Gor Mahia held by Tusker 0-0
Gor Mahia dropped their first points of the 2018 season when they drew 0-0 with Tusker at Machakos.
Additional reporting from the Nation
Champions Gor Mahia dropped points for the first time this season after battling to a barren draw with Tusker in an exciting Kenyan Premier League match at Kenyatta Stadium, Machakos.
After watching his charges fire blanks for the first time this term, Gor Mahia coach Dylan Kerr will have more to worry about after Ivorian striker Ephrem Guikan was stretched off injury in the second half injury time.
Guikan collided with Tusker goalkeeper Duncan Ochieng as he attacked a ball from a free-kick.
Both teams had chances to win the match with Guikan culpable of what might turn out to be the “miss of the season” after hitting the woodwork from inside the six-yard area in the second half with the goal mouth gaping to the shock of the handful fans who bothered to show up for the rescheduled tie.
“We have to blame ourselves for the missed chances, this is something we practice every day in training but its African mentality of not taking things serious,” lamented an angry Kerr.
“Again playing three games in a week is tedious, worse, after a 24-hour trip from Equatorial Guinea. Credit to the players anyway despite dropping two points.”
His opposite number Sam Timbe said his side had a better chance to win the game but were undone by missed chances.
“We had opportunities in the first half to kill off the game. Last game, we converted two out of six clear chances we had but today we couldn’t,” said Timbe.
“All games are tough, we just need to keep working hard,” he said.
Kerr made eight changes to the team that beat Kariobangi Sharks 2-1 at the same venue on Sunday while Timbe retained the squad that recorded a similar result against Nzoia Sugar on Saturday.
Kerr handed attacker Eliud Luokwam a rare start ahead of veteran forward Meddie Kagere while former Tusker duo Humphrey Mieno and Cersidy Okeyo partnered in midfield.
Luokwam was also culpable of wasting a glorious scoring opportunity in the opening half after he failed to beat Ochieng from inside the six-yard box even after leaving Collins Shivachi for dead with a lovely turn.
Tusker too had their fair share of missed chances with Amos Asembeka combining well with former Gor attacker Timothy Otieno, but the former Sony sugar man fired wide with only Boniface Oluoch to beat.
Second half substitute Jackson Macharia, on for Asembeka, had a late header cleared off the line by Charles Momanyi as both teams went for the opener.
The early exchanges were open, where Gor utilised wide areas to create pockets of space, with George ‘Blackberry’ Odhiambo posing their main threat up front.
Momanyi’s header from a Lawrence Juma corner in the 14th minute flew inches wide. Timothy Otieno’s glancing header at the stroke of halftime was off target.
After the restart, Guikan twice missed to score what could have been his second goal of the season. But it’s his miss on 73 minutes that left the whole stadium in shock. Kagere beat his marker to set up the Ivorian whose first shot was blocked by Ochieng’ before his rebound ricocheted off the crossbar.
Despite the draw, Gor moved to the summit of the standings with 10 points, same as Mathare United but with a superior goal difference. It was the first time Gor have dropped points or failed to score in a league match this season.
The game I saw today had no aerial balls and Gor was really moving the ball around. We still have to convert our chances and I like Guikan. He is a typical striker and will take Gor far. I hope he recovers in good time
True but when a white coach begins making racist comments, I get worried ‘…its African mentality of not taking things serious,” lamented an angry Kerr.’ Does he really have to go the ‘African’ highway as opposed to ‘footballers’ in general?
Joachim defended well and has a height advantage over Joash.Guikan and Lukewarm missed glorious chances and Gor might have scored two clear goals.Bonny was rarely called to action thanks to industrious midfielders and defenders although momany almost gave tusker a free goal.Live to fight another day as the unbeaten continues.
AS widely predicted last week, Glad Kerr is toying with all tactical rotations and today he displayed 3-5-2 similar in sytle to the game against Zoo Kericho but with some variation ….Luokwam playing behind the main striker Guikan with shakava, joachim and momanyi the back 3 , wafula and blackberry plying up and down both wings and cassidy, mieno and juma roaming the midfield. Did it work ? Not really but we can do better if we perfect it before esperance. Guikan missed a sitter, Luokwam still has a lot to learn and cassidy and juma are still a bit game shy !
Good to see the tall back three all taking centre forward positions during corners/set pieces with cassidy , juma and mieno falling back to defend. Excellent from Kerr .
My take is that as we approach next week’s do or die Game, we still want to see more of 3-5-2 in training because that could be the game changer against esperance who are tactically astute.
fixtures congestion taking its toll on players and results are what you can expect yes we missed chances but that’s hali ya game. on to Saturday I expect Kerr to play a second string side we can’t afford more injuries and exhaustion, players must be ready and fresh for Esperance even at the cost of losing points. I’d take another draw on Sat. Esperance we have to be ready in mind and everything because we have a chance
Pole Team K’ogalo. …
Dropping two points is a big loss for Kogallo, anyway that’s football and we must now focus on the next match. Congrats team for the hard work, not many teams can achieve what you’ve achieved in kpl with that kind of fixture congestion
We soldier on together Unabated as Mighty Mayienga…Congrats team
All though many may blame Guikan for the shocking misses yesterday, I think given play time, the guy is gona be a leathal striker. His positioning is comparable to Drogba or Surez…attackers who are always at right place at the right time to finish off a move. He is currently being let down by his finish…..and is a little unfit. Hope the coach won’t give up on him.
The outcome was acceptable considering we did not field our strongest side and we were playing a team that we can consider as rivals for the title,though they haven’t hit the gears yet.
However,I was impressed by how the backline played as well as Lawrence Juma who for me was one of the best players on the pitch.
Well done and all the best against Bandari and Esperance!
1) Hiting the upright is not the same blasting the ball wide aka rugby conversion, but it is simply bad luck. 2) What’s KPL upto, 3 tough matches is not only tiring out GMFC players but obviously Esperance are having a field due spying on us. Studying every tactic and analyzing each and every player. We already beat K.Sharks striaght from a tiring continental assignment. Surely the game against Bandari is now pure malice designed to give maximum advantage to Esperance, YAWA CAN’T EC COMPLAIN, FKF please show even an iota of patriotism, GMFC’s success is a plus for Kenya’s football. Don’t be blinded by petty jealousy and postpone the Bandari match as it will severely disadvantage GMFC against Esperance.
Correction “…. having a field day….
Uganda Premier League January 2018, MVP is none other than Dan “Flava” Ssrenkuma. Congrats and all the best, I keep having this dream of you donning the K’Ogalo jersey again, banging in goals and collecting another top scorer’s medal.