week we call players, TB, Excom names. Next week we praise them. All I know is that Gor Mahia are playing neat football under Ze Maria than any other time. Nutal had the luck to win, Lugarasic was a clown, but Ze Maria beats them all.
Never worried about nothing. Hapa ni kushabiikia Kogallo tu. For God and my beloved club – Kogallo
@kosero.. fancy football,easy on the eye and pleasing to the fans,just like Arsenal but at the end of the day we are looking for a positive result because that is what counts no matter what anyone here thinks. ..we are all in this competition fighting to outdo each other with points not beautiful soccer although we will all appreciate the beauty if it comes with the desired results! !!
Tialala
A true reflection of the technical ability of Kogalo
http://www.soka.co.ke/blog/item/of-ze-maria-and-the-obsession-with-formation
@oswozo moziek.. why compare GM to arsenal only why not Barca or even Real who plays with same styles and win
Copied from Soka.coke. Just thought it would make an interesting read
Of Ze Maria and the obsession with formation
By Zachary Oguda | Wed 03 May, 2017 14:40
Disclaimer: Blogging on Soka is open to the public. The views posted herein do not necessarily represent those of Soka.co.ke
When the January 2017 window was a wrap, it was evident that Gor Mahia’s roster was filled with expensive and impressive talent, and this got fans ecstatic. Finally they were having a team, whose array of players were going to challenge from all fronts.
First forward to eight weeks of league action but not a lot has changed with the latest hullabaloo revolving around the Club’s head coach Marcello Ze Maria who a section of the Club’s fans has branded a tourist. But what has gone wrong (right) for the ex Inter Milan defender and how can he arrest the Club’s dip in form now that a tie against arch rivals AFC Leopards is next on his roster?
Changing Football
Football never stops changing and Ze Maria should be aware of this. Tactics are constantly being killed (to suit the type of players at your disposal) and then resuscitated. And teams are always chasing the latest trend. Every other serious manager tinkers with his formation every now and then. To be a long-term success, a manager has to keep adjusting to such an unstable, progressive environmen and if he doesn’t, he’ll fall behind, and Ze Maria should be careful of being the latter.
When the Brazilian first arrived at Gor, he favoured a back four (with Abouba Sibonana preferred over a young Eric Ouma) until he realized teams weren’t embracing a back three, a tactic he saw had an impact on his first try in the latter stages of their scoreless draw against Ushuru (a match remembered for Shaban Odhoji’s penalty save against Jacob Keli).
Eric Ouma entrance
Ken Kenyatta had matched the Brazilian formation for the entire afternoon until Eric Ouma was thrown in to compliment his fellow at the right wing back Karim Nizigiyamana.It was a formation that he has stuck with since then but the problem is, many, if not all coaches, have devised plans to counter his formation and it seems he doesn’t have an alternative plan to back his plan A.
This season they have lost against Western Stima who are struggling so much in the league and a Mathare United team whose bereft of a head coach and fielded a young team in the tie.The loss of Ouma to Georgia was a big blow but when you look at Godfrey Walusimbi You See a perfect replacement.
Collins Okoth effect
Nizigiyamana is still at his devasting best as a right wing back but Ze Maria’s formation exposes his three defenders more so if you field a defensive midfielder who can’t run his socks off: a Collins Okoth type. They look vulnerable at the back (already shipping six goals, the same number as ninth placed Bandari and are struggling to score too.
Ze Maria’s arrival in Kenya signaled the beginning of the end for a number of managers who couldn’t adapt to his attacking game. A big feature of his first months had been the team’s shift from a man-marking defensive scheme under Frank Nuttal to more of a zonal focus. While Nuttal’s holding midfielder would hold their man tightly when out of possession, Ze Maria required his to stick to their positions and maintain a more stable shape, less reactive to opposition movement.
Tactical benefits
In theory, this can have a number of benefits: the midfielder is not as susceptible to off-the-ball movement and is not isolated individually and can offer more cover to teammates but this, as earlier mentioned hasn’t worked, teams already know what to expect. Shut their wing backs and prevent their holding midfielder from orchestrating moves. It worked for Stima and Mathare and it will work for teams.
When opponents have possession of the ball, Gor are often too passive in applying pressure from their defensive block. With the 3-5-2 formation, while having more numbers on defence when an opposition is attacking, a degree of pressure is still required to stop the opposition from making a key pass.
Pressure on opposition defence
Without the challenge of an immediate defender, it’s so much easier for the on-ball attacker to split open the defense. If your midfielders are stopped from making that decisive pass, strikers are forced to come back to get the ball then the pressure on the opponent’s defensive line becomes almost nonexistent. Although Gor have extra numbers to bring the ball forward, they then have fewer options to advance the ball to.
Furthermore, it’s a misuse of someone like Tuyisenge’s abilities he’s a perfect target for direct passes and a phenomenal finisher in the penalty area.
Fine Gor Mahia
Whatever the situation, one feels that Gor Mahia will just be fine. They are one of the best teams in the league and no matter who is in charge of the boys, everyone expects them to be always on to. They’re performing just well and are second on the.
The squad is talented and filled with potential but that’s the issue: You don’t just lure the best players in the region and hire a Brazilian to be just fine.
Zachary Oguda with a perfect article on Ze Maria’s technical obsessions and ineptness to Adaptive tactics that are almost always required in each game. Guys i don’t just criticize for the sake of it but from a technical point of view as i hold the required certifications to do so. KPL has teams that thrive on countering Gor’s formations with a view of neutralizing or frustrating us. Now if you micro-manage players so strictly with technical formations as our coach does and deprive them of room to express themselves then you stifle talent. Those that thrive become the robotic instruction followers type but the naturally gifted and versatile players like Gatusso fade out of preference. So had wafula till just the other day….Kagere till just the other day…Blackberry of late and softie ndirangu….All the above players have fell out with coach at different times owing to their penchant to do contrary to instructions owing to on-pitch prevailing situations that they thought called for something else. Well i concur a coach can run his team like a military garrison if he so feels so long as he delivers results which is what we expect day in day out from Ze Maria.He’s lack of adaptive techniques though i feel is very dangerous for GM but still we hope for the best and will mention and correct that which we feel is his shortfalls…
My friends, the naysayers of this world, @musymo and the likes….please give credit where it is due! we are in match 8 and you are already talking shit. Out of the 8 games, count how many wins has gor mahia, how many draws and loses. You will realise that the team has won most of their matches than what they lost and as the football normality, you can win, lose or draw a match…gor not an exception in this fact. The team has done better and as a matter of time will topple the table topper, poster rangers, soon since we all know poster is not the quality we see in gor and has no the come back character we know gor for. All premier league coaches admit the quality in gor mahia and even after 0-1 lose to mathare, ass. coach, Salim still admitted gor mahia is superior. The league winning coach last season, now with bandari, admitted quality in gor. Tusker coach and captain, before and after the afraha draw admitted quality in gor. Our players are playing neat football with result we can see. The only problems are 1)poor playing surfaces 2)fixture congestion leading to player fatigue 3) poor fielding, can be blamed on the entire tech. bench 4) lack of a clinical finisher, caliber of olunga, which gave coach Nuttal nice time on the pitch 5) unstable defence that always concedes at least a goal every game even where we win. These issues can be sort out by not only the coach but entire gor management and us the fans. Let’s come out and cheer the team against ingwe. STOP NEGATIVE ENERGY!!!!!!
@sylvaonyi, my first comnent was a reaction to the derby being postponed and a point on match attendance. My second was a pasted article that talked about technical formation. So where did I talk shit? I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT I SAY NOT WHAT YOU UNDERSTAND. This time i will treat your crap with the contempt it deserves. Next time abiro nyisi wach moro!!!
I can see that the rather obvious but disturbing comments of branding the decenting voices as members of the negative energy branch are back. Even if their display according to some bloggers is similar to that of Barcelona, we don’t give a damn. Wan okombni ema obadhowa.
Tibim A Person and welcome back after campaigns bro
Thanks bwana Jasego. Sasa niko hapa ndaaaaani ndaaaaani kabisa. We will say the truth even when it hurts.
Gor Mahia fraternity/ stakeholders should note that the following are mere white elephants / ghost projects / PR gimicks that just drain the club financially and emotionally. 1)Highly paid TB sourced beyond Kenya or even East Africa but is continually upstaged by local coaches. 2)Youth team that is completely overhauled every 6 months 3)A squad made up of either highly paid strikers who can’t score and permanent passengers. 4)Least said about bloated EC the better. Yes even Barca (who score + play beautiful soccer), Real M, Bayern M also lose but they regular feature in the latter stages of Europe’s continental competition something that AR, Ngala etc have total failed flat in +8 years and of late we seem to be regressing not even stagnating. As for I, and I guess many others, we won’t jump ship but will continue to speak out. Lastly going forward WIN,DRAW OR LOSE Ze Maria, like B.Williamson, can’t take GMFC anywhere, he is too inconsistent. The sooner he leaves the better for GM.
Those claiming that Pamzo and Zico were unceremiously chased from GMFC could be right but it seems they didn’t stagnate.They went on and improved their skills and now seem better coaches then when GM ,RIGTHFULLY,fired them for results not befitting a club of K’Ogalo’s aspirations and stature. Clearly Ze Maria has no ability to take GM to a higher level. Not withstanding EC shenanigan’s he has had enough time but failed prove his worth. Any future wins/trophy, which I will cheer with zeal, I put down to luck or pressure of player no.12 and not the ability of Ze Maria led T/B. I differ with those who view Zico’s clinching position 4 with P.Rangers in 2016 as a failure since both he & Ze Maria were trophyless but who had more resources and yes who is better paid and even more qualified.
Kogallo fans are the best…committed and passionate…this is what causes alot of pain when defeated..but deep inside ..we always hope for the best!!! May we put behind us last weekends pain n embrace the new day witb hope of a better tomorrow…we know that with God all things are possible…therefore pray for the changes youd like to see..n trust God. Meanwhile..si nce we hurt so badly when hit..let us encourage the t b..team n one another through changing the mood here n being positive…surely alls not lost n its not too late for kogallo to make it. Cheer them on…kwani afc is such a big threat? Why give up…you can do better kogallo fans…we are also just ready for afc!!!
Umeongea Kama wanaume kumi. Wengine wetu huongea Kama wanawake kumi. Nobody should misquote me for not respecting women. The fact is that sometimes women can dwell on non issues.
Pathetic and uncalled for
My opinion my choice mr. Prefect
lets go have fun and cheer our team God bless K’ogalo
Gor dhi rodho Ingwe roth kisumo ,wan ok wanyier gi ng’ato.Diel moti.