Gor Mahia poised for a better CECAFA outing

Gor Mahia will be heading for the 2015 CECAFA cup a much more confident side than the one that headed to Rwanda for the 2014 edition. Last year the team was demoralized by departures to key players as noted in the previous article. Not to mention the fact that the team had still not gotten over the shock of losing their jersey sponsorship with Tuzo. Things looked so grim that even coach Bobby Williamson opted to leave and seek “greener pastures” at Harambee stars.

To be sure, last year, Gor Mahia fielded some top class players like David Owino, Geoffrey Kizito, Dan Sserunkuma, Walusimbi, Musa Mohamed and others. But they also had to make do with a number of inexperienced players and players who had just joined the team and had not gelled with the rest if the team like Daniel Onyango, Charles Bruno,  Timothy Otieno.

Confidence in camp was also low because Gor Mahia had ended the first leg of the league on a sour note especially having lost the mashemeji derby match.

The net result was a disjointed performance especially in the first game against KCCA which Gor Mahia lost 2-1 and which even coach Bobby Williamson admitted that KCCA thoroughly deserved to win. They went on to lose to Atletico of Burundi before forcing draws with Telecom of Djibouti and APR of Rwanda.

This year Gor Mahia are going to the tournament a confident side. They have still not lost a match a in the league. They ended the first leg on a solid note beating Tusker 1-0 and started the second leg with a convincing 4-1 win over Chemelil. There have been no mass departures and Gor Mahia have strengthened their squad with the signing of Paul Were Ooko and Enock Agwanda.

Last year, Sserunkuma and Blackberry only learned to play well together towards the end of the season. It took them very long. This year on the other hand, the Gor Mahia attacking pair of Olunga and Kagere found an understanding very early in the season. You can thank coach Nuttall for that.

At right back, Karim Nizigiyimana actually offers some elements that Calabar did not have, most notably his pin point crosses and pin point passes that have created many goals. In midfield, Gattuso and Aucho are playing very well together. The team is far more experienced than last season with players like Glay and Sibomana all having solid international experience.

Coach Frank Nuttall has set a goal of at least reaching the knockout stages:

“CECAFA tournament will be a useful gauge of our development as a team, our aim as a team will be to qualify from the group stages” he said to futaa.com

Flashback to 1996

The last time Gor Mahia played in the CECAFA cup in Tanzania was in 1996. That squad included players like goalkeeper Joseph Asembo, Zedekiah Otieno, Joseph Owino, Dan Shikanda, Dan Ogada, Tom Ochieng, Tom Okaya and others.  Though 1996 was a bad year for Gor Mahia , the one tournament where they played well was in the CECAFA cup. Then coached by Croatian Vojo Gardasevic, they played hosts Yanga in the opening match and forced them to a draw. They then went on to top theur group with a 3-1 win over express of Uganda before losing in the semi-finals to semi-hosts Simba of Dar es Salaam.