HEARTS-KOTOKO MUST WAKE UP!

By Ebenezer Zor 

Al Ahly of Egypt were crowned 2011/2012 CAF Champions of African for the seventh session after an impressive 3-2 win on aggregate over Esperance of Tunisia a couple of days ago. Their win was not a fluke and no wonder their league is ranked number one in Africa.

For some time now the North African clubs have dominated the African scene at the expense of others especially West Africa clubs like Asec Mimosas, Enyimba, Hearts, Contour Sport, Kumasi Asante Kotoko just to mention a few.

When was the last a West African club got to the semi-final stage of Caf Champions league after the exploit of Enyimba 2003 and 2004 back to back win?

Narrowing it to Ghana, It means our most formidable teams; Kotoko-Hearts in recent times have failed woefully in their Caf Champions league competition which is a worrying issue not to me only but the nation as well.

Funny enough, these teams always continue to rest their laurels on past glories whiles living in the full glare of the present.

Let me hasten to add that the performance of these teams over the years have been worse than never before due to lack of quality players, poor individual brilliance on part of players, inability of coaches to read games in order adopt a better formation and poor management as well.

Some weeks ago at the Baba Yara Stadium, spectators thought they were about to witness a match of their lives between Kotoko and Hearts in the super clash but at the end of proceedings it was nothing than a coast form of soccer displayed by these teams.

If there was a way for supporters to redeem their money they could have hurriedly embark on such mission immediately referee John Atikese brought the match to an end.

Ultimately, it was the worse performance from both Kotoko-Hearts as the whole entire ninety minutes lacked cohesion amidst inaccurate passes, in confidence of players to bury the ball at the back in front of the goal post. Is this the squad Kotoko is preparing for Africa next year?

Then Coach Masud Didi Dramani has a huge work to revive the team back the form football connoisseurs knew.

In the case of Accra Hearts of Oak under head Coach David Duncan, the team must undergo an intensive well rehearsed tactics and it is only time will tell.

On the issue of referee John Atikese’s showmanship, he did exemplary well ensuring the laws of the game were properly adhere to. But that does not merit a reward from the referees’ committee aside allowance because setting this precedent could result in bad one and more or less a chaos.

The issue of quality display of soccer artistry from these two teams doubling it with refereeing is more than what meet the eyes.

I think there should a policy like players playing three to four seasons for their respective clubs in order to make the league super attractive than selling them just after some couple of months or a year. The exodus of players for greener pastures is canker killing beauty of Ghana’s league.

Again management of both clubs should ensure that there will be always be a better recruitment for team otherwise in some years to come the unexpected could happen like what happen to River Plate in Argentina a year ago.