Polack: Mistakes cost us
Gor Mahia coach Steve Polack has rued mistakes and poor organization which in his mind, cost Gor Mahia against USM Alger.
Additional reporting from goal.com
The K’Ogalo coach admits his side was left in trouble when the Algerian side scored the first goal at Kasarani Stadium on Sunday Gor Mahia coach Steven Polack has admitted his side was undone by their own mistakes against USM Alger in the Caf Champions League.
The Kenyan champions were facing a tall order going into the return leg clash having lost 4-1 away and it took only three minutes for the visiting Algerian side to take a deserved lead at Kasarani Stadium on Sunday.
K’Ogalo defender Wellington Ochieng’ panicked under pressure from a USM Alger player and conceded a throw-in. Abdulrahim Omar hurled a long throw into the box for Aimen Mahious to flick past Fredrick Odhiambo via a deflection from Joash Onyango.
USM Alger got their second in the 14th minute when a long ball found Mahious in the box and the forward superbly controlled it and fired past Odhiambo to earn his brace. It was game over for Gor Mahia as they lost 6-1 on aggregate to drop to the Caf Confederation Cup. “Every [Gor Mahia] player was in a learning process and they should now know the level and quality of teams in the Caf Champions League and improve next time,” Polack told Goal after the match. “It is very clear if you make mistakes at this level, then you get punished.
We were done immediately [USM Alger] scored the first goal.” Polack, however, admitted his side put up a good show in the second half but could not find the back of the net. “If you look at our quality of display in the second half, we improved a lot and even created at least 10 chances,” Polack continued. “My only worry was, we could not score the goals, and I think even if the game continued until the following day, we could not score.” On dropping to the Caf Confederation Cup, Polack said: “It will be also another big challenge for us and we must get ready to play again. “Nothing will come easy, we must start better preparations and also make sure we register all our players for the competition. We only had 15 fit players against [USM Alger] and should not be the case in the final round of the next competition.”
K’Ogalo will now shift their focus to the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) where they have a match against Nzoia Sugar at Mumias Complex Stadium on Wednesday.
Coach, I don’t think we scouted the players we recruited well. Some of the players were only seen playing on youtube.com.
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Gor Player, whoever you are, for once I agree and wonder who did this recruitment this time round. If CEO is not furious at someone, for this is one issue he never mentions at all, then is he part of this corn game? Maybe the only player who might make a difference is Miheso, who brought in the Ivorian and Ghanaian?
Let’s pray and hope that we will prepare well and be ready for the play off in the CAF Confederation Cup, depending on how the draw turns out. We appear to be made for this and then later, much later the Champions Cup.
Recruitment was useless…we signed 4players from Sony …3 from Western stima…do you expect e.g mancity to sign 4 players from Watford…I suspect this are some reasons why okay left…Aduda should stay away from transfers…we had Makwatta .. Paul were and many other players as free agents but they decided to sign some funny foreigners with injuries due to greed..sad indeed
I agree with the coach that what let us down on Sunday was our mental strength .
On the issue of the personel we signed this season , I believe that we got the best our capacity could allow , We got Steve Pollack , Tobias Otieno , Miheso , Mapigano , the West Africans and the other Tanzanian plus the youngsters .
Rarely has a player signed with Gor without him being subjected to doubts for reasons we need not go into now , but a few examples sufficing is needed to buttress this point and just to name but a few , we had Olunga , We had Tuisenge , We had Joash Onyango , similar doubts were expressed about these guys and its what I call our Pre Season Annual rituals .
On the injuries on the so called Westies and why we signed them , whilst not having an opinion on the Ivorian , I believe a fully fit Ghanian will come good but the main point I needed to raise vis a vis these Westies , is , if you were pursuing a player and he got injured just before you sign him e.g for 2yrs , and the doctor advises you that his injury would keep him out for one or two or three months , would you sign the player ? , My answer would depend on what I lose with the player out for two months or what I gain with the player fit for 22months , Tuisenge was one such example , do we regret signing him when he was still injured , ofcourse not , do we regret berating him and the EC for signing an expensive and injured problem ? , that is for you to answer , ofcourse just like all the teams in the world , the Gor EC gets it wrong sometimes , just like My Liverpool got it wrong with Mario Balotelli and Man U got it wrong with Alexis Sanchez , I believe that once we dust off our pre season annual rituals of doubts , tutakuwa tu sawa , I believe in this coach and this team
, its upto them to proove me right .
The Only ISSUE with Gor Mahia is players motivation – Pay all salaries and dues in time .
Ja Sofaset wadwa, I am afraid wisdom will one day kill you. If you think its a joke, ask Mugabe. This is what I call Three-dimensional opinion.
Ongeye gima osekethore, an Gor emahero. For God and my beloved club – Kogallo.
We tend to suffer from shortness of memory. We have a good team and coach. They need all the motivation from us. Criticizing them at this point yet its what you have doesnt make sense. Lets be proud of our own no matter the performance and we will reap more joy than grief.
Ja Sofaset wadwa, I am afraid wisdom will one day kill you. If you think its a joke, ask Mugabe. This is what I call Three-dimensional opinion.
Ongeye gima osekethore, an Gor emahero. For God and my beloved club – Kogallo.
Nothing makes a woman confused than being in a relationship with a broke man who is extremely good in bed. Issues of confidence, composure and psychological breakdown are bound to arise. When willis the goalkeepers trainers says that gor will forever concede goals, we dont believe until we are struck like lightning 6-1. And it was 7-1 against barkane. 6-4 against zamaleck. Custodian trainer turned doom alarmist? A total of 19-6. Then again where were the defenders? Did the strikers respond? Are we as fans, EC,TB, players part of the problem rather than the solution? Other than the unattended injuries to our crucial players i didnt have a problem with recruitment. A mixture of youth and experience guarantees continuity. Maybe this is a team for the future. Only they allow to be beaten extravagantly. Gor is our heritage our culture. Its a pity some people are contriving ways to make us collapse. Success in football, is the result of proper preparation, hardwork, learning from failure and motivation i.e dues .
Meanwhile hoologanism is still causing us. We might be fined by CAF, potential sponsor was in the field on Sato and might not have been impressed by acts of hooliganism, stadium board might fine us, or even ban us. Currently only Kasarani can host CAF matches as Machakos was not approved. So do we blame the EC for that?
The problem.with our team.is that when we are about to break the ceiling some devil always appear fro.nowhere and scatters things around. I was surprised when a fan told me on sunday during the match that he doesn’t care whether we are banned/fined or not. Was left speechless
Dan original thats not a fan!
Gor Mahia paybill No.350100
Polack was right, the team displayed brilliant soccer in the 2nd half until the riot police started matching in. I think the main enemies of kogalo are the police commanders who give the police the matching order even when there’s no reason to do so. Ung’eni jaluo gi police ok mothre pi. That was the couse of fun trouble plus of course poor decisions in officiating. If the sponsor was there I’m sure they must have noted some good skills at the beginning of 2nd half. They shouldn’t be discouraged
Gor ema wapako